Category: Politics

{Ex-Obama administration official defeats Congressman Keith Ellison to become chair of party’s administrative arm DNC.}

Democrats have elected a former labour secretary in Barack Obama’s administration as their new leader – a role analysts say would be crucial to helping the Democratic Party regain federal power, which has been lost to a great degree to the rival Republican Party.

Members of the Democratic National Committee, the party’s administrative and fund-raising arm, chose Tom Perez over Keith Ellison, the Minnesota congress member, following two rounds of voting on Saturday.

Perez will face challenges in trying to unify and rejuvenate a party still reeling from the November 8 loss of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and anxious to channel the growing grass-roots resistance to Republican President Donald Trump into political support for Democrats across the country.

READ MORE: America’s flawed democracy

“We are suffering from a crisis of confidence, a crisis of relevance,” Perez, a favourite of former Obama administration officials, told DNC members.

He promised to lead the fight against Trump and change the DNC’s culture to make it a more grass-roots operation.

Perez beat Ellison, who was backed by Democratic senator Bernie Sanders, 235-200 in the second round.

{{Rebuilding challenge}}

Perez is the son of Dominican immigrants while Ellison is the first Muslim elected to the US Congress.

Perez, Ellison and other Democrats agree on the need to rebuild the party at the state and local levels.

They say those organisations then can capitalise on the widespread opposition to Trump by getting frustrated voters to elect more Democrats.

Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from Atlanta, said that one major difference between Perez and Ellison was that the latter had “support from people who not only protested against Trump, but also against the Democratic Party who they feel allowed Trump to win”.

In a phone interview from Atlanta, Jason Johnson, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera the election was key to determining a figure who could rebuild the Democratic Party, which is one of only two parties largely capable of being elected in the US, that has been “decimated at the state level”.

“With Obama out of office, Joe Biden largely out of the political arena and the Clintons no longer being an effective brand, the Democrats really need a leader to rebuild the party at a state level,” he said.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Senator and vocal critic of President Duterte faces drug-trafficking charges related to her term as a justice secretary.}

A Philippines senator and staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has been arrested by law enforcement agents after charges were filed in court alleging that she received money from drug dealers inside the country’s prisons.

Senator Leila de Lima is accused of orchestrating a drug-trafficking ring when she was justice secretary during the 2010-2015 administration of Benigno Aquino.

“The truth will come out and I will achieve justice. I am innocent,” she told reporters shortly before law enforcers escorted her away from her office on Friday.

De Lima, her former driver and bodyguard and a former national prison official were ordered to be arrested by a local court on Thursday after a judge found merit in criminal charges filed by the Department of Justice last week.

De Lima has denied the charges, calling herself a victim of political persecution and saying that she has long prepared herself to be the first “political prisoner” under the Duterte administration.

“While the issuance of the warrant of arrest is questionable, I do not have any plans to evade it,” she said, calling the order premature as the court has yet to hear the response from her lawyers.

She slept in her Senate office overnight then gave herself up to armed officers in flak jackets who put her in a van and drove into morning rush-hour traffic apparently towards police headquarters.

Duterte, 71, won a presidential election last year after promising during the campaign to eradicate drugs in society by killing tens of thousands of people.

Since his inauguration on June 30, an anti-drug drive has seen more than 7,000 people killed over suspected drug links – with about 60 percent of the deaths carried out by unknown assassins.

De Lima has previously called for foreign intervention to put an end to the “state-inspired” extrajudicial murders, which she said have been instigated by Duterte since his election to power.

De Lima also led a series of Senate investigations over allegations that police officers were involved in the killings, and that hired killers were operating under orders from police.

Aries Arugay, associate professor of political science at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, told Al Jazeera that the senator will use her detention to highlight the president’s controversial policies.

“Senator de Lima has been taunting the Duterte administration to arrest her for months. She boldly says she is its fiercest critic … What is happening right now is she is really using this as her platform for her own politics,” Aurgay said.

{{Trumped up charges}}

De Lima’s supporters insist that she is innocent and that the charges are trumped up to silence one of Duterte’s most prominent critics.

In a statement to Al Jazeera, Senator Paolo Aquino condemned the “political persecution” of his fellow opposition Senate member.

“This arrest is purely political vendetta and has no place in justice system that upholds the rule of law. This is condemnable.



“We reiterate that an arrest based on trumped-up charges is illegal,” he said citing the “haste” in de Lima’s arrest.

De Lima previously claimed that she was targeted because of her criticism of Duterte’s drug war policy.

During her time as head of the country’s human rights body, de Lima led the investigation into the alleged extrajudicial killings of an estimated 1,000 drug suspects in Davao, while Duterte was mayor of the city.

When Duterte won as president in 2016, his feud with de Lima continued.

At one point he called on her to “hang herself”, after he ordered prosecutors to investigate the senator’s alleged links to the drug syndicate.

