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Electoral authorities in Guinea on Saturday declared President Alpha Conde winner of Sunday's election with 59.49% of the vote, defeating his main rival Cellou Diallo.
Some people went to the streets to protest immediately after the announcement. Such demonstrations have occurred for months after the government changed the constitution through a national referendum, allowing Conde to extend his decade in power.
Opposition candidate Cellou Diallo received 33.50% of the vote, the electoral commission said. Voter turnout was almost 80%.
Political tensions in the West African nation turned violent in recent days after Diallo claimed victory ahead of the official results. Celebrations by his supporters were suppressed when security forces fired tear gas to disperse them.
They accuse the electoral authorities of rigging the vote for incumbent president Alpha Conde.
At least nine people have been killed since the election, according to the government. The violence sparked international condemnation by the U.S. and others.
``Today is a sad day for African democracy,'' said Sally Bilaly Sow, a Guinean blogger and activist living abroad. The government should take into account the will of the people who have a desire for change, he said.
ICC warning
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor warned on Friday that warring factions in Guinea could be prosecuted after fighting erupted.
“I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages and contributes in any other way to crimes … is liable to prosecution either by the Guinean courts or the ICC,” she said.
#ICC Prosecutor #FatouBensouda: "I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages or contributes, in any other way, to the commission of #RomeStatute crimes, is liable to prosecution either by #Guinean courts or by the #ICC."
— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) October 23, 2020
On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the West African nation in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in the capital, Conakry.
This was the third time that Conde matched-up against Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea's largest ethnic groups.
\t On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the West African nation in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in the capital, Conakry.
\t This was the third time that Conde matched-up against Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea's largest ethnic groups.
[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.
Don’t Let High Turnout Distract You From the Reality of Voter Suppression
Kentucky and Georgia are having historic turnouts, but that doesn’t mean voters aren’t facing major obstacles
Voters cast fill out their ballot during Tuesdays Kentucky primary on June 23, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Photo: Brett Carlsen/Getty ImagesKentucky and Georgia’s historic voter turnouts for primary elections are a tremendous victory, one that speaks to the backbreaking work of thousands of volunteers, organizers, and candidates (many of them Black, Indigenous, and of color) who drove out the vote in their districts.
Though there appeared to be few issues during Election Day, poll workers temporarily locked out several Jefferson County voters who were unable to reach the polling place by 6 p.m. due to traffic leading to the Expo Center.
And now Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is refusing to mail absentee ballot applications to voters for the August runoff and November general election.
And though it may be true that Kentucky and Georgia broke records in their primary voter turnout, it is also true that these states, and many others, can do far better in November.
Senegal is easing some restrictions that had been imposed to aid curb the spread of the Covid 19 pandemic.
In a televised address, president Macky Sall said the country’s state of emergency and curfew which were imposed on March 23 will be lifted as of Tuesday 11pm local time.
The president further added that as of July 15, air borders will be reopened to the world and international flights will resume. Nevertheless, land and sea borders will remain closed. These restrictions are being eased to avert an economic fallout.
President Sall said of the country’s death stats: “The case fatality rate in Senegal is 1.5%, compared to an African average of 2.5% and a global average of 5.2%. Senegal has a recovery rate of 64.8%, compared to an African average of 48% and a global average of 50%.”
The West African nation has 6,793 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of June 30 with 108 deaths, 4,431 recoveries.
Meanwhile, the Senegalese government continues to take other precautions to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Face masks remain mandatory in public.
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“Joe Biden owes black people, and black women in particular, a debt of gratitude for reviving a campaign that was dead,” said Colette Phillips, founder of the Get Konnected social network and a supporter of the former vice president in the primary.
Black women in particular supported the former Delaware senator, leading to big wins in primaries across the South as rival candidates dropped out and coalesced around Biden.
To many African Americans, Biden’s vice presidential choice should reflect the Democratic Party’s most loyal base, a black woman who can inspire a strong turnout by voters of color in November and help replicate the coalition that twice elected Barack Obama to the White House.
“If Joe Biden thinks he can not choose a black woman and win, my name is Alexander Hamilton,” said the Rev. Miniard Culpepper, pastor of the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church and a primary supporter of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Massachusetts state Rep. Nika Elugardo of Jamaica Plain, who co-chaired the Sanders campaign in the Bay State, said Biden should find a woman of color from the heartland with strong ties to the labor movement and the experience of immigrants — drawing from the demographic foundation of the Democratic Party.
However, democrats believe that this effort is less about fighting voter fraud and more about enabling voter suppression and making the voting process especially difficult for black voters and other minorities.
Republicans are able to do this in part because of a 2018 federal court ruling that allows the national republican party to start campaigns against alleged voter fraud without court approval.
There was previously a ban on republican party voter-fraud operations after courts found instances of republicans intimidating or prioritizing the exclusion of minority voters, with the most recent account taking place in 2004.
The ongoing global pandemic is also having an impact on the voting process, with several democrats calling for the expansion of voting by mail and some republicans saying that doing so would invite voter fraud.
