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The administrative court on Tuesday upheld his appeal allowing him to resume his bid to become the country's next president.
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera has won five more years in power by securing more than 53% of votes in an election that was marred by violence, according to provisional results announced on Monday. The electoral commission declared Touadera the winner of the Dec. 27 election, saying he had secured enough votes in the first round to make a second round runoff unnecessary in the gold- and diamond-producing country. Touadera, 63, has struggled to wrest control of vast swathes of the country from armed militias since first winning power in 2016, three years after former President Francois Bozize was ousted by another rebellion. The presidential election went ahead despite an offensive by rebel groups who tried to disrupt the vote after Bozize’s candidacy was rejected by the country’s highest court. “Faustin-Archange Touadera, having received the absolute majority of the vote in the first round with 53.9%, is declared winner,” Mathias Morouba, the electoral commission’s president, told a news conference in the capital, Bangui. He said about half of the country’s electorate, or around 910,000 people, had registered to vote and turnout among the registered voters was 76.3%. Provisional results of a legislative election held the same day will be announced at a later date, Morouba said. INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED Separately on Monday, prosecutors said an investigation had been launched into Bozize’s role in the rebellion intended to disrupt the election. Bozize and other accomplices were being investigated for various crimes including sedition, rebellion, assassination and theft, the prosecutors said in a statement. Bozize could not immediately be reached for comment. His party had previously denied the government’s accusations that the former president was plotting a coup, but some in the party have suggested that they are working with the rebels. The vast but sparsely populated country of 4.7 million which is larger than France has struggled to find stability since Bozize was ousted in 2013. Successive waves of violence since then have killed thousands and forced more than a million from their homes. The United Nations, which has over 12,000 peacekeepers in the country, said in a statement that calm had returned to Bangassou, a town attacked on Sunday by rebels allied to Bozize. “The situation in Bangassou is calm but tense, with the presence of armed elements in parts of the city,” the U.N. mission said, adding that 180 civil servants and workers from humanitarian organisations had sought refuge at its base. - Reuters
Benin gears up to hold local elections without key opposition parties Sunday as the authorities push ahead with the vote despite the coronavirus threat and calls for a delay.
But critics say the health risks are too high for a vote that opponents of President Patrice Talon insist should not be happening in the first place.
Benin, traditionally seen as one of the region's most stable democracies, has been mired in a political crisis since a disputed parliamentary poll last April sparked mass protests.
Parties allied to the president won all the seats at the polls last year after opposition groups were effectively banned from standing.
Opponents have called on voters to boycott the poll over the political situation and the risks from coronavirus.
All planned Election Commission (EC) activities between March and May 2020, including elections for Special Interest Groups (SIG), have been suspended until further notice.
The EC secretary, Mr Sam Rwakoojo, on Tuesday said the Covid-19 lockdown affected many programmes on the elections roadmap and that discussions with different stakeholders are on-going to see how to readjust.
At the time government issued the directives, the EC was completing the public display of the national voters' register for the elections scheduled for April 2020.
The activities which have been affected according to the roadmap include display of tribunal recommendations for deletion or inclusion on the National Voters Register (NVR), gazetting and publishing of candidates' nomination dates and venues, Elections of Special Interest Groups (SIGs), including older persons, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and youth at village and parish levels and internal political party candidates identification processes.
Former coordinator of Citizen Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda, Mr Crispy Kaheru, said the way out is to suspend the planned 2021 electoral programmes to fit between the months of July and October or have the elections of SIG after the General Election.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced key measures in his Sona, namely handling the COVID-19 pandemic, fighting corruption and fixing the economy
[ANGOP] Luanda -- Deputies in opposition parties on Tuesday manifested their satisfaction with the upcoming revision of the Constitution of the Republic of Angola (CRA), announced by the Head of State, João Lourenço.
[African Arguments] I was arrested and beaten last week for daring to contest the presidential election. This is not a fair fight, but I have no option but to be strong.
Swaziland, which is about 85% the size of New Jersey, is surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique. The country is largely mountainous.
Absolute monarchy.
Bantu peoples migrated southwest to the area of Mozambique in the 16th century. A number of clans broke away from the main body in the 18th century and settled in Swaziland. In the 19th century these clans organized as a tribe, partly because they were in constant conflict with the Zulu. Their ruler, Mswazi, appealed to the British in the 1840s for help against the Zulu. The British and the Transvaal governments guaranteed the independence of Swaziland in 1881.
South Africa held Swaziland as a protectorate from 1894 to 1899, but after the Boer War, in 1902, Swaziland was transferred to British administration. The paramount chief was recognized as the native authority in 1941. In 1963, the territory was constituted a protectorate, and on Sept. 6, 1968, it became the independent nation of Swaziland.
Since 1986, King Mswati III has ruled as sub-Saharan Africas last absolute monarch. Political parties are banned and the king appoints 10 of the 65 members of parliament as well as the prime minister. King Mswati can veto any law passed by the legislature and frequently rules by decree.
In 2002, hundreds of thousands of Swazis faced starvation. Two years of drought as well as bad planning and poor agricultural practices were blamed for the crisis. The government came under criticism for buying the king a $50-million luxury jet—a quarter of the national budget—while famine loomed. In 2002, the countrys judges resigned en masse in protest of the governments refusal to comply with court decisions. In April 2003, the government information minister announced that the media were banned from making negative remarks about the government—criticism of the kings new luxury jet in particular would not be tolerated. In 2004, a third year of drought befell the country. International donor agencies and human rights groups condemned the kings plans to build new
[Monitor] Ms Lydia Wanyoto, a former candidate for the Mbale City woman MP seat, has petitioned the High Court in Mbale to nullify the election of her rival, Ms Connie Galiwango.
