{"id":25491,"date":"2016-05-22T02:16:04","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T02:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/africa-s-second-round-of-elections-all-set-for\/"},"modified":"2016-05-22T02:15:41","modified_gmt":"2016-05-22T02:15:41","slug":"africa-s-second-round-of-elections-all-set-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/africa-s-second-round-of-elections-all-set-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa\u2019s second round of elections all set for August"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Kabila out to emulate, Museveni, Nkurunziza, Kagame, Bashir and Jammeh.}<\/p>\n

As the second half of 2016 beckons, Africa can look back to a busy first half that saw the continent focused on a mixed bag of often dramatic elections and referendums.<\/p>\n

As matters stand, the election of former coup leader Azali Assoumani as the president of Comoros marked the end of a series of riveting polls, many of which were controversial.<\/p>\n

In Comoros, what turned out to be a tight race saw Assoumani garner 41.43 per cent of the ballots cast. He is to be sworn into office on Thursday.<\/p>\n

As for the rest of Africa, a welcome hiatus is now in place, giving the continent a whiff of fresh air as it refocuses on socio-economic and security matters before the beginning of another poll season that kicks off in August.<\/p>\n

There is still a lot of internal politicking, though, as campaigns are already heating up in countries like Zambia.<\/p>\n

As matters stand, the country will hopefully hold an election on August 11. President Edgar Lungu faces a tough opposition. <\/p>\n

An unusually crowded month in Africa\u2019s electoral calendar, August is also expected to see a presidential election in Cape Verde.<\/p>\n

The tiny country recently held credible parliamentary polls won by the opposition.<\/p>\n

Also due in August is a presidential election in Gabon, a country with a history of unabashed vote-fixing, and where the Bongo dynasty will be going all out to remain in power.<\/p>\n

Evidently, though, incumbent Ali Ben Bongo Odimba, the heir of Omar Bongo, will not be having it easy. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, there is uncertainty regarding a presidential election set to be held in Somalia, also in August.<\/p>\n

In fact the jury is still out about whether the perennially unstable country will be able to mount an election.<\/p>\n

As for the Democratic Republic of Congo, a still uncertain presidential poll is supposed to be held in November.<\/p>\n

However, the political turbulence prevailing in the country has raised fears that the poll may not be held.<\/p>\n

In recent times, that prospect has become all too real as President Joseph Kabila, who assumed power in 2001, has been accused of resorting to tricks in a bid to have the poll postponed.<\/p>\n

Borrowing a leaf from such veterans of the African political scene as Uganda\u2019s Yoweri Museveni, Rwanda\u2019s Paul Kagame, Sudan\u2019s Omar al-Bashir and his own wily neighbour, Dennis Sassou-Ngueso of the Republic of Congo, Kabila seems to be hell-bent on serving a new term.<\/p>\n

Indications, however, are that Kabila \u2014 who like Gabon\u2019s Bongo inherited his country\u2019s presidency from his father Laurent Desir\u00e9 Kabila \u2014 is unlikely to be sitting easy for long.<\/p>\n

Already, he is being kept on toes by a formidable and seemingly united opposition fronted by its flagbearer, Moise Katumbi, who is widely recognised as the leading contender for the presidency.<\/p>\n

The world can still look forward to other polls slated for different dates in November. Among them will be Ghana.<\/p>\n

Also awaited is the planned presidential poll in Gambia, where Yahya Jammeh will by all predictions be trying to tighten his grip on power.<\/p>\n

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

{Kabila out to emulate, Museveni, Nkurunziza, Kagame, Bashir and Jammeh.} As the second half of 2016 beckons, Africa can look back to a busy first half that saw the continent focused on a mixed bag of often dramatic elections and referendums. As matters stand, the election of former coup leader Azali Assoumani as the president […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","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\/25491","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=25491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25491"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25491"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}