Category: Rubrique

A UAE minister said the election of former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as Egypt’s president represented “new hope” for the most populous Arab country.

“The challenges are great and the expectations are huge, but the moment that we see today is the most hope-filled for three years,” said Gargash.

Opposition candidate Peter Mutharika has been declared the winner of Malawi’s disputed presidential election.

The leader of the Democratic Progressive Party obtained 36.4% of the vote, the electoral commission announced.

A protester died earlier after police dispersed an angry crowd demanding a recount of last week’s ballot.

Outgoing president Joyce Banda has alleged the vote was rigged.

‘Law is clear’

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) had asked for a 30-day extension to declare the results so that a recount could be carried out.

However, the High Court refused to delay the release of results and ordered the commission to make its announcement on Friday.

“The law is clear, there is no extension,” judge Kenyatta Nyirenda said.

Mr Mutharika is the brother of the late President Bingu wa Mutharika, and had served as his foreign minister.

Malawian President Joyce Banda said on Thursday she is ready to step down if the High Court ratifies a disputed election last week and her opponent ends up as the winner, even though she still believes the vote was fraudulent.

The High Court is due to decide on Friday whether the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) should announce the result of the May 20 vote, which Banda’s opponent is likely to have won, or if it should recount ballots, a process that could take two months.

The decision could raise the risk of post-election violence in the impoverished southern African country after the most hotly contested vote since the end of the one-party state two decades ago.

“I have told the MEC and related stakeholders that I will accept their decision, and the decision of the courts,” Banda told Reuters in an interview in the Malawian capital Lilongwe.

“I will rest knowing that I tried to defend the rights of Malawians in a critical moment to ensure they have a leader elected in a fair and credible manner,” she added.

The election was plagued by problems, with voting materials turning up hours late and ballot papers sent to the wrong end of the country. The MEC had to extend voting in some urban areas into a second day and initial counting was held up by a lack of electricity at polling stations.

Four days after the election, the MEC said a count of 30 percent of the votes cast showed that the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), headed by Peter Mutharika, brother of the late President Bingu wa Mutharika, was in the lead with 42 percent of the vote.

Banda, southern Africa’s first female head of state, followed with 23 percent. The MEC has finished counting but has not announced the result. Local media reports suggest Mutharika would comfortably win if there is no recount.

reuters

Millions of voters are casting ballots across Egypt to choose a new president, for the second time in two years.

A huge security operation has been mounted by police and the military, amid fear of attacks by militants seeking to disrupt the polls.

Former army chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who deposed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last year, is standing against left-wing candidate Hamdeen Sabahi.

Mr Sisi is forecast to win by a comfortable margin.

The elections are being held across two days, with unofficial results expected hours after polls close.

Shortly after polls opened, Mr Sisi cast his vote at a polling station in Heliopolis, Cairo, amid a throng of reporters and spectators.

“The Egyptians are coming out to write their history and chart their future,” said the 59-year-old, dressed in a dark suit and tie.

agencies

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday economic growth in the continent’s most advanced economy would be the focus of his second term, as he was inaugurated in the nation’s capital, Pretoria.

The national development plan, a blueprint for growth drawn up in his first term would be the major engine of ‘radical’ socio-economic change, said Zuma.

“It’s time for us to do what we have always said we would, do not be alarmed when we take decisions that are hard and unusual, we will be doing it for your good,” he told thousands of supporters gathered in Pretoria, speaking in his native Zulu.

The inauguration was attended by world leaders at the Union Buildings where Zuma, 72, was sworn in by the chief justice of the Constitutional Court.

Military airplanes flew above the Union Buildings forming the number 20, symbolizing the years since South Africa’s first democratic elections when Nelson Mandela ended centuries of white domination by becoming its first black president.

The South African economy has grown at a sluggish pace with high unemployment and inflation during Zuma’s time in office and was last month overtaken by Nigeria as Africa’s largest economy after it rebased its GDP.

Mozambique’s Renamo opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama said on Friday he intended to run as a candidate in an October 15 presidential election, but he demanded safety guarantees from the government to be able to leave his bush hideout.

Dhlakama, who led the former Renamo rebel movement in Mozambique’s 1975-1992 civil war and has been repeatedly defeated by the ruling Frelimo party in subsequent elections, has lived in the central Mozambican bush for more than a year to escape what he says is government persecution.

“I am interested in coming out of the bush to start my party work for the presidential election,” Dhlakama told reporters in a conference call made from his base in central Sofala province, well north of the capital of Maputo.

But he demanded guarantees from the government of President Armando Guebuza that his safety would be respected, and an agreement for military members of his Renamo party to be integrated into the national army and police.

Since April last year, Renamo partisans have carried out sporadic raids on police and military posts in parts of central and southern Mozambique.

They have also ambushed vehicles on the N1 highway, killing several dozen people, disrupting traffic and causing cancellations in the tourism industry.

Earlier this month, Dhlakama registered to vote in the October elections, which allows him to run as a candidate.

Renamo spokesman Antonio Muchanga told reporters the party’s National Council backed Dhlakama as its presidential contender.

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma will be sworn into office on Saturday for a second term, following his party’s victory at the polls.

The African National Congress (ANC) won a commanding victory in the country’s general election on 7 May.

More than 4,000 guests are expected at the ceremony in Pretoria, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

Neither the US or UK are sending a representative but officials from Russia, China and India are attending.

President Zuma was officially elected for a second five-year term on Wednesday by the ANC-dominated parliament.

The expected formality of the re-election was disturbed only by MPs from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who turned up at parliament in red overalls and hardhats.

The EFF, led by former ANC member Julius Malema, said they dressed as maids and miners to show they intend to represent the interest of workers.

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