Campaigning has started in the Central African Republic’s tense presidential vote on December 27.

Although it has been quiet in the capital Bangui, it is a different story in the provinces.

On Sunday, some candidates braved the threats in the central city of Bria, which is marred by armed violence.

Africanews witnessed the scenes of cheers and dancing as a large crowd made up of several hundred fighters and internally displaced people showed their support for two young candidates.

“Everything is happening amicably, in peace and in social cohesion. People came from PK3 from Bornou and from Bogolo and from the center they are united for the campaign,” said Wilfred.

Armed groups still control much of the landlocked country despite a peace agreement signed almost two years ago and one in four people are either internally displaced or living as refugees in neighbouring countries.

The presidential and legislative election is already tense.

UN-sanctioned former leader François Bozizé is trying to run again. He was exiled for six years after he was ousted by rebels but returned in late 2019.

But supporters of the incumbent president, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, say he can’t run as he was not in the country for 12 months after he submitted his application, which is required by law.

Protests have already broken out over the situation.

The election will be the second since fighting broke out in 2013 following the coup when the mostly Muslim Séléka rebel alliance that overthrew Bozizé fought the mostly Christian and the anti-Balaka militia, which the ex-president is accused of creating.

Source: Africa News

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara was sworn in for a controversial third term on Monday, urging the opposition to help defuse tensions after election-related violence claimed 85 lives in the West African powerhouse.

The ceremony was attended by 13 African counterparts as well as French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy — but boycotted by the opposition, as was the October 31 election that returned Ouattara to power.

“I ask all political parties to seize this new opportunity… to defuse tensions through dialogue,” the 78-year-old president said, noting publicly for the first time that legislative elections will be held in the first quarter of 2021.

Ouattara promised the creation of a national reconciliation ministry in the next government, while stressing that “violence and intolerable acts… should not go unpunished”.

It was a tacit warning to several opposition leaders who were arrested in the wake of the election, with legal proceedings over “sedition” launched against them.

But leading opposition figure Henri Konan Bedie last week proposed a “national dialogue”.

He also announced the dissolution of a rival government, the “National Transition Council”, that the opposition set up after the election, a move that landed spokesnan Pascal Affi N’Guessan in jail.

Bedie, 86, a former president himself, stopped short of recognising Ouattara’s re-election with more than 94 percent of the vote.

Ouattara and his supporters had argued that a 2016 revision of the constitution reset his term counter to zero, allowing him to seek a third term.

Pre- and post-election violence has claimed at least 85 lives since August, with around 500 injured, according to an official toll.

– Memories of civil war –

For many Ivorians, the bloodletting revived painful memories of the aftermath of disputed elections in 2010.

A political standoff was followed by a brief civil war in which around 3,000 people died and an estimated 1.3 million people fled their homes.

Ouattara has asked his prime minister, Hamed Bakayoko, to resume discussions with the opposition on the composition of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI).

The opposition is demanding a reform of the body, which it accuses of bias.

In his speech on Monday, Ouattara said he would devote his third term to education and the social safety net as well as reconciliation, vowing to lift three million people out of poverty.

While the country of 25 million has enjoyed strong economic growth and the completion of several infrastructure projects under Ouattara, critics say the poorest have been left behind.

Source: AFP

Ghana’s opposition candidate John Mahama on Thursday rejected as “fraudulent” the results of the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections in which President Nana Akufo-Addo won a second term.

Challenging election results could test the stability of the west African nation, where previous electoral grievances have been pursued through the courts.

A day earlier, the electoral commission said that Akufo-Addo had won 51.59 percent of the vote on Monday, ahead of Mahama with 47.36 percent.

But Mahama rejected those numbers.

“I stand before you tonight unwilling to accept the fictionalised results of a flawed election,” he told a news conference.

“We will take all legitimate steps to reverse this tragedy of justice.”

The 62-year-old claimed that “numerous steps have been taken to manipulate the results of the election in favour of the incumbent.”

The tightly contested race has led to tensions between the two main parties, with the opposition candidate accusing the president of abuse of power.

