IGIHE

Category: Rubrique

  • Cameroon Ruling Party Expected to Win Election

    Cameroon Ruling Party Expected to Win Election

    {{Cameroon’s 5.4 million voters head to the polls Monday for legislative and local polls set to shore up the strong parliamentary majority of President Paul Biya’s ruling party.}}

    President Biya has been accused of failing to adhere to a regular timetable for elections in order to ensure victory for his own People’s Democratic Movement (RDPC) party, which holds the majority of seats in the national assembly and municipal bodies.

    The terms of the current cohort of deputies elected in the last elections in 2007 expired in 2012, but have been extended on three separate occasions.

    Eighty-year-old Biya has served as president of Cameroon since 1982.

    The ruling party is looking to “consolidate the hegemonic majority it has enjoyed since the 2007 elections,” said political commentator Mathias Nguini Owona.

    The main goal of the opposition parties, including the Social Democratic Front which currently holds 16 seats, is to not lose ground in the Assembly and in the municipalities, he added.

    “We are likely to see a confirmation of the RDPC’s hyper-domination because the electoral contest is greatly unequal,” said Owona.

    Opposition parties regularly accuse the ruling party of electoral fraud and of using state assets to wage their campaigns while their opponents face financial troubles.

    After two decades of challenges to virtually every election result in the oil rich but poverty stricken country, both sides admit that the latest campaign has failed to capture the public’s imagination.

    “This lack of enthusiasm is indicative of the lack of confidence Cameroonians (have) in the electoral regulator Elecam” said Owona.

    The polling stations were due to open at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) and close 10 hours later. The country’s borders have been closed since Saturday and will remain so until the day after the vote.

    In all 29 parties are putting up candidates in the legislative elections.

    In October 2011 Biya was re-elected after beating long-time opponent John Fru Ndi. The United States and France pointed to “irregularities” in the voting process.

    The government in 2006 launched a high-profile campaign to tackle rampant corruption, arresting a number of prominent figures including former ministers and heads of public companies.

    AFP

  • Egypt court bans Muslim Brotherhood ‘activities’

    Egypt court bans Muslim Brotherhood ‘activities’

    {{A court in Egypt has banned “all activities” by the Muslim Brotherhood.}}

    The Cairo Court for Urgent Matters said the ruling applied to the Islamist movement, its non-governmental organisation and any affiliated groups.

    It also ordered the interim government to seize the Brotherhood’s funds and form a panel to administer its frozen assets until any appeal had been heard.

    The military authorities have launched a crackdown on the group since ousting President Mohammed Morsi on 3 July.

    Dozens of senior figures, including its general guide Mohammed Badie, have been detained on suspicion of inciting violence and murder.

    Hundreds of people demanding Mr Morsi’s reinstatement, most of them Brotherhood members, have also been killed in clashes with security forces, who portray the crackdown as a struggle against “terrorism”.

    wirestory

  • Merkel Romps to Victory but Faces Tough Coalition Choices

    Merkel Romps to Victory but Faces Tough Coalition Choices

    {{Angela Merkel won a landslide personal victory in Germany’s general election on Sunday, but her conservatives appeared just short of the votes needed to rule on their own and may have to convince leftist rivals to join a coalition government.}}

    Partial results put support for Merkel’s conservative bloc on 42 percent, their strongest score since 1990, the year of German unification, and a ringing endorsement of her steady leadership during the euro zone crisis.

    The outcome left the centre-right chancellor tantalizingly close to an absolute majority in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, a feat achieved only once in 1957 by Konrad Adenauer, the father of the West German federal republic.

    “This is a super result,” Merkel told cheering supporters. “Together, we will do all we can to make the next four years successful ones for Germany.”

    If she were to rule alone, which looks unlikely, she would have to do so with a tiny majority, leaving her vulnerable to rebel euroskeptics in her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU).

    The alternative could be to revive a ‘grand coalition’ with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who came a distant second with 25.5 percent, their second worst result in the post-war era. Former finance minister Peer Steinbrueck’s gaffe-prone campaign never gained traction against the popular Merkel.

    Polls show that the consensus-driven German public would welcome a right-left partnership, as would Berlin’s European partners, who hope the SPD might soften Merkel’s austerity-focused approach to struggling euro zone members.

    But after alienating millions of their own supporters when they partnered Merkel in her first term between 2005 and 2009, the Social Democrats are wary of a sequel.

    “We won’t automatically go into a grand coalition,” said SPD Chairman Sigmar Gabriel. “What is important are the policies.”

    agencies

  • ANC Distances itself from Malema Statement

    ANC Distances itself from Malema Statement

    {{Comments about expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema made by an ANC Gauteng provincial executive committee (PEC) member do not reflect the party’s views, it said on Tuesday.}}

    “We want to put it on record that the views expressed by the PEC member comrade Panyaza Lesufi are his personal opinions,” ANC Gauteng spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli said in a statement.

