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Mali opposition leader rejects election result as counting underway

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Malian opposition candidate Soumaila Cisse said on Monday he would reject the results of a presidential runoff marred by accusations of fraud, violence and low turnout, calling on the population “to rise up.”

Ballot counting was underway on Monday across the vast West African country after the vote Sunday saw one poll worker killed and hundreds of stations closed due to insecurity.

“The fraud is proven, this is why there are results we will not accept,” Cisse said at his party’s headquarters in Bamako.

“I call on all Malians to rise up… We will not accept the dictatorship of fraud,” he added.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, 73, is the clear frontrunner in a reprise of his 2013 faceoff against former finance minister Cisse, 68.

But Cisse’s team and other opposition contenders have repeatedly accused the government of fraud, including ballot-box stuffing and vote buying.

However the African Union (AU) election observers said the voting was carried out “in acceptable conditions,” in a preliminary report published Monday.

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At this stage there is “no tangible element” pointing towards voting irregulariities, the observers said, congratulating the Mali government for its efforts to improve the voting process and noting a drop in the number of untoward incidents in the second round of voting.

The European Union also said that in the 300 polling stations its observers visited, no “major incident” occurred.

Nearly 500 polling stations were unable to open on Sunday, the government said, mostly in regions plagued by jihadist violence and ethnic tensions.

“We had a little over 3.7 percent of stations which had not functioned properly” during the first round on July 29, Salif Traore, Mali’s security minister, said on Monday.

In the first-round vote on July 29, Keita was clearly ahead, with 42 percent against 18 percent for Cisse.

The three main opposition candidates had mounted a last-ditch legal challenge to the first-round result, alleging ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities.

But their petition was rejected by the Constitutional Court.

Politics

Zimbabwe’s electoral commission, ZEC promises to publicise voters’ register

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The electoral commission in Zimbabwe said it would soon publish the voters’ register for the forthcoming general elections.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) also assured the public of a fair election and promised to rectify anomalies that were observed during the voters’ inspection exercise.

The head of ZEC, Utloile Silaigwana made the position known when he announced the end of the mop-up voter registration exercise on Friday.

Silaigwana further revealed that the Nomination court would sit on 21 June and thereafter the voters’ roll would be accessible to candidates.

There are contentions about the neutrality of the electoral commission. In March, a member of the opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), Allan Markham filed a court application challenging ZEC for access to the electronic voters’ roll but had his request rejected because “it was too risky” and in the interest of data protection.

Meanwhile, the ruling party, Zanu PF sent text messages to registered voters during the period urging them to vote for President Emmerson Mnangagwa. This move further fuelled the allegation that Zanu PF had access to the voters’ roll which is why it was able to send the messages.

President Mnangagwa is running for re-election to a second term after coming to power following a military coup that dislodged Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s president in 2017.

The country is struggling with deep poverty, recurring power outages, and crippling unemployment, all of which have fuelled widespread resentment.

The President of Zimbabwe is elected using a two-round system. The Zimbabwean legislature is made up of 270 members of the National Assembly, 210 members elected in single-member constituencies, and 60 women elected by proportional representation in ten six-seat constituencies based on the country’s provinces.

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Guinea-Bissau holds parliamentary elections after year-long break

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Elections into the parliament of Guinea-Bissau have been held on Sunday after over a year since President Umaro Sissoco Embalo dissolved the House over accusations of corruption.

Over 20 political parties and coalitions, including the former ruling PAIGC party and its rival MADEM G15 presented candidates for various constituencies across the country.

The country’s parliament, known as the National People’s Assembly, is made up of 102 members who are chosen in two ways: 100 by closed-list proportional representation from 27 multi-member constituencies and two by single-member constituencies representing expatriate citizens in Africa and Europe.

The majority party or coalition appoints the government under the current political system, but the president has the authority to dismiss it in certain circumstances. In the past, this has led to political gridlock and infighting.

The Prime Minister, Nuno Gomes Nabiam, while commenting on the strength of diversity of the country and the likely inclusive parliament that could follow the elections, noted that “there will be no winner with an absolute majority in these elections. It is impossible.”

“No party is ready to govern Guinea-Bissau alone, ” Nabiam said.

Guinea Bissau’s path to stability has been difficult, as it has been for many other countries in the West African sub-region. Since its independence from Portugal in 1974, the country has seen coups or attempted coups despite elections.

In February 2022, gunmen stormed a government compound where President Embalo was holding a cabinet meeting, attempting to stage a coup. The incident was later linked by the presidency to the country’s thriving drug trade.

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