Politics

Burundi launches much-awaited demographic census

Published

2 weeks ago

September 4, 2024

Burundi’s National Census of the Population, Housing, Agriculture, and Livestock has begun as President Evariste Ndayishimiye urged citizens to provide accurate information to aid in project development.

The president of state urged Burundians and foreigners living in Burundi to be counted and to be truthful with information.

“Everyone must know that this census is important for the country and the population. Based on this census, we will be able to get the right state of the country, and its economic situation, and enable us to make good project plans, because it is difficult to plan for the future without knowing the current situation. I call on residents of Burundi to respond truthfully and honestly in the questionnaire because wrong information may hinder project planning,” the President said.

Census personnel, supervised by the president of the Central Bureau of the Census, Nicolas Ndayishimiye, registered President Ndayishimiye and his family at their home on Mt Vugizo in Bujumbura’s Kiriri Quarter.

Vice-President Prosper Bazombanza and his family also participated in the exercise on Monday, and he echoed the President’s message, adding that accurate data would aid in the design of education and other social services.

However, this year’s count has presented complications, with enumerators reporting difficulty locating certain residents due to abandoned homesteads.

The agents are also dealing with travel and accommodation issues as a result of delays in the disbursement of their allowances, and many have had to walk great distances during the day to reach residential neighbourhoods.

In a news briefing last week, Central Bureau of Census Director Nicolas Ndayishimiye stated that the government has set aside BIF66 billion ($22.85 million) to fund the activities, with the World Bank pledging an additional $6.5 million.

Burundi’s last population and housing census was done in 2008. The ongoing exercise is scheduled to end on September 15.

Since its independence in 1962, Burundi has undertaken three censuses: in 1979, 1990, and 2008. The country now has five provinces: Gitega, the political capital; Bujumbura, the economic capital; and Butanyera, Buhumuza, and Burunga.

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.