Category: Politics

US urges Ugandans to respect court decision

{While urging Ugandans to accept the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the petition challenging President Museveni’s re-election, the US has said government should in the next term institute, among others, electoral reforms.}

“We encourage all Ugandans to respect the court’s decision, and express their views in a peaceful manner,” the US embassy said in a press statement on Friday.

“We hope the government will now address the grievances voiced by its own people in the wake of these elections and take the necessary steps to enact reforms that will guarantee political inclusivity, transparency, accountability and free and fair elections. Uganda’s future prosperity and democratic progress will depend on such actions,” the statement added.

The statement came after court’s dismissal of the petition, ruling that President Museveni was nominated in accordance with provisions of the Presidential Elections Act, contrary to the claims of the petitioner.

Mid last month, the US warned that Uganda government’s continued crackdown on civil liberties, if not reversed, could affect economic and political ties between the two countries. The warning was informed by a crackdown on Opposition politicians and their supporters as well as the clampdown on the media.

Civil society, Opposition political parties, the Catholic Church and private individuals made similar calls immediately after the 2001, 2006 and the 2011 general elections.
Their proposals would mean a constitutional amendment, which can be done once every 10 years or when Ugandans, through a plebiscite, overwhelming call for reforms.

Those calling for reforms wanted an independently constituted Electoral Commission (EC). The government merely changed the name of the EC to the Independent Electoral Commission. Above all, the Bill tabled by government retained the President’s power to appoint the EC’s commissioners.

Also, it did not proscribe the involvement of the army, intelligence services and police from electoral activities, which critics say creates fear among opposition supporters.

April 2, 2016
Closure of border scares South Sudanese

{Relationship between the two neighbours has never been good, particularly on the Abyei issue.}

South Sudanese have expressed fears over a border standoff with Sudan.

The citizens of the young nation say the closing of the border and tensions with Khartoum could badly affect their lives.

A senior employee of the state-owned Nile Pet Oil Company, Charles Juma Modi, said Khartoum’s decision to close the border would aggravate suffering, not only in South Sudan, but also in the Sudanese marginalised regions of Nuba, Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur.

Modi said the stalemate between the neighbours was bad for the South Sudanese who moved from Upper Nile and Bahr-el-Ghazal to Khartoum in search of food.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees last week said hunger made about 38,000 South Sudanese from Warrap and Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal states flee into Sudan’s East and South Darfur regions since January.

“Khartoum is a major source of many basic commodities and they are much cheaper than the ones from East Africa,” Modi said.

He expressed worries that Sudan could block pipelines which transport South Sudan oil to the international markets.

About 98 per cent of South Sudan’s revenue comes from oil exports.

Clement Lerat, an economist, expressed similar fears and called on the South Sudanese authorities to address the situation.

“Our people should be brought home as Khartoum has closed the border,” he said.

According to the Executive Director for African Centre for Transitional Justice, Peter Gai Manyuon, there was nothing new about tensions between the two countries.

“Whether the border is open or closed, nothing will benefit South Sudan and her people. The issue of Abyei will always disrupt the relationship and the cooperation agreement signed by both countries,” he said.

Sudan and South Sudan lay claim to oil-rich region of Abyei.

South Sudanese singer Nyibol Grace said she was dismayed by the breakdown of relations between the two countries and urged Juba and Khartoum authorities begin negotiations to reopen the border “for the benefit of their citizens”.

“It is tragic that Sudan has taken that step. I understand there were negotiations on how to build trade corridors and make it easy for citizens to move into either country,” she said.

Journalist War Machor described Khartoum’s decision as unfortunate, saying it would cause a humanitarian crisis in both countries.

He said Sudan and South Sudan faced insecurity and other problems, which could become worse with the closure of the border.

April 2, 2016
Djibouti leader out to stretch long reign

{Supporters of Guelleh — president since 1999 of the tiny but strategic former French colony — are confident of victory in the April 8 vote.}

After 17 years under his rule, few doubt Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh will fail to win a fourth term next week, with a divided opposition calling the vote a sham.

Supporters of Guelleh — president since 1999 of the tiny but strategic former French colony — are confident of victory in the April 8 vote.

Since campaigning began on March 25 portraits of “IOG”, as Guelleh is known, have lined the baking hot streets of Djibouti City, capital of the arid Horn of Africa nation of 820,000 people, where his supporters parade in the green party colours of his Union for the Presidential Majority (known by its French acronym, UMP).

“We are optimistic, especially when we see that the opposition struggling,” Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said.

