Politics

UN, US pressure South Sudan over elections

Published

3 years ago

March 9, 2022

The United Nations on Wednesday warned South Sudan’s leaders that the nation’s fragile peace process was under serious threat due to slow progress, calling for “fresh urgency” to revive negotiations.

The United Nations and United States urged the leaders of South Sudan to do more to prepare for elections due to be held in less than a year or risk “catastrophe.”

“As I have stated before, elections have the potential to be a nation-building moment, or a catastrophe,” the UN envoy for South Sudan, Nicholas Haysom, told the Security Council.

“Much depends on the political will and leadership of the South Sudanese working together,” he said.

The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, according to France24 said that in order to “work toward a true democracy,” the South Sudanese government needed to move swiftly to implement the provisions set out in an agreement on revitalizing the peace process.

“That means an inclusive constitution drafting process, public financial management reform, transitional security arrangements, and transitional justice mechanisms” she said.

“Unfortunately, the government of South Sudan is behind in meeting key electoral benchmarks” set out in the agreement, she added.

With a Security Council decision expected on March 15 on renewing the peacekeeping mission in South Sudan for a year — one of the most expensive on the UN’s books, with an annual budget exceeding $1 billion — Haysom pleaded for the deployment to remain at current levels of 17,000 troops and 2,100 police.

“We anticipate a mandate flexible enough to support the conduct of free and fair elections, upon the request of the government,” he said.

With less than a year until elections, South Sudan, which has been independent since only 2011, risks plunging back into war, the UN warned in February.

The youngest country in the world, it has experienced chronic instability since its independence from Sudan.

Between 2013 and 2018, it descended into a bloody civil war between sworn enemies Riek Machar and Salva Kiir, which left nearly 400,000 dead and millions displaced.

A peace deal signed in 2018 led to power-sharing in a national unity government sworn in February 2020, with Kiir as president and Machar as vice-president.

But the provisions of the peace agreement remain largely unimplemented, due mainly to persistent disputes between the two rivals.

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Politics

Again, Tunisian MPs want exclusive power of central bank over interest rates abolished

Published

2 days ago

October 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A measure by MPs on Friday indicated that the Tunisian central bank will no longer be the only entity able to alter interest rates or the country’s foreign exchange policy; rather, it will be permitted to finance the government.

President Kais Saied, who has maintained that the central bank shouldn’t be a state within a state, has continuously criticised the action, which is the most recent that will destroy the bank’s independence.

The current dire state of public finances prompts the possible significant amendment to the central bank statute. The opposition has referred to Saied’s 2021 takeover of practically all power as a coup, and since then, the nation has been unable to obtain Western support. Saied ruled by decree.

If the bank law was not altered, 27 legislators issued a dire warning, stating that Tunisia would unavoidably go bankrupt.

They claimed that the state has suffered enormous losses, estimated at $36.6 billion, due to the present law passed in 2016 and prohibits the central bank from making direct bond purchases or loans to the public treasury.

Additionally, the measure suggests that the president must give his or her consent before the bank can make agreements with international supervisory bodies.

Saied said the central bank should lend directly to the state treasury rather than through expensive bank loans, rejecting the central bank’s independence last year.

To close a budget deficit, the administration requested in January that the central bank give the Treasury $2.25 billion in direct funding.

Marouan Abassi, the former governor of the central bank, has cautioned that purchasing Treasury bonds carries risks, such as increasing inflation and depreciating the value of the Tunisian pound. Saied replaced Abassi with Zouhair Nouri earlier this year.

The central bank has had total authority over reserves, gold, and monetary policy since 2016. However, the proposed statute demonstrated that the central bank might modify exchange rates, gold-related operations, and interest rates after consulting with the government.

The bill permits the central bank to purchase government bonds from banks and lend directly to the government up to 3% of GDP for bonds that have maturities longer than five years.

According to financial sources, the action will probably open the door for a fresh government request that the central bank grant the government loans and direct facilities totalling up to $2.6 billion.

Politics

Kenya: After impeaching Gachagua, Ruto appoints ally as deputy

Published

3 days ago

October 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Shortly after the Senate voted to remove the previous occupant of the position, Rigthi Gachagua, Kenya’s President William Ruto selected Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki as his new deputy on Friday.

Ruto’s choice of a close ally, who must receive parliamentary approval, follows a period of political unrest, large-scale demonstrations, and the first impeachment of a deputy president in Kenya.

“I have received a message from … the president, regarding the nomination of Professor Kithure Kindiki to fill the vacancy which has occurred in the office,” Speaker Moses Wetang’ula said in the National Assembly.

Gachagua was impeached on five of the eleven claims against him, which included inciting ethnic hate and flagrantly violating the Constitution. He refuted the allegations and wrote them off as politically motivated.

He assisted Ruto in winning a sizable portion of the votes from the populated central Kenya region by supporting him in the 2022 election. However, Gachagua has mentioned feeling marginalised in recent months, as there have been numerous rumours in the local media indicating a rupture with Ruto as political allegiances have changed.

Kindiki was a strong candidate to be Ruto’s running mate in the 2022 election and was named interior minister in September of that same year, just after the president assumed office.

The Ministry of the Interior is in charge of the police. Rights groups have charged that during rallies earlier this year demanding the repeal of the now-shelved finance law and changes to combat corruption, the police used excessive force.

Kindiki stated in a September appearance before parliament that the government did not carry out extrajudicial executions or kidnappings and that police followed the law.