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[Monitor] The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party yesterday challenged the Electoral Commission (EC) to summon all political candidates defying Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) during campaigns, including President Museveni.
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.
Analysis - African countries are increasingly trying to coordinate COVID-19 responses with those of their neighbours. This is done largely through regional economic communities, and is a potentially important response to the pandemic. Yet their efforts have had mixed results.
Sudan’s ruling body ratified a law banning the widespread practice of female genital mutilation, the justice ministry announced Friday, handing the movement for women’s rights in the African country a long-sought victory.
The Sovereign Council passed a set of sweeping amendments to the country’s criminal code late Thursday, including one that criminalized the deep-rooted practice. The draft law had been approved by the transitional government that came to power last year following the ouster of Omar al-Bashir.
A U.N.-backed survey in 2014 estimated 87% of Sudanese women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 have been subjected to the procedure. Most undergo an extreme form known as infibulation, which involves the removal and repositioning of the labia to narrow the vaginal opening.
Anyone found guilty of performing the procedure will be sentenced to up to three years in prison, according to a copy of the new law obtained by The Associated Press.
Female genital mutilation “degrades the dignity of women,” the justice ministry declared in its statement. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok hailed the decision as “an important step in reforming the justice system.”
The ratification achieved a decades-long goal of women’s rights advocates and represented a win for the country’s technocratic leaders, who have been struggling to push democratic changes and roll back al-Bashir’s legacy despite the persistent power of army generals in Sudan.
Under Hamdok, women have been appointed to four government ministries. Last fall, authorities overturned unpopular Islamist laws passed under al-Bashir that dictated women’s dress and criminalized drinking alcohol. Another amendment adopted Thursday allows Sudanese mothers to travel with their children outside the country without permission from their spouses.
During al-Bashir’s rule some Sudanese clerics said forms of female genital mutilation, or FGM, were religiously allowed, arguing that the only debate was over whether it was required or not.
While many were elated by the the law’s long-awaited passing, rights groups warned that the practice remains deeply entrenched in the region’s conservative society and that enforcement poses a steep challenge.
In neighboring Egypt, for example, where genital cutting was banned in 2008 and elevated to a felony in 2016, a government survey still found that nearly nine of every 10 Egyptian women had undergone the procedure.
Other veteran activists questioned the timing of the ratification, saying the coronavirus pandemic puts them at a disadvantage since they cannot mobilize awareness campaigns or police training in a country under lockdown.
“Currently there are fuel shortages and long daily power cuts as well as rising infections of COVID-19,” said Nahid Toubia, a leading Sudanese women’s health rights activist specializing in FGM. “Communication and people’s mobility are severely hampered. These are not the conditions where advocacy for legislating against FGM is a priority or even possible.”
Still the move, both symbolic and
A law expert has said the resignation of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Jane Ansah just weeks into a crucial presidential election has plunged the country into yet another electoral crisis.
Justine Dzonzi: Fresh elections are court sanctioned polls therefore do not disrupt the electoral process
Justin Dzonzi of Justice Link says it will not be possible for a new commission to hold an election in two weeks' time.
The term of office for Ansah--a judge of the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal--was set to expire in October this year while that for her eight commissioners is ending on June 5 this year
\"This means in two weeks' time, we will have no commission at all.
\"Take into account that we will have an election on 23 June, this is an electoral crisis,\" he said.
The judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal, the country's top judicial authority, after an appeal by Mutharika and the electoral body.
Who is he?:
President of Zimbabwe since 1987, he attained his job after leading bloody guerrilla warfare against the white colonial rulers of what was then Rhodesia.
Birthdate:
Feb. 21, 1924, near Kutama, northeast of Salisbury (now Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe), in what was then Rhodesia. Mugabe quipped in 2005 that he would remain president until he was a century old.
Personal life:
Mugabe was married to Ghanian national Sally Hayfron, a teacher and political activist, in 1961.
They had one son, Nhamodzenyika, who died during childhood. She died of kidney failure in 1992. In 1996, Mugabe married his onetime secretary, Grace Marufu, who is more than four decades younger than Mugabe, and with whom he had two children while his wife Sallys health was failing. Mugabe and Grace have three children: Bona, Robert Peter Jr., and Bellarmine Chatunga.
Political affiliation:
Mugabe leads the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front, a socialist party founded in 1987. Mugabe and his party are also heavily nationalist with left-wing ideology, favoring land seizures from white Zimbabweans while claiming that doing so counters the nations imperialist past.
Career:
Mugabe holds seven degrees from South Africas Fort Hare University. In 1963 he was secretary general of the Maoist Zimbabwe African National Union. In 1964, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for subversive speech against the Rhodesian government.
