Politics

Only 3 presidential candidates accepted by Tunisia’s electoral commission

Published

1 month ago

August 11, 2024

In the face of intense criticism over actions the opposition claims are an attempt to weed out genuine candidates, Tunisia’s electoral commission announced on Saturday that it had only tentatively approved three presidential candidates, among them the incumbent, Kais Saied.

In addition to rejecting 14 other candidates, the commission said that it had approved the candidacies of Saied, Ayachi Zammel, and Zouhair Magzhaoui— who is perceived as being close to Saied— for the election on October 6.

Zammel, the leader of the Azimoun party, was not considered a significant political figure in the past.

Several well-known politicians, including Mondher Znaidi, Imed Daimi, Abdel Latif Mekki, Karim Gharbi, Safi Said, Kamel Akrout, and Nizar Chaari, said that the interior ministry had declined to give them the information about their criminal histories that the commission had demanded for them to be allowed to run.

They declared that the government was attempting to take Tunisia back to the dictatorship and rigged elections that characterized the country before the 2011 revolution.

Farouk Bou Asker, the president of the commission, informed reporters that the candidates’ denials were not because they had criminal record cards, but rather because they lacked citizen endorsements.

Human rights organizations and opposition parties in Tunisia have charged that intimidation and “arbitrary restrictions” are being utilized by the government to secure Saied’s reelection.

Based on a charge of buying votes, a Tunisian court this month sentenced four prospective presidential candidates to eight months in prison and disqualified them from seeking office.

Safi Said, one of the candidates, announced on Friday that he had withdrawn from the race, citing his refusal to take part in a “one-man show.” Kais Saied, who dissolved parliament and seized all powers in 2021 in a move that the opposition referred to as a coup, had declared last year that “he would not hand over the country to non-patriots.”

Related Topics:Featured President Kais Saied Tunisia

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Politics

Ghanian opposition protests, demands audit of voters register

Published

12 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

17 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.