Politics

Guinea Bissau President Embalo won’t seek re-election

Published

6 days ago

September 12, 2024

President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Cissoko Embalo, declared on Thursday that he would not seek reelection in the forthcoming presidential election in November.

The 51-year-old Embalo who succeeded replace departing President José Mario Vaz would have been qualified for a second term in office after defeating Domingos Simoes Pereira, the runner-up, with 54% of the vote in 2020.

The shocking revelation might lead to a leadership vacuum and increase political unrest in the two million-person nation that is prone to coups. Embalo stated that his wife had talked him out of running for office again at the conclusion of a council of ministers meeting on Thursday evening.

Without providing any details or designating a replacement, he declared that neither Pereira nor two other opposition lawmakers, Braima Camara and Nuno Gomes Na Bian, would be his successor.

After serving as prime minister under Vaz, Embalo, an ex-army general, took over a protracted political deadlock in a nation where uprisings and coups have been frequent since the country’s 1974 independence from Portugal.

Embalo claims that during his administration, there have been two attempts to topple him, the most recent one being in December 2023. Days later, he dissolved parliament for the second time since taking office as a result of the attempts.

Under the current political structure in Guinea Bissau, the government is chosen by the dominant party or coalition. However, the president has the authority to revoke it under specific conditions, which frequently result in unrest and political impasse.

Like most African countries, the country suffers underdevelopment and has become

a significant hub for the trafficking of cocaine. About 2.63 tonnes of cocaine were taken into custody by police on a Venezuelan-arrived aircraft last Saturday.

Related Topics:Elections Featured Guinea-Bissau Re-election Umaro-Sissoco-Embalo

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Politics

Ghanian opposition protests, demands audit of voters register

Published

10 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Ghana’s major opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party protested statewide on Tuesday, seeking an independent forensic audit to clean up the voter register for free and fair elections.

NDC leaders said the election commission secretly relocated voters to various voting sites, undermining the register.

In red and black, thousands of supporters marched through Accra’s main streets, blasting reggae and campaign music and calling on international bodies, Ghana’s peace council, and religious and civil society groups to intervene. Protest leaders petitioned parliament and the Accra electoral agency. Ghana’s other 15 regions also saw protests, local media said.

Protester Kwame Acheampong, 68, told Reuters in Akan that his registration had been moved from the capital to Tamale. He asked, “How can I vote in Tamale?”

Meanwhile, the electoral commission claims the flaws were fixed. It suspended a northern Pusiga district director in August for “using his credentials to transfer voters without their knowledge.” Ghana is one of Africa’s most stable democracies, although eight people died in the last election, which was marred by opposition claims that the government unjustly influenced the vote, which it rejected.

Allegations of irregularities tarnish the electoral authorities. Afrobarometer’s July survey found Ghana’s election commission’s trust at an all-time low since confidence polls began in 1999. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, NDC chairman, told demonstrators he wanted “transparent elections.”

Ghana will have general elections for president and parliamentarians on December 7, 2024. President Nana Akufo-Addo cannot run again due to term limits after eight years. Old NDC president John Dramani Mahama will face New Patriotic Party Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia in the election.

The President of Ghana is elected in two rounds, while 275 MPs are elected in single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting.

Politics

South Sudan ready to resume pumping oil through Sudan

Published

15 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

According to South Sudan’s finance minister and the president’s office, progress has been made in getting South Sudan and Sudan to resume supplying crude oil through a pipeline that goes to a port in their neighbourhood.

South Sudan depends heavily on its oil exports for its income, and Sudan keeps a portion of the oil as a transit fee.

The devastation resulting from a fight between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces forced the closure of the major pipeline that transported oil from South Sudan via Sudan for export in February. According to observers, the stoppage has caused food prices in Sudan, where millions of people suffer from acute hunger, to rise. The damage is likely to cause major environmental degradation.

“Sudanese engineers have accomplished the necessary technical preparations for the resumption of oil production,” South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s office said in a statement late on Monday after a meeting in Juba between Kiir and Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

“Engineers from South Sudan are expected to visit Sudan in the coming weeks to familiarise themselves with the readiness of the facilities to jump-start production.”

“There has been a breakthrough, and (news of) it will come to the public very soon,” South Sudan’s Finance Minister Marial Dongrin Ater told a news conference late on Monday.
Burhan’s office said the two sides would develop an operational plan to restart oil flows.

Due to intercommunal violence, South Sudan’s economy has been under strain recently. Since the civil war that lasted from 2013 to 2018, revenue from crude oil exports has decreased, and more recently, export disruptions have occurred because of the conflict in neighbouring Sudan.

Following its independence from Khartoum in 2011, South Sudan began exporting roughly 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day through Sudan, following a formula that took the majority of the country’s oil production with it.

Before the civil war, South Sudan produced between 350,000 and 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day at its highest point.