IGIHE

Category: Politics

  • Gabon’s Ali Bongo hits back at EU over poll ‘anomalies’

    {President accuses EU observation mission of bias and insists that only the country’s top court can order a recount.}

    Gabonese President Ali Bongo has denied EU observers’ calls for a recount of last week’s disputed presidential vote, saying it was a matter for the country’s top court to decide.

    On Tuesday, an EU mission observing the August 27 polls reported a “clear anomaly” in voting in Haut-Ogooue province, Bongo’s heartland.

    Official results gave turnout in the province at more than 99 percent, with 95 percent backing the incumbent against rival Jean Ping.

    “I would also have liked them to have noted some anomalies in the fiefdom of Mr Ping. If we are raising anomalies, we have to be clear, balanced and raise all the anomalies that have been noted,” Bongo told France’s RTL radio, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.

    “What people should be asking me to do is apply the law. I cannot violate the law. As far as a recount is concerned … that’s done at the level of the Constitutional Court.”

    Bongo, whose family has ruled Gabon for nearly half a century, won a second term by a slender margin of fewer than 6,000 votes over Ping.

    The opposition leader, however, says that the election was a sham and has demanded a recount – a call echoed by Manuel Valls, prime minister of Gabon’s former colonial power, France.

    Post-election clashes between his supporters and security forces have resulted in the deaths of between 50 and 100 people, Ping said on Tuesday. The government’s official casualty count stands at just three dead.

    The parliament in the capital, Libreville, was also torched in protests over the result.

    Calls for recount

    Ping, a 72-year-old former African Union Commission chairman, has yet to announce whether he will challenge the election result in the Constitutional Court.

    The deadline for doing so is 15:00 GMT on Thursday.

    In their analysis, the EU election monitors said the number of non-voters and of blank and disqualified votes revealed a “clear anomaly in the final results in Haut-Ogooue”.

    In an interview with Europe 1 radio, Bongo accused the EU observers of “overstepping their mandate” and said he too was preparing to challenge some of the results.

    “Ping committed fraud” in his home constituency and others with the help of “cyber-criminals”, he told Europe 1.

    Bongo, 57, is under increasing pressure at home and abroad after Justice Minister Seraphin Moundounga resigned on Monday, demanding a recount “polling station by polling station”.

    Bongo also accused Ping of attempting “massive fraud” and said it was difficult to envisage dialogue with “people who ask the Gabonese to go into the street to loot and destroy and burn things”.

    The opposition has accused Bongo of rigging the vote and called for a recount

  • Kenya:13 parties wind up today for Jubilee merger

    {Thirteen political parties are on Thursday expected to dissolve when they hold their National Delegates’ Conferences in Nairobi as they prepare to form the Jubilee Party on Friday.
    }
    President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, Mr William Ruto, set the tempo for Thursday’s activities by hosting the chairpersons and secretaries-general of the 13 parties at State House, Nairobi, where it was agreed that the new party officials be unveiled on Saturday at the Safaricom Kasarani Stadium.

    The two leaders also met at least 21 governors from Jubilee-affiliated parties.The county bosses pledged to work for the new party, which President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto will use to seek re-election next year.

    By Wednesday evening, the 12,000 delegates expected to dissolve their parties, trooped to Nairobi and were hosted at various hotels across the city with parties financing their accommodation through mobile money transfers.

    Jubilee’s National Steering Committee officials on Wednesday met at the new eight-storey party headquarters at Pangani and described the proposed merger as the next big thing.

    The committee is co-chaired by Senator Kiraitu Murungi and Dr Noah Wekesa.

    “We are in the final touches of coming up with the party,” said Mr Murungi, who is also the Meru Senator. “This is a party that will propel Kenya to a new era of social harmony, and peace. It is the party we have all been dreaming about.”

    The parties folding are President Kenyatta’s The National Alliance (TNA), Deputy President Ruto’s United Republican Party (URP), Mr Murungi’s Alliance Party of Kenya and Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka’s New Ford-Kenya.

