Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
Editorial - The new plan by the electoral commission to streamline vetting of qualifications of candidates seeking political seats is remarkable. In this respect, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has entered into a partnership with the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) to verify the academic certificates of candidates seeking seats in Parliament and county assemblies in a bid to weed out those with fake credentials.
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.
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.
New Yorkers demand real solutions.
Such mismanagement by officials has lost members a lot of their savings and investments.
While criminal investigations have been commenced against officials of such saccos, these do little to recompense members of their lost earnings.
Before anyone can be admitted as a sacco official the regulator’s permission must be sought and the regulator may determine the suitability of such a person to serve as an official.
The regulator may with sufficient reason bar a person from serving as a sacco official.
Some officials have been very negligent in how they manage saccos such that the members ‘investments are lost.
[Monitor] The Electoral Commission (EC) has justifiable reason to suspend election campaign meetings in 12 districts, court has ruled.
Dear Editor,
It is elementary legal learning the dictum espoused in the case Re Pinochet that ‘justice should be seen to be done as well as actually being done’.
The article Election petitions are an opportunity to settle the matter definitively appeared first on Stabroek News.
Polling station closed across Burundi on Wednesday in a largely incident free process in keenly watched general elections.
Burundians stood in long lines outside polling stations, which opened shortly after six am, most centers had hand washing points for people arriving to vote and election officials had some protective equipments in some instances.
Meanwhile, main opposition candidate, Agathon Rwasa, has protested what he says is fraud in Wednesday’s general election.
He said his party’s election observers were chased away from some polling stations.
In the presidential vote, 5.1 million registered voters are to choose between Nkurunziza’s handpicked heir and frontrunner, 52-year-old general Evariste Ndayishimiye, main opposition competitor Agathon Rwasa, and five other candidates.
The ongoing protests following the in-custody death of George Floyd have some of the country’s biggest cities rallying around Minneapolis by sparking their own demonstrations against police violence.
Just days after the fourth anniversary of Prince’s death, Floyd appeared to be killed by now-fired Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who was recorded on video steadily applying pressure with his knee to the neck of the handcuffed and face-down 46-year-old.
Probably the closest Prince got to addressing such a situation in his music was on the song “Baltimore,” which was named for the city in which Freddie Gray‘s controversial in-custody police death took place in 2015.
VIDEO
Prince had plenty of other so-called “woke” lyrics over the decades of his prolific musical brilliance, but the above two songs seem to encapsulate the uprisings the nation is witnessing in response to recent police killings not just in Minneapolis but also in Louisville and elsewhere.
SEE ALSO:
Protests Against Police Violence Break Out Across The Country After George Floyd’s ‘Murder’
Fired Minneapolis Cop Derek Chauvin Charged With Murder Over George Floyd Death
The renowned Olympic protester has written a letter with an influential group of American athletes, calling on the IOC to put in place a new policy done in collaboration with athletes from across the globe.
Carlos joined the leadership of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s athlete advisory council in sending the open letter to the International Olympic and Paralympic committees on Saturday.
This month, with protests stemming from the killing of George Floyd spreading across the U.S., IOC President Thomas Bach said the athlete group would “explore different ways” opinions could be expressed during the games — while still “respecting the Olympic spirit.”
Also this week, the head of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees came out in favor of a redrafting of Rule 50, arguing the oft-cited IOC notion that sports should be free of politics is not realistic.
USOPC leaders have said they are trying to expand the conversation about racial injustice, and are open to pressing for changes in Rule 50 — the IOC rule that bars protests on the medals stand and other inside-the-line venues at the games.
The proposed electoral law known as 1+3 required a parliamentary candidate to be elected in four different constituencies.
The 1+3 system required a candidate whose primary constituency was from the central to have one secondary constituency from each of the other regions of the country.
\"The proposals were in many ways the most original political reform to be recommended in Uganda since independence and also represented some of the most innovative and brilliant ideas to emerge out of Africa,\" Prof Mazrui wrote in his book Cultural Engineering in Eastern Africa.
Why the new law
In coming up with the new law, which Obote called the 'single member-multiple districts' (constituencies), he wanted to broaden the MP's outlook on national issues.