    “At no stage of any ANC Gauteng meeting [did] such views or discussion emerge,” he said.

    On Monday, the Independent Online reported that Lesufi had called on the ANC to review its decision to expel Malema, who now leads the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

    He was quoted as saying: “The ANC still needs a Julius Malema, in so much as a Julius Malema cannot survive ‘outside of the ANC’, an organisation that made him what he is today.”

    Lesufi said he respected the party’s decision to expel Malema two years ago, but that the decision might have been “too harsh”.

    “Unlike [the Congress of the People], whose members left the ANC, these comrades were expelled, surely a decision that is within our powers to review.”

    Ntuli encouraged Lesufi to raise his concerns at ANC meetings.

    “The matter of the expulsion of Julius Malema has been fully exhausted in the internal processes of the ANC, his expulsion is now history.”

    Malema’s expulsion from the party was finalised in April 2012.

    He was found guilty of sowing division in the party and bringing it into disrepute.

  • Tsvangirai Scoffs Calls for Him to Step Down

    Tsvangirai Scoffs Calls for Him to Step Down

    {{Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai batted away calls for him to resign on Wednesday and announced a shadow cabinet, vowing to keep veteran President Robert Mugabe’s regime in check.}}

    Tsvangirai scoffed at “irresponsible” calls for him to step down after failing to beat Mugabe for the third time in July elections that were overshadowed by rigging allegations.

    “It’s a betrayal of the people’s aspirations. I was elected by the party congress and the next congress will be in 2016.”

    “I don’t intend to stay a day longer beyond my mandate but I am not going to step down because a newspaper is saying I should step down or because Zanu-PF is saying I should step down.”

    Tsvangirai said he and the newly named 21-member shadow cabinet was focused on “keeping the government of Mr Mugabe on its toes and ensuring that it meets its commitments to the people of Zimbabwe”.

    Most of the members of the shadow cabinet were ministers in a power-sharing government with Mugabe.

    They include former finance minister Tendai Biti, former information minister Nelson Chamisa and detained party deputy chairperson Morgan Komichi.

    “Our shadow cabinet is not an exact mirror of Mr Mugabe’s bloated structure, but it incorporates all government functions represented by his government,” Tsvangirai said.

    Mugabe appointed a new cabinet last week after winning another five-year term in general elections on 31 July.

    The cabinet retained members of the old guard of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party including those who have served in government since independence in 1980.

    Tsvangirai rejected the elections as “a sham” and “a massive fraud”.

    Western powers said the elections were neither free nor fair while African countries said they were free but would not pass them as fair.

    – AFP

  • Nigerian MPs Fight in Parliament

    Nigerian MPs Fight in Parliament

    {{Nigerian politicians have exchanged punches after a splinter group from the governing People’s Democratic Party (PDP) tried to address parliament.}}

    The lower house had just reconvened after a seven-week break – during which the new PDP faction was formed.

    MPs loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan began shouting and jeering, which upset their rivals and scuffles broke out.

    The new faction does not want President Jonathan to seek re-election in 2015.

    He has not yet said whether he will stand but some of his allies, including his wife, have started campaigning for him.

    The BBC’s Ibrahim Isa says he saw one politician tear the shirt of another in chaotic scenes at Nigeria’s House of Representatives in the capital, Abuja.

    The brawl lasted for about 10 minutes with legislators hitting each other.

    TV footage reportedly shows a female legislator poking her finger in the face of a colleague.

    Another politician was seen grabbing a chair in an attempt to hit a fellow lawmaker.

    The PDP has won every national election since the end of military rule in 1999, so the party’s presidential candidate would be in a strong position to become Nigeria’s next leader.

    Mr Jonathan has been president since 2010, when his predecessor died in office and he was promoted from vice-president.

    He beat off a challenge to become PDP candidate in the 2011 elections, which he won despite opposition claims of rigging.

    {wirestory}

  • Sudan Threatens to End Ties with US

    Sudan Threatens to End Ties with US

    {{Sudan has threatened to end ties with the United States as it robustly responded to American criticism of President Omar al-Bashir’s application for a visa to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly.}}

    Khartoum also said it would expel Washington’s envoy if the US continued its “hostile policy” against it, and also end the flow of South Sudanese oil through its territory.

    The US State Department on Monday advised President Bashir not to seek to travel to its territory and instead first answer to International Criminal Court charges. It did not however explicitly said that it would not grant him a visa. (Read: Washington asks Bashir not to travel to the US)

    Mr Bashir is indicted by the ICC for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, with two warrants out for him.

    Sudan and the US are both not members of the ICC, while Mr Bashir has so far refused to co-operate with the court.

    The Sudanese Foreign Affairs ministry on Tuesday strongly condemned the US position, describing it as contempt for African leaders.

