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Twenty-twenty was the year of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but Jamaica was hit by a second virus that took a deadly aim at the main opposition People’s National Party (PNP). A political virus manufactured in a lab at 20 Belmont Road, the...
Critics have called it a stunt to invite sympathy. Yet Amuriat says campaigning without shoes is a protest and that those who do not get its symbolism are missing a point.
Uganda is due to hold a general election on January 14. Amuriat and another opposition candidate, Bobi Wine have had their rallies violently dispersed by security forces or been arrested.
In mid-November, scores of people were killed as security forces attempted to quell protests against the arrest and detention of Bobi Wine.
Police has accused the candidates of addressing huge gatherings in contravention of regulations on COVID-19 prevention.
Swollen feet
In an interview with one of the dailies in Uganda, Amuriat said his feet hurt a lot and has to pour cold water on them in between campaign stops for some relief.
Doctors have cautioned him on the potential danger of contracting tetanus from cuts to his feet.
Yet Amuriat remains adamant. He says by refusing to wear shoes, he’s standing in solidarity with people whose wealth and opportunities have been stolen by the country’s longtime ruler Yoweri Museveni.
JUST IN: FDC presidential candidate Patrick Amuriat has been arrested at the border of Rubirizi and Bushenyi districts. The reason for his arrest is yet to be known📹 @MukhayeD#MonitorUpdates#UGDecides2021 pic.twitter.com/xopK4FMoD0
— Daily Monitor (@DailyMonitor) December 4, 2020
Museveni, in power since 1986 is seeking a new term. In 2017, he changed the constitution to remove age limits that would have stopped him from seeking re-election.
FDC is Uganda’s largest opposition party. In 3 previous elections, the party fronted veteran activist and retired army colonel Kizza Besigye for president.
Born to a Ghanaian father and a Scottish mother in Hackney, London, Paul Yaw Boateng became one of the first black British Members of Parliament in the general election of 1987. In 2002 he became the first Afro-Briton to serve in the Prime Ministers Cabinet. The family moved to Ghana when Boateng was still a young boy, where his father, Kwaku Boateng, worked as a barrister and parliamentary cabinet minister. In 1966, the military coup in Ghana forced Eleanor Boateng, a Quaker, the 14 year old Boateng, and his sister, Rosemary, to return to England where they settled in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
Boateng continued his education at Apsley grammar school before pursuing a degree in Law at Bristol University. After graduating, Boateng trained to be a solicitor, devoting much energy to housing, police and women’s issues, and later became a lawyer specialising in civil rights. These beliefs he exercised at a variety of political protests in the late 1970s, and early 1980s.
In 1981 Boateng, an active Methodist, was elected to the Greater London Council. Shortly after, he was appointed Chairman of the Police Committee, a position he used as a platform from which to raise awareness of the troubled relations between officers and ethnic minorities. After launching an unsuccessful bid for election in 1983, Boateng secured the Brent South constituency seat for the Labour Party just four years later. He famously declared: “Brent South today, Soweto tomorrow!”
For Boateng, there then followed a rapid series of appointments and opportunities. Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock promoted him to Treasury spokesman, and after the Labour election victory of 1997, Boateng was made Home Office Minister and then Minister for Young People. In May 2002 he became the first black member of the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He continued to serve the executive until he resigned in March 2005 in order to accept the position of High Commissioner to South Africa, a job based in Pretoria. In April 2009, this commitment
BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic’s main opposition coalition on Sunday demanded the Dec. 27 general election be postponed due to violence by armed groups outside the capital Bangui, while the government insisted the vote would go ahead. On Saturday, the authorities accused former president Francois Bozize of plotting a coup after his candidacy was rejected, as U.N. peacekeepers dispersed armed rebel groups occupying roads and towns near Bangui. Fighting was ongoing in several towns, including Mbaiki, about 100 km (62 miles) from Bangui, according to one security source and two humanitarian sources. The opposition alliance, called Cod2020, which includes Bozize, said violence was preventing presidential and parliamentary candidates from campaigning and had led to the destruction of electoral materials and threats in almost all provincial centres, without providing details. In a statement, it “noted the impossibility of pursuing an electoral campaign in current insecure conditions,” and demanded the postponement of the vote until stability is restored. In response, the government said it was doing everything possible to ensure the vote could take place as planned, deploying troops alongside U.N. peacekeepers to regain control of occupied towns. “There is no plan B, the elections will take place on December 27,” said government spokesman Ange Maxime Kazagui. President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who has struggled to maintain stability, is seeking re-election. Bozize was ousted in 2013 by mainly Muslim Seleka rebels, prompting reprisals from mostly Christian militias and plunging the country into a civil war. U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed since 2014, including over 12,800 in uniform. The violence has caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, displacing over 600,000 people within the country while a further 600,000 live as refugees in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad, and elsewhere, according to U.N. figures. - Reuters
If you’re a registered voter in California, expect to receive a ballot from your county elections officials in the mail for the Nov. 3, 2020, elections.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama, who has been an outspoken advocate of voting by mail, praised California’s decision.
Newsom acknowledged that mail-in ballots aren’t a perfect solution, so he hopes policymakers in California will keep working to improve processes and standards for remote and in-person voting.
“I look forward to our public health experts and the Secretary of State’s and the Legislature’s continued partnership to create safer in-person opportunities for Californians who aren’t able to vote by mail,” said Newsom.
“I thank Governor Newsom for taking decisive action now, to preserve voting rights and provide sufficient time to properly prepare for the general election,” Padilla said.
Watch BET UK on Sky 173, Virgin 184 Freesat 140
