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[Monitor] The Electoral Commission (EC) was justified to suspend election campaign meetings in 12 districts, court has ruled.
Critics have called it a stunt to invite sympathy. Yet Amuriat says campaigning without shoes is a protest and that those who do not get its symbolism are missing a point.
Uganda is due to hold a general election on January 14. Amuriat and another opposition candidate, Bobi Wine have had their rallies violently dispersed by security forces or been arrested.
In mid-November, scores of people were killed as security forces attempted to quell protests against the arrest and detention of Bobi Wine.
Police has accused the candidates of addressing huge gatherings in contravention of regulations on COVID-19 prevention.
Swollen feet
In an interview with one of the dailies in Uganda, Amuriat said his feet hurt a lot and has to pour cold water on them in between campaign stops for some relief.
Doctors have cautioned him on the potential danger of contracting tetanus from cuts to his feet.
Yet Amuriat remains adamant. He says by refusing to wear shoes, he’s standing in solidarity with people whose wealth and opportunities have been stolen by the country’s longtime ruler Yoweri Museveni.
JUST IN: FDC presidential candidate Patrick Amuriat has been arrested at the border of Rubirizi and Bushenyi districts. The reason for his arrest is yet to be known📹 @MukhayeD#MonitorUpdates#UGDecides2021 pic.twitter.com/xopK4FMoD0
— Daily Monitor (@DailyMonitor) December 4, 2020
Museveni, in power since 1986 is seeking a new term. In 2017, he changed the constitution to remove age limits that would have stopped him from seeking re-election.
FDC is Uganda’s largest opposition party. In 3 previous elections, the party fronted veteran activist and retired army colonel Kizza Besigye for president.
[Capital FM] Nairobi -- A consortium of rights organizations has petitioned Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani to institute measures that will ensure transparency and accountability in how COVID-19 funds are utilized.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said total of 609 133 South Africans have been registered to vote in the by-elections on “Super Wednesday”
Vice-President Saulos Chilima has returned to court Tuesday to press President Peter Mutharika to sack Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson, Jane Ansah and her fellow commissioners after Parliament, the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court of Appeal found them incompetent and their positions untenable.
Chilima has been accusing the head of the electoral body of misconduct and is backed by electoral stakeholders that Ansah should not preside over the fresh presidential elections.
But Ansah, a judge of the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, has defiantly refused to step down.
This month Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of the High Court sitting as the Constitutional Court which found Ansah and MEC incompetent.
On April 1 2020 MEC chief elections officer Sam Alfandika told Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee that the commission wrote President Peter Mutharika to consider hiring new commissioners as the current ones' tenure is expiring on June 5.
Monrovia — As part of efforts to strengthen the fight against the deadly coronavirus that is ravaging not only Liberia but the entire world, the Winners' Chapel in Liberia has donated 100 bags of rice and 1,000 nose masks to the Executive Committee on COVID-19.
The donation to government follows the distribution of bags of rice to Winners Chapel members in all 34 churches within the network across Liberia.
\"Moreover, as corporate social responsibility and in extension of the love of Jesus to the larger community, our gratitude goes first to God, the president of Winners Chapel International, Bishop David Oyedepo and everyone through whom God made this provision possible,\" pastor Akporhonor said.
Winners' Chapel pastor added: \"The Lord blesses you all.
\"For your church today to come and give a helping hand to the government I want to say on behalf Madam Broh and the rest of the staff we want to say thanks to the Winners Chapel family,\" Dakel said.
[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).
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.
Section 27 of the Constitution requires both levels of government to ensure that neither gender has more than two thirds of public officers, whether elected or appointed.
[Monitor] On June 13, President Museveni appointed Ms Dorothy Kisaka as the new executive director (ED) of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to replace Ms Jennifer Musisi who resigned in October 2018.
[Ghanaian Times] The Electoral Commission (EC), yesterday inaugurated a 16-member Adjudication Committee to clean the new voters register to ensure a credible 2020 polls come December 7.
[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 United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) is expressing concern at the “increase in violence and barbaric acts perpetrated in the neighborhoods of the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince”.
Holding local government elections and an increase in subventions being provided to municipalities and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) have been announced as being among the top priorities of the Ministry of Local Government under the new government.
The article Polls, increased subventions for local gov’t organs among priorities for Dharamlall’s ministry appeared first on Stabroek News.
The Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo has waded into the political crisis that has gripped the country calling for a divorce between the two coalitions running the affairs of the state.
On Tuesday (June 30) Archbishop of Kinshasa, Frindolin Ambongo has called for the dissolution of the political alliance between President Tshisekedi and his predecessor Kabila.
