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Chadian opposition politician, Yaya Dillo Djérou, has publicly requested an "inclusive dialogue" with the transitional military council towards peace.
\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.
Several people have contacted me recently, concerned as to why I am not standing in...
The post Dr Winston McKenzie: Why I was not able to stand in the London Mayoral Elections appeared first on Voice Online.
KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) Chairman of the shareholder governments of the regional airline, LIAT, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves yesterday sought to assure employees that payment of outstanding salaries and arrears will be urgently addressed.The Antigua-based financially strapped regional airline owes its staff an estimated EC$94 million in severance and holiday payment, which it is unable to pay.
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.
[HRW] The trial of three security force members accused of being involved in the massacre of 21 civilians in Ngarbuh, in Cameroon's North-West region, is due to begin on December 17, 2020. It is expected to be an important step in tackling impunity.
The IEC says that it stands ready to resume running by-elections under Level 1 lockdown, with strict Covid-19 protocols in place.
The new Malawi Electoral Commission, MEC, chief Chifundo Kachale also urged the public to observe necessary legal processes in dealing with electoral grievances.
June 23: Malawians vote in crucial presidential poll rerun despite virus
\tVoters in Malawi have already started casting their ballots today in crucial presidential election rerun pitting incumbent Peter Mutharika and opposition coalition leader Lazarus Chakwera.
Malawi joins a number of African countries that went ahead with elections despite the virus .
Confirmed cases = 749
\t\tActive cases = 480
\t\tRecoveries = 258
\t\tNumber of deaths = 11
\t
John Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 22, 2020
\tU.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on “all political actors and stakeholders to renew their commitment to credible and peaceful elections, while observing all preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19,” the U.N. spokesman said.
VIDEO
\tA number of local and international organizations will observe the new elections, in an effort to make sure that they are free and fair, the newly-elected chairman of the Malawi Electoral Commission Chifundo Kachale said.
THE EDITOR: The covid19 pandemic has clearly established the need for us to seek to avoid crowds to help control the spread of the virus. We certainly look forward to a return to normalcy. However, it may well be as good a time as any for us to examine the benefits of staying away from, or reducing, crowds as much as possible, even beyond this pandemic.
We have had viruses over the years, but nothing comparable to the coronavirus. We recall our naming them as 'Jaitoon,' 'Six Per Cent,' 'Kung Fu,' among others. In every case we sought to avoid coming into contact with people infected. We will continue to have these challenges and should learn from our experiences.
In this regard I renew my call made over the past few years for staggered paydays as opposed to our month-end salary payment over two days when we have massive traffic jams, difficulty to find parking space, long queues at cashiers, banks, utility payment centres, large crowds at supermarkets and the resultant loss of time and productivity. By contrast, the mid-month is so much easier. We saw the closure of a supermarket recently for overcrowding.
The Supermarkets Owners Association may well be interested in such a proposal and should lend support to it.
We may consider the Government, as the largest employer, on a schedule of, for example, paying Education Ministry employees between the 15th to 18th of the month, National Security 19th to 22nd, Health 23rd to 26th and other ministries thereafter.
This will definitely reduce the problems outlined above and eliminate the possibility of late payment of salary which has occurred in the past. Additionally, it brings no cost to employers who after the first payment will have one month for subsequent periods.
The private sector may do well to adopt a similar benefit to their employees. Early salaries will ensure due payments of things like mortgages, rents, hire purchases, loans, sending funds abroad.
There are definite advantages in such an arrangement and I recommend it again to all employers, starting with the Government. Perhaps the trade unions as well as the Employers Consultative Association and chambers will also see the benefits and begin discussions as part of future bargaining in the interest of the workers.
LENNOX SIRJUESINGH
via e-mail
The post Avoiding crowds now and in future appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica’s chief construction industry lobby has raised concern about a legislative order exempting China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) from procurement rules and which also sets employment benchmarks for local workers on a Montego Bay roadworks project. The...
[Monitor] Most voters who turned out to vote on Thursday in several parts of Kampala City failed to heed the advice by officials of the Ministry of Health follow Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
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 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.