Once released, he fled to Mozambique to launch a guerrilla war for independence. He returned to Rhodesia 1979 and became prime minister in 1980; the next month, the newly independent country was renamed Zimbabwe. Mugabe assumed the presidency in 1987, with the prime minister role being abolished. Under his rule, annual inflation has soared to 100,000%.
Future:
Mugabe has faced probably the strongest, most organized opposition in the Movement for Democratic Change. He accuses the MDC of being Western-backed, using this as an excuse to persecute MDC members and order arbitrary arrest of and
The Trump presidency has been three-and-a-half years of pure outrage. Though political observers frequently discuss the importance of Fox News and Breitbart News to the success of this administration, the President's real platform is the rest of the media.
His playbook draws directly on the legacy of Newt Gingrich, a former congressman from Georgia who entered the House of Representatives in 1979 and rose to the speakership in 1995 until before falling from power in 1998. Long before he was speaker of the house, Gingrich understood that sensationalism and provocative language played well in front of the cameras. In an era when the number of news outlets was expanding as a result of cable television, Gingrich understood that politicians could influence the national conversation by providing fodder to journalists who sought dramatic stories.
Gingrich spent a good deal of his time offering sizzle as a way to get his message out. He delivered short speeches on C-SPAN in 1984 blasting Democrats for being weak on defense and asking them to respond. Since viewers couldn't see that the chamber was empty at the end of the day, it looked as if his \"silent\" political opponents were guilty. When the incident blew up after House Speaker Tip O'Neill had the person controlling the cameras pan the empty chamber to reveal the trick, Gingrich was delighted because the country's largest networks -- CBS, NBC and ABC -- and major papers covered the story -- and him.
\"The number one fact about the news media,\" he said, was their love of confrontation. \"When you give them confrontations, you get attention.\" In 1990, Gingrich's organization GOPAC distributed a memo that taught Republicans how to \"speak like Newt\" -- emphasizing the need to describe their opponents as \"sick,\" \"traitors\" and \"radicals.\"
Like Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, Gingrich also understood that the press would report on allegations, the accusations would stick, and rebuttals wouldn't get as much attention. This was especially true as the accelerating speed of the news cycle greatly increased with the spread of cable television in the 1980s. Gingrich learned that the press would investigate something because he pronounced it to be true and this was enough to cause the damage he sought. Unlike McCarthy, who was pushed aside in 1954, Republicans made Gingrich their leader (House minority whip in 1989 and speaker in 1995).
With all the talk about the importance of conservative media outlets, President Trump's 2016 strategy rested on these principles. He capitalized on his ability to garner constant attention from powerful media organizations -- which ended up providing him the amount of free airtime that most candidates only dream of -- and distracting reporters to focus on stories that were of interest to him. He was always throwing a new shiny object for reporters to obsess about. During the contentious Republican primary, he had the media debating the nicknames he gave others and \"pants on fire\" (according to Politifact) accusat
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on Thursday asked UK citizens to be cautious and cited \"possible clashes throughout the country\" during the November 28 inauguration.
\"Political tensions are high and demonstrations and clashes are possible throughout the country, particularly in the western region; you should exercise caution and, where possible, avoid travelling around areas where demonstrations may take place,\" the FCO said in a statement.
The office is anticipating possible demonstrations and clashes during the inauguration and Britons planning to visit Kenya during this period have been asked to exercise caution and, where possible, avoid travelling around areas where demonstrations may take place.
The areas where FCO advises against all but essential travel does not include Kenya's safari destinations.
In April, when political parties were scheduled to hold their nominations ahead of the deadline by the electoral commission, UK advised its nationals against all but essential travel to north eastern counties of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera as well as Eastleigh in Nairobi.
[Daily News] Zanzibar -- ZANZIBAR Electoral Commission (ZEC) has announced September 11, the official day for commencing election campaigns, which are scheduled to last after 46 days.
[Shabelle] Child care provider relief. The Forum News Service's Dana Ferguson reports (via the Bemidji Pioneer): \"Thousands of Minnesota child care providers will be eligible for federal grant funds to offset the cost of guarding kids and staff against the coronavirus, Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday, July 7. ... Walz announced that he would put $56.6 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funds toward grants for child care providers to help them pay for protections against COVID-19, the illness
[VOA] Somaliland, a self-declared independent region of Somalia in east Africa, has formally recognized Taiwan, another government that lacks United Nations recognition.
[Chatham House] A historically low turnout in the recent referendum highlights the urgent need for those in power to deliver serious reform for democratic change.