This week, de Lima branded the president a “sociopathic serial killer” after new allegations surfaced accusing Duterte of ordering drug killings in Davao.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Turkish Cypriot side rejects meeting after Greek Cypriot move to mark 1950 referendum for union with Greece at schools.}

Ongoing talks to reunify Cyprus have hit a hard wall after the Turkish Cypriot side decided not to attend a scheduled meeting between the island’s rival leaders over a Greek Cypriot decision to celebrate a nationalist commemoration at schools.

Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci were scheduled to meet on Thursday at the divided island’s buffer zone.

But tensions rose in recent days after a February 10 vote by Greek Cypriot MPs for public schools to honour the anniversary of a 1950 referendum for union with Greece, or “enosis” (the Greek word for union).

Enosis is an outdated marginal ideal for the vast majority of Greek Cypriots, but it is a sensitive issue for many Turkish Cypriots who believe that the idea historically was a core source of the problems on the island.

Only Greek Cypriots voted in the referendum that took place when the island was a British colony and they approved enosis with over 95 percent of the votes. The vote was not legally binding.

Ozdil Nami, the Turkish Cypriot negotiator in the peace talks, told Al Jazeera that a decision to commemorate such an event is at odds with the ongoing peace negotiations.

“We have asked the Greek Cypriot side to reverse this decision. And Turkish [Cypriot] side is waiting for the Greek [Cypriot] side to take the necessary steps,” Nami said, adding that it was “in contrast with the spirit of the talks.”

“This move, which international community also finds strange, dignifies unification of Cyprus with Greece. The Greek Cypriot side should scratch this decision and then we can continue talks from where we left.”

Anastasiades and Akinci met last Thursday but their meeting ended early after tensions soared when the topic came up, according to officials from both sides, who accussed each other of leaving the table.

“I regret Mr. Akinci’s decision not to attend tomorrow’s meeting. I am ready to continue the dialogue at any time,” Anastasiades wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

Government Spokesman Nikos Christodoulides noted that this was “a very negative development for all the people of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and every one must assume their responsibilities.”

Christodoulides, quoted by the state media, said that Anastasiades was officially informed by UN’s Cyprus envoy, Elizabeth Speharby, that Thursday’s meeting was called off.

{{Next meeting in March}}

The leaders had been making progress in the negotiations for reunification as a bizonal, bicommunal federation before the enosis referendum row.

The two sides are scheduled to be joined by Greece, Turkey and the UK, Cyprus’s three post-colonial guarantor powers, in a meeting scheduled for early March in Geneva. A similar meeting in January ended without concrete progress.

The new regulation, which calls on secondary school students to learn about the enosis ideal and to commemorate the January 1950 referendum at schools, passed by 19 votes from the smaller parties in the 50 seat House of Representatives.

Anastasiades’ Democratic Rally (DISY), the largest party with 18 members, abstained in the vote, allowing the bill to be passed by nationalist National Popular Front (ELAM), which proposed the amendment, and other small parties.

Left-wing main opposition Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) slammed DISY’s abstention.

“Otherwise they want a solution … By choosing to abstain, the DISY allowed the enosis referendum of the 1950s to be honoured at schools,” AKEL said on Twitter, ironically accusing DISY for undermining solution prospects.

The island has been divided between the Turkish north and Greek south since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded a third of the island intervening in an Athens-backed coup to unify with Greece.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declared independence in 1983, but has been only recognised by Turkey to date. Turkey still has around 30,000 troops on the island.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Voters choose between socialism or change as they cast their ballots for president and 137 members of national assembly.}

Ecuador has voted in general elections that could see the country move from the left to the right like several other South American countries in recent months.

Voters cast their ballots on Sunday for 137 members of the national assembly and a new president, choosing between a candidate who intends to continue President Rafael Correa’s platform or one of several more conservative contenders who pledge to attack corruption and cut taxes.

The polls were due to close at 22:00 GMT and the results were expected to start coming in shortly afterwards.

The outcome will be watched closely in Latin America.

Conservative leaders in Argentina, Brazil and Peru have assumed power in the past 18 months after the end of a commodities boom that boosted leftists such as Correa.

Outside the region, much of the interest in the election focuses on what the outcome will mean for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his ability to remain at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Lenin Moreno, the ruling party candidate, who is Correa’s hand-picked successor, has indicated he would back Assange’s continued stay.

But his main challenger, former banker Guillermo Lasso, has indicated in interviews that he would evict the Australian activist within 30 days of taking office.

Socialism on the line

The contest put Correa’s legacy on the line as well.

The self-declared 21st-century socialist who took office in 2007 ushered in a period of stability after a severe economic crisis that saw three presidents toppled in protests and the adoption of the US dollar to control rampant inflation.

While Correa has been praised for reducing inequality and overhauling the nation’s infrastructure, polls show a majority of Ecuadorians favour change.

Formerly overflowing government budgets have shrunk and thousands of people at state-run companies laid off as oil revenues in the OPEC nation decline.

The International Monetary Fund expects Ecuador’s economy to shrink 2.7 percent this year.

Analysts predict that the next president will have to seek rescue from the Washington-based lender to help with financial problems made worse by last year’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

Source:Al Jazeera