IGIHE

Category: Politics

  • Court orders arrest of ex-president Alejandro Toledo

    {Toledo is accused of receiving $20m in bribes from construction company Odebrecht, an allegation he denies.}

    A Peruvian court has issued an international warrant for the arrest of ex-President Alejandro Toledo on suspicions of taking bribes from a Brazilian construction giant at the heart of a region-wide corruption scandal.

    Judge Richard Concepcion late on Thursday (local time) accepted a request by prosecutors that Toledo be jailed as they investigate allegations he received $20m in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for permission to build a highway connecting Brazil with the Peruvian coast.

    The order calls on Toledo to be placed under “preventative custody” for 18 months, while demanding for his “immediate location, capture and confinement.”

    Toledo, who is believed to be in the French capital, Paris, has denied any wrongdoing.

    “Say when, how and where and in what bank they’ve given me $20m,” Toledo said in an interview with a local radio station over the weekend.

    Multi-national scandal

    Odebrecht, once Latin America’s biggest construction company, has admitted to paying almost $800m in bribes to governments across the region as part of a December plea agreement with the US justice department.

    In Peru, the company acknowledged paying $29m for projects built during the government of Toledo and two successors.

    Toledo, a former World Bank economist, served as Peru’s president from 2001 to 2006.

    In 2010 he sought the presidency anew but failed to make it to the second round of voting.

    The scandal also threatens to implicate Toledo’s successors: Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala.

    Garcia has denied any wrongdoing in recent weeks as authorities have arrested several accused of taking bribes from Odebrecht during his 2006-2011 government.

    Aside from Peru, several countries in Latin America, including Panama, Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay, are carrying out investigations into bribes paid by Odebrecht.

    In Panama, a former personal adviser to President Juan Carlos Varela on Thursday said on his former boss had accepted campaign donations from Odebrecht.

    Toledo is in Paris and in media interviews from abroad has denied any wrongdoing

    Al Jazeera

  • Justice minister Florin Iordache resigns after protests

    {Florin Iordache, co-architect of controversial corruption measure that set off rallies, resigns citing ‘public opinion’.}

    Romania’s justice minister has resigned after huge nationwide protests over government efforts to weaken anti-corruption laws through a decree.

    Florin Iordache’s resignation on Thursday came as rallies calling for the government to resign continued despite the Social Democratic-led leadership’s pledge to scrap the decree, which would have decriminalised some corruption offences.

    “I have decided to offer my resignation,” said Iordache, 56, a co-architect of the January emergency rule which critics say would have protected corrupt politicians from prosecution.

    He defended his record at the justice ministry saying he carried out “all necessary actions to remedy a series of sensitive problems”.

    “But despite that, public opinion did not consider it sufficient, and that’s why I have decided to submit my resignation.”

    Iordache said all of his “initiatives were legal and constitutional”.

    Against this turbulent backdrop, Sorin Grindeanu, Romania’s prime minister, survived a no-confidence vote on Wednesday despite the ongoing protests.

    Bowing to pressure, the government scrapped the ordinance on Sunday as up to 500,000 people protested across the country.

    The rallies were the largest protests since the fall of communist rule in 1989.

    In a related development on Thursday, Romania’s constitutional court said it would not rule on the decree.

    The decree was referred to the court by Victor Ciorbea, the national ombudsman, on February 3, two days before the Social Democrats withdrew it.

    “This decree does not exist anymore. It was scrapped [by the government],” said Valer Dorneanu, the court president.

    “We start from the truth that the emergency decree no longer exists.”

    The withdrawal must still be approved by parliament.

    Asked what would happen if parliament does not do so, Dorneanu said: “We don’t judge based on suppositions.”

    Anti-government protests continue in Bucharest despite bitterly cold temperatures

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Egypt shuts El Nadeem Centre for torture victims

    {Police seal El Nadeem Centre after two attempts to close it, claiming the rights group violated terms of its licence.}

    Egyptian authorities have closed the offices of a prominent human rights group that helps victims of violence and torture, according to the organisation and a police official quoted by the AFP news agency.

    El Nadeem Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture in Cairo was shut on Thursday.

    “About 15 policemen in official uniform with a group of civilians sealed three apartments in the building belonging to El Nadeem,” Aida Seif el-Dawla, a co-founder of the nongovernmental organisation, told AFP news agency by phone.

    “We didn’t violate any rules and the government has not provided any reasons for its closure decision.”

    Seif el-Dawla said the centre had filed a lawsuit against the order.

    A policeman said the centre had been closed for violating the terms of its licence, requesting anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

    Authorities have tried on two separate occasions to shut down El Nadeem Centre amid accusations by human rights groups that the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is stifling civil society groups.