Guelleh won the last poll five years ago with 80 per cent of the vote, after parliament changed the constitution in April 2010 to clear the way for a third, and now a likely fourth, term.

The main opposition group, the Union for National Salvation (USN), is a collapsing coalition.

Three of the seven parties that made up the USN have decided to boycott the poll entirely — the Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development (MRD), the Republican Alliance for Democracy (ARD) and Movement for Development and Freedom (Model) — while the remaining parties are fielding two competing candidates, Mohamed Daoud Chehem and Omar Elmi Khaireh.

“Our party will not participate in the election because we consider it a sham, the minimum requirements of transparency are not guaranteed,” said MRD leader Daher Ahmed Farah.

After parliamentary elections in 2013, which Guelleh’s UMP won with 49 per cent amid claims of fraud, parties had demanded the creation of an independent electoral commission, a key element of a 2014 deal to resolve a political deadlock and end street protests.

Under that deal, the opposition agreed to accept just 10 MPs — instead of the 52 they claimed to have won — in exchange for government commitments to improve protection for opposition parties and the establishment of an independent electoral agency. It was never created.

“The MRD has never believed in the sincerity of this agreement,” said Farah, who said the government only wanted, “to stop the protests”.

April 2, 2016
Moise Katumbi challenges Congo President Joseph Kabila to step down

{The owner of African’s top football club has told the president of Democratic Republic of Congo to step down when his second term in office ends in December.}

Moise Katumbi urged President Joseph Kabila to stick to the constitution.

Mr Katumbi has been nominated by seven opposition parties to be their presidential candidate in the elections expected in November.

Mr Kabila took power in 2001 after his father Laurent Kabila was assassinated.

Mr Kabila has won two disputed elections since he took power in 2001, and is constitutionally barred from contesting the poll.

Violent protests erupted last year over fears that President Joseph Kabila was trying to delay polls.

If Mr Kabila stands down in December he “will go out as a great president who will be praised everywhere,” Mr Katumbi told the BBC.

Moise Katumbi was governor of the south-eastern Katanga province for almost a decade.

In September last year he broke ties with the ruling party when he accused President Kabila, his former ally, of wanting to cling to power.

His popularity is partly down to his job as the president of a great source of Congolese pride – football club TP Mazembe.

They are Africa’s reigning football champions, having won the African Champions League for the fifth time in November.

Mr Katumbi thanked the seven parties whic nominated him on Wednesday as their presidential candidate.

But he didn’t confirm whether he would accept the nomination, instead saying he wants even more opposition parties to join the coalition.

“For now, I am continuing my consultations here in Europe for the unity of the opposition.

“I am also consulting all the forces to have a single opposition candidate,” he said.

April 1, 2016
Libya’s UN-backed government sails into Tripoli

{Members of Presidential Council arrive in Libyan capital by sea, defying opposition warnings to not move there.}

Members of Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday, defying threats by rival factions that it was not welcome in the capital.

Reports of sporadic gunfire and road blocks leading into Tripoli later emerged, with questions raised whether violence would erupt, or a peaceful transition of power would ensue.

The Presidential Council was formed under a UN-mediated peace deal late last year in an effort to end the political chaos and conflict that has beset the country since the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi five years ago.

It is supposed to replace the two rival administrations – one based in Tripoli, the other in the eastern city of Tobruk – that have been battling each other for more than a year.

Tripoli’s self-declared government and armed groups that back it had in recent days warned the unity government not to travel to Tripoli.

But seven members of the council, including its head and Prime Minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj, arrived in the Libyan capital by sea and set up a temporary seat of power at a naval base.

The officials were prevented from flying into Tripoli by the rival government.

“At this blessed historic moment, we announce to our people the start of National Accord Government work from Tripoli and the beginning of a new era of dialogue and communication with the sons of our people, regardless of their political attitudes,” Sarraj told a news conference after his arrival.

Yet, in his first remarks after Sarraj’s arrival, the head of the acting government reiterated his opposition to the Government of National Accord and urged its members to either surrender or leave.

“The government of national salvation calls on those illegitimate infiltrators to either hand themselves over and be in safe hands, or to go back to where they came from,” Khalifa al-Ghawi, leader of the General National Congress, told reporters.

“The salvation government is working with judicial and legislative entities, all state institutions and NGOS, as well as community leaders to take the necessary steps to save the country from the threat of chaos and foreign intervention.”

Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, said the big question now was whether the members of the council would be able to govern.

“There are a lot of challenges facing this government here in Tripoli,” Abdelwahed said. “Three major political entities in Libya are opposing the presence of this government.”

