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Ugandan opposition candidate Bobi Wine has rejected the results declared so far and calls himself the president-elect, despite the electoral body saying not all votes have yet been counted. Bobi Wine alleges Thursday's polls saw the worst vote-rigging in Uganda's history, but did not provide any evidence to back up his claims. He declared the struggle is just beginning. Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, says he'll address the press again in a few hours on the way forward. Early results from the electoral commission give the incumbent, President Yoweri Museveni, a commanding lead of almost two-thirds of the votes so far counted. The military have surrounded Bobi Wine’s house. - BBC
\t On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the West African nation in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in the capital, Conakry.
\t This was the third time that Conde matched-up against Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea's largest ethnic groups.
Former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ronald H Brown was appointed head of the Department
of Commerce by President-elect Bill Clinton, 1993
LOCAL authorities in the country have attributed their poor service delivery record to rising inflation. Mayors Blessing Tandi (Mutare), Lovemore Maiko (Chitungwiza) and Angeline Kasiipo (Kwekwe) made the remarks during a virtual meeting on Wednesday organised by Shoko Festival. BY KENNETH NYANGANI Residents, the mayors said, should not expect miracles from them as they were being affected by the country’s poor economic performance.Tandi said his council was struggling to provide good service delivery due to the country’s tanking economy. “We don’t operate in a vacuum. If the national economy is not performing, why should you expect us to perform miracles when we have high inflation? We need a lot of money to buy water treatment chemicals,” Tandi said. “Our roads are in a poor state because we are not getting enough funds from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration. As council, we should be allowed to collect money from vehicle licences.” Maiko weighed in saying councils do not exist in isolation. He said they were also facing water challenges. “As councils, we don’t live in isolation, with the current economy you should not expect miracles from us, like what Mutare mayor Blessing Tandi has already said, we are struggling to provide service delivery because of the poor state of the economy,” he said. “Look at the rate at which inflation is going up, we also need to pay our workers competitively.” “Chitungwiza was established as a dormitory town of Harare and now has the largest urban population but we don’t have any source of water. We rely on Harare for water distribution and it’s giving us a drop in the ocean,” he said. Kasiipo also said they were failing to perform because of the moribund economy.She, however, urged residents to pay their dues. “We are urging our residents to pay rates, our collection rate is very low, so our residents need to play their part so that we provide good service delivery,” he said.
The electoral commission last week told the nation to prepare for an unusual election where campaigning will be done digitally, as the destabilizing effects of the coronavirus continue.
Justifying scientific elections
\tUganda which currently has over 700 confirmed cases of the coronavirus has been slowly easing restrictions and emphasizing measures of social distancing for all activities in the country.
The commission says it is bound by Article 61 (2) of Uganda’s constitution which tasks it to organize elections within 120 days before the expiry of the term of president, parliament or local government.
In conducting a scientific election, the commission hopes to exercise its duty to facilitate Ugandans’ right to choose their leaders in a healthy and safe environment.
The opposition politicians accuse the electoral commission of not consulting them as it drafted the revised election roadmap.
Attorney Dawn M. Jones, managing member of The Firm of Dawn M. Jones, LLC in Atlanta, was installed as the 58th president of the 52,000-member State Bar of Georgia on June 13.
Jones has previously served as secretary and treasurer of the State Bar, as a member of its Executive Committee and, for the past year, as president-elect.
She is also a past president of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, a past president of Atlanta Legal Aid Society, a past chair of the State Bar of Georgia Advisory Committee on Legislation and a past chair of the State Bar of Georgia Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee for District Five.
Jones has received numerous honors and awards, including the State Bar of Georgia Commitment to Equality Award (2017), the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism Justice Robert Benham Award for Community Service (2017), the Thomas R. Burnside Jr.
Jones, a native of Alexandria, Virginia, and a resident of Cobb County, is a graduate of the Georgia State University College of Law and was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 2000.
Malawian voters defied the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday to return to the polls for the second time in just over a year after President Peter Mutharika's re-election was annulled in a dramatic court ruling.
Tuesday's election was practically a two-horse race between the president and Lazarus Chakwera, who lost the election by 159 000 votes.
First, this election is born out of a court ruling and second, they will follow the 50-percent-plus-one system,\" the group said.
\"This is our date with destiny and this is (the) time for the beginning of a new Malawi,\" he said, expressing \"confidence\" the electoral commission will do what is right.
In a statement, the UN called on Malawi's \"political actors and stakeholders to renew their commitment to credible and peaceful elections, while observing all preventive measures against the spread of Covid-19\".
Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza died on Tuesday a lonely man, having alienated himself from regional leaders, save for President Uhuru Kenyatta.
On the morning of Wednesday May 13, 2015, Mr Nkurunziza was in Dar es Salaam with fellow East African heads of state, including Tanzania's Jakaya Kikwete, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni.
Save for Tanzania, which it shares a border with and depends on for imports, during his five years of isolation from his regional peers, Mr Nkurunziza maintained an open line of communication with Kenya, in what diplomatic chatter described as his \"trust on Kenya's leader's apolitical stance\" during the 2015 conflict.