[State Department] On behalf of the United States of America, I offer congratulations to the people of Eswatini on the 53rd anniversary of your nation's independence.
Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko said a third term of President Macky Sall is out of the question, and that any such attempt would result is his removal from the presidency.
THIS article seeks to respond to the article by one Tendai Nyikavanhu on page 11 of the NewsDay of November 12, 2020. guest column:Kennedy Chokuda The article makes a number of unsubstantiated innuendos about the independence of the programmes of Parliament. This article is not about the merits or demerits of the petition and hence will not address those. It will simply seek to address the issues raised in the article relating to Parliament that we found to be inaccurate and misplaced. The article begins by acknowledging Nyikavanhu’s right to his opinions and to disseminate them. In the same vein he also has an obligation to state his case in a factual and objective manner for the sake of informed debate on the issues at hand. It is trite to state that Parliament is a creature of the Constitution and operates within the confines of the law. The current petition is rightly before Parliament in terms of section 149 which extends to the public the right to petition Parliament. Section 149(1) states: “Every citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe has a right to petition Parliament to consider any matter within its authority, including the enactment, amendment or repeal of legislation’. Additionally, section 149(2) provides as follows “the manner in which petitions are to be presented to Parliament, and the action that Parliament is to take on presentation of a petition, must be prescribed in Standing Orders.” Flowing from the above constitutional provisions, Parliament has a comprehensive petition procedure to guide the handling of petitions in Appendix D of its standing orders. That appendix provides, amongst others, that for a petition to be admissible it should meet the following: Must be submitted by citizens or permanent residents of Zimbabwe, In the case of juristic persons, it must state the names of the people or groups of people behind the petition, State the source of funding of the organisation, and, The prayer of the petition must be within the ambit of things that are within the jurisdiction of Parliament. The current petition was examined in terms of its compliance with requirements and was found admissible and hence was referred to the relevant committee. It is important for the information of the public to state that, as a result of section 149 of the Constitution, Parliament is inundated with petitions from the public in their individual and collective capacity. To date, Parliament has received 83 petitions from the public in line with the above provisions of the Constitution. 32 of those petitions were deemed inadmissible because they did not meet the procedural requirements of Parliament. The petitions submitted cover a range of issues including social services such as the provision of water, service delivery by State institutions, unfair labour practices and environmental issues. The petition in question is before the Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care and the Thematic Committee on HIV and Aids having satisfied the procedural requirements. The two committees are holding public hea
SPOTLIGHT Initiative Jamaica is set to convene a virtual round table on sexual harassment tomorrow to contribute to ongoing public education on the draft Sexual Harassment Act.The discussion is also intended to provide coping tips for victims and current best practices in sexual harassment policy and complainant protection in Jamaica, a release from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Jamaica said yesterday.
[Monitor] Billions of shillings in donor funds to support both government agencies and NGOs focusing on democracy, good governance and accountability are being held up following an impasse in talks between government and donors.
The observers recognise that an electoral system governed by a whole series of constantly changing pieces of legislation \"responds to the outcome of political dialogue between the main parties, Renamo and Frelimo, rather than taking a holistic review of the electoral framework.\"
Stop the inclusion of fraudulent results: Under Renamo pressure, the parties agreed an electoral court system which could intervene to redress misconduct and errors by election commissions, STAEs, and polling stations.
Civil society members to be non-partisan
Members of the National Elections Commission (CNE) \"do not represent the public or private institutions or political or social institutions they come from, and defend the national interest\", says the electoral law.
For the 2008-9 elections, parliament (AR) agreed a dramatic change - a majority of CNE members, including the chair (presidente) were nominated by Civil Society Organisations (CSO) to try to force some independence and neutrality.
But this agreement between Frelimo and Renamo to select party aligned CSO members is not specified in the electoral law and clearly goes against the spirit of the law.
[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.
Ivorian football star Didier Drogba has called for peace in his country following unrest around the re-election of President Alassane Ouattara to a third term.
His call comes after at least 85 people are believed to died from post electoral violence in the country.