A paper in the Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies by D. Cohen and J. Parson titled The Uganda People's Congress Branch and Constituency Elections of 1970, the authors say: \"... overlapping districts are needed to form electoral alliances.
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.
Many were waiting for Ivorian opposition leader Henri Konan Bédié to speak, but instead it was FPI's P ascal Affi N'guessan who spoke for the opposition parties.
N'guessan confirmed they rejected the October 31st vote , and stated once more the opposition no longer recognized Alassane Ouattara as the country's president.
\" The Ivorian opposition political parties do not recognize the election of october 31st 2020. They note the end of president Ouattara's mandate as of October 31st 2020, and call on the international community to duly record it.\"
\"Therefore, the Ivorian opposition political parties demand the opening of a civilian transition, in order to create conditions for a just, transparant and inclusive presidential election \" N'guessan said.
Affi N'gessan also called for a transitional government to be instaured shortly with all opposition forces.
In the meantime, partial results have arrived at the electoral commission , which, department after department, continues to gather reports.
\" The key point tonight remains the turnout rate of this vote . This is what everyone is waiting for \" added Africanews' Abidjan correspondant Yannick Djahoun.
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
[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.
The number of people who have fled violence in the Central African Republic CAR since December \"doubled in one week\" to reach 60,000 people. This is according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
With the current local restrictions and social distancing rules, the parents of autistic children have unique concerns and needs.
Francene Noel, mother to Zachary, a teenager, is dedicating her time during the stay-at-home period to work on her son's life skills.
Her son attends one of the 10 special needs schools built by the Digicel Foundation.
Marr works at Digicel and commended the foundation for their work in special needs.
The Digicel Foundation has been working with teachers at these schools to stay in touch with students and assess the needs of the special needs community.
[Monitor] Ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party presidential candidate, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is poised to extend his reign in power to 40 years after Electoral Commission (EC) chairman Simon Byabakama credited him 5,562,141 votes, representing 58.89% of the 9,445,184 valid votes.
Provisional results Friday showed Mohamed Bazoum as having garnered 1.4 million votes, only trailed by former president Mahamane Ousmane with 675,000
[Monitor] The National Resistance Movement (NRM) is struggling to come up with a common mode of voting in their party primaries to identify their candidates for different elective positions in the 2021 General Election.
[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.
Benin was the seat of one of the great medieval African kingdoms called Dahomey. Europeans began arriving in the area in the 18th century, as the kingdom of Dahomey was expanding its territory. The Portuguese, the French, and the Dutch established trading posts along the coast (Porto-Novo, Ouidah, Cotonou), and traded weapons for slaves. Slave trade ended in 1848. Then, the French signed treaties with Kings of Abomey (Guézo, Toffa, Glèlè) to establish French protectorates in the main cities and ports.
However, King Behanzin fought the French influence, which cost him deportation to Martinique.
From a Colony of France to Independence:
In 1892 Dahomey became a French protectorate and part of French West Africa in 1904. Expansion continued to the North (kingdoms of Parakou, Nikki, Kandi), up to the border with former Upper Volta. On 4 December 1958, it became the République du Dahomey, self-governing within the French community, and on 1 August 1960, the Republic of Dahomey gained full independence from France. T he country was renamed Benin in 1975
Between 1960 and 1972, a succession of military coups brought about many changes of government. The last of these brought to power Major Mathieu Kérékou as the head of a regime professing strict Marxist-Leninist principles. The Parti de la Révolution Populaire Béninoise (Revolutionary Party of the People of Benin, PRPB) remained in complete power until the beginning of the 1990s.
Kérékou, encouraged by France and other democratic powers, convened a national conference that introduced a new democratic constitution and held presidential and legislative elections. Kérékous principal opponent at the presidential poll, and the ultimate victor, was Prime Minister Nicéphore Dieudonné Soglo.
Supporters of Soglo also secured a majority in the National Assembly.
Benin was thus the first African country to effect successfully the transition from dictatorship to a pluralistic political system. In the second round of National Assembly elections held in March 1995, Soglos
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.