Martin Kobler, the UN envoy for Libya, welcomed the arrival of the council in Tripoli and urged all public bodies to facilitate a peaceful and orderly handover of power.

“I call on the Libyan people to extend to the Presidency Council and the Government of National Accord their full support and cooperation,” Kobler said.

“The international community stands firmly behind them and is ready to provide the required support and assistance,” he added.

The US also welcomed the arrival of the UN-backed government, while France said it would provide its “total support” to Sarraj.

“The Government of National Accord can now begin the crucial work of addressing the full range of Libya’s political, security, economic, and humanitarian challenges,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

Ahead of its arrival, the council said it had negotiated a security plan with police and military forces in Tripoli – and with some armed groups.

Even with international support, Sarraj faces a daunting array of challenges and could struggle to impose his will on the Central Bank, the state-run oil company, and other institutions.

He is also at risk of being attacked or besieged in his base by rival militias. He is being guarded by battle-hardened militias from the city of Misrata, which saw fierce fighting during the uprising five years ago.

But Tripoli is also home to several powerful armed groups, which could move against Sarraj, setting off yet another round of fighting.

March 31, 2016
UgandaMuseveni orders action on Karuma shoddy works

{The row between ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) top bureaucrats and Uganda Energy Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) has culminated in an order from President Museveni to the sector minister Irene Muloni demanding prompt action. }

In a March 22 letter seen by Daily Monitor, the president has tasked Ms Muloni to urgently look into the construction of the two hydro-power plants at Karuma and Isimba with a view of suspending the works to correct ‘risky’ mistakes and dismiss the consultant.

Indian firm Energy Infratech Private Ltd was contracted in 2013 by the Ministry of Energy to supervise the multi-million dollar works on behalf of government but the President now proposes they be dismissed for want of seriousness.

The letter copied to Vice President Edward Ssekandi reads in part: “I have got disturbing reports that the work being done on the dams of Karuma and Isimba is shoddy because the owner’s engineer are either not serious or they have some other issues.”

“They don’t detect faults and don’t insist on correcting them. My information for instance points out that there is something called a draft tube where the turbines are supposed to sit. These draft tubes should be assembled outside the hollow structures that are supposed to be their ultimate home and put in the hollows when they are able to align with the other parts. Instead, I am told, they are being wielded in the hollow. I am told that is very risky,” the letter adds.

Evidence

The letter comes after a meeting between the President and UEGCL officials in which the latter laid evidence of shoddy work and inaction by the ministry and the consultant.

“If, for instance, concrete is poured over such defective structures it will create an irreversible situation of having a defective dam and power house. If it is necessary to suspend the work until the defects are corrected it should be done. The owner’s engineer could either be re-enforced or even dismissed,” the president orders.

Following the letter, minister Muloni yesterday afternoon convened a crisis meeting at the ministry’s head office in Kampala that brought together all stakeholders including the two additional consultants (SMEC and A0 Consults) that UEGCL hired as a stop gap measure, ministry of Finance, Energy, UEGCL and Sinohydro officials.

Ms Muloni could not be reached for a comment by press time as she was held up in the crisis meeting.

Mr Velusamy Vasu, the chief executive officer Energy Infratech who jetted into the country this week to pursue an appointment with the President in early April and attend yesterday’s meeting, told this newspaper in an interview: “We are not worried because an independent technical third party will have to prove if there are technical flaws and who is not performing their role per the terms of reference of the contract. The letter is informed by what the UEGCL chairman told him but he should ask the contractor who is serious and who is not?”

This newspaper on Monday reported 30 per cent of the work at the two dams [Karuma and Isimba] had been accomplished.

{{THE BACKGROUND}}

Chinese firm Sinohydro is the contractor for the 600MW Karuma dam while China Water is constructing the 183MW dam at Isimba, both slated to be commissioned in December 2018 to bolster the country’s hydropower capacity.

March 31, 2016
Myanmar’s Htin Kyaw sworn in as president

{Country sees Htin Kyaw, a close aide of Aung San Suu Kyi, sworn in after over five decades of military rule.}

Htin Kyaw has been sworn in as Myanmar’s new president after more than five decades of military rule in the country.

In a ceremony in the parliament on Wednesday, democracy icon and leader of the ruling party Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in as minister of foreign affairs, education and energy, and will also hold the president’s office portfolio.

She was unable to become president because of a constitutional block even though she led her National League for Democracy party (NLD) to a landslide win in general elections last November.

