{"id":24022,"date":"2016-03-20T02:06:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T02:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rare-sunday-in-african-politics-with-several\/"},"modified":"2016-03-20T02:06:35","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T02:06:35","slug":"rare-sunday-in-african-politics-with-several","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rare-sunday-in-african-politics-with-several\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare Sunday in African politics with several elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

{In Niger, the incumbent is facing a hospitalised opposition candidate}<\/p>\n

Sunday will mark a rare occasion in the calendar of African politics, with a controversial presidential election in Congo, two runoffs \u2014 in Benin and Niger \u2014 and a long-awaited repeat poll in Zanzibar.<\/p>\n

The day promises to be exciting as Cape Verde holds parliamentary elections while the Senegalese take part in a constitutional plebiscite.<\/p>\n

In Congo Brazzaville, veteran president Denis Sassou-Nguesso will be making a bid for a controversial third term.<\/p>\n

After 32 years in power, the Congolese president is one of the continent\u2019s five longest-serving leaders, and is widely viewed as the quintessential African strongman.<\/p>\n

Benin and Niger will be holding runoff presidential polls following inconclusive first round ones early this year.<\/p>\n

At the same time Zanzibar, which is part of Tanzania, will be holding a repeat presidential poll following the chaotic one in October.<\/p>\n

While the pre-runoff situation in Benin has been calm, matters have been different in Niger and Zanzibar, where tension has mounted. There have been opposition threats to boycott the polls.<\/p>\n

In Zanzibar, the Civic United Front has for a long time insisted that the annulment of last year\u2019s results was a ruse by the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi to deny it victory, during which its presidential candidate, Seif Sharif Hamad, dramatically declared himself the victor even before results were announced.<\/p>\n

A coalition of opposition parties in Niger announced on Tuesday that it would boycott the runoff, claiming it will be rigged.<\/p>\n

Although president Mahamadou Issoufou got 48.4 per cent of the votes cast during the first round on February 21, he did not win the majority he needed to avoid a second round, and was to face runner-up Hama Amadou.<\/p>\n

The latter won 17.79 per cent of the votes in the first round. <\/p>\n

By the end of the week, Amadou was receiving medical treatment in Paris. According to media reports, the 66-year-old former premier and parliament speaker was flown to France on Tuesday, having been held in jail on baby-trafficking charges.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the opposition coalition said the constitutional court, responsible for validating poll results, was working with the government to ensure Issoufou got a second term.<\/p>\n

The opposition said it would not recognise the results of Sunday\u2019s run-off.<\/p>\n

Unlike the uncertainty in Niger, which happens to be one of the world\u2019s poorest countries, the situation in Benin is different. <\/p>\n

{{BENIN DUEL}}<\/p>\n

The duel, pitting PM Lionel Zinsou against businessman Patrice Talon, will be tough. Each wants to replace President Yayi Boni whose second term expires on April 6.<\/p>\n

While Zinsou has the support of the incumbent, Talon is backed by other hopefuls who failed to make a mark in the first round.<\/p>\n

As the drama unfolds in Benin and elsewhere, nearby Cape Verde will also be holding parliamentary polls.<\/p>\n

Out of an estimated population of 508,000, at least 350,000 people have been registered for today\u2019s elections, which according to media reports would include 173 women out of 551 candidates.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{In Niger, the incumbent is facing a hospitalised opposition candidate} Sunday will mark a rare occasion in the calendar of African politics, with a controversial presidential election in Congo, two runoffs \u2014 in Benin and Niger \u2014 and a long-awaited repeat poll in Zanzibar. The day promises to be exciting as Cape Verde holds parliamentary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24022"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24022"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}