    The others are Jubilee Alliance Party (JAP), United Democratic Forum (UDF), National Rainbow Coalition, Ford People, the Republican Congress Party (RC), Tip Tip, the United Party of Kenya (UPK), the Grand National Unity (GNU) and the Party of National Unity (PNU).

    On Wednesday, Elgeyo-Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen said the delegates were converging in Nairobi in line with each party’s constitution. Their key job on Thursday will be to pass resolutions to dissolve their parties.

    {{SUPPORTERS INVITED}}

    “The number of delegates who are coming is decided by the constitution of each party. They will have no big role on Friday and Saturday because those will be open events,” he said.

    Other officials allied to Jubilee said wananchi and party supporters had also been invited to the events of Friday and Saturday.

    Mr Murungi said the events would start with today’s dissolution of the parties during the meetings to be held at Kasarani and Bomas of Kenya.

    “At the end of tomorrow (Thursday), there will be no TNA, URP, APK, or any of the other 13 parties. We will all be one from Friday,” he said.

    All the delegates will on Friday have a joint meeting at the Kasarani Indoor Arena to ratify the formation of the new party.

    The day’s highlight will be a speech by Mr Ruto, who is the designated Deputy Party Leader. Political leaders from various countries and senior politicians will also address the meeting.

    The highlight of the three-day event will come on Saturday, when President Kenyatta will address the forum and officially unveil the new Jubilee Party, his 2017 re-election vehicle. During the launch, he will name the 77-member interim National Executive Committee that will lead the party. He will also unveil the party’s symbols and slogan.

    On Wednesday, the little known Muungano Party wrote to the Registrar of Political Parties to protest the use of the word, “Pamoja”, in Jubilee’s “Tuko Pamoja” slogan. Muungano wants Jubilee stopped from using the word.

    After meeting delegates at the Indoor Arena on Saturday, President Kenyatta will address a public rally at the Kasarani Main Stadium. He will also unveil the new party officials.

    “We have all resolved and agreed that whatever position one will get, they will serve diligently. We have no official now and the list of officials in a section of the media is false,” said Mr Murungi.

    EXPLAIN SOURCE OF MONEY

    Jubilee has set up a new state-of-the-art call centre with new computers and telephones that sources said would be the nerve centre of the party’s activities ahead of the 2017 General Election. The call centre on the ground floor will also be used to handle complaints and enquiries from party members.

    Mr Murungi on Wednesday dismissed claims by Cord leaders, who had asked Jubilee to explain the source of the money being spent on the launch.

    “People can say anything,” Mr Murungi said. “There is something called the Political Parties Fund and that is where we are getting our funds.”

    Earlier, in a TV interview, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale had dared Cord to table evidence of State funds being used to host the three-day event.

    “Parliament budgets for every coin that goes to the Executive. Let them tell us what cent we have taken from the government to fund ourselves,” he said.

    During the press conference at the party’s new headquarters, Mr Murungi said that the excitement around the new party was like the day Kenya gained Independence in 1963. Dr Wekesa said that the new Jubilee Party would secure democracy and bring Kenyans together.

    “There are over 100 parties in Kenya and only 14 are merging to form Jubilee. How is that killing democracy? Within ourselves, we will be free to express our views,” he said.

    Some of the governors from Jubilee-affiliated parties after officials of the proposed Jubilee Party addressed the media on the programme of events that will lead to its launch on Saturday. The press conference was held at the party’s new building at Pangani, Nairobi, on September 7, 2016.

  • Gabon election: Ali Bongo criticises EU over vote ‘anomalies’

    {Gabon President Ali Bongo has accused international observers who highlighted anomalies in the country’s contested presidential election of bias.}

    Mr Bongo criticised the European Union mission observing Gabon’s election after questions were raised over his narrow victory.

    He also accused opposition leader Jean Ping of a “massive fraud”.

    “If we want to address the anomalies, we must be clear, balanced and address any anomalies,” he said.

    On Tuesday the EU questioned the legitimacy of the election results in Gabon on 27 August.

    The Constitutional Court is expected to meet on Thursday to consider a challenge by Mr Ping.

    Mr Bongo said he would respect the wishes of the court if it ordered a recount.