“Armed forces featured heavily as an intimidating measure to reverse election results,” Mahama said and called on the international community “to remain engaged in what is happening in Ghana and to take careful note of the current threat that is being waged to our democracy.”

According to the provisional results published by the electoral commission, Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) won 137 seats in parliament, while Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) won 136.

The full results of the parliamentary elections have not yet been announced but the opposition leader said his party had in fact won 140 seats.

‘Work together’

It is not uncommon for presidential candidates to contest results.

Mahama and Akufo-Addo are long-standing rivals and this was their third election battle.

In 2012, it was Akufo-Addo who contested Mahama’s win.

In a victory speech to supporters Wednesday, the 76-year-old president-elect said it was time “irrespective of political affiliations, to unite, join hands and stand shoulder to shoulder.”

“The Ghanaian people through the results have made it loud and clear that the two parties, the NPP and NDC, must work together especially in parliament, for the good of the country.”

Observers, both Ghanaian and foreign, viewed polling as generally free and fair, but police said five people were killed and 19 injured in election-related violence.

Akufo-Addo and Mahama had signed a symbolic peace pact ahead of the vote, which the 15-nation regional bloc ECOWAS urged “all political parties and their leadership to respect.”

Ghana has recorded high levels of growth during Akufo-Addo’s first term as he worked to diversify an economy largely dependent on cocoa exports and more recently oil and gold.

On education in particular, he is considered to have done well, which matters in a country where 18- to 35-year-olds account for more than half of all eligible voters.

But while Ghana has made large strides in recent years, many still live in extreme poverty, with scarce access to clean water or electricity.

Severely hit by the pandemic, growth in the nation of 30 million people is expected to fall this year to its lowest in three decades.

The International Monetary Fund is pencilling in growth of 0.9 percent for the country, down sharply from 6.5 percent growth in 2019.

An urgent task for the next government will be to limit mounting debt and control rising inflation.

Source: AFP

Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo, a former human rights lawyer with the reputation of a smooth operator, has won a second term with 51.59 percent of votes in Monday’s tightly contested election.

The 76-year-old ran against 11 candidates including his long-time opponent John Mahama, 62, a former president himself known as “a man of the people”. He came in second with 47.36 percent of votes.

Akufo-Addo, who sports ‘Harry Potter-esque’ glasses, is a London-educated economic liberal with a cheerful smile. But while he often comes across as jovial, he is a dynamic and forceful leader.

In a speech that went viral in 2018, the president pleaded with fellow Africans to get rid of a dependence mentality towards former European colonisers, aligning himself with historic pan-African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah and Jerry Rawlings.

“Long before he came into politics, he was somebody who had built a strong reputation fighting the military dictatorship, which enabled him to build friendships across political lines,” said Kwesi Jonah, a senior research fellow at Ghana’s Institute for Democratic Governance.

Current chairman of the regional bloc ECOWAS, he more recently played an important role mediating political crises in Togo and Guinea.

– High growth during first term –

In 2016, after two failed attempts at the presidency, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) leader rode to power on promises that included free high school education and a factory in each of Ghana’s districts.

On education in particular, “he has done very well,” said Jonah — a point that counts in a country where 18- to 35-year-olds account for more than half of all eligible voters.

While in office, he launched the Year of Return to encourage descendants of slaves to “come home” and encourage investments.

Ghana has recorded high levels of growth during his first term in office as he worked to diversify an economy largely dependent on cocoa exports and more recently oil and gold.

But many still live in extreme poverty with scarce access to clean water or electricity.

Severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, growth in the nation of 30 million people is expected to fall this year to its lowest in three decades, to 0.9 percent according to the International Monetary Fund.

That is a steep decline from 6.5 percent growth in 2019.

– Anti-corruption drive –

Born in the capital Accra in 1944, Akufo-Addo was never far from power. His family, richly royal and deeply political, includes three members of Ghana’s legendary “Big Six”, considered the country’s founding fathers.