\"On this day of the celebration of peace in our dear country, I join in all the steps and wishes in this direction. My compatriots in general and the youth in particular to whom I address myself regularly, fundamental pillar of our companies are at the heart of the matter, \"writes the retired striker on his Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Drogba also expressed \"his condolences to all of Côte d'Ivoire for the recent loss of life\". Peace, peace, nothing but peace, concludes the former captain of the Elephants, aged 42.
Drogba did not cite any of the political actors in the middle of what is yet another brewing post-electoral crisis enveloping the west Africa nation.
The former chelsea star striker was one of the three candidates for the presidency of the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF) whose election gave rise to a crisis which notably saw the suspension of the FIF by the International Federation.
There was considerable excitement in the corridors of power last week after the African Court on Human and People’s rights issued an advisory opinion on the State Parties’ right to postpone elections arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. In the opinion, issued at the request of the Pan African Lawyers…
The DA in Limpopo has condemned provincial health authorities after the Polokwane Hospital allegedly failed to dispatch an ambulance crew to the house of a local journalist - because it didn't have enough personal protective equipment.
Soldiers from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger engaged in the fight against jihadists in the central Sahel have been accused of increasingly abusing local populations.
The allegations will feature on the agenda of the UN Security Council on Friday.
“Peace and Security in Africa”: the theme of the meeting organized by the Security Council is broad, but one of the main topics expected “will be the accusations of human rights violations by the armies of the Sahel,” a diplomat in Bamako said.
The concern has been insistently expressed for several months, at the same time as the denunciation of jihadist actions and intercommunity violence.
At the beginning of April, the UN mission in Mali (Minusma) denounced the “multiplication” of misdeeds attributed to the national armies.
The UN counted 101 extrajudicial executions carried out by the Malian army between January and March, and about 30 others by the Niger army on Malian soil.
“These figures, names and circumstances have been documented,” said Guillaume Ngefa, director of the UNMIN’s human rights division.
Twelve people arrested for complicity with the jihadists died in gendarmerie cells in eastern Burkina Faso, in mid-May. Relatives and NGOs say they were civilians, summarily shot. The justice system said it has promised investigations.
Excesses “here and there”
In Niger, 102 people were reportedly killed by the army in the western region of Tillabéri, according to a list of missing persons circulated in April. The defence ministry said an investigation would be launched, while praising the “professionalism” of the troops.
Human rights organizations are publishing lists of names and photos, each time deploring the disappearance of those concerned after the passage of soldiers. The majority of the disappeared are Fulani, who are willingly assimilated to accomplices of the jihadists.
“We can make reports, denounce the fact that so many Fulani have been killed and thrown down a well, or show the world a mass grave, but nothing is done about it afterwards,” said an official of ‘Des peuls du Mali’ Tabital Pulaaku, which operates on condition of anonymity.
“It is undeniable that some ‘Peul’ have taken the path of jihadism, but it is naive to reduce jihadism to a single ethnic group,” Tabital Pulaaku president Abou Sow told the press.
Sahelian governments have always stood united behind their armies, which, often under-equipped and under-trained, pay a heavy price in the fight against jihadism.
“The governments of our countries do not encourage human rights violations,” Mali’s foreign ministry Tiébilé Dramé said on Wednesday.
Dramé plans to explain to the Security Council on Friday “the precise and concrete measures that have been taken to correct the excesses that have been observed here and there.
AFP
[SAnews.gov.za] The Electoral Commission on Wednesday announced it has postponed the voter registration weekend by two weeks in light of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic currently sweeping the country.
When Apartheid ended and the African National Congress under Nelson Mandela came into power in South Africa in 1994, the national holidays were changed to days that would be meaningful to all South Africans.
On this day in 1960, the police killed 69 people at Sharpeville who were participating in a protest against the pass laws. Many were shot in the back. The carnage made world headlines.
Four days later the government banned black political organizations, many leaders were arrested or went into exile. During the Apartheid era, there were human rights abuses by all sides; Human Rights Day is but one step to ensure that the people of South Africa are aware of their human rights and to ensure that such abuses never again occur.