    The EU mission said there was a “clear anomaly” in the results from Mr Bongo’s home province after official figures from Haut-Ogooue showed a turnout of 99.93%, with 95% of votes cast for the president.

    Sarah Crozier, from the EU team, said observers noted a much lower turnout nationally than was recorded in Mr Bongo’s political base and that tabulations from his province showed anomalies for those who had not voted as well as the number of votes that were void.

    “With a turnout of 99.93% and 71,000 voters, you would have only 47 people not voting, and we found there were polling stations declaring results [of those who did not vote] that were totalling a figure above that 47,” she told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

    Mr Ping, who lost the election by less than 6,000 votes, has pointed to the results in the province as evidence of electoral fraud.

    He has called for a general strike and said that dozens of his supporters have been killed in violent clashes since the result was announced.

    The Gabonese authorities say three people have died and 105 have been injured in street violence and mass arrests have taken place.

    Other reports put the death toll at at least six.

    {{Gabon election: Bongo v Ping}}

    Mr Bongo took office in 2009 after an election marred by violence

    He succeeding his father Omar Bongo who had come to power in 1967 and was Africa’s longest serving leader

    Veteran diplomat Mr Ping had served as chair of the African Union

    He had been a close ally of Omar Bongo and had been his foreign minister

    He had two children with Omar Bongo’s daughter, Pascaline

    Gabonese authorities say three people have died and 105 have been injured in street violence

  • Catholic church threatens to quit DRC dialogue if it pushes Kabila’s political mandate

    {The Catholic Church of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has threatened to withdraw from the “national dialogue” if it turns into a political forum meant to push for a “disguised mandate” for incumbent Joseph Kabila.}

    The National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) said in a statement on Tuesday that any attempt to extend Kabila’s constitutional mandate which ends later this year will end their participation in the Edem Kodjo led national dialogue.

    Abbot Donatien Shole, CENCO’s delegate at the dialogue, told AFP that he was “satisfied” with efforts to engage some members of the “Rally”, a newly formed coalition led by historical opponent Étienne Tshisekedi in the dialogue.

    “The CENCO cannot continue to participate in this dialogue if the fulfillment of these basic requirements is no longer assured, if they ever begin to negotiate what may look like a disguised mandate, we leave the dialogue,” he stated.

    The national dialogue called by the incumbent president began on September 1 under the aegis of a facilitation of the African Union (AU) mediator, former Togolese Prime Minister, Edem Kodjo.

    The dialogue which is also backed by the United Nations, the European Union and other bodies is aimed at getting DRC out of a political crisis that has rocked the country since the disputed re-election of Kabila in 2011.

    Kabila has been in power since 2001, and is constitutionally bound to step down after serving two terms (winning 2006 and 2011 elections), opponents accuse him of deliberately delaying the Nov. 27 poll to cling to power.

    Earlier this year, the country’s highest court ruled in May that if the November polls do not hold, Kabila could remain in power until the next election is held.

    In March, the U.N. Security Council called on the country to organize elections this year, but the government said logistical and budgetary obstacles made it unrealistic. The election commission has said it needs more than a year to update voter rolls.

    The Catholic Church, the dominant faith in the DRC with some 40% of Congolese being adherents, has played a leading role in the process of democratization in the DRC at the beginning of the decade 1990. Its withdrawal from the ongoing process might strongly affect the credibility.

    The country’s electoral body recently stated that elections were not feasible within this year and that a credible register for polls could be ready by middle of 2017. Even with that, opposition members still insist that Kabila should step down at the end of his term.

    The dialogue has been set into motion but according to political watchers it could not prove as effective with major players like Etienne Tshisekedi and Moise Katumbi option out. The Lucha party also announced pulling out of the dialogue just when it was about to start.

  • EAC summit to discuss crisis in Burundi

    {East African Community (EAC) leaders will discuss the stalled negotiations to end the Burundi crisis at a summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the EAC secretariat announced on Tuesday.}

    The EAC secretariat said that the leaders would on Thursday, consider a report by former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa on his attempts to mediate negotiations among the Burundian parties for a resolution of the crisis.