The cleric cited mistrust among members of Kabila’s Common Front of Congo, FCC and the president’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress, UPDS.
He noted the current political tension has been stoked by MPs of former president Joseph Kabila’s Common Front for Congo which has a parliamentary majority.
Monsignor Ambongo also accused the president of the Congolese national assembly of ‘contempt’ by renewing the mandate of the head of the country’s electoral commission.
FILE PHOTO | NMG
As the State prepares to offer a bi-weekly stipend for the urban poor ravaged by Covid-19, it is important that the selection of the beneficiaries be above board to ensure, first that the money reaches the intended recipients and two achieves the intended purpose.
We commend the State for allocating a budget that will cushion hundreds of thousands of poor households whose heads will receive Sh2,000 every two weeks for purchase of basic goods like food.
However, this noble plan will come a cropper if the selection of the beneficiaries is not done in a transparent manner.
This time round the stakes are high given the adverse effects that coronavirus has delivered on poor homes.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to shield the poor from the adverse effects of the pandemic, which makes the selection of beneficiaries even more critical.
The electoral commission last week told the nation to prepare for an unusual election where campaigning will be done digitally, as the destabilizing effects of the coronavirus continue.
Justifying scientific elections
\tUganda which currently has over 700 confirmed cases of the coronavirus has been slowly easing restrictions and emphasizing measures of social distancing for all activities in the country.
The commission says it is bound by Article 61 (2) of Uganda’s constitution which tasks it to organize elections within 120 days before the expiry of the term of president, parliament or local government.
In conducting a scientific election, the commission hopes to exercise its duty to facilitate Ugandans’ right to choose their leaders in a healthy and safe environment.
The opposition politicians accuse the electoral commission of not consulting them as it drafted the revised election roadmap.
[Monitor] Ruhinda South MP Donozio Mugabe Kahonda, has withdrawn the lawsuit in which he was seeking to block the Electoral Commission (EC) from scrutinising his nomination.
Provisional results Friday showed Mohamed Bazoum as having garnered 1.4 million votes, only trailed by former president Mahamane Ousmane with 675,000
To date, the court has failed to provide an adequate rationale for his ongoing detention or to hold a substantive hearing on the charges against him, in contravention of Mr. Chouta's right to freedom from arbitrary detention and right to trial without undue delay.
Mr. Chouta's detention also violates his right to freedom of expression.
Mr. Chouta's ongoing detention therefore impermissibly restricts his right to freedom of expression.
Mr. Chouta's treatment is precisely the sort of disproportionate response that the HRC and African Court have consistently found in violation of the individual right to freedom of expression while undermining and chilling the right in society at large.
He was informed that Ms. Beyala's lawyer had applied for joinder of Mr. Chouta's case with a second case filed against another individual alleged to have made false claims about Ms. Beyala.
Guinea's main oppositon party published Friday a list of 46 people, aged between 3 and 70 years, killed during the repression of demonstrations after the October 18 election, officially won by the incumbent Alpha Condé.
Condé was declared re-elected on October 24 by the Electoral Commission for a controversial third term with 59.5% of the vote, but three of his opponents, including opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, are contesting the results before the Constitutional Court, whose decision is expected on Saturday.
Diallo's party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), denounced in a statement a \"wave of terror\" orchestrated by the government between October 19 and November 3.
\"The provisional toll of this repression is 46 dead, nearly 200 wounded by gunfire, about a hundred arrests and extensive material damage,\" according to the UFDG.
The opposition has so far reported a death toll of at least 27, while for the government, the post-election violence resulted in 21 deaths, including members of the security forces.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Africa Officer Ida Sawyer on Twitter on October 24 accused Guinean security forces of killing \"at least 8 people, including 3 children.
Amnesty International for its part accused the same security forces of firing live ammunition at demonstrators, without giving a detailed account.
The Ministries of Security and Territorial Administration did not immediately respond to the multiple requests for a reaction from the AFP to the UFDG document.
This document includes a list of names, usually with age, profession, circumstances of death, contacts of a relative, and photos showing these people, dead or alive. In about fifteen cases, these are photos of bodies showing traces of violence.
Most of the presumed victims are young men and women between 15 and 30 years old: motorcycle cab drivers, mechanics, students...
The youngest are a boy and a girl of 3 years old, Mamadou Midiaou Diallo and Mariatou Bah, and the oldest Mamouna Camara, a housewife of 70 years old.
The UFDG also states that \"the overwhelming majority of the victims (...) belong to the same ethnic group as the opposition leader,\" in a country where community affiliations play an important role in elections.