    Rights campaigners accuse the authorities of human rights violations, including forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and illegal detentions.

    Seif el-Dawla was banned from travelling to Tunisia on November 23, along with several other rights activists and lawyers who are not allowed to leave the country.

    {{Strict NGO law}}

    Egyptian and foreign NGOs operating in the country are governed by a strict law which allows the government to supervise their activities and finances.

    In November, authorities froze El Nadeem’s assets for a week before the organisation submitted a document “proving” the centre is not subject to the law, El Nadeem said.

    The organisation was registered with the health ministry and the doctors’ union as a “medical clinic”, Suzan Fayad, an El Nadeem co-founder, said.

    Egypt’s parliament approved in November a new law to regulate the activities of NGOs, in a move that prompted fears of an intensified crackdown on such groups.

    Both Egyptian and foreign NGOs are governed by a strict law

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Donald Trump wants ‘constructive’ ties with China

    {Uncertainty has prevailed after Trump accused Beijing of unfair trade practices and criticised China’s military buildup.}

    US President Donald Trump has broken the ice with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a letter that said he looked forward to working with him to develop constructive relations, although the pair haven’t spoken directly since Trump took office.

    Trump also issued belated well-wishes to China for the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in the world’s most populous nation. He had been the only US president in recent years not to have issued greetings when the holiday fell on January 28, triggering speculation in China as to whether it was an oversight or an intentional slight.

    A statement from the White House late on Wednesday said Trump wrote to Xi wishing the Chinese people greetings for the new year and the Lantern Festival that falls on Saturday.

    “President Trump stated that he looks forward to working with President Xi to develop a constructive relationship that benefits both the United States and China,” the statement said.

    The letter also thanked Xi for his congratulatory letter on Trump’s inauguration and wished the Chinese people a prosperous Year of the Rooster, it said.

    {{China’s Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.}}

    Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at Beijing’s elite Renmin University, said the letter suggested the new US administration wanted to signal the importance it attached to the US-China relationship, without risking being confronted on specific issues.

    “Trump has sent many messages that makes the world confused, like on the South China Sea and ‘One China’ policy, so if he makes a phone call President Xi will ask ‘what do you mean?’,” Wang said.

    “He wants to avoid this, so he just sends a letter for the first step.”

    Trump and Xi have yet to speak directly since Trump took office on January 20, although they did talk soon after Trump won the US presidential election in November.

    The Foreign Ministry in Beijing said last week the two countries were remaining “in close touch”.

    Trump has accused Beijing of unfair trade practices and currency manipulation, criticised China’s military buildup in the South China Sea, and accused Beijing of doing too little to pressure neighbour North Korea over its nuclear and missile programmes.

    He also upended four decades of diplomatic protocol by speaking by phone with Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.

    Beijing decried the phone call with Tsai and has rejected the other accusations. China has in fact been spending heavily from its pile of foreign currency reserves to prop up the value of its currency, which would make its exports less competitive.

    The prospect of a military confrontation over the South China Sea had also been raised by Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon when he hosted the conservative Breitbart News Daily radio show in 2015 and 2016.

    Bannon said he envisioned the possibility of a US-China war over the strategic waterway within five to 10 years. China, which claims the sea virtually in its entirety, has been building man-made islands in the area and equipping them with airstrips and military installations.

    Trump widely criticised China during the US presidential election campaign

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • SDP-led government survives no-confidence vote

    {Motion follows biggest protests in decades against decree that would have decriminalised some corruption offences.}

    Romania’s Social Democrat-led government has survived a parliamentary vote of no-confidence after the country witnessed its largest protests in decades over a corruption decree.

    Ioana Bran, the parliamentary secretary, said on Wednesday that 161 MPs voted in support of the motion, short of the 232 votes needed for it to pass.

    The Social Democrats and their allies control nearly two thirds of the seats in parliament after winning a December election.

    They abstained from Wednesday’s vote.

    “The necessary majority has not been met, according to the constitution, for the vote to pass,” Bran said.

    At least 5,000 protesters gathered outside government headquarters late on Wednesday to demand the cabinet’s resignation, despite a snowstorm, subzero temperatures and power blackouts. “We exist, we resist,” they chanted.

    Catalin Predoiu, an opposition deputy, said of the motion: “This is a warning signal that we managed to gather the votes of the whole opposition and it also shows that whenever the new government derails we will gather and sanction it.”

    For over a week, hundreds of thousands of people have protested against the government after it passed a decree to decriminalise some official corruption.

    Critics decried the move as a major setback to the country’s anti-corruption drive.

