Politics

10, December 2020

Ghana’s tactful president Nana Akufo-Addo wins second term ⁰

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

10, December 2020

French Cameroun: Ruling CPDM Crime Syndicate claims victory in first regional election ⁰

The party of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya overwhelmingly won in the country’s first regional election held over the weekend, according to official results published Wednesday, in a vote which was boycotted by the opposition.

The long-serving leader had called the election partly to defuse a separatist insurgency in the English-speaking west.

A 24,000-strong electoral college made up of municipal councillors and traditional chiefs voted to fill the posts of 900 regional councillors: 90 for each of the country’s 10 regions.

The ruling party won in nine of the 10 regions, while the 10th was won by a party in the presidential majority, according to results collected by AFP region by region from the Ministry of Interior and from Elecam, the body in charge of organising the vote.

The results did not come as a surprise, as municipal councillors with the greatest proportion of votes were overwhelmingly from the ruling party.

In the anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions, which have been plagued by a bloody conflict between the military and separatist groups for nearly four years, Biya’s party, the People’s Democratic Movement (RDPC), was the only one in contention.

The two main opposition parties, Maurice Kamto’s Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) and the Social Democratic Front (SDF) had both boycotted the polls.

Kamto has organised protests against Biya in recent months, claiming that holding elections before finding a solution to the secessionist conflict in the anglophone regions amounts to supporting partition.

The army has been fighting secessionists since 2017, and both sides are accused of abuses against civilians.

The government had presented these first regional elections as a historic step in completing the country’s decentralisation of power and settling the anglophone crisis — even if they were first set out in the 1996 constitution.

Biya dusted off the measures after coming under intense pressure from the international community over the uprising that has so far cost 3,000 lives and forced more than 700,000 people to flee their homes.

Biya, who has ruled the country for 38 years, has faced an unprecedented surge of street protests against his regime in recent years.

In addition to that, the far north of the country has been repeatedly targeted for attacks by jihadists.

Source: AFP

7, December 2020

Ghana set for tight presidential election as old rivals compete ⁰

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

6, December 2020

French Cameroun: Social media a major factor in domestic tensions ⁰

Social media in Cameroon are heightening political and ethnic tensions unleashed by the disputed 2018 presidential election – that’s according to a report by the International Crisis Group. The ICG says social media platforms, especially Facebook, should improve filtering toxic content and promote verified pages to reduce the tensions.

The ICG report says Cameroon is already facing serious security challenges and should find a way to ease political tensions and stop offensive language, such as ethnic slurs, that are causing the central African country to sink into violence.

Arrey Elvis Ntui, the ICG’s senior analyst for Cameroon, says hate speech and inter-ethnic tensions have increased since the October 2018 poll. He says the hate speech problem could endanger Cameroon’s stability.

“This period has also been marked by a lot of street protests. The country is currently dealing with a separatist insurgency in its Anglophone regions. Also, the army is dealing with the Boko Haram insurgency in the far north of the country with nearly daily attacks. Cameroon cannot simply afford to allow the ethnic and political tensions it is facing to rise to levels where they could constitute inter community violence,” Ntui said.

President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 38 years, was declared the winner of the elections. His victory is still contested by opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who insists he, not Biya, prevailed in the poll.

Ntui says Cameroon can avoid a slide into instability by reforming its electoral system.

“[The International] Crisis Group is proposing that Cameroon should strengthen its institutions which are responsible for addressing discrimination and improving its policy of living together. Some of these include discussions with the extra-parliamentary opposition in order to review the electoral system to make it more acceptable,” he said.

Ntui said the ruling CPDM party and the opposition should take measures to address the excesses of their supporters on social media, especially Facebook. He added that Facebook itself should also help check inflammatory language, provocative content and fake news which, he said, contribute to inflaming ethnic and political tension in the country.

Government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi said there is growing hate speech due to social media. He blamed opposition parties that he says want to weaken Biya’s rule.