A week after the failed 2015 coup, it was President Kenyatta who would maintain a direct line of communication with Mr Nkurunziza, conveying to him the thoughts of his regional peers, including asking for a postponement of the 2015 elections, a request the Burundi leader turned down.
On Tuesday, President Kenyatta said that the death of President Nkurunziza was a big blow, as it had \"robbed East Africa of a leader whose contribution to the integration and progress of the region shall be sorely missed.\"
\"Ours is not going to be the politics of praise and favour; it will be politics of a service, inclusiveness and humanity,\" Dr Lina Zedriga Waru Abuku said after being unveiled as People Power deputy principal by Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, last month.
Having held different positions in many organisations, including at the Centre for Peace and Security Governance in Juba, South Sudan, and the Uganda National Committee for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, Dr Zedriga, a lawyer by profession, says she had opted to retire and concentrate on empowering girls in northern Uganda.
According to Bobi Wine, Dr Zedriga has been tested on all fronts and qualifies for any position that would cause impact to their political group that is eyeing the presidential seat in 2021.
Dr Zedriga says the turn of events that brought about the death of two People Power supporters, Ritah Nabukenya, who was allegedly knocked down by a police vehicle in Nakawa, Kampala, and Dan Kyeyune, who was shot dead in Nansana, Wakiso District, cemented her decision to join the political pressure group.
Bobi Wine says Dr Zedriga will be charged with grassroots mobilisation, especially among the women.
Officials and experts are sounding the alarm as Malawi shifts to top campaign gear with giant rallies for an unprecedented presidential re-run despite the coronavirus pandemic.
He said Malawians “will only fully understand the impact once we start to see burial teams and mass graves” because the disease is “deceptively undramatic until it is too late”.
Malawians will only fully understand the impact once we start to see burial teams and mass graves\" because the disease is \"deceptively undramatic until it is too late
\tPolitical scientist Michael Jana said the bitter power struggle has seen the country throw caution to the wind.
The southern African country will hold polls in just under two months after the Constitutional Court overturned the results of last year’s controversial election, which handed President Peter Mutharika a second term.
Mutharika garnered just 38.5 percent of the May 21 vote but the Constitutional Court annulled the result, citing “grave” and “widespread” irregularities, including the use of correction fluid on ballot papers.
Amid a global pandemic, it has gone by largely unnoticed - not least because the crisis also kept out election observers from the East African Community (EAC), the only foreign group the government accredited.
The ruling party has grown increasingly isolationist since the last election in 2015 when outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to stand for a third term, sparking months of protests.
The results - announced by the electoral commission three days after the vote - give the CNDD-FDD's candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye 68% of the vote.
Ndayishimiye's balancing act
One of the new president's key challenges on taking office will be to balance the various interests within the ruling party.
Ndayishimiye is new in the job and has made subtle overtures to international bodies in recent months, meeting with the AU Chairperson Moussa Faki and EAC officials.
Our analysis suggests that naked protest in Uganda is a \"last resort\" for the weak and vulnerable in a public space that is heavily militarised and policed.
Naked protest therefore offers a window into the strategies that ordinary citizens can use to exercise political voice in contexts marked by overt and covert forms of repression.
Nakedness as a form of collective public protest has been used across Uganda by ordinary citizens when they feel that there is no alternative.
One of the best-known contemporary cases of naked protest in Uganda occurred in a town called Apaa, northern Uganda, where the government has been attempting to appropriate land for decades.
Last resort
These three types of power help us understand why citizens employ naked protest, and how it affects its target - in this case the militarised Ugandan state.
In light of the proliferation of North-South Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), that is, agreements between the developed countries and the less developed, it is important that trade policy negotiators look at data provisions in these agreements with a tooth-comb.
Perhaps EAC and other African countries can draw inspiration from the EU, who have the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which have a framework for protections of citizens’ personal data as well as measures aimed at preventing transfer of data to third countries.
Could the developed countries then be exploiting this lacuna in the EAC data protection regime, in the trade agreements?
For instance, the US-Kenya FTA, according to the US Department of Commerce, aims to, among other things, “establish state of the art commitments to ensure Kenya refrains from imposing measures that restrict cross-border data flows and does not require the use of installation of local computing facilities”.
This is all the more reason these agreements and others that will come to the African continent should be thoroughly scrutinised with the needs of the African countries in mind given the insufficiency of data security laws on the continent.
June 15: Incoming president takes office June 18
\tBurundi will swear in president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye on Thursday, June 18; the AFP news agency reports citing an official source.
READ MORE: Pierre’s zigzag – Burundi’s cyclist, controversially sporty president
June 13: Incoming president eulogizes Nkurunziza
\tBurundi’s president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye today visited the presidency where he signed a book of condolence opened for the late president Pierre Nkurunziza.
June 12: Burundi court rules president-elect should be sworn in
\tBurundi’s should swear-in president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye as incumbent as soon as possible, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled today.
VIDEO
June 11: Burundi cabinet wants apex court to declare presidency vacant
\tBurundi will seek constitutional interpretation on how to proceed over the power vacuum created by the death of president Pierre Nkurunziza on June 8.