    Bowing to pressure, the government scrapped the ordinance on Sunday as some 500,000 people protested across the country.

    The rallies were the largest protests since the fall of communist rule in 1989.

    ‘Ugly face of politics’

    The motion will now be debated by the parliament.

    Klaus Iohannis, Romania’s president, said the fight to contain corruption shows the “ugly face of politics”.

    He told the Associated Press news agency that the massive street protests were successful in stopping the decree that would have eased up on public officials who abuse their power while in office.

    He said he was pleased that protesters cared about the future of Romania and made their feelings known.

    “I was surprised by the size of the crowd,” he said.

    “Having over 200,000 people in Piata Victoriei [Victory Square] is something extraordinary.”

    The Constitutional Court rejected challenges on procedural grounds brought against the rescinded decree by Iohannis and by the top magistrates’ council.

    The court said it would reconvene on Thursday to consider a separate challenge brought by Romania’s ombudsman against the content of the decree.

    Romania has just seen the largest protests since the end of communist rule

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Somalia’s new leader Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo vows to rebuild failed state

    {Supporters of Somalia’s new President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a veteran diplomat and former prime minister, hope he can be the answer to corruption and extremism in the world’s most notorious failed state.}

    The 55-year-old father of four, better known as Farmajo, holds both American and Somali citizenship, and was elected after a six-month voting process marred by widespread allegations of vote-buying and corruption.

    Nevertheless, Farmajo, from the Darod clan, was welcomed with celebration by many Somalis who had looked forward to change after a series of Hawiye presidents.

    In a country where clan divisions dominate politics, the administration of his predecessor, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was widely seen as more corrupt than any that came before him.

    {{Fight against Shabaab }}

    As president, Farmajo inherits a country where Al-Shabaab extremists hold swathes of countryside and attack Mogadishu at will.

    And after decades of unrest, hundreds of thousands of Somalis have been displaced internally, or else have fled the country.

    “This is the beginning of unity for the Somali nation, the beginning of the fight against Shabaab and corruption,” a triumphant Farmajo said after being declared president.

    Many Somalis fondly remember the eight months when Farmajo – whose nickname means “cheese” – was prime minister in 2010-11.

    On his Facebook page, Farmajo says that while premier, he implemented the first monthly stipends for soldiers, worked on the country’s new constitution and sent delegations to defuse clan-related tensions in several regions.

    The soldiers firing celebratory gunfire in the streets of Mogadishu on Wednesday have not been paid for months.

    {{Forced out }}

    And in a report this week, the Somali anti-corruption NGO Marqaati said civil servants had gone unpaid so the government could pay for lobbying during the elections.

    In his time as prime minister, Farmajo also established an anti-corruption commission, prohibited unnecessary trips abroad by members of government and put in place an audit of government property and vehicles.

    In 2011, after months of political infighting over the holding of presidential elections, a deal was struck to postpone the vote in exchange for Farmajo’s resignation.

    He agreed to step down in “the interest of the Somali people and the current situation in Somalia”.

    In early 2012 Farmajo and members of his former cabinet set up the Tayo (“Quality”) political party.

    On his Facebook page, he says that the party’s priority was “encouraging the repatriation of Somali diasporans so as to assist in the post-conflict reconstruction process.”

    {{Further studies }}

    Farmajo was born in Mogadishu to activist parents from the southern Gedo region.

    He has lived off and on for years in the United States, where he studied history and political science.

    He worked at the foreign ministry before the overthrow of Siad Barre’s regime in 1991 ushered in decades of anarchy. He also worked at the Somali embassy in Washington.

    Before being appointed prime minister he spent several years working in New York for the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority and the Erie County Division of Equal Employment Opportunity, as well as the New York State Department of Transportation.

    Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, the newly elected president of Somalia, speaks in Mogadishu on February 8, 2017 after his election.

    Source:AFP

  • Mkapa: Burundi talks to resume soon

    {Retired President, Benjamin William Mkapa, in his capacity as a facilitator in the “Burundi mediation truce” has announced the beginning of a formal dialogue after completion of the earlier consultative talks.}

    A statement from Mkapa’s office indicates that the scheduled session is going to run between the 16th and 18th February 2017, at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) here.

    The convening of the session will come after rigorous consultations that the facilitator had made with various stakeholders within and outside the country, where he had identified eight-point as an agenda raised by all the partners.

    It was further learnt that they had been agreed upon to be the main sticking points, which he had also reported in the Summit in September 2016. The eight-point agenda, which will form the thrust of the dialogue and subsequent negations, in no particular order of importance, includes security and commitment to end all forms of violence in the landlocked country.