After picking up an accent in Britain, along with a lifelong passion for Tottenham Hotspur, Akufo-Addo worked as a lawyer in France before returning to Ghana.

Throughout his career, as a lawyer, then member of parliament and minister, he built a strong anti-corruption reputation.

“Everybody saw him as the guy who, when voted into power, would be able to bring corruption under control,” said Kwesi Jonah, a senior research fellow at Ghana’s Institute for Democratic Governance.

Once in office, he appointed a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute corrupt officials.

But the prosecutor, Martin Amidu, resigned in November, shortly after releasing a report into a government-backed royalties deal, accusing the president of obstruction and interference.

Despite denials of any wrongdoing from the government, it did not put Akufo-Addo in a flattering light and discontent with his administration — many of which include family members — is simmering.

During this year’s campaign, the president did not make ambitious promises as he had in 2016.

“He has been in power for four years,” said Jonah, “so he knows it is very difficult to get money to do things.”

A first and urgent task will be to limit mounting debt and control rising inflation.

Source: AFP

More than 17 million people are eligible to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana on Monday with the race for the top job expected to be a close-run fight between incumbent Nana Akufo-Addo and longtime opponent John Mahama.

Nestled along the Gulf of Guinea, Ghana — long a beacon of democracy and stability in west Africa — has ensured peaceful transfers of power on seven occasions since it returned to democracy nearly 30 years ago.

The two major parties have always accepted electoral outcomes and pursued any grievances through the courts.

To ensure its continued tradition of peaceful polls, Akufo-Addo, 76, and Mahama, 62, on Friday signed a symbolic peace pact.

They are among 12 candidates, including three women, who are running.

“In view of the happenings on the continent, and, indeed in West Africa, the entire world is looking up to us to maintain our status as a beacon of democracy, peace and stability,” Akufo-Addo said in a televised address on Sunday evening.

Voters will cast their ballots for a new president and members of parliament for 275 constituencies between 7:00 am and 5:00 pm at 38,000 polling stations across the nation.

Key issues include unemployment, infrastructure, education and health.

Ghana has made giant strides over the past two decades, becoming the world’s second-largest cocoa-producing country, but many still live in extreme poverty with scarce access to clean water or electricity.

Hit hard by the pandemic, growth in the nation of 30 million people is expected to fall this year to its lowest in three decades, to 0.9 percent according to the International Monetary Fund, a steep decline from 6.5 percent growth in 2019.

Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Mahama of the National Democratic Congress party (NDC) have faced each other at the ballot box three times already.

The incumbent has been given high marks for his handling of the pandemic and his record on free education and improving access to electricity.

But he has disappointed some in his performance on tackling graft — the key issue on which he was elected four years ago.

Despite this, corruption is a difficult issue for Mahama to latch onto, as he himself left office under a cloud of graft allegations.

Mahama has also been criticised for poor economic decisions and racking up unsustainable debts.

But the skilled communicator has brushed aside the criticism, making ambitious promises to build infrastructure, create jobs and modernise the country.

A bold move by Mahama was picking former education minister Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang as running mate, the first woman on the ticket of a major party.

The winner will have to secure 50 percent of votes plus one. Results could be known as early as 24 hours after polls close, although the electoral commission said the time frame was not set in stone.

Source: AFP

Mali’s interim legislature on Saturday elected Colonel Malick Diaw, a member of the military junta that toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August, as its president.

The 121-seat body known as the National Transition Council was meeting for its inaugural session in the capital Bamako, and is a key part of the post-coup interim government apparatus in Mali.

Young army officers in the conflict-ridden Sahel state toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18 after weeks of anti-government protests.

Under the threat of international sanctions, the officers between September and October handed power to an interim government, which is meant to rule for 18 months before staging elections.

Figures with army links dominate this interim government, however, and anger over their prominent role is growing.

Coup leader Colonel Assimi Goita was elected interim vice president, for example, and retired army colonel Bah Ndaw was also elected interim president.

Members of the defence and security forces have 22 seats in the transition council, according to a government decree, while political parties, civil society groups and trade unions also have seats.