Fair Fight also believes that republican spending on alleged voter suppression will far exceed $20 million.
President of the People’s National Party (PNP), Dr Peter Phillips, is demanding assurances that the legal and technical issues involved in staging both the local government and general elections on one ballot be ironed out before concluding on what would be a historic move.
Addressing PNP councillors and councillor caretakers at The Mico University College on Sunday, Phillips said that the Government had formally engaged the Electoral Commission of Jamaica on the cost-saving measure.
“The Electoral Commission has identified a number of technical and legal issues that they are examining, and certainly, we would need as a party to be entirely clear that all the arrangements are in place are legal and constitutional and, in fact, are practical, if we are to agree to do it, and that is being done,” Phillips said.
The PNP president told Comrades that the slate of 63 prospective parliamentary candidates was the “best” ever assembled, adding that a majority of the party’s local government standard-bearers were in place.
He said that the electorate was looking for the PNP “... to provide a set of representatives in local and central government whose only objective is to serve the people of Jamaica and not to serve themselves or to secure personal benefit for themselves.
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.
The growing disdain for Biden among young Democratic voters has been predicted to dwindle with the promise of a Black woman as vice president, but for many, this is not the case.
This sentiment is shared amongst many young Black voters who are weary of the Democratic Party’s unfulfilled promises as a whole.
Still, other young Black voters aren’t impressed with the pool of choices, and the disdain for Biden is so much that they would risk another four years of Trump.
“I hate to say it, but between Biden and Trump, I’d still vote Trump,” says one young Black woman.
There seems to be no guarantee that the Democratic party will achieve its intended end if Biden chooses a Black woman to run alongside him.
While most of the world tries to slow the spread and limit the death toll of Covid-19, Burundi is expelling health experts.
This week, the government, which refuses to acknowledge the threat the virus presents, resorted to familiar tactics and declared the country representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) and three of its experts persona non grata without giving any reason.
Although restrictions on movement to address the health crisis are warranted when necessary and proportionate, to have fair elections, Burundi should ensure they are open to independent monitoring and accountability for crimes and abuses.
Burundi's elections risk effectively taking place behind closed doors, which may be just what authorities want.
Since a political crisis broke out in Burundi in 2015, authorities have stopped at nothing to eliminate space for dissenting voices.
New Findings Reveal Stark Racial Disparities and Barriers to the Ballot
WASHINGTON, DC –Leading civil rights organizations today released a new analysis that reveals stark racial disparities and troubling patterns in voter turnout during Wisconsin’s April 7, 2020 primary, held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The analysis, “COVID-19 Silence Voters of Color in Wisconsin,” was conducted by data experts from Demos and All Voting Is Local, a project of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Reviewing voter data from last month’s Wisconsin primary, the groups found significant gaps in voter participation across the state – exposing existing flaws in our election system and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and brown voters who already face significant structural barriers at the ballot box.
“Our analysis shows how COVID-19 has exaggerated problems in our election system,” said Dr. Megan A. Gall, All Voting is Local’s national data director, “We know African Americans and Latinos have long faced barriers to the ballot.
The analysis further highlights that for wards with higher Black and Hispanic populations in Milwaukee, average voter turnout was 30 percent lower than the average voter turnout in white wards.
… campaign to spur African-American residents to register … board to oversee the African-American voter registration campaign.
… enlighten and motivate the African-American community on the importance … get involved. The African-American community is diversified …
Low turnout has marred the voters roll verification exercise as the first phase of the exercise ends Tuesday in some parts of the central and northern regions.
The exercise also involved voter ID replacement and transfer.
For example in Neno, the exercise is also going at a slow pace, but NICE District Education Officer Wallace Kudzala is optimistic the numbers will improve between today when the exercising is ending.
In Ntchisi, NICE Assistant Civic Education Officer Mercy Kazembe, attributes the low turn out to a lack of clarity on the actual voting day.
The situation is the same in Mzuzu with only 495 voters showing up at one centre since Friday last week.
If preliminary data estimates on the recent 2020 primaries in North Carolina are accurate, student voters on HBCU campuses must raise their turnout game come the general election this November. So says Dr. William Busa, founder of EQV Analytics, a ‘North Carolina-focused campaign consulting firm serving Democratic candidates with advanced campaign analytics. Dr. Busa served as digital director to NC []
This West African nation on the Gulf of Guinea, between Togo on the west and Nigeria on the east, is about the size of Tennessee. It is bounded by Burkina Faso and Niger on the north. The land consists of a narrow coastal strip that rises to a swampy, forested plateau and then to highlands in the north. A hot and humid climate blankets the entire country.
Republic under a multiparty democratic rule.
The Abomey kingdom of the Dahomey, or Fon, peoples was established in 1625. A rich cultural life flourished, and Dahomeys wooden masks, bronze statues, tapestries, and pottery are world renowned. One of the smallest and most densely populated regions in Africa, Dahomey was annexed by the French in 1893 and incorporated into French West Africa in 1904. It became an autonomous republic within the French Community in 1958, and on Aug. 1, 1960, Dahomey was granted its independence within the Community.