    The Burundi government announced that Home Affairs Minister Alain Aimé Nyamitwe would represent it at the summit.

    The summit would also consider an EAC ministers’ report on the progress in negotiations to reach a European Union (EU)-EAC Economic Partnership Agreement which would lift trade barriers between the two organisations.

    The summit will also discuss the protracted crisis in its newest member state, South Sudan.

    This EAC summit is to be held as the security and political situation in Burundi has been judged by the Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) MPs to be “deteriorating”.

    Last Monday, they adopted a resolution proposing that no East African Assembly activity should be held in Burundi during this period of crisis. But this will have to be approved by the Heads of the members States.

    Some members of the Assembly said they were afraid of losing another member of the Assembly, this referred to a Burundian representative in the Assembly, Hafsa Mossi, who was shot dead in the capital Bujumbura in June this year.

    But a Burundian member of the Assembly, Isabelle Nahayo, criticised the decision to boycott Burundi.

    “I am sure that Burundi is now peaceful and stable. Maybe those who say there is no peace are driven by other minds. There are even some other regional activities like trade fairs which often take place in Burundi. And I even saw some EALA MP’s coming to cool off at the Tanganyika Lake, but i can’t give their names here,” she said.

    Last week the EALA named an ad hoc MP commission to scrutinise the EALA latest report on the Burundi crisis and decide what action should be taken about it regionally as well as internationally.

    It called on EAC Council of ministers to invoke chapter 7 of the United Nations charter so that the United Nations Security Council could militarily intervene and investigate the human right violations in Burundi because, it said, the crisis in that country had already affected the region.

    However, it had been strongly criticised by Burundian authorities.

    “It is out of question to invoke that chapter because Burundi is not like Syria”, protested the Burundian East African Affairs Minister Léontine Nzeyimana.

    East African Community leaders will meet to discuss a way forward in dealing with the crisis in Burundi and South Sudan.

  • Barack Obama cancels Rodrigo Duterte talks after insult

    {Duterte calls US leader “son of a whore” before Obama cancels planned talks with Philippine president.}

    US President Barack Obama has cancelled what would have been his first meeting with Rodrigo Duterte, according to a White House spokesman, hours after the Philippine leader described his American counterpart in vulgar terms.

    Duterte called Obama a “son of a whore”, saying that he would not be lectured by the US leader on human rights, according to AFP news agency.

    Duterte’s tirade came as he bristled at warnings he would face questioning by the US president at their scheduled meeting over his war against drugs in the Philippines, which has claimed more than 2,400 lives in just over two months.

    “You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum,” Duterte told a news conference shortly before flying to Laos to attend a summit on Monday.

    “We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me,” he said.

    However, a statement released by the Philippine president on Tuesday expressed regret for the tirade against his US counterpart.

    “While the immediate cause was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the US president,” the statement said.

    Duterte was due to hold a bilateral meeting with Obama on Tuesday afternoon on the sidelines of a gathering of global leaders hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Vientiane, the capital of the Laos.

    Shortly after Duterte’s comments, Obama had appeared to cast doubt on whether a meeting could take place with the Philippines president. Calling Duterte “a colourful guy”, Obama said he was asking his staff to find out whether a meeting would be useful.

    “I always want to make sure if I’m having a meeting that it’s actually productive and we’re getting something done,” he told reporters.

    Duterte, 71, was elected in May after promising to wage an unprecedented war on drugs.

    Official figures released on Sunday showed that, since Duterte took office on June 30, more than 2,400 people have been killed in police anti-drug operations and by suspected vigilantes.

    Speaking on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, Obama said Washington recognised that drugs were a significant problem for the Philippines.

    But he also insisted that he would not shy away from raising concerns about the way the issue was being handled under the new administration.

    “The issue of how we approach fighting crime and drug trafficking is a serious one for all of us. We’ve got to do it the right way,” Obama said.

    “Undoubtedly, if and when we have a meeting, this is something that’s going to be brought up. And my expectation, my hope, is that it could be dealt with constructively.”

    {{‘More people will be killed’}}

    Duterte has previously angrily rejected criticism from the Catholic Church, human rights groups, politicians and the United Nations.

