Category: Politics

{Benin’s presidential elections reach a climax on Sunday, when PM Lionel Zinsou takes on businessman Patrice Talon to succeed Thomas Boni Yayi in the country’s top job.}

Zinsou, the 61-year-old Franco-Beninese banker surprised everyone when he quit as head of one of Europe’s biggest investment funds, PAI Partners, to become PM last June.

Despite initial denials that he was Boni Yayi’s appointed successor, he has since been endorsed as the candidate for the president’s ruling Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin party.

In the first round of voting on March 6, Zinsou beat Talon by a tight margin — 27.11 per cent against 23.52 per cent — and has since seen 24 beaten candidates come out for his rival.

Zinsou — a graduate of France’s elite Ecole Normale — was a speechwriter for socialist PM Laurent Fabius in the 1980s.

Since his appointment in Benin, he has swapped his tailored business suits for flowing robes and punctuates his rallies with expressions in the Fon language.

He also regularly reminds voters of his political pedigree: his uncle, Emile-Derlin Zinsou, a former president.

To critics who accuse him of knowing nothing about Benin, he has an answer: “Despite my work in France, I have never stopped coming to Benin”.

His supporters highlight his successful career. For them, he is the man to develop impoverished Benin.

MOST POWERFUL FIGURES

Businessman Talon turned up to vote in the first round driving a Porsche, wearing a white open-necked shirt, a fitted suit and sunglasses.

The image he portrays is of a big-spender and a self-made man, hoping for a break with the past in the country’s politics.

The well-known entrepreneur, who made his money in the key sector of cotton and running Cotonou’s port, was one of the most powerful figures in Beninese business.

But he became public enemy number one of Boni Yayi, whose successful presidential election campaigns he bankrolled in 2006 and 2011.

In 2012, he was accused of being the brains behind a bizarre alleged plot to poison the president, then the following year of attempting to endanger the security of the state.

At the time, Talon was being prosecuted in several embezzlement cases and fled to France. Boni Yayi pardoned him in May 2014, paving the way for his return and bid for election.

Talon comes from modest origins in the coastal town of Ouidah. His father was a primary school teacher.

His ethnicity — Fon — like the former president Nicephore Soglo has been seen as an advantage in his early career and since then he has maintained close links with power.

“He decided to run for president following his return, perhaps as a way of protecting himself by becoming a major political figure rather than a rich but vulnerable businessman,” said analyst Gilles Yabi from the Wathi West Africa think-tank.

His success and taste for luxury have attracted support from many young Beninese.

{Zanzibar is due to hold repeat elections on Sunday despite a promised opposition boycott following a controversial decision to annul October’s vote.}

The Zanzibar Election Commission cancelled the results of the first poll but diplomats said they saw no evidence of the massive fraud alleged by commission chairman Mr Jecha Salim Jecha.

The annulment came after opposition Civic United Front (CUF) candidate Mr Seif Sharif Hamad declared himself the winner before the results were officially announced.

CUF leaders said the nullification was designed to block their party’s victory and deliver another win for the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which dominates on the Tanzania mainland.

Zanzibar’s 500,000 registered voters also cast ballots for Tanzania’s national president and, despite the cancellation of the vote on the islands, new Tanzanian President John Magufuli was sworn into office last year.

Campaigning on Zanzibar has been subdued with public rallies banned to keep a lid on simmering tensions that frequently bubble over during elections on the semi-autonomous islands.

While the opposition CUF has called for a boycott of Sunday’s vote, CCM activists have been conducting door-to-door meet-and-greets and holding indoor hustings hoping to secure a clear victory for incumbent Zanzibar President Ali Mohamed Shien.

Jecha said everything was in place for the poll.

“We have ballot papers ready. There are 1,583 polling stations, and polling officers with materials ready. We ask people to get ready for the election,” he said, adding that the ballot papers were unchanged with CUF candidate Mr Hamad’s name still listed.

The rerun is expected to cost an estimated $3.4 million.

TENSIONS

Sunday’s election is unlikely to ease political tensions in the islands, with the CCM concerned that a CUF victory could lead to the collapse of the 52-year-old union with mainland Tanzania.

In recent weeks, some homes have been burnt, people beaten and arrested and a homemade bomb was placed outside the island police chief’s home.

Senior CUF official Mr Nassor Ahmed Mazrui said claims of arson and bomb-making levelled at party members by police were baseless.

He accused police and a ruling party militia of targeting CUF supporters.

“The democratic future of Zanzibar is bleak,” said Mr Mazrui.

“There are violations of human rights just because we oppose the polls, but we will continue opposing them, even after the elections.”

Zanzibar’s police chief said the arrests were above board.

“We are looking for criminals, including those threatening people not to vote,” said Mr Hamdan Omar Makame.

“We have vowed to leave no stone unturned in making sure that the elections are peaceful. Those who are against the polls should remain indoors.”

A dozen other candidates are contesting but are not expected to pose a serious challenge to the two main parties.

{Republic of Congo’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso, seeking a third term in Sunday’s election, began his political career as a Marxist-Leninist and has become a wealthy strongman determined to extend his 32 years in power.}

One of Africa’s five longest-serving leaders, having first taken office in 1979, he used the army as a springboard to power, while allegedly amassing a fortune.

Sassou Nguesso has come under pressure in former colonial power France about his lavish lifestyle, with rights groups pressing for a probe into his acquisition of luxury homes and expensive automobiles.

French judges are investigating the supposedly vast “ill-gotten gains” of the Congolese leader and his extended family despite him warning them in 2013 to lay off “domestic affairs”.