The Electoral Commission (EC) yesterday conducted a pilot voters' registration exercise at the Accra Ridge Church to test its Biometric Verification Systems for the upcoming December polls.
The pilot was to ascertain the durability of the equipment towards a successful registration exercise scheduled for June 30.
The prospective voters spent about five minutes to go through the electoral processes at either of the two registration centres mounted at the premises, with a maximum of 20 voters observing COVID-19 precautionary measures and hygienic protocols.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Times, the Public Relations Officer of the Commission, Sylvia Annoh said the exercise was smooth and was to ensure the commission identified any challenges that might occur during the actual registration and find ways of addressing them before and during the exercise.
She explained that the registration officers did not encounter any challenges during the processes or the equipment breaking down, saying, \"We are adhering to the protocols to ensure no one got infected with the virus.\"
The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) yesterday said that the antics of the Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield have demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that he cannot be expected to discharge his functions in an impartial and fair manner.
The article FITUG says Lowenfield must be removed, electoral process concluded appeared first on Stabroek News.
Puntland state president Said Abdullahi Deni has called for a consensus over the 2020/2021 power-sharing to avert conflicts.
President Dani who spoke on Monday night said the 4.5 power-sharing deal was against the constitution and that Puntland would not accept the arrangement.
\"The members of the commission who are entrusted with the task are those who have been empowered by power-sharing in 4.5 clans based system and we are warning the tribal system should not be constitutional,\" said the president.
He called for a political agreement before intervening into the electoral process, to prevent conflicts.
Malawi's opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera won last week's presidential election re-run with 58.57 per cent of the vote, the electoral commission said Saturday.
And on Saturday, electoral commission chairman Chifundo Kachale told journalists: \"The commission declares that Lazarus Chakwera, having attained 58.57 percent of the vote, has been duly elected as the president of Malawi.\"
In February, Malawi's top court found the first election had been marred by widespread irregularities, including the use of correction fluid to tamper with result sheets.
The landmark ruling made Malawi just the second African country south of the Sahara to have presidential poll results set aside, after Kenya in 2017.
The outgoing president's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had on Friday called on Malawi's Electoral Commission (MEC) to annul the results of the second vote and declare a third election.
Malawi's governing party has called for a third presidential election, citing irregularities and intimidation in this week's re-run vote as unofficial tallies show incumbent President Peter Mutharika losing to the opposition leader.
Voters in the southern African country went to the polls on Tuesday for the second time in 13 months after the Constitutional Court scrapped the initial May 2019 presidential election over mass fraud.
The governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) called on Friday on the electoral commission to annul the results collated so far of the second vote and declare a third poll.
DPP administrative secretary Francis Mphepo said in a statement: \"We wish to highlight several incidents that may potentially affect the integrity and credibility of the presidential election results.\"
In February, Malawi's top court found the election was marred by widespread irregularities, including the use of correction fluid to tamper with result sheets.
With popular frustrations running high, and opposition leader Agathon Rwasa warning that he will not accept a \"stolen\" election, fears are mounting that a contested poll could lead to violence along the lines of what the country saw in 2015, when Nkurunziza's controversial bid for a third term prompted street protests, a failed coup, a crackdown and the exodus of over 400,000 people.
It now also appears that the EAC will be unable to send an observation team in time for the elections; Burundi's authorities have cited the COVID-19 outbreak as a reason to quarantine the observers for fourteen days upon arrival, though it is unclear whether the decision was genuinely made for legitimate public health reasons, given that the government has otherwise played down the outbreak.
Ruling-party nominee Ndayishimiye and long-time opposition leader Rwasa, who both fought as rebels in Burundi's 1993-2005 civil war, are the clear front runners, and emblematic of the former fighters' continued influence in national politics.
They say Nkurunziza, who pushed for the selection of his ally Pascal Nyabenda, the president of the National Assembly (the lower chamber of Burundi's parliament), only agreed to Ndayishimiye's candidacy after intense lobbying by generals.
While Rwasa has announced that he will not allow the election to be \"stolen\", CNDD-FDD officials believe that their party structures and ability to register and mobilise voters across the country cannot but deliver victory.