    “More people will be killed, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets. Until the [last] drug manufacturer is killed, we will continue and I will continue,” he said on Monday.

    Duterte insisted he would not take orders from the US, a former colonial ruler of the Philippines, and did not care about how he was perceived.

    The maverick president has quickly earned a reputation for making offensive comments about his critics.

    Duterte was elected in May after a promise to wage a war on drugs

  • Trump vs Clinton race heats up with two months to go

    {US election kicks into high gear, with both candidates spending Labour Day in battleground state of Ohio.}

    New York – The public holiday that kickstarts the home stretch of frantic campaigning for the US presidential election was dominated by two familiar questions – whether Donald Trump is stable enough, and whether Hillary Clinton is trustworthy enough, to run the country.

    Republican presidential nominee Trump and Clinton, his Democratic rival, both flew to the battleground state of Ohio on Monday for a Labour Day holiday that signals the start of two final months of handshaking and speech-making before the November 8 ballot.

    Trump met union members in Cleveland and attended a state fair, while Clinton, speaking with reporters before marching in a Labour Day parade, said the race had become a “mad dash” for the White House.

    “I’m more than ready,” she added.

    Though she leads Trump in an average of polls by some four percentage points, Clinton was on the back foot again this weekend after the latest in a series of damaging revelations over her use of private email while serving as secretary of state.

    On Friday, the FBI released 58 pages of notes from a probe that ended with the agency’s director James Comey declaring that Clinton and her staff had been “extremely careless” when handling classified information.

    On Monday, Trump’s deputy campaign manager David Bossie decried Clinton’s “terrible judgment, incompetence and dishonesty” – targeting one of the former first lady’s crucial weaknesses in the eyes of voters.

    {{‘Referendum on Trump’}}

    Trump still trails Clinton in many battleground states where the election will likely be decided, but he has drawn close to her in others.

    The forecaster FiveThirtyEight gives Clinton a 72.3 percent chance of winning, against Trump’s 27.7 percent.

    Trump’s rebound from a series of self-inflicted blows has followed the hiring of new campaign managers.

    The coiffed property mogul is showing more discipline at rallies, reading from teleprompters rather than risking more off-the-cuff gaffes.

    But Trump’s visit to a largely African-American church congregation in Detroit on Saturday highlighted how much work he still has to do with blacks, Latinos and other minority groups. Outside, scores of protesters chanted: “No justice, no peace.”

    “As the homestretch of the election begins, it is increasingly clear that it will be a referendum on Trump. Despite what his campaign says, they face an uphill battle, and it resembles Mount Everest,” Jonathan Cristol, a scholar from the World Policy Institute think tank, told Al Jazeera.

    Last week, Trump’s campaign team celebrated a success after the New York businessman made a quick trip to Mexico, appearing side by side with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, after talks about Trump’s wall-building and anti-immigrant policies.

    An immigration speech Trump gave after his trip to Mexico, however, drew criticism from some of his Hispanic supporters and several backers advising him on the issue decided to split from his campaign.

    “Trump is hoping that he can do something similar to the UK’s Brexit vote, where mobilising a populist fear of immigrants can build a cross-class alliance of white people at a time of deep economic insecurity,” New York University scholar Arun Kundnani told Al Jazeera.

    “It may work, but it looks like the demographics won’t enable that to happen in the US like it did in Britain.”

    This pivotal month of campaigning culminates in the first presidential debate on September 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

    The televised face-off could be one of Trump’s last chances to stop Clinton’s return to the White House.

    But it remains unclear how the brash insults he used to sideswipe rivals in the earlier Republican-only debates will translate into a one-on-one with Clinton, an experienced debater who can reel off policies and statistics.

    As preparations for the debates are well under way, critics say the entry rules are too tough. Candidates must average at least 15 percent support in national polls to win a spot on the stage – a bar that will likely exclude such alternatives as the Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein.

    Jeff Cohen, an Ithaca College media scholar, said more candidates from across the political spectrum deserve a place on the presidential debate stage as voters are abandoning the major parties in ever-greater numbers.