On Saturday, the council elected Colonel Malick Diaw as its president unopposed, according to AFP journalists, with 111 votes in his favour and seven abstentions. Three council members did not vote.

Diaw was second in command of the military junta that took power after Keita’s ouster. The junta has never formally been dissolved.

Last month, Goita was also given veto power over the appointments to the new legislature, in a move seen by critics of the interim regime as strengthening army control. 

The opposition June 5 Movement, which led protests against Keita this year, said in a statement on Friday that it was boycotting the new legislature and that it would not serve as a “stooge for a disguised military regime”.

Source: AFP

Incumbent Burkina Faso President Roch Kaboré was leading with just 12 of around 360 voting districts declared on Monday, the electoral commission said, while opposition parties cast doubt on the credibility of the results thus far.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens were unable to cast their ballots during the presidential vote on Sunday because their polling stations remained closed for fear of Islamist violence.

Groups linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group operate across swathes of Burkina Faso, part of a widening jihadist threat in West Africa’s Sahel, a semi-arid region south of the Sahara Desert.

An association of the opposition parties cast doubt on the credibility of the results on Monday, repeating allegations of irregularities and fraud during a joint news conference. Ahead of the vote, international observers said they had seen no evidence of fraud.

Analysts expect a tight race that could go to a second round if no candidate wins more than 50 percent.

Kaboré, who was first elected in 2015, led in most of the dozen voting districts whose results were announced on Monday afternoon, totalling over 53,000 votes, more than double as many as his nearest rival, Zéphirin Diabré.

The electoral commission said further results would be announced on Tuesday.

Diabré is a former finance minister and 2015 runner-up. Kaboré’s other main competitor in the field of 13 candidates is Eddie Komboigo, the head of the party of Blaise Compaoré, who was president for 27 years until a 2014 revolution.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

More clashes broke out over Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara’s reelection on Tuesday as West African nations and France called for dialogue to end tensions over his contested third term.

Ouattara secured the October 31 election by more than 94 percent, but the West African nation is mired in a dispute after opposition leaders rejected the vote, accusing him of breaching the two-term limit for the presidency.

Tensions have revived trauma over disputed elections in 2010 that unleashed a brief civil war in the West African country, claiming around 3,000 lives.

At least three people were killed in the central-eastern town of M’Batto between Monday and Tuesday when violence erupted between rival ethnic communities over Ouattara’s third term, police and local residents said.

“The situation is calm now and reinforcements are patrolling the area,” a gendarmerie spokesman said, confirming the total of three killed and 26 wounded.

Another nine people died in violence in two other towns on Monday as the country’s top court validated Ouattara’s election victory.

More than 8,000 Ivorians have fled to neighbouring countries, fearing election-linked violence, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.

West African bloc ECOWAS offered warm congratulations” to Ouattara, but the 15-member group urged him to bring Ivorians together after the unrest that has killed around 50 people since August.

Ouattara, a former IMF economist first elected in 2010, has urged chief rival Henri Konan Bedie to drop the protests and hold talks to defuse the crisis.

“I will be the president for all Ivorians,” he said in a national broadcast on Monday evening.

There has been no official response from the main opposition party PDCI or its chief Bedie, an 86-year-old former president.

Bedie’s Abidjan home is still blockaded by security forces. Two other opposition chiefs have been arrested for suspected insurrection after rejecting the ballot and announcing a rival government.

But one opposition representative maintained a hard line.

“We do not recognise the election. We all know he (Ouattara) violated the constitution,” said N’Goran Djiedri, leader of one faction of the PDCI.

“Yes to dialogue, but the rule of law must be respected.”

Face-to-face talks

ECOWAS urged “all Ivorians to put peace and social cohesion above all and seek to resolve their differences through dialogue and legal channels”.

The UN, EU and African Union have all urged talks to stop tensions worsening in Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, francophone West Africa’s largest economy and a business hub.

