Category: Politics

Outcome to reveal whether long-ruling political party is losing ground to the main opposition DA and the far-left EEF.

South African municipal election results will reveal whether the African National Congress (ANC) is losing its grip on power two decades after the end of apartheid.

The ANC has won more than 60 percent of the vote at every election since Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the country’s first black president in 1994.

But 22 years after the fall of white-minority rule, a faltering economy, rampant corruption and high unemployment have eaten into the party’s popularity.

Voters braved cold weather to queue outside polling stations on Wednesday, bringing an end to a campaign marked by disputes over alleged racial slurs.

Counting was under way on Thursday after South Africa’s electoral commission said voting proceeded smoothly and without major incident.

Polls leading up to the vote had the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which controls Cape Town, defeating the ANC in the capital Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.

A final Ipsos survey earlier this week placed the ANC slightly ahead, as previously undecided voters climbed down from the fence.

Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from Johannesburg, said: “This election is expected to be the closest one ever. The ANC’s steady decline could be at a tipping point in several important metropolitan areas.”

Smaller parties’ role

Both the ANC and DA will probably find themselves forced to court smaller parties and independent candidates to piece together outright municipal majorities.

Contesting its first local election after it appeared on the scene before the 2014 general vote, the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters may find itself playing kingmaker.

A record 26.3 million people registered to choose mayors and other local representatives responsible for crucial issues including water, sanitation and power supplies.

The local vote is also seen as a mid-term reflection on the performance of the ANC and the leadership of President Jacob Zuma, who has been plagued by scandals since he took office in 2009.

Even if the ANC maintains its hold on power through inter-party alliances, any overall drop in support would be a loss, say analysts.

Critics accuse Tunisia’s Beji Caid Essebsi of nepotism as he promotes a relative for the premiership.

Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi has proposed a junior minister who is a family member as his candidate to replace sacked Prime Minister Habib Essid, drawing accusations of nepotism from the opposition.

During negotiations over the new government on Tuesday, Essebsi put forward Youssef Chahed, a senior official in the ruling Nidaa Tounes party and the minister for local affairs in the outgoing government, according to Issam Chebbi, a party official.

Chebbi said negotiations will continue on Wednesday in the Carthage-based presidential palace, where parties will give their responses about the proposal. Essebsi has until August 10 to name a new prime minister.

Opponents said on Tuesday they would protest the choice of Chahed, while critics on social media used the hashtag “keep your relatives at home” in Arabic to express their opposition to his appointment.

Local media and sources close to his party said Chahed is the nephew of Essebsi’s son-in-law.

“Essebsi got rid of Essid so he could put in place someone close to him and have them follow orders,” said Jilani Hammami, with the opposition Popular Front party. “This is a step back to when one family ran everything.”

Aymen Abderrahmen, a Tunis-based activist, said there was a “growing feeling of disappointment” among Tunisians who supported the president, as well as those who opposed him.

“This is the same president that was the prime minister few years ago and promised retirement from politics when he stepped down,” he told Al Jazeera.

Tunisian politicians voted on Saturday to dismiss Essid in a no-confidence ballot, clearing the way for a new government of unity that Essebsi wants to push through delayed economic reforms.

The president is already facing widespread criticism from the opponents over what some see as his attempt at a hereditary transfer of power to his son Hafed, the new leader of Nidaa Tounes. That caused a split within the party.

Allies of Essebsi dismiss claims they are looking to place his son into a position of influence.

Since its 2011 revolution to oust Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has emerged as a democracy praised as a model for the region. But armed attacks have tested the government and political infighting has slowed economic progress.

Essebsi has said the country needs a more dynamic government ready to take strong decisions to bring about the liberalisation and cost-cutting required for an overhaul of the North African state’s economy.

Three deadly attacks last year – including gun attacks on foreign visitors at a museum and a beach resort – have badly damaged the tourism industry, which makes up around eight percent of the economy and is a major source of jobs.

South Africans are going to the polls for local elections in a ballot seen as a test for President Jacob Zuma and the ruling African National Congress.

The ANC has dominated the political landscape since the first all-race elections in 1994.

But Mr Zuma has had to weather scandal, after being ordered to repay taxpayers’ money spent on his private home.

Polls show the ANC may lose three key cities in Wednesday’s poll – Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.

ANC under pressure

The ANC, which led the fight against white minority rule, is under pressure from two parties – the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters, who are competing in their first local elections under firebrand leader Julius Malema.

The economy is one of the main issues as people vote, with growth expected to be 0% this year, and unemployment at 27%.

Protests demanding better housing and amenities have also sprung up across South Africa.

The vote comes a month after South Africa’s treasury recommended President Zuma pay back $509,000 (£381,000) to the government for upgrades made to his private home.

It came after the country’s highest court ruled earlier this year that Mr Zuma repay some of the $23m of public funds spent on his house in 2009, ruling that he had violated the constitution by earlier failing to repay some of the money.

The upgrades included an amphitheatre, pool, chicken run and cattle enclosure.

The next presidential elections are due to take place in 2019.

Leading opposition minister Lam Akol has resigned, dealing a major blow to the country’s fragile peace deal.

An influential South Sudanese minister and opposition figure has resigned, saying a fragile peace deal was dead and calling for President Salva Kiir’s unity government to leave power.

Lam Akol, agriculture minister in Kiir’s administration and the leader of the opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-Democratic Change (SPLM-DC) party, spoke out on Monday against rebel leader Riek Machar, whose forces have clashed in recent weeks with government troops loyal to the president.

Machar, who has also been vice president, was Kiir’s only real opponent in a 2010 election when the young country was still a semi-autonomous territory.

“There is no more peace agreement to implement in Juba,” Akol said at a press conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

“The only sensible way to oppose this regime, so as to restore genuine peace to our war-torn country, is to organise outside Juba.”

After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013.

‘Fraying’ unity government

Under the terms of an August 2015 peace deal, the 30 ministerial posts are split between Kiir and Machar, as well as opposition and other parties.

Inside Story – What’s hampering peace in South Sudan?

But, after fighting broke out again, Machar fled the capital, and Kiir appointed a replacement from Machar’s SPLM/A (IO) party, laying bare fractures within the administration and opposition.

Akol said he was working with other opposition figures so that anti-government resistance could be “consolidated”.

“Since the agreement is dead and there is no free political space in Juba, the only sensible way to oppose this regime so as to restore genuine peace… is to organise outside Juba,” he said.

“The entire unity government is fraying apart at the edges. [Akol’s] departure adds another blow to a very delicate situation,” Robin Sanders, a former US diplomat who has worked on issues related to South Sudan, told Al Jazeera.

Sanders said she was worried Akol’s departure could push South Sudan “towards a crisis”.

“If he joins forces with Machar, then you really are on the road to a bigger fight and a bigger crisis. It is a worrying sign.”

Renewed clashes

At least nine people were killed over the weekend in renewed clashes between troops loyal to Kiir and troops loyal to Machar, a spokesman for Machar said on Monday.

What’s gone wrong in South Sudan?

Government military spokesman Lul Ruai Koang downplayed the weekend clashes, saying there was “small fighting” between the SPLA and Machar’s forces.

“We engaged them and they tried to put up some resistance, but at the end we overcame them and they fled to different locations,” Koang said.

Koang accused the SPLA-IO of shelling government positions in Nasir town in Upper Nile state, while the opposition claimed it was the SPLA that shelled their positions.

The United States said over the weekend it had received “disturbing reports” of renewed violence in the south of the country and the United Nations is considering imposing an arms embargo.