Gen. Christophe Soglo deposed the first president, Hubert Maga, in an army coup in 1963. He dismissed the civilian government in 1965, proclaiming himself chief of state. A group of young army officers seized power in Dec. 1967, deposing Soglo. In Dec. 1969, Benin had its fifth coup of the decade, with the army again taking power. In May 1970, a three-man presidential commission with a six-year term was created to take over the government. In May 1972, yet another army coup ousted the triumvirate and installed Lt. Col. Mathieu Kérékou as president. Between 1974 and 1989 Dahomey embraced socialism, and changed its name to the Peoples Republic of Benin. The name Benin commemorates an African kingdom that flourished from the 15th to the 17th century in what is now southwest Nigeria. In 1990, Benin abandoned Marxist ideology, began moving toward multiparty democracy, and changed its name again, to the Republic of Benin.
By the end of the 1980s, Benins economy was near collapse. As its oil boom ended, Nigeria expelled 100,000 Beninese migrant workers and closed the border with Benin. Kérékous socialist collectivization of
Volusia County races will include county chair; council district seats 2, 3 and 4; sheriff; property appraiser; county clerk; and supervisor of elections.
Our officers and committee members always have voter registration material on hand,” said Cynthia Slater, local NAACP president.
The local Democratic Party also is encouraging absentee ballot voting during the pandemic.
The Minority Elected Officials of Volusia County also is encouraging voters to register and hit the polls, especially African Americans and other minorities.
The Minority Elected Officials, like the NAACP, is concerned with voter turnout.
Garnet moved to the West African nation but died on February 13, 1882, barely two months after his arrival .
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.
Basutoland was founded in the 1820s by Moshoeshoe I, uniting various Sotho groups who had fled predation by the Zulu. Having escaped the Zulu, Moshoeshoe brought his people to the stronghold of Butha-Buthe, and then the mountain of Thaba-Bosiu (about 20 miles from what is now the capital of Lesotho, Maseru). But he had not yet found peace. Moshoeshoes territory was being picked off by the trekboers, and he approached the British for aid.
In 1884 Basutholand became a British Crown Colony.
Lesotho gained independence from Britain on 4 October 1966. In January 1970 the ruling Basotho National Party (BNP) appeared set to lose the first post-independence general elections when Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan annulled the election. He refused to cede power to the Basotho Congress Party (BCP) and imprisoned its leadership.
The BNP ruled by decree until January 1986 when a military coup forced them out of office. The Military Council that came into power granted executive powers to King Moshoeshoe II, who was until then a ceremonial monarch. In 1990, however, the King was forced into exile after a falling out with the army. His son was installed as King Letsie III.
The chairman of the military junta, Major General Metsing Lekhanya, was ousted in 1991 and then replaced by Major General Phisoane Ramaema, who handed over power to a democratically elected government of the BCP in 1993.
Moshoeshoe II returned from exile in 1992 as an ordinary citizen. After the return to democratic government, King Letsie III tried unsuccessfully to persuade the BCP government to reinstate his father (Moshoeshoe II) as head of state.
In August 1994, Letsie III staged a coup which was backed by the military and deposed the BCP government.
The new government did not receive full international recognition. Member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) engaged in negotiations aimed at the reinstatement of the BCP government. One of the conditions put forward by the King for the return of the BCP government was that his
Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga resigned in September 2008, citing health reasons. He was succeeded by Adolphe Muzito.
Presidential elections were held in November 2011. Incumbent Kabila faced opposition leader and former prime minister Étienne Tshisekedi. The International Crisis Group deemed the election unruly and chaotic and other international observers said the vote was irregular and flawed. Nearly 20 people were killed in election-related violence. Nevertheless, Congos election commission ruled in December that Kabila prevailed, 49% to 32%. In the run-up to the election, Kabila—perhaps sensing a threat from the opposition and popular dissatisfaction with his rule—amended the constitution to do away with a second round of voting and stacked the electoral commission.
In March 2012, Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito resigned. His resignation came a little over three months after the violent presidential elections. Deputy Prime Minister Louis Koyagialo was appointed to temporarily replace Muzito. On April 18, 2012, former Minister of Finance Augustin Matata Ponyo Mapon was named prime minister.
Initiative to Include Radio Ads, Digital PSAs, Voter Outreach “Caravan” in 11 Key States Today, Black Voters Matter Fund (BVMF) announced a major voter outreach ...
Supporters of Malawi’s new president Lazarus Chakwera gathered for a fireworks display in the capital Lilongwe, celebrating his victory in a keen presidential election re-run.
Chakwera won with 58.57 percent of the vote, the electoral commission said Saturday.
It was a dramatic reversal of fortune for incumbent, Peter Mutharika, whose victory in the May 2019 election was overturned by the Constitutional Court, citing widespread fraud.
And on Saturday, electoral commission announced that Chakwera has been duly elected as the president of Malawi.
In office since 2014, Mutharika had won 38.5 percent of the discredited vote in which Chakwera garnered a close 35.4 percent.