    Others are listed as commitment to the Rule of Law and an end to impunity and status of the implementation of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement.

    The list further included strengthening of democratic culture and opening up of political space as well as social and humanitarian issues. It also highlighted implementation of the EAC Summit Decision of July 6th, 2015 on the Formation of the Government of National Unity, impact of the crisis on the Economy and the relationship between Burundi and its neighbours as well as other international partners.

    The statement further hinted that in the initial phase of the coming dialogue, which is by and large a political process, the retired President will invite some of the Political Parties and important political actors to whom he will introduce the unpacked Eight-point agenda to determine areas of convergence and divergence.

    Other stakeholders like the civil society organisations, religious groups, as well as women and youth will be invited in later sessions for the similar purpose.

    It is the expectation of the Facilitator that, in this initial dialogue, inputs from participants will draw up an outline of the would-be agreement to be “continuously refined,” until when they will be fully agreed upon by all the stakeholder and be signed as the final agreement hopefully in June, 2017 as he envisions.

    Source:Daily News

  • Somalia presidential vote at Mogadishu airport

    {Somalia’s MPs are due to elect the country’s president at the heavily guarded airport complex in Mogadishu, as the rest of the capital is not safe.}

    Traffic has been banned, schools have been shut and a no-fly zone imposed over Mogadishu to prevent attacks.

    Despite this, suspected militant Islamists fired mortar rounds close to the venue on Tuesday night.

    Somalia, marred by religious and clan conflict, has not had a one-person one-vote democratic election since 1969.

    That vote was followed by a coup, dictatorship and conflict involving clan militias and Islamist extremists.

    The elections are seen as part of a lengthy and complex process to help the East African state rebuild its democracy and achieve stability.

    More than 20,000 African Union (AU) troops are stationed in Somalia to prevent militant Islamist group al-Shabab from overthrowing the weak government.

    Over 20 candidates are vying to become president, with the top three proceeding to a second round of voting and the top two from that round going forward to a third and final vote.

    The election hall is a converted aircraft hangar, and is packed with MPs, reports the BBC’s Ferdinand Omondi from the venue.

    President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is standing for re-election and analysts say he is likely to be one of those who goes forward to the later rounds.

    The airport is viewed as the most secure site and voting was moved there from a police academy because of growing security concerns.

    On Tuesday evening, suspected Al-Shabab militants launched a series of attacks, with two mortar rounds fired close to the venue where the voting venue.

    Residents in Arbacow village outside Mogadishu say jihadists attacked an AU base there.

    Al-Shabab has a presence in much of the southern third of the country and has previously attacked the Somali parliament, presidential palace, courts, hotels and the fortified airport zone.

    At least 19 politicians, as well as many civilians and soldiers, have been killed in its assaults.

    Wednesday’s security measures include a ban on flights to and from Mogadishu airport.

    Correspondents said most schools and offices remained open on Tuesday but people had had to walk to reach their destination.

    Analysts say holding the election in the airport environment may also reduce the possibility of vote buying or other corruption in the election process.

    The aircraft hangar is crowded with MPs ready to vote

  • South African’s Jacob Zuma deploys troops to state address SONA

    {South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has ordered the deployment of about 440 troops to maintain law and order in parliament for his annual state of the nation address on Thursday.}

    Opposition parties have condemned the decision as a “declaration of war”.

    Previous addresses by Mr Zuma in parliament have been marred by protests and brawls as opposition MPs demanded his resignation.

    Mr Zuma has been dogged by corruption allegations for more than a decade.

    South African President Jacob Zuma will give his state of the union address on Thursday

    Source:BBC

  • Uganda:Dombo returns in Eala race as NRM changes voting rules

    {After a night of collar pulling, heckling and near punching of their electoral commission chairperson, NRM have revised the rules to govern the Eala vote—it will be on popular support and not regional based.}

    President Museveni had led the party into accepting bending the rules and vote for the party’s candidates in the Eala elections based on regional basis but this only caused acrimony and hig-haga during the hours on end caucus meeting at Entebbe State House.

    Some candidates, like Emmanuel Dombo, opted out for what they considered unfair party rules. Others simply fought the exercise leading to a premature closure of the election exercise.

    With the regional based voting out, Mr Dombo has since announced his return in the race.

    NRM is seeking to select six candidates out of 38 to tussle it out in Parliament for the regional parliament slots.

    Sources familiar to the decision to jettison the regional based voting say voting by popular vote was returned with two positions ring fenced for the women who would have garnered the highest number of votes.

    Mr Tanga Odoi leads in the counting of the ballots shortly before chaos stopped the process.