    “The two major party candidates are the least popular in recent US history and the two major parties have less support than at any time in modern history,” Cohen told Al Jazeera.

    “The US is the first modern democracy, and our presidential elections have become a sham, where we’re deciding who to vote against from two unpopular candidates.”
    {{
    Turnout crucial}}

    In addition to her debating skills, Clinton has millions of dollars at her disposal to air television adverts and power a get-out-the-vote operation in toss-up states. She raised a combined $143m in August for her campaign and her party – her best month of fundraising yet.

    She started September with more than $68m in her campaign’s bank account to use against Trump, who has not yet released initial fundraising totals for August.

    “The homestretch of the election is not going to be about changing the minds of voters in suburban Philadelphia, but about organisation and turnout. At this point, I doubt there are many people who are undecided about Trump,” said Cristol.

    “Trump knows this, which is way he has essentially called for a campaign of intimidation at polling places, and has started to question the legitimacy of the American system.”

    Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump in polls by some four percentage points

  • Gabon election: Justice minister quits over disputed result

    {Gabonese Justice Minister Seraphim Moundounga has resigned in protest over the disputed presidential election.}

    He is reported to have warned the incumbent, Ali Bongo, that he could cancel the results of the election if they did not “tally with reality”.

    Mr Bongo was declared the winner by a narrow margin last Wednesday, but the opposition say the poll was fraudulent.

    His rival Jean Ping has called for a general strike and says dozens of his supporters have been killed.

    Mr Moundounga is the first senior government minister to resign over the election result.

    The Gabonese authorities say three people have died and 105 have been injured following violent clashes and mass arrests that have taken place since the election result was announced.

    Other reports put the death toll at at least six.

    There have been more than 800 arrests and France says several people with dual French-Gabonese citizenship remain unaccounted for.

    The official election result gave Mr Bongo a second seven-year term with 49.8% of the vote to Mr Ping’s 48.2% – a margin of 5,594 votes.

    Mr Ping won in six out of nine provinces but disputes the result in Mr Bongo’s home province of Haut-Ogooue, where turnout was 99.93% and 95% of votes were for the president.

    Turnout in the other provinces was between 45% and 71%, according to Gabon’s interior ministry.

    The former African Union diplomat has called for a recount, which has so far been resisted by the government.

    Oil-rich Gabon has one of the highest per-capita incomes in Africa, but few of its 1.6 million people feel the benefit.

    Mr Bongo took office in 2009 after an election marred by violence

    He succeeding his father Omar Bongo who had come to power in 1967 and was Africa’s longest serving leader

    Veteran diplomat Mr Ping had served as chair of the African Union

    He had been a close ally of Omar Bongo and had been his foreign minister

    He had two children with Omar Bongo’s daughter, Pascaline

    {{

    "Bongo - go!" - supporters of opposition candidate Jean Ping demonstrate against the election result in Paris

    }}

  • Pro-democracy groups gain ground in Hong Kong election

    {Pro-China contingent to continue to dominate city’s legislature despite a strong showing by pro-independence candidates.}

    Pro-democracy groups have retained their one-third veto bloc in Hong Kong’s 70-seat Legislative Council (Legco), with the final votes from the election marked by a record turnout still being counted.

    Official results for most constituencies show that pro-democracy candidates have won at least 27 seats – three more than required for the power to block attempts by the Hong Kong government to enact unpopular or controversial legislation.

    The results released on Monday showed several pro-independence candidates emerging victorious in the weekend’s election – the first since the so-called Umbrella Revolution of 2014.

    At some polling stations there were long queues until until 2:30am local time (18:30 Sunday GMT) – four hours later than the scheduled cut-off time – with a turnout of almost 60 percent of 3.7 million voters.

    Nathan Law Kwun-chung, the former student leader of the Umbrella Revolution rallies, was declared a winner on Monday.

    Law, 23, contested as a candidate of the Demosisto party, which wants a referendum for Hong Kong residents on whether they should stay part of China.

    “I think Hong Kongers really wanted change,” he said, celebrating his win. “Young people have a sense of urgency when it comes to the future.”