Uhuru seals a loophole that would have allowed the National Assembly to ring-fence its annual budget from cuts by the Treasury.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has asked the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to report the state agency to the police if the party has any evidence to back its election rigging allegations made against the Authority on Thursday, 14 May 2020.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), at a press conference, raised fears that the decision of the Electoral Commission to compile a new register of voters using passports and the NIA's Ghana card as proof of eligibility may give undue advantage to the governing New Patriotic Party and President Nana Akufo-Addo and also help the incumbent to rig the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in December 2020.
According to the biggest opposition party, over 10 million Ghanaians are unable to retrieve their Ghana cards from the NIA several months after they were registered, a situation which the Chairman of the party, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, said will make it impossible for them to be captured on the new electoral roll.
At a counter-press conference on Friday, 15 May 2020, the Executive Director of the NIA, Prof Ken Attafuah, said it was a \"disturbing allegation that the NIA, in consent with the Electoral Commission, embarked on an election-rigging agenda in order to benefit the New Patriotic Party, and most disturbingly, to disenfranchise a significant portion of the Ghanaian populace from their rights to exercise their franchise\".
\"I want to assure the good people of this country that the NIA is not involved in any such criminal design or enterprise with the EC, with the government of Ghana or any with any person or entity whatsoever described.
Finding a good movie in 2020 is like finding an antique in a crowded storage locker. Surfing Netflix since movie theaters have shuttered feels like searching for a Frank Gutierrez painting in your local dumpster. Netflix has a sizable content library, but hopes its latest original film, 'Project Power,' which cost a cool $85 million, […]
The post Zenger movie review: Project Power appeared first on L.A. Focus Newspaper.
[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.
Parliament on Tuesday passed a resolution tasking government to waive water and electricity bills for a period of six months to help relieve the many Ugandans in the post-lockdown recovery process.
While debating a motion moved by Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga, the legislators said since the lockdown was imposed in March, many Ugandans spend a lot of time at home and consume a lot of electricity and water more than they would use while at work.
Mr Mpuuga argued that Uganda should borrow a leaf from other countries, including Ghana, which have already paid off the water and electricity bills for the citizens for a specific period of time.
Ms Jesca Ababiku (Adjumani Woman, NRM) said much as the people in rural areas are not connected to water provided by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), there is a need for government to also repair boreholes and other dilapidated water sources.
The MPs said with President Museveni not including waiver on water and electricity bills as part of a stimulus package during the State of the Nation Address on June 4, payment of the cumulative bills will suffocate many Ugandans.
The Marine Corps has removed a two-star general from command of Marine forces in Europe and Africa following allegations that he used a racial slur while speaking with subordinates, the Marine Corps said Tuesday. Maj. Gen. Stephen M. Neary was relieved “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to serve in...
The post After just three months, a Marine general has lost his job amid allegations he used the N-word appeared first on Face2Face Africa.
President Yoweri Museveni, in power in Uganda since 1986, was re-elected on Saturday for a sixth term with 58.64% of the vote, the electoral commission said, amid accusations of fraud by his main opponent Bobi Wine.
Candidates seeking electoral positions in Uganda's general election due early next year will have to conduct their campaigns without physical contact as dictated by Covid-19 social and physical distancing, the Electoral Commission has announced.
The commission, which released a new roadmap of electoral activities, has set November 2 and 3, 2020 as nomination dates for Presidential candidates.
NO POSTPONING ELECTION
Article 61(2) of the Constitution provides that the \"Electoral Commission shall hold general presidential, parliamentary and local government council elections within the first thirty days of the last ninety days before the expiration of the term of the President.\"
Responding to questions about calls for postponing the election to give all candidates a fair chance in light of the Covid-19 disruption, Mr Byabakama said, \"The option of postponing the election has not even occurred to us as a commission because it is not in our mandate.
Mr Byabakama added that the commission's mandate is limited only to state (public) media which is required to give equal space to all presidential candidates.
The Electoral Commission now has to make arrangements to include them on the voters’ register to participate in next year’s general election.
The ruling is a result of a petition filed in 2018 by lawyer Stephen Kalali seeking declarations and orders that prisoners and Ugandans in the diaspora have a fundamental and absolute right to be registered as voters.
Mr Kalali argued that their omission and exclusion from voting amounts to segregation and discrimination, demanding that all prisons in Uganda be declared registration and polling centres ahead of the 2021 election.
She added that prisoners were allowed to vote in countries like South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia, which subscribe to several international human rights instruments to which Uganda is signatory
The ruling is bound to impact the Electoral Commission’s preparations for elections due to be held between January 8, 2021 and February 10, 2021.
Commission spokesperson Jonathan Taremwa said they were yet to receive the ruling and promised to study it and take a decision.
