Politics

Opposition kicks as new Tunisian constitution wins landslide in referendum vote

Published

2 years ago

July 27, 2022

Despite a low turnout of voters, Tunisia’s constitutional referendum conducted by President Kais Saied in July 25 recorded a landslide ‘yes’ votes put at 94.6 percent with the country’s opposition and critics questioning the support the constitution received.

The low turnout was as a result of an intense boycott campaign from the Tunisian opposition, which says the new constitution will potentially lead Tunisia back to one-man rule, with the potential of changing the country from a parliamentary system to a hyper-presidential one, and removes a number of checks and balances.

Results released on Wednesday by the Independent Higher Election Authority (ISIE) show that Tunisians voted to approve the new constitution proposed by Saied, but the country’s opposition says the low turnout of only about 30 percent only highlighted the president’s weakness and the “illegitimacy” of the referendum process.

A leading member of the opposition National Salvation Front, Nejib Chebbi, who addressed a press conference after the result of the referendum was released, said the low turnout “de-legitimises the overall process.”

Also echoing Chebbi’s sentiments, Radwan Masmoudi, founder of the US-based Center for Research of Islam and Democracy said questions have abounded about how accurate the results and the official turnout are, particularly as few election observers have been present

“You can’t approve or adopt a new constitution with less than 30 percent of the voters. In reality, the numbers are far smaller, but the ISIE was under his (Saied’s) control, especially in the interior of the country, and rigged the results in his favour as was expected,” Masmoudi said in a separate interview.

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Politics

Egyptian court upholds ex-presidential candidate Ahmed Tantawy’s sentence

Published

13 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Former presidential candidate, Ahmed Tantawy, and his campaign manager, Mohamed Abou El-Diar, were found guilty of faking election paperwork, and given a one-year jail term with labour by an Egyptian court, Tantawy’s legal team announced Tuesday.

Last year, Tantawy was the most well-known candidate to run against Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for a third term, winning 89.6% of the vote.

To avoid receiving the necessary number of public endorsements to be on the ballot, he halted his campaign before to the election, alleging harassment and arrests directed at hundreds of his family members and associates.

Egyptian authorities criticised Tantawy’s tactic of distributing unapproved copies of endorsement forms to garner popular support, but they denied any misconduct.

Egypt’s Misdemeanour Appeals Court upheld the May court ruling on Monday, which prohibits Tantawy from seeking public office for five years and mandates that he pay a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($395).

Tantawy’s defence team member and well-known human rights attorney Khaled Ali said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the appeals procedure was riddled with anomalies.

Ali said lawyers struggled for months to confirm court dates, with hearings appearing absent from official schedules and case files missing from court registries.

The public prosecution was not immediately available to comment on the ruling or on Ali’s allegations over the process.

Politics

Court orders Uganda to compensate LRA war crimes victims

Published

13 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Uganda’s tribunal has ordered the government to pay up to 10 million Ugandan shillings ($2,740) to each victim of Lord’s Resistance Army commander, Thomas Kwoyelo, the first senior rebel leader to be convicted.

Kwoyelo, a mid-level LRA leader, was sentenced to 40 years in jail in October for war crimes like murder, rape, slavery, torture, and kidnapping.

Kwoyelo’s “indigent” status prevented him from compensating the victims, thus the court ordered the government to compensate.

Kwoyelo’s crimes were “a manifestation of failure on the part of the government that triggers a responsibility on the state to pay reparations to the victims,” the verdict added.

The court also ordered various financial compensation to Kwoyelo’s property destruction and theft victims.

From strongholds in northern Uganda, the LRA brutalised Ugandans under Joseph Kony for over 20 years while it fought the military to destroy the government.

The militants raped, abducted, cut off victims’ limbs and mouths, and bludgeoned them to death using crude implements.

Under military pressure, the LRA withdrew to lawless forests in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic in 2005 and perpetrated civilian atrocities.

Although assaults are rare, Kony and splintered groups are reported to dwell there.

Kwoyelo was taken by the Ugandan military in 2009 in the northeastern Congo, and his case made its way through Ugandan courts until he was found guilty in August.