“The government of the republic appeals to the majority of the Cameroonian people who have never allowed themselves to be misguided by unscrupulous politicians. The government through my voice exhorts Cameroonian men and women at home and abroad to thwart destabilizing maneuvers wherever they come from,” Sadi said.

Thursday’s report comes at a time when NGOs and journalism groups in Cameroon are warning against the use of media organs to propagate hate speech.

Rose Obah, the national coordinator of the Cameroon Community Media Network, said journalists should not be used as propaganda tools.

“We just come in to advise our members of our Cameroon Community Media Network as well as other journalists to be the first persons to [exercise] some kind of censorship around hate speech and fake news. Such words are unhealthy. Such words just come in to incite more violence and definitely with our main tool, peace journalism, we use it to encourage reporters and editors to encourage a peaceful society,” Obah said.

The ICG says President Biya should be wary of leaving behind a country riven with fighting and separatist sentiment in Anglophone areas but also by wider tensions, endangering Cameroon’s relatively amicable inter-ethnic relations.

Source: VOA

5, December 2020

France-Afrique: Military officer elected head of Mali’s interim legislature ⁰

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

5, December 2020

As Yaounde Prepares First Regional Election on Sunday, Opponents Say It’s Too Late ⁰

Cameroon will hold its first ever regional election on Sunday, as President Paul Biya seeks to quell a four-year-old separatist insurgency and appease opponents who say he has neglected the provinces for decades.

Over 10,000 local representatives will vote to appoint councils in all ten regions made up of regional delegates and traditional rulers, putting into action a 1996 law that promised decentralised government but was never enacted.

Government officials say it will give the regions greater say over spending and local governance. They hope it could also end a conflict in the English-speaking west that was sparked by the perceived marginalisation of the Anglophone minority.

The ongoing conflict has killed more than 3,000 people and become the greatest threat to Biya’s 40-year presidency of the country, where the official language is French.

Critics say the election comes too late, offers only the semblance of regional autonomy, and does little to dent Biya’s power.

It could be disrupted by separatist fighters who call it a “fraud” and the main opposition parties are boycotting, meaning the councils will likely be stacked with Biya supporters.

“If it had come in 1996, maybe it could have solved the crisis. But we are no longer at that level,” said opposition politician and former presidential candidate Joshua Osih. “The demands are beyond decentralisation. People want to take care of their own territory.”

The separatist conflict began in 2016 when teachers and lawyers protested against having to work in French.

The government cracked down on peaceful marches and armed groups responded with attacks on soldiers and policemen, calling for the creation of an independent state called Ambazonia. Civilians have also been targeted in attacks each side blames on the other.

Leading separatist Cho Ayaba said they intend seize officials organising Sunday’s vote.

“We have issued an order banning the elections … and for anyone … collaborating with Cameroon in organising this fraud to be arrested.”

Source: Thomson Reuters

4, December 2020

Turkish President Erdogan says France should ‘get rid of’ Macron soonest ⁰

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he hopes France will “get rid of” President Emmanuel Macron in the shortest possible time, in his harshest remark against the French leader yet.

“Macron is a burden on France. Macron and France are going through a very dangerous period actually. My hope is that France gets rid of the Macron trouble as soon as possible,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul on Friday.

Turkey and France have been at odds over a range of issues, including Ankara’s dispute with Greece over sea boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean.

France has backed Athens in the maritime dispute, taking part in joint war games with Greece and Cyprus amid conflicting Greco-Turkish claims to territory in the sea believed to be rich in oil and natural gas.

Ties between the two NATO allies have also deteriorated over conflicting policies in Syria and Libya, even though they have backed and supplied militants in the two war-ravaged Arab countries.

Ankara and Paris have also traded barbs over their roles in the recent Nagorno-Karabkah conflict.

But Erdogan has grown specially bitter toward Macron over the French president’s defense of the publication of offensive caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by a French satirical magazine.