[Addis Standard] Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of Tigray regional state, has won 98.2% of the vote for the regional parliament, taking 152 of the total 190 seats.
[Nation] The dramatic arrest and release of three senators in what appeared to be a calculated plan to tilt the vote on shareable revenue has added to an increasingly worrying trend where the police target those opposed to the executive.
The latest case of 12 extrajudicial killings of Fulani men in Tanwalbougou, northeastern Burkina Faso, has gripped the public after gruesome details emerged following their detention by gendarmes in the area, adding to the overall crisis in the Sahel.
Although the military has issued a statement admitting that 12 of the Fulani (also called Peul) men, arrested on suspicion of terrorism, died in military cells, a number of the facts are in dispute.
Human rights groups including Burkinabé groups, the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatisation of Communities (CISC) and MBDHP as well as US-based Human Rights Watch, are calling for an independent investigation into the Burkina Faso gendarmes.
\"Another part of it is a lack of effective control over security forces, and either a lack of means to effectively punish the people who perpetrate these attacks, or the lack of political will, either from military leadership or civilian governments to police these military,\" he adds.
Killing of 31 Fulani in Burkina Faso could be war crime, says HRW
Part of the issue stems from the overall perception that the Fulani communities in the Sahel, including northern Burkina Faso, have traditionally been a much-maligned community, and therefore jihadist groups in the area have exploited these prejudices, recruiting a number of people in the community, especially after alleged military massacres.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Jane Frances Abodo has said her office was reluctant to sanction charges of being a nuisance against former Makerere University Research Fellow, Dr Stella Nyanzi last recently.
Counsel Walubiri had argued that it was high time the office of the DPP withdrew cases that have over stayed in the justice system like the treason case against Dr Kizza Besigye.
\"Perhaps, this is the time for the office of the DPP to weed out some files that have been pending in the criminal justice system for long as the same are clogging the system for no good reason,\" Mr Walubiri said.
DPP Abodo said she is determined to weed out undeserving cases from the justice system starting with those arrested during the ongoing lockdown.
Ms Winfred Adukule, the executive director of Freechild Uganda, urged the office of the DPP and the Judiciary not to forget about the juvenile justice in this Covid-19 lockdown.
1994: Five Iraqis and a Kuwaiti are sentenced to death in Kuwait for plotting to kill former US President George H W Bush with a car bomb during his visit to Kuwait in 1993.
2002: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says that shortly before September 11, 2001, Egyptian intelligence officials warned the United States that al-Qaeda was planning an attack on an American target.
2003: The Special Court for Sierra Leone, set up to try war crimes suspects from the country's civil conflict, make public a 17-count indictment against Charles Taylor, the president of neighbouring Liberia.
2008: The US military orders navy ships loaded with relief aid off Myanmar's coast to leave the area after the country's xenophobic junta refused to let them help survivors of a devastating cyclone the previous month.
England's King George III (1738-1820); Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, Finnish marshal and statesman (1867-1951); Modibo Keita, president of Mali (1915-1977); Robert Merrill, US opera singer (1919-2004); Dennis Weaver, US actor (1924-2006); Bruce Dern, US actor (1936- ); Angelina Jolie, US actress (1975-); Noah Wyle, US actor (1971- ); Russell Brand, British actor/comedian (1975- ).
[Monitor] The newly revised roadmap for 2021 General Election that authorised virtual campaigning has been challenged in the High Court for violating various fundamental constitutional rights and freedom.
OPPOSITION parties have expressed anger at the government’s refusal to declare Bulawayo a water shortage area to allow council to mobilise resources to bring lasting solutions to the city’s water woes.
The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) in January wrote to the Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Settlement ministry requesting that it declares the city a water shortage area.
In response to a plea to declare the Bulawayo water situation a national disaster, President Emmerson Mnangagwa sought a second opinion from engineering consultants on the magnitude of the water crisis.
Government consultant Paul Kruger said the city had no water crisis, before laying blame on lack of technical capacity on the part of council to quench the thirst of residents.
In April, the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) appealed to President Emmerson Mnangagwa over the water crisis, citing section 77(a) of the Constitution that implores the State to take reasonable legislative and other measures within the limits of resources available to it to achieve the progressive realisation of the right to potable water.
[Monitor] The Electoral Commission (EC) has justifiable reason to suspend election campaign meetings in 12 districts, court has ruled.
Officials and experts are sounding the alarm as Malawi shifts to top campaign gear with giant rallies for an unprecedented presidential re-run despite the coronavirus pandemic.
He said Malawians “will only fully understand the impact once we start to see burial teams and mass graves” because the disease is “deceptively undramatic until it is too late”.
Malawians will only fully understand the impact once we start to see burial teams and mass graves\" because the disease is \"deceptively undramatic until it is too late
\tPolitical scientist Michael Jana said the bitter power struggle has seen the country throw caution to the wind.
The southern African country will hold polls in just under two months after the Constitutional Court overturned the results of last year’s controversial election, which handed President Peter Mutharika a second term.
Mutharika garnered just 38.5 percent of the May 21 vote but the Constitutional Court annulled the result, citing “grave” and “widespread” irregularities, including the use of correction fluid on ballot papers.
Europe’s second highest court on Wednesday rejected an EU order for Apple to pay €13-billion (R247-billion) in Irish back taxes, dealing a blow to the bloc’s attempts to crack down on sweetheart tax deals.
[Ghanaian Times] The Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Josephine Nkrumah has advised the citizenry to guard the country's peace, unity, stability and eschew violence after declaration of presidential results by the Electoral Commission (EC) of the just-ended polls.