Western diplomats and government sources say talks are ongoing with both sides, though no solid progress has been made so far.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Ivory Coast’s former colonial ruler considered Ouattara’s offer of dialogue went “in the right direction”, but hoped that “acts will contribute to appeasement”.

“Bedie and Ouattara could see each other and be seen with each other, to take the tensions down a level,” one Western diplomat said.

“The real discussion needs to happen between these two.”

The bitter rivalry has marked Ivorian politics for decades along with ethnic and regional loyalties.

In power since 2010, Ouattara had said that at the end of his second term he would make way for the next generation, raising hopes for an end to the long-running feuds.

But the sudden death of his chosen successor in July prompted a change of mind.

His bid angered opposition chiefs, stoking tensions over a possible post-election crisis similar to one in 2010-11 when then-president Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept defeat by Ouattara.

French troops eventually intervened and Ouattara loyalists were able to oust Gbagbo.

The country was already divided in two after a civil war—the north held by rebels and the south by Gbagbo’s forces.

Source: AFP

Two Ivory Coast government supporters were killed and a minister’s convoy hit by gunfire, officials said on Wednesday, as tensions build over President Alassane Ouattara’s contested reelection.

Ivory Coast is caught in a standoff after Ouattara was declared victor on Tuesday, but rivals boycotted the vote and declared they would form a rival “transitional” government.

Security forces have blockaded access to homes of Ouattara’s chief rivals, Henri Konan Bedie and Pascal Affi N’Guessan, after officials accused the opposition of plotting an “act of sedition” against the government.

The United States on Wednesday joined the UN in calling for dialogue in the West African state where more than 40 people have been killed in clashes over Ouattara’s third term since he announced he would run again in August.

Two government supporters were killed in a clash near equipment minister Amede Koffi Kouakou’s home in the central town of Toumodi, a ruling party official said.

“Two young people from the minister’s entourage who wanted to help the minister’s brother were shot dead” Tuesday night, Ouattara’s RHDP party spokesman Mamadou Toure said.

Toumodi was one of the areas hit by violence over the weekend election — four people were killed at the weekend when houses were set ablaze during clashes there.

Toure also said the convoy of communication minister and government spokesman Sidi Tiemoko Toure had come under fire in the centre of the country, but there were no casualties.

Blocked roads

The crisis has stoked fears Ivory Coast could slide into the kind of violence that killed 3,000 people a decade ago when then president Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept defeat by Ouattara.

Police fired tear gas on Tuesday to clear small groups of protesters near Bedie’s residence in Abidjan’s Cocody district, where security forces have blocked access roads around his home.

Security forces were also surrounding the homes of N’Guessan and former minister Abdallah Mabri Toikeusse, an AFP reporter said.

“We cannot enter or leave my home,” said Assoa Adou, secretary general of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), close to former Gbagbo, from his home.

“They don’t care if we have food or medicine,” he told AFP.

Djedri N’Goran, a senior member of Bedie’s party, said five members of Bedie’s family have been arrested.

Opponents say Ouattara’s third term breaches the country’s two-term presidential limit, but the Ivorian leader contends that a 2016 reform allowed him to run again by resetting term limits back to zero.

International concern

The crisis is another test for a region where Guinea is caught up in its own post-election dispute, Nigeria is emerging from widespread unrest and Mali has a transition government following a coup.

The United Nations, African Union and African bloc ECOWAS on Tuesday called on Ivory Coast’s opposition to “respect constitutional order” and seek dialogue, while urging all sides to show “restraint to preserve human lives”.

On Tuesday, the US called on Ivorian leaders to respect the democratic process and rule of law.

“Grievances related to the presidential election must be resolved in a peaceful and transparent manner within the framework of the law,” a statement from the US embassy said.

Western and African governments are pressing the opposition to abandon its idea of a transitional government and for Ouattara to “appease rather than oppress”, a diplomatic source said.

In power for 10 years, Ouattara said earlier this year that after his second term he planned to make way for a new generation.

But the sudden death of his chosen successor in July prompted him to seek a third term.