Myanmar has been under military or military-dominated rule since a coup in 1962, and the elections in November which brought the new government to power were the first openly contested polls since 1990.

Htin Kyaw is a close confidant of Myanmar’s Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi and longtime member of NLD.

Two vice-presidents, one of them a military nominee, are also due to take the oath of office, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

Htin Kyaw takes over from former general Thein Sein, who has led the country since 2011. Under Thein Sein, the government set in motion reforms which have opened up the once-isolated country to the outside world, including to foreign investment.

Who is Htin Kyaw?

Htin Kyaw is known among political commentators as a party insider with close ties to Suu Kyi going back many decades, including as one of her classmates at high school in Yangon.

Born in 1946, the 69-year-old is the son of a famous poet and writer, Min Thu Wan, who ran as an NLD candidate in the 1990 elections.

Htin Kyaw is married to NLD lawmaker Su Su Lwin, whose father U Lwin is one of the party’s founding members.

He studied economics at the University of Yangon and went on to study computer science.

He had a stint as a government employee while Myanmar was under military rule but was jailed in 2000 after he tested the limits of Suu Kyi’s house arrest at the time.

Until his election, Htin Kyaw was the head of the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a charity named after Aung Sang Suu Kyi’s mother.

Need for military

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s commander-in-chief of the armed forces has stressed that there is a “need” for the military to remain a political force.

Senior general Min Aung Hlaing, making an Armed Forces Day speech in the capital, Naypyidaw, reasserted the military’s belief that it is the country’s sole unifying force and protector of the constitution.

“The Tatmadaw has to be present as the leading role in national politics with regard to the ways we stand along the history and the critical situations of the country,” Min Aung Hlaing said, referring to the armed forces by their Myanmar name.

March 30, 2016
Brazil’s Rousseff faces impeachment, coalition collapse

{Second impeachment case filed against President Rousseff for obstructing justice as PMDB prepares to leave coalition.}

A legal request has been filed to impeach Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff for obstructing justice and fiscal accounting tricks, the second one against the leader politically embattled by her own government.

The request filed by the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) on Monday also involved Rousseff granting international football body FIFA tax-exempt status during the 2014 World Cup.

In reaction to the claims, Tourism Minister Henrique Eduardo Alves turned in a resignation letter on the same day, becoming the first minister from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) to declare leaving Rousseff’s government.

PMDB, Brazil’s largest political party, is expected to abandon its alliance with Rousseff’s Workers’ Party and collapse the coalition government.

A party vote is expected to be held on the issue on Tuesday.

Rousseff already faces an impeachment process over the alleged manipulation of government accounts that opposition parties maintain helped her win narrow reelection in 2014 by allowing her to boost public spending.

The president’s supporters tried to physically block the entry of the new impeachment request in the lower house of Brazil Congress, shouting the left-wing slogan “Não passaram!” meaning “They shall not pass,” while pushing and shoving opponents of the embattled president.

Another serious impeachable offence in the new request is the alleged interference by the president in investigations into the massive Petrobras corruption scandal.

The complaint on the issues is based on plea bargain testimony by Senator Delcidio Amaral, a key legislative ally for Rousseff before he was arrested in November.

The OAB added the controversial appointment last week to Rousseff’s Cabinet of her predecessor and mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which the lawyers argued was an illegal move to shield him from prosecution in the Petrobras probe.

Lula’s appointment was suspended pending review by the Supreme Court.

The bar association, which represents one million lawyers, also listed a complaint that is shared by many Brazilians, that the Rousseff government hurt Brazil’s interests by granting FIFA a generous blanket tax exemption when it held the World Cup in Brazil.

The World Cup generated revenues of $4.8bn for FIFA, against expenses of $2.2bn, according to FIFA’s website.

The new impeachment petition will join a dozen others waiting for consideration by the speaker of the house Eduardo Cunha, a fierce critic of Rousseff who himself is facing corruption charges related to the Petrobras case.

Rousseff is struggling to save her presidency in the midst of the worst economic recession in a generation and the widening fraud investigation that started at state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro.

March 29, 2016
Bangladesh court upholds Islam as religion of the state

{Country’s top court rejects 28-year-old petition to revoke constitutional provision declaring Islam as state’s religion.}

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Bangladesh’s High Court on Monday rejected a 28-year-old petition calling for the removal of a constitutional provision recognising Islam as the official religion of the Muslim-majority South Asian nation.

The court ruled that the petitioning organisation, the Committee against Autocracy and Communalism, did not have the right to be heard in the court.

Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque, one of the three judges sitting on the bench, said that the court found that “the petitioner does not have locus standi and that is why the petition will be summarily rejected”.