Anger grew across the Muslim world after Macron publicly attacked Islam in defense of the publication of the derogatory cartoons.

In early October, Macron said he would not “renounce the caricatures.” He instead described Islam as a religion “in crisis” and declared war on “Islamist separatism,” which he claimed was taking over France’s estimated six-million-strong Muslim population.

His remarks sparked sharp criticism from Muslim leaders and activists from around the world, including Erdogan, who described Macron’s posture as an “open provocation.”

Erdogan later said Macron “needs treatment on a mental level.”

Source: Presstv

4, December 2020

Brexit talks hang in the balance as EU warns it can make no more concessions ⁰

European diplomats warned Thursday they have made all the concessions they can in trade talks with Britain, as Downing Street vowed to press ahead with a UK law that could undermine Brussels’ remaining trust in London.

The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier has been in London for six days, trying to carve out a difficult compromise with his UK counterpart David Frost and draw up a trade pact that can be ratified within weeks.

“We are at the end of a marathon, probably past the 40 kilometre (25-mile) mark. But there’s still a little way to go,” Barnier adviser Stefaan de Rynck said, during a debate at the European Policy Centre.

As the finish line nears, tempers were fraying in Brussels, with some of the EU’s 27 member states — led by France and the Netherlands — worried that Barnier would shake hands on something that in their view gives up too much ground to a country quitting the club.

An EU diplomat insisted the Europeans remain united, but warned that it was clear that Barnier “was millimetres away from the red lines” he had been given.

“I think it’s quite clear that at this moment in time that we’ve reached a point where we are so close to the limits of our mandate, that we need a movement on the side of the UK if we want to strike a deal,” he said.

“I do not have the impression that we are hours away from a deal… what has to be bridged is still quite substantial,” the diplomat added.

Negotiators are working day and night to agree on a deal in time to be ratified before December 31, when Britain will no longer be bound by EU single market rules under the terms of a post-Brexit transition.

A European source with close knowledge of the negotiations said the talks would continue on Thursday “and no doubt on Friday.”

“Everything could change at any moment,” the source said, adding that the sense of urgency was “now understood in London”.

A British government source said the EU had brought “new elements” into the negotiations. “A breakthrough is still possible in the next few days but that prospect is receding,” the source said late Thursday.

Barnier could brief EU members Friday afternoon but the meeting has yet to be confirmed, a European source said.

In London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman earlier said the negotiating teams were “continuing to work hard to resolve the differences that remain.”

“Our focus remains, and will continue to be, on trying to secure a free trade agreement.”

But Number 10 also confirmed that it would go ahead next week with a plan to push through the Internal Market Bill, a draft law to govern UK business after it leaves the EU single market.

Johnson admits that clauses in the bill would breach the withdrawal treaty he signed with Brussels, and EU officials have warned that it could be impossible to ratify a trade deal if he persists.

‘Hold our nerve’

The House of Lords, Britain’s upper parliamentary chamber, stripped the offending measures — which Brussels fears breach a promise to establish a customs border in the Irish Sea — from the bill.

But the spokesman said: “Our position remains unchanged. We will overturn the Lords defeat and reinsert those clauses.”

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, on a visit to Paris, said a deal would be possible in the coming days as long as European nations “hold our nerve”.

Negotiations to determine the future trading relationship starting on January 1 are currently stalled on three key issues — fisheries, regulatory issues and governance of a future pact.

Coveney said he hoped a deal would be reached but that there would be “no further extensions” and “no extra time” beyond January 1.

But both EU member states and the European Parliament would have to ratify any accord struck between Frost and Barnier and their bosses Johnson and EU president Ursula von der Leyen.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex was in the Channel port of Boulogne on Thursday to promise French fishermen they would not be abandoned if they lose access to UK waters.

Source: AFP

2, December 2020

US attorney general Barr rejects Trump’s claims of election-altering fraud ⁰

The US attorney general rejected Republican claims of significant voter fraud in the presidential election on Tuesday, adding to the pressure on President Donald Trump to give up his quixotic effort to overturn Joe Biden’s clear victory.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Attorney General Bill Barr told the Associated Press in an interview.