    {{Pro-democracy rallies}}

    Law was a key figure in the 2014 pro-democracy movement, which saw parts of downtown Hong Kong occupied for 79 days in protest against a controversial electoral reform bill.

    The city-wide vote was the biggest since mass pro-democracy protests in 2014 and saw candidates fighting for seats in the Legco as concerns grew that China is tightening its grip on the semi-autonomous city.

    “There have been some emotional scenes here at the election centre as the results came in, bearing out the expected trend that has been predicting the rise of the so-called localist movement,” Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Hong Kong, said.

    “These new parties and groupings have grown largely out of the Occupy movement two years ago, groups with a very different agenda from the mainstream pro-democracy groups.

    “Some key leaders of the pro-democracy parties have lost their seats.”

    Only 40 out of 70 total seats are directly elected by the public, while special-interest groups representing a range of mostly pro-China businesses and social sectors select the other 30 legislators.

    Results as of 5:30am local time showed victories for some young “localist” activists who are pushing for more distance or complete independence from China.

    However, the pro-China contingent will continue to dominate the legislature, as they hold on to their seats in the functional constituency.

    The proposed law will grant all residents the right to vote for the chief executive in 2017 for the first time, but it also inserts a clause that candidates must be vetted by a loyalist committee.

    Most established pro-democracy politicians do not support the notion of independence and may lose seats to voters who now favour more radical new groups.

    “The way the Legislative Council is structured, it still remains effectively a pro-establishment body. But even so, Beijing and Hong Kong will be worried about the results that show how polarised Hong Kong society has become,” the Al Jazeera correspondent said.

    Sunday’s election was marred by accusations of fraud, an uncommon occurrence in the city that was transferred to Chinese control from Britain in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” agreement.

    But Leung Chun-ying, the city’s chief executive, in a statement on Sunday night praised the conduct of the commission in ensuring fair elections.

  • Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe blasts judges over protests

    {President criticises judiciary for “reckless” rulings, ahead of a legal challenge against an official ban on rallies.}

    Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has accused the country’s judiciary of recklessness for allowing anti-government demonstrations, ahead of a legal challenge against an official ban on protests.

    A High Court hearing is set for Monday on the constitutionality of the government’s ban, which came into force on Thursday following weeks of protests against Mugabe’s rule and his handling of the country’s ailing economy.

    Violence erupted more than a week ago at an anti-Mugabe protest when police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse marchers angered by spiraling unemployment, a plummeting economy and allegations of government corruption.

    Mugabe said judges would be acting with “disregard” for peace if they ruled to give permission to more demonstrations.

    “We can’t allow that to continue, (to have) these violent demonstrations unimpeded. No. Enough is enough,” Mugabe told a conference of the ruling ZANU-PF’s youth wing on Saturday, according to a report in the country’s Sunday News weekly.

    “It is not just we the ordinary people who should have the understanding (of the need for peace). Our courts, our justice system, our judges should be the ones who understand even better than the ordinary citizens,” the 92-year-old president said.

    “To give permission again when they are to the full knowledge that it is going to be violent or probability that there is going to be violence is to pay reckless disregard to the peace of this country,” he added.

    Tendai Biti, leader of the People’s Democratic Party and the lawyer behind the legal challenge to the latest ban on demonstrations, accused Mugabe of violating the constitution and attempting to intimidate judges.

    “What Mugabe is trying to do is breaching the constitution by assaulting the judiciary and by trying to cause direct and indirect fear into judges,” Biti said, according to Reuters news agency.

    Now the world’s oldest head of state, speculation was rife about Mugabe’s health last week after his whereabouts following a regional summit on Tuesday were not known, and flight data showed that he had travelled to Dubai though he was supposed to be headed to Asia.

    Mugabe’s spokesman had denied reports that Mugabe was ill. However, when he returned to Harare on Saturday, the aging president joked that he had returned from the dead.

    “Yes, I was dead,” he told reporters, according to Reuters.

    “It is true that I was dead, And I resurrected. As I always do,” he said.

    “Once I get back to my country, I am real.”

    President Mugabe addresses a meeting of ZANU–PF's youth wing in Harare