This was the day in 1994 when the first democratic election was held in South Africa, i.e. an election when all adults could vote irrespective of their race, and the day in 1997 when the new constitution took effect.
1 May: Workers Day
Many countries around the world commemorate the contribution made by workers to society on May Day (America doesnt celebrate this holiday because of its communist origins). It has traditionally been a day to protest for better wages and working conditions. Given the role that trade unions played in the fight for freedom, it is unsurprising that South Africa commemorates this day.
On June 1976 students in Soweto rioted in protest against the introduction of Afrikaans as the language of instruction of half their school curriculum, sparking eight months of violent uprisings across the country. Youth Day is a national holiday in honour of all the young people who lost their lives in the struggle against Apartheid and Bantu Education.
On 3 June 2009 in his State of the Nation address President Jacob Zuma announced the annual celebration of South Africas most famous son -- Nelson Mandela. Mandela Day will be celebrated on the 18th of July each year. It will give people in South Africa and all over the world the opportunity to do something good to help
Malawi’s electoral commission appealed for “peace and calm” on Wednesday as it counted ballots following a historic poll to re-elect a president after Peter Mutharika’s victory was overturned.
Voters in Malawi went to the polls on Tuesday for the second time in just over a year after the Constitutional Court dramatically ruled that last year’s polls were fraught with “grave and widespread” irregularities.
Results from the May 2019 election sparked countrywide protest that lasted months, a rare occurrence in the impoverished southern African country.
It took the top court six months to sift through the evidence before concluding that Mutharika was not duly elected and ordered fresh elections.
The chairman of the Malawi Electoral Commission, Chifundo Kachale, said tallying of the votes from 5,002 polling stations was underway.
“We appeal to Malawians to maintain peace and calm as the vote-counting continues,” Kachale told a news conference in Blantyre.
Mutharika has accused the opposition of inciting violence following isolated incidents which the police and electoral commission said had not affected the election.
“It’s obvious that the opposition is doing this,” he told reporters after voting in Blantyre, claiming some of his party monitors were “chased away, some were beaten”.
“It’s obviously people that are afraid of the will of the people that are engaging in these barbaric acts,” he alleged.
Mutharika, 79, did not take the decision of the constitutional court lightly when it overturned last year’s poll.
He accused judges of working with the opposition to steal the election through what he dubbed a “judicial coup d’etat”.
He had narrowly won the now-discredited election with 38.5 percent of the ballots, beating his closest rival Lazarus Chakwera, 65, by just 159,000 votes .
Victory in the rerun will be determined by whoever garners more than 50 percent of the votes — a new threshold set by the top court.
Some 6.8 million people were asked to vote between Mutharika, Chakwera and an underdog candidate, Peter Dominico Kuwani.
The electoral commission has until July 3 to unveil the results, although the announcement is widely thought likely to come this week.
Kachale says the commission will only announce results after dealing with all the complaints.
[UN News] There is a critical need for State institutions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to provide more stability and safety for citizens facing multiple threats, the head of the UN mission there told the Security Council on Monday.
On Nov. 11, 1965, the conservative white-minority government of Rhodesia declared its independence from Britain. The country resisted the demands of black Africans, and Prime Minister Ian Smith withstood British pressure, economic sanctions, and guerrilla attacks in his effort to uphold white supremacy. On March 1, 1970, Rhodesia formally proclaimed itself a republic. Heightened guerrilla war and a withdrawal of South African military aid in 1976 marked the beginning of the collapse of Smiths 11 years of resistance.
Black nationalist movements were led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa of the African National Congress and Ndabaningi Sithole, who were moderates, and guerrilla leaders Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Joshua Nkomo of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU), who advocated revolution.
On March 3, 1978, Smith, Muzorewa, Sithole, and Chief Jeremiah Chirau signed an agreement to transfer power to the black majority by Dec. 31, 1978. They formed an executive council, with chairmanship rotating but with Smith retaining the title of prime minister. Blacks were named to each cabinet ministry, serving as coministers with the whites already holding these posts. African nations and rebel leaders immediately denounced the action, but Western governments were more reserved, although none granted recognition to the new regime.