    “According to international law, the headquarters country, the United States, has no legal right for objection to the participation of any official from any full member state in the UN at activities of the United Nations,” ministry spokesman Abubakr Alsidiq said in an official statement.

    “[The] United States is not morally, politically and legally qualified to provide sermons and advices on respect to the International Humanitarian Law and the human rights under its own known record of war crimes and extermination against whole peoples, the last of which was the invasion of Iraq in the year 2003 and the killing of more than one million Iraqi persons after deceiving the world with false lies,” Mr Alsidiq added.

    “We expressed Sudan adherence to its full right to participate at the highest level in the meetings of the 68th session of the UN General Assembly,” he stressed.

    The UN is considered extra-national territory.

    NMG

  • Australia’s PM-elect Tony Abbott unveils cabinet

    Australia’s PM-elect Tony Abbott unveils cabinet

    {{Australia’s Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott has unveiled his new cabinet, calling it a highly experienced line-up.}}

    The appointments broadly followed the line up while in opposition, but included a major promotion for finance.

    As expected Julie Bishop became foreign minister – the only woman to be named to Mr Abbott’s frontbench.

    Mr Abbott defeated outgoing Labor leader Kevin Rudd in a decisive election on 7 September.

    The prime minister-elect made the announcement on Monday, in his first news conference since the poll

    “It is, I believe, one of the most experienced incoming ministries in our history, and I think it’s important to have experience as you move from opposition to government,” he said.

    West Australian Senator Mathias Cormann was named finance minister over Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos, a move seen as a major endorsement from Mr Abbott.

    Mr Cormann, who was born in Belgium and migrated to Australia in 1994, has been the Liberal-National coalition’s spokesman on treasury and financial services.

    Asked about the lack of female appointees, Mr Abbott said he envisaged that changing.

    “I think you can expect to see as time goes by more women in the cabinet and the ministry,” he said.

    Mr Abbott nominated Bronwyn Bishop, another Liberal Party politician, to became speaker of parliament. Several women also received appointments to junior ministries.

    Other appointments include Andrew Robb, the coalition’s spokesman for finance in opposition, who was named trade minister, and Joe Hockney, the coalition’s shadow treasurer, as treasurer.

    Mr Abbott is expected to be formally sworn in on Wednesday.

    BBC

  • Rwandans in UK vote in Parliament Elections

    Rwandans in UK vote in Parliament Elections

    Despite a windy and rainy day, this morning Rwandans living in the West Midlands and surround area woke up to cast their vote for Rwanda parliament elections on September 15 which was held in the city of Coventry in west midlands.

    The pool station was open from 7.00 AM, people started to come in one by one until 12 o’clock where it start to become very busy as a massive number of Rwandan Diaspora turn up to vote their parliament.

    His excellence, the high commissioner of Rwanda Mr William Nkurunziza was present to encourage the Diaspora to vote.

    Witnesses observed that altogether the vote was fairly conducted and peaceful, the polling stations were closed at 3pm as expected .

    .

  • South Sudan: Gen. Kiir urges Abyei Citizens to Return Home

    South Sudan: Gen. Kiir urges Abyei Citizens to Return Home

    {{South Sudanese president Salva Kiir Mayardit has urged the citizens of the contested region of Abyei to return home in preparation for a referendum vote, despite Khartoum’s rejection of the African Union-backed proposal.}}

    Kiir made the remarks while delivering a speech dedicated to the current flood crisis that hit six of 10 South Sudan states and displaced thousands of people since heavy rains begun in August.

    “We tell the people of Abyei to return home early so that they [can] participate in the referendum”, said Kiir in a statement broadcast by the state-owned South Sudan Television (SSTV) on Thursday.

    He said his administration continued to urge the international community to exert pressure on Sudan to accept the conduct of the referendum as the only viable solution to resolve the dispute over the area.

    “The citizens of Abyei can return to their homes so that they are physically present to participate in all [of] the process, especially voter registration when it is started. They should return now as we are exerting efforts to push Khartoum to accept the conduct”, he said.

    Kiir maintains that conditions attached by Khartoum as a prerequisite to the conduct of the referendum were unacceptable.

    “They (government of Sudan) have accepted the conduct of the referendum but attach certain things which we do not accept. They want joint institutions which is not the priority. We want a referendum commission to be established first because this is what will resolve the dispute”, he said.

    Khartoum, which refuses the referendum without the participation of the Sudanese Misseriya nomads, demands to establish a joint administration and a legislative council first. It further says committed to the vote to determine the fate of the disputed area but call for negotiations that can achieve a lasting solution.

    The organisation of the referendum in October was proposed last year by the head of the African Union panel for Sudan and South Sudan, Thabo Mbeki.

    The former South African president during short visits to the two capitals last week, held talks with presidents Omer Al-Bashir and Salva Kiir after their summit in Khartoum. He hailed their positive esprit and determination to implement the signed agreements but remained silent over Abyei.

    Sudantribune