Polls
Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni in commanding election lead, rival alleges fraud
Uganda’s long-time leader Yoweri Museveni held a commanding lead in a presidential election according to partial results on Saturday morning, with final results expected later in the day, though his main rival Bobi Wine alleged widespread fraud. With ballots from 86% of polling stations counted, Museveni had won 5.3 million, or 58.8%, while main opposition candidate Wine had 3.1 million votes (34.6%), the electoral commission said just after 9 a.m. (0600 GMT). The government ordered the internet to be shut down the day before voting on Thursday, and the blackout was still in place. Wine, 38, had galvanised young Ugandans with his calls for political change after 35 years of Museveni, 76, ruling the country. The run-up to the election was more violent than in previous polls. Security forces...
Rights group urges lifting Ugandan social media ban
Amnesty International is calling for Ugandan officials to lift bans on social media imposed ahead of Thursday’s election. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced on Tuesday that the government had shut down social media. On Jan. 9, Facebook deleted dozens of pro-Ugandan government accounts, saying they were “fake.” Museveni characterized Facebook’s action as arrogant. “It is alarming that the Ugandan authorities have suspended social media networks including Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp and restricted people’s right to freedom of expression and access to information,” said Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, in a press release. Amnesty International said the move was intended to silence journalists, election o...
Uganda election: Will Bobi Wine derail Yoweri Museveni’s sixth term bid?
As millions of Ugandans prepare to pick the country’s president this week, the stakes could not be higher. The run-up to Thursday’s vote has been marred by restrictions on campaigning, arrests of opposition figures and deadly violence. At least 54 people were killed in November as security forces put down protests by opposition supporters. Longtime President Yoweri Museveni, 76, is facing a strong challenge from popular musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine in his bid to secure a sixth, five-year term in office. Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was just four years old when Museveni, a former rebel leader, came to power in 1986. In 2005, Uganda’s ruling-party-dominated parliament removed presidential term limits. And in 2017, lawmakers scrapped the age limit of 75 fo...
Ever-present Boko Haram threat casts shadow in Niger
Seven years after the first Boko Haram attacks in southeastern Niger, people in the city of Diffa, dare not even speak the group’s name. Residents live in a state of siege, frightened and struggling with the economic impact of the Islamist threat. For fear of reprisals, people speak of “insecurity”, of the “problems” or the “current situation”. The fear is well-founded, according to one security source who says Boko Haram sympathisers in the city pass on information to the group. Among the poorest countries in the world, Niger, which is holding presidential elections on Sunday, faces jihadist groups from the Sahel in the west and Boko Haram in the east. “I don’t have 1,000 CFA francs (1.5 euros) in my pocket. I have been unemployed for four years,” says Abdou Maman, 46, who has two wives a...
India arrests 75 in Kashmir after local elections
The Indian government has arrested at least 75 Kashmiri political leaders and activists to forestall political unrest after an alliance of Kashmir’s regional political parties won local elections, leaders and a police official said on Saturday. The District Development Council elections, concluded early this week, were the first local polls since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the special status of the Muslim-majority region last year. New Delhi then cracked down on the opposition and rounded up hundreds of people to preempt protests and violence. The latest detentions, which include separatist leaders and members of the banned Jamat-e-Islami group, were for preventive custody, said a senior police official, who asked not to be identified. But Imran Nabi Dar, spokesman f...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris jointly named TIME’s ‘Person of the Year’
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were jointly named Time magazine’s 2020 “Person of the Year” on Thursday, chosen from a list of finalists that included the man Biden vanquished at the polls – President Donald Trump. The Democratic former vice president and his running mate, a California senator whose election broke gender and racial barriers, together “offered restoration and renewal in a single ticket,” Time said in a profile of the pair, published online with its announcement. Following the most tumultuous U.S. presidential campaign in modern times, waged in the throes of a deadly pandemic, economic devastation and a strife-torn national reckoning with racism, Biden and Harris prevailed in an election that drew the highest voter turnout in a century....