A lawyer for anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, William Bourdon, says Sassou Nguesso embodies “a caricature of kleptocracy, of a rich head of state that leads a poor country.”

But asked in April 2013 whether he was losing sleep over the issue, Sassou Nguesso replied with a jovial “Certainly not!”

An imposing 72-year-old with close cropped hair, clad in tailored suits enhancing his confident air, Sassou Nguesso’s first 13-year stint as president ended in 1992 when, then a Marxist-oriented leader, he was voted out of office.

After some time in exile in Paris the former paratrooper colonel returned to Congo in 1997 and seized power in an armed uprising ending the central African country’s civil war.

Five years later he became president for the second time, succeeding Pascal Lissouba in disputed 2002 elections.

In the country’s last presidential election in 2009, he won nearly 79 percent of the vote, with half of his 12 opponents boycotting the polls. Now he is vying for a third mandate after a controversial referendum in November approved a new constitution.

He has ruled over the poor nation of 4.5 million people by facing down challenges from rebels and accusations of corruption and mismanagement of resources, especially in the state-run oil sector upon which Congo heavily depends.

– African ‘patriarch’ –

Sassou Nguesso, an ethnic Mboshi, was born in 1943 in Edou, a town 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Brazzaville.

He had the affectionate nickname of “Otchouembe”, which means “palm nut” in his local language and is commonly used to describe a wrestler with muscles as hard as ebony.

From the age of 13 he trained to become a schoolteacher, before enrolling in an Algerian military academy in 1961, followed by another in Saint-Maixent, France, two years later.

Back in Congo, Sassou Nguesso supported a 1968 movement that toppled president Alphonse Massamba-Debat and brought Marien Ngouabi to power.

Named head of a commando unit and then defence minister, Sassou Nguesso became the regime’s ideological head and co-founded the Marxist-leaning Congolese Labour Party (PCT) in 1969.

In 1979, two years after Ngouabi was assassinated, Sassou Nguesso became head of state.

He was forced to introduce multi-party elections in 1991 and was defeated by Lissouba in a presidential poll a year later.

The decade that followed was wracked with civil war, from which Sassou Nguesso ultimately emerged victorious in 1997.

Back in power he organised a presidential election in 2002, which he officially won with a score of almost 90 percent.

His 2009 victory, which was supposed to mark the start of his last term, was cleared by monitors from the African Union and Economic Community of Central African States but deemed “neither fair, nor transparent, nor balanced” by the Congolese Observatory of Human Rights.

Unfazed, Sassou Nguessou, after the 2009 death of Gabon’s president Omar Bongo, who had married his daughter, took on a role of African “patriarch” serving as a mediator in regional crises.

Under his so-called “hybrid socialism”, he has used Congo’s oil revenues for major infrastructure and development projects.

But poverty “remains endemic” in the country, according to the International Monetary Fund.

{Shock revelations about a wealthy Indian family’s interference in South African government affairs set embattled President Jacob Zuma up for a high-pressure appearance in parliament on Thursday.}

The admission by deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas that he was offered the top job in the treasury by the Gupta family caused outrage in a country already alarmed by a series of corruption scandals.

The Gupta brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh were small-time businessmen back home but have built up a string of companies with interests in computers, mining, media and engineering since moving to South Africa in the 1990s.

They have long been accused of wielding undue influence over Zuma, whose son Duduzane is a partner in some of their businesses. Mr Zuma’s third wife also used to work for them.

Mr Jonas said he received a threatening text message while he was preparing his statement exposing the job offer by the Guptas, the Business Day reported.

The newspaper quoted the message from an unnamed businessman as reading: “Please keep your own counsel. Martyrdom is best left to Christ.”

In his statement on Wednesday, Mr Jonas said: “Members of the Gupta family offered me the position of Minister of Finance to replace then-minister Nene. I rejected this out of hand.”

The Guptas, who had attracted controversy a few years ago by flying in wedding guests at the Waterkloof air base which is normally reserved for visiting heads of state and diplomatic delegations, issued a statement denying Jonas’s claims.

{{ANC CONCERNS}}

But even the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has expressed concern about the graft allegations, amid speculation that the president’s position at the head of the party could be fatally weakened.

“We need to deal with this; it will degenerate into a mafia state if this goes on,” ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe told Bloomberg News.

“The fact we are talking about this so boldly now shows that things are going to change.”

The ANC, which led the struggle to end apartheid, holds a meeting of its national executive committee starting on Friday, where the Gupta issue is likely to dominate.

The official opposition party in parliament, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said the latest developments make Zuma’s position “increasingly untenable”.

“He, and the ANC, need to consider whether he should resign from office, or be recalled.”

The party said it would lay corruption charges against the Gupta family.

Mr Zuma was to face parliament for a scheduled question time late Thursday, where he was to meet a barrage of questions – including on the country’s dire economic situation.

The alleged job offer to Mr Jonas occurred before Mr Zuma sacked respected finance minister Nhlanhla Nene in December – a move that triggered a collapse in the rand and massive withdrawal of foreign investment.

Mr Nene was replaced by little-known lawmaker David van Rooyen, who was widely seen as a weak placeman for Zuma loyalists such as the Guptas.

His appointment caused such a negative reaction that Mr Zuma sacked him after just four days and reappointed Mr Pravin Gordhan, who served as finance minister from 2009 to 2014.

Mr Gordhan is leading efforts to try to restore confidence in the economy and avoid a downgrade of the country’s debt to junk status by the ratings agencies.

Another ANC member, Vytjie Mentor, also alleged this week that she was offered a cabinet post by the Guptas – an accusation that Mr Zuma denied.