The organisation’s lawyer, Subrata Chowdhury, said that he was “100 percent disappointed” with the decision.

“Without a hearing and without giving us any chance to present our argument on the point of locus standi, the court dismissed the case,” he told Al Jazeera.

Others, however, were pleased with the decision.

Lawyer Maulana MA Raquib, the president of the religious party Nezam-e-Islam who was present in court, said: “This is the decision of the highest court in the land. Islam should be the state religion. The majority of people in this country believe in Islam.”

He argued that having Islam as the state religion would not affect minority religions. “Minorities will not be discriminated against as there is a guarantee in the constitution for the minorities,” he said.

The petition was originally filed in 1988 after the then President Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad declared Islam as the state religion in a symbolic bid to win popular support while major political parties campaigned to oust him from power.

He resigned amid mass protests in 1990.

“We filed the petition then because Bangladesh was founded as a secular state, and having a state religion contradicts the basic structure of the constitution,” Professor Anisuzzaman, one of the leaders of the petitioning organisation, told Al Jazeera.

“The founding fathers of the country wanted to have a secular nation, and all of us during our liberation war subscribed to that and Bangladesh was founded on that basis.”

Bangladesh became independent from the Islamic state of Pakistan after a nine-month war in 1971 which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, with the government claiming as many as three million.

Further impetus to challenge the constitutional provision came in 2011 when the current Awami League government further amended the constitution by adding new provisions which retained the wording on state religion, though at the same time emphasised “secularism” and the “equal status” of other religions.

Following the 2011 amendment, the Committee for Resistance against Autocracy and Communalism filed a supplementary petition to its 1988 case and the High Court then passed an order asking the government to explain why the new provision reaffirming Islam as the state religion should not be declared.

The dismissal of this case on Monday has allowed the government to avoid setting out its position in favour of the constitutional amendment, which could have been fraught with political dangers.

“I don’t know what is the position of the current government as the latest amendment brought back secularism from the first constitution but did not abolish the provision of state religion, so there is a contradiction,” said Professor Anisuzzaman.

“Bangladesh is a secular country but also provides for state religion.

“The government seems to favour both concepts, so that those who are in favour of state religion do not vote against the government,” he added.

Asif Nazrul, a professor of law at the University of Dhaka, said that he did not think the government was particularly concerned about secularism or Islam.

“Their only issue right now is how to stay in power, and when that requires emphasising secularism, they will do that, and when that requires supporting Islam, they will stick to that,” he said.

Shireen Huq, a leading women rights activist, thinks it is all about “political expediency”.

“Once wording like this [in the constitution] has been introduced, it is difficult to remove it as it could have a reaction which the government is not prepared to face,” she said.

March 29, 2016
Egypt retires 32 judges for opposing Morsi ouster

{Supreme Judicial Council forces 32 judges into retirement for having opposed the army’s ouster of Mohamed Morsi in 2013.}

Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council has forced 32 judges into retirement for having opposed the army’s ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, an official has said.

The decision taken on Monday was part of the authorities crackdown on all forms of dissent, including secularists and liberals, since July 2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ousted Morsi following mass protests against his rule.

“Today, the Supreme Judicial Council took a decision to force 32 judges into retirement for intervening in politics and supporting a certain party,” after the ouster of Morsi, a senior official from the council told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

Last week, the council took similar action against 15 other judges for the same reason.

The International Commission for Jurists (ICJ) urged Egypt to reverse the decision concerning the judges.

“The intensity of Egypt’s attacks against individual judges is reaching a frightening level,” said Said Benarbia, Middle East and North Africa director at ICJ.

He said the move sends a “chilling message to others who might challenge the ongoing crackdown on fundamental rights and freedoms in Egypt”.

{{Pro-Morsi demonstrations}}

The council official said that some of the judges had openly declared their opposition to Morsi’s ouster in a signed statement at Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square.

Thousands of pro-Morsi supporters had demonstrated at the square for weeks demanding his reinstatement.

On August 14, 2013, police stormed the square to disperse the sit-in.

About 700 people were killed within hours at Rabaa al-Adawiya and the capital’s Nahda Square where another similar sit-in was being held.

Hundreds more were killed in street clashes with police over several months after the August 14 carnage.

Global rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say that at least 40,000 people were arrested within the first year of Morsi’s ouster on July 3, 2013.

Hundreds more have been sentenced to death or lengthy jail terms after speedy mass trials, including Morsi and several leaders of his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement.

March 29, 2016