Politics

Tunisian President enacts new decree taking control of electoral commission

Published

1 year ago

April 23, 2022

The President of Tunisia, Kais Saied, has enacted a decree giving him control of the country’s electoral commission, promising to replace most of its members in a move that will entrench his rule, casting doubt on the integrity of the body.

In the decree signed on Friday, Saied said he would only allow three of the existing nine members of the electoral commission to stay on, while he will appoint a new seven-member panel with three judges and an information technology specialist.

The judges, according to new decree, would be selected by the supreme judicial council, a body Saied unilaterally replaced earlier in the year, naming himself as the head of the commission in a move which was seen at the time as undermining the independence of the judiciary.

Head of the Tunisian electoral commission, Nabil Baffoun, while reacting to Saied’s decree, said it was a blow to the democratic gains of the country’s 2011 revolution and meant the body was no longer independent.

“It has become the president’s commission,” Baffoun said.

Also criticising the decree, Tunisia’s biggest political party, the Ennahda which has opposed Saied’s moves since last summer, said future elections will lose credibility.

“Any elections will lose all credibility with a body appointed by the president,” said Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi, speaker of the parliament said.

The Tunisian leader had already dismissed the parliament and taken control of the judiciary after assuming executive authority last summer. He had also said he could rule by decree in moves his opponents denounced as a coup.

The president, who says his actions were both legal and needed to save Tunisia from political crisis, is rewriting the democratic constitution introduced after the 2011 revolution and says he will put it to a referendum in July.

Related Topics:Decree Electoral Commission Featured Tunisa

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Politics

Opposition party wins majority seats in Guinea Bissau’s parliament

Published

14 hours ago

June 9, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

After a thirteen months break in Guinea-Bissau’s parliament, the opposition coalition has won majority seats after the legislative elections held on Sunday.

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.

According to official results, the PAI Terra Ranka coalition, led by the former ruling PAIGC party, won 54 of 102 seats in Sunday’s poll, while the ruling Madem G15, won 28 seats.

The development alters the planned constitutional reforms of President Embalo which would have allowed him to consolidate power by ridding the country of its semi-presidential system.

Under the current political system, the majority party or coalition appoints the government but the president has the authority to dismiss it in certain circumstances, a situation that has led to political gridlock and infighting in the past.

The political stability of the country has been consistently threatened by military incursions with successful and failed coup attempts. The latest was in February 2022 when gunmen stormed a government compound where President Embalo was holding a cabinet meeting, in an attempt to stage a coup.

Politics

Algeria, Sierra Leone get non-permanent seat at UN Security Council

Published

3 days ago

June 7, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

Algeria and Sierra Leone, have been elected as non-permanent members of the the United Nations’ Security Council for 2024-2025.

The two countries are part of the ten countries elected for two years in the Council outside the five power bloc countries— the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom.

The countries replace Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates and will join Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland who were elected last year.

For Sierra Leone, it’s a return to the council after 53 years. Its Foreign Minister, David Francis said it was “a great day for this small, progressive and confident country…which has successfully transitioned from war to peace.”

Guyana and South Korea were also elected unchallenged while Slovenia handily beat Belarus for the only contested seat.

An official of rights agency, Human Rights Watch, Louis Charbonneau remarked that “the vote in the General Assembly shows why a competition for UN elections is essential” after Slovenia edged Belarus for the seat going to Eastern Europe and obtained 153 votes, against 38 in Belarus.

“UN member states have undoubtedly decided that Belarus’ grave human rights violations at home and attempts to cover up Russian atrocities in Ukraine disqualify it from serving on the Security Council, a crucial body for ensuring human rights. humans,” he added.

Algeria got 184 votes, South Korea 180 votes, Sierra Leone 188 votes and Guyana 191 in a single candidate votes for four seat reserved for Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America/Caribbean.

There has been a long debate about the place of Africa in international relations. At the inception of the United Nations, only four independent African countries represented the continent when 50 representatives of different countries met in San Francisco, California, in 1945 to complete the Charter of the United Nations.