The anger sparked by his decision has revived memories of past Ivorian feuds with roots even before a 2002 civil war split the country in two, the north held by rebels and the south by forces of Gbagbo.

Ouattara won a long-postponed election in 2010 but Gbagbo refused to accept defeat. French forces eventually intervened to help Ouattara loyalists oust the former president.

(AFP)

Tanzanians will vote Wednesday amid rising concern for democracy under President John Magufuli, who is seeking a second term, and with tensions high in volatile Zanzibar, where violence erupted ahead of the vote.

Long deemed a haven of stability in East Africa, observers say Tanzania has seen a worrying crackdown on the opposition and freedom of speech under the 60-year-old Magufuli and his Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has been in power since 1961.

Magufuli is counting on his ambitious programme of infrastructure development and fiery anti-corruption stance to secure him a second mandate and called for a peaceful vote.

“For those who qualify, vote and go home. Let the electoral body do its work. Peace is very important and I pray it dominates the polls,” he said Tuesday.

Magufuli’s main challenger among 15 presidential candidates is Tundu Lissu, 52, of the Chadema opposition party.

He returned to the country in July after three years abroad recovering from 16 bullet wounds sustained in what he believes was a politically-motivated assassination attempt.

Lissu’s return has reinvigorated an opposition demoralised by a ban on political rallies outside of election time, multiple arrests, attacks, and what rights groups have slammed as the squeezing of democracy.

“I have witnessed through the campaign that Tanzanians are ready for changes and I believe they will turn out to vote tomorrow,” he said at his final rally.

 Early vote –

In a boost for the opposition’s chances, Zitto Kabwe, the head of the popular ACT-Wazalendo party, has endorsed Lissu for the presidency on the mainland.

In return, Chadema is backing veteran opposition candidate Seif Sharif Hamad in his sixth bid for the presidency in Zanzibar, this time against CCM candidate Hussein Ali Hassan Mwinyi.

Zanzibar has a history of tense elections plagued with violence and irregularities and the opposition has again accused the ruling party of seeking to steal the vote.

The archipelago held an early vote for security forces Tuesday which prompted violence that the opposition says left 10 dead and scores injured.

“How can you have an election were you have teargas everywhere and live ammunition? It is in no case a fair election, it is just a farce,” said Hamad.

Trucks loaded with soldiers, police and a militia linked to the ruling party known as “zombies” — clad in black with their faces covered by bandanas — whizzed throughout the city and on Tuesday were seen rounding up and beating several civilians.

“I’m alarmed by reports from Zanzibar and elsewhere of violence, deaths, and detentions,” United States ambassador Donald Wright wrote on Twitter.

Britain’s envoy, David Concar, urged “all involved in the elections to act with restraint and integrity to ensure the will of the people can be expressed peacefully at the ballot box”.

 Increasing intolerance –

Magufuli, elected in 2015, at first made wildly popular moves such as curbing foreign travel for government officials or showing up in person to make sure civil servants were doing their work.

Then, he banned political rallies and became increasingly intolerant of dissent.

A series of tough media laws were passed, arrests of journalists, activists and opposition members soared and several opposition members were killed.

The opposition and analysts have expressed serious concerns about the fairness of the election, pointing in particular to a polls body comprising commissioners personally appointed by Magufuli.

Magufuli touts his expansion of free education, rural electrification and infrastructure projects such as railways, a hydropower dam set to double electricity output and the revival of the national airline.

However analysts say while the economy grew at an impressive pre-coronavirus average of six percent, there was little job creation and aggressive tax collection has hurt the private sector and made doing business harder.

The IMF expects growth to slow to 1.9 percent this year.

The election campaign has taken place with little regard to the coronavirus pandemic. Tanzania stopped giving out official data on infection numbers in April, and Magufuli has declared the country Covid-free, which he attributes to the power of prayer.

On the mainland, just over 29 million registered voters will cast their ballots, while some 566,000 will vote in Zanzibar from 7 am (0400 GMT) until 4 pm (1300 GMT).

Source: AFP