Barr’s comments confirmed the conclusions of the Department of Homeland Security, US intelligence and independent poll watchers that the 2020 election was, in the language of government officials, the “most secure in American history.”

They came as Trump persisted in claiming, without evidence, that fraudulent voting practices and systems in key states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia had robbed him of a second term.

In tweets Tuesday afternoon Trump highlighted testimony being offered in a public hearing on the election in Michigan, which has already certified Biden’s win in the state, and a separate Republican-organized event in Virginia.

Unsubstantiated claims

In several legal filings — all rejected by the courts — the Trump campaign has sought to invalidate millions of votes for Biden based on claims that lacked any evidence.

According to official vote tallies, Biden earned 6.2 million votes more than Trump and captured 306 state-by-state Electoral College votes, well above the 270 needed to win the presidency.

But Trump’s campaign has strived to delay the popular vote tally from being finalized before the Electoral College meets on December 14 to certify the election winner.

His personal and campaign attorneys, led by , have made numerous allegations ranging from ballot-box stuffing and fake ballot printing, to thousands of dead people having voted, to vote-counting machines being programmed to favor Biden.

On November 17 Trump fired Chris Krebs, the respected head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which was responsible for election security and had made the “most secure ever” claim about the November 3 election.

Krebs has since been demonized by the White House, with Trump campaign lawyer Joe DiGenova sparking outrage by calling him a “moron” who should be “taken out at dawn and shot.”

No systemic fraud

Barr, an ally of Trump, didn’t address specific claims, but dismissed the idea of any “systemic” fraud that would have changed the outcome of the vote.

Any problem for which there has been evidence, Barr noted, would impact an insignificant number of votes.

“There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud, and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results,” he told the AP.

“And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” he said, referring to the departments of Homeland Security and Justice.

Giuliani rejects Barr

There was no immediate reaction to Barr from Trump. But in a joint statement Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, a senior legal advisor to the outgoing president’s campaign, dismissed the remarks.

“With all due respect to the attorney general, there hasn’t been any semblance of a Department of Justice investigation,” they said.

“We have gathered ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states, which they have not examined. We have many witnesses swearing under oath they saw crimes being committed in connection with voter fraud.”

They said they would “continue our pursuit of the truth through the judicial system and state legislatures.”

Barr’s comments were reported about the same time he arrived Tuesday at the White House for unspecified meetings.

Recent news reports have said that Trump is unhappy with Barr for not making efforts to support the president’s reelection.

But, likely pleasing Trump, on Tuesday he revealed that he had named an independent special prosecutor to investigate the Justice Department and FBI investigators who probed links between Trump’s campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.

Trump has claimed that those investigators, including former special counsel Robert Mueller, were part of a corrupt, political “witch hunt” by the “deep state” to undermine his administration.

Source: AFP

1, December 2020

US: ‘Smooth, seamless’ transition into Biden administration, vows Trump envoy in NATO ⁰

US ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison has spoken of a “smooth” and “seamless” transition into the administration of President-elect Joe Biden despite President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

“We are going to have a smooth transition so they have all the information they need to determine what the policy is,” she said Monday. “I think there will be a seamless transition.”

During his tenure, President Trump has pressured US allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, blaming them for not paying their “fair share.”

“President-elect Biden certainly is pro-NATO,” Hutchison said. “I served with him in the United States Senate and I know he is very much a multi-lateral organization supporter. We like to have allies. He likes to have allies. And I think that is ongoing from this administration to the next administration.”

She further suggested that Biden has the option to overturn the anti-NATO position Trump has adopted.

“Options are left open for the incoming administration in January,” Hutchison said. “The way that this has been put forward does leave the decisions for the next administration to determine what is in their best interests and in the interests of the United States, of course.”

Source: Presstv