Ghana election: President Akufo-Addo to soon start work in his second term – minister
Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will start work in his second term in office after he was re-elected as president of Ghana in the December 7 general elections. Mr Akufo-Addo polled a total of 6,730,413 votes, representing 51.59 per cent to beat closest contender John Dramani Mahama, who polled a total of 6,214,889 votes, in Monday’s presidential elections. Returning Officer of the 2020 Presidential Elections, Jean Adukwei Mensa, who is also the Chair of the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC), declared the incumbent president winner of the polls. In a tweet on Thursday December 10, Mr Oppong Nkrumah who was also re-elected Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi constituency said “The last 36hours have been hectic. In the end Ghana won. ...
Lagos by-elections: INEC cautions against vote buying, others
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday cautioned politicians against vote buying, food sharing and other activities capable of buying the conscience of voters at polling units duing Saturday’s Lagos East by-elections. Dr Adekunle Ogunmola, INEC Supervisory National Commissioner in charge of the by-elections, told newsmen in Lagos that the commission would not tolerate any act that would discredit the polls. Answering questions on how the commission intended to tackle vote buying, Ogunmola said that though INEC was not a security agency, it had done quite a lot in ensuring that the menace was reduced. “We are in collaboration with EFCC and ICPC and some other security agencies in ensuring that people that perpetrate such acts were brought to book. “The issue of makin...
Lagos bye-election: APC, PDP bicker over ‘vote buying’
File Photo Ahead of forthcoming Lagos East Senatorial District bye-election that will hold on December 5, both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State have engaged each other on allegations of voting buying. In a separate statements by the parties, both APC and PDP raised the alarm of attempt to buy vote on the date fixed for the poll.While some residents of the senatorial district have also collaborated the claim’s of APC, alleging that PDP has perfected plan to buy vote with N5, 000 each. The concerned residents who were in different area of senatorial district asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria Police and other security agencies to be at alert, warning that they would resist any plot to undermine the pro...
Cross River by-election: INEC assures transparent, violence free election using technology
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it wil deploy relevant technology to ensure transparent, violence-free and fair election in Saturday’s Cross River North Senatorial and House of Assembly by-elections. Mr Festus Okoye, INECs Commissioner for Information and Voter Education Committee said this on Wednesday in Calabar while speaking on the commission’s preparedness for the polls. He said the successes recorded in Edo and Ondo elections were testimonies to the fact that the commission was improving by every election through the use of modern technology. “We want to surpass our successes in Edo and Ondo. “We are going to conduct a transparent, violence-free and credible election in Cross River North come Saturday. “We are ready for the elections, the Card Readers have b...
INEC expresses readiness for saturday bye-elections in 11 states
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has expressed readiness for the conduct of bye-elections across 11 States this Saturday. INEC disclosed this in a statement issued Tuesday night in Abuja after a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, from the affected states. National Commissioner and Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Barr. Festus Okoye, in the statement said the Resident Electoral Commissioners briefed the Commission on the level of preparations in their States and the Commission is satisfied that preparations are going on very well. “All the States have received all the non-sensitive materials, trained their staff, and received all the funds for the bye-elections. Most of the States have also had their sensitive materials deli...
Mike Pompeo: Donald Trump will get ‘second term’
The U.S Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, perhaps, shocked Americans and the world on Tuesday, when he predicted that President Donald Trump “would win a second term in office” despite the victory of his opponent, Joe Biden, at the recently held presidential polls. The New York Post reported that Mr Pompeo, during a briefing at the State Department’s headquarters, Pompeo was asked by a reporter whether government officials were “preparing to engage” with Mr Biden’s transition team. “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Mr Pompeo said with a smile. “The world should have every confidence that the transition necessary to make sure that the State Department is functional today, successful today and successful with the president who’s in office on Jan. 20 a minut...