Cabinet wants the court “to declare the vacancy of the post of President of the Republic following the death of Pierre Nkurunziza,” a tweet by the VP’s office said.
[DW] In the fight for Uganda's presidency, allegiances are shifting: As incumbent Yoweri Museveni shows up top in the opinion polls, his more youthful rival Bobi Wine is winning over ruling party MPs and making new allies.
It is amazing the effort and investment people put in systems to divert NWSC water to their premises illegally.
When the word coronavirus entered the country earlier this year, almost everyone started agitating for free water from NWSC.
The level of Lake Victoria’s water has already surpassed the highest level ever recorded by Uganda.
As God grants our wish for free water, the situation becomes less and less funny every day.
The enormous amounts of raw sewage in latrines and sewage tanks also join the cargo being distributed by the water as many homes become flooded.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has asked the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to report the state agency to the police if the party has any evidence to back its election rigging allegations made against the Authority on Thursday, 14 May 2020.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), at a press conference, raised fears that the decision of the Electoral Commission to compile a new register of voters using passports and the NIA's Ghana card as proof of eligibility may give undue advantage to the governing New Patriotic Party and President Nana Akufo-Addo and also help the incumbent to rig the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in December 2020.
According to the biggest opposition party, over 10 million Ghanaians are unable to retrieve their Ghana cards from the NIA several months after they were registered, a situation which the Chairman of the party, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, said will make it impossible for them to be captured on the new electoral roll.
At a counter-press conference on Friday, 15 May 2020, the Executive Director of the NIA, Prof Ken Attafuah, said it was a \"disturbing allegation that the NIA, in consent with the Electoral Commission, embarked on an election-rigging agenda in order to benefit the New Patriotic Party, and most disturbingly, to disenfranchise a significant portion of the Ghanaian populace from their rights to exercise their franchise\".
\"I want to assure the good people of this country that the NIA is not involved in any such criminal design or enterprise with the EC, with the government of Ghana or any with any person or entity whatsoever described.
Parliament on Tuesday passed a resolution tasking government to waive water and electricity bills for a period of six months to help relieve the many Ugandans in the post-lockdown recovery process.
While debating a motion moved by Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga, the legislators said since the lockdown was imposed in March, many Ugandans spend a lot of time at home and consume a lot of electricity and water more than they would use while at work.
Mr Mpuuga argued that Uganda should borrow a leaf from other countries, including Ghana, which have already paid off the water and electricity bills for the citizens for a specific period of time.
Ms Jesca Ababiku (Adjumani Woman, NRM) said much as the people in rural areas are not connected to water provided by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), there is a need for government to also repair boreholes and other dilapidated water sources.
The MPs said with President Museveni not including waiver on water and electricity bills as part of a stimulus package during the State of the Nation Address on June 4, payment of the cumulative bills will suffocate many Ugandans.
Kyadondo East MP and leader of the People Power movement Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, has declared interest in running for Uganda president.
Robert Kyagulanyi will be on the ballot because as we speak, the young people of Uganda who are over 85 percent of our population want to take up the mantle.
We want to have Kyagulanyi versus Museveni, Uganda versus Museveni, the young versus the old, the new and functional versus the old and dysfunctional, civilian versus military.
None of them has ever fronted an idea of the people of Uganda.
You see very many people now especially the young interested in the politics of Uganda like never before.
This week Guyanese may once again be remembering those shocking words if unspoken, for this time Mr Ramotar’s successor, the incumbent President David Granger has retreated as usual behind another deafening and disturbing wall of silence so far unable to admit the clear and present evidence of his party’s defeat, and failing one again to reassure a nervous populace who has been put through 100 days of electoral impasse hell.
As the APNU/AFC stubbornly sticks to its refusal to release their original Statements of Polls (SOPs), and Guyana anxiously waits for the next steps towards GECOM formally announcing the winner, the party continues to furiously peddle nasty allegations of widespread fraud, even though it has apparently forgotten signing off on the original documents for all the Regions without any major issues, in an heavily-scrutinised elections endorsed as credible and free and fair by major observers.
Mr Ramotar wanted a recount of every single vote arguing that the Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield had identified problems with nearly 500 polling results.
Despite GECOM’s admission that a total recount would make little difference to the final outcome, the President like his successor chose to ignore the authoritative conclusions of international observer teams ranging from the Carter Center, the Commonwealth, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the Organisation of American States (OAS), to the envoys of the United States of America (USA), Canada and Great Britain, that the elections were free, fair and credible.
As the Election Agent for the PPP/C, Mr Persaud later filed a legal petition demanding a complete recount and fresh polls, alleging that the entire electoral process was flawed citing procedural errors and fake SOPs, but up to now, incredibly, the matter is still pending before the High Court even as Guyana grapples with the prolonged political crisis in the midst of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Malawi's governing party has called for a third presidential election, citing irregularities and intimidation in this week's re-run vote as unofficial tallies show incumbent President Peter Mutharika losing to the opposition leader.
The PPP/C has emerged the winner of March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections following the national recount of the final ballot box (#4877) from Region 4 (Demerara-Mahaica).
The Electoral Commission (EC) has outlined measures to curb spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) as it laces its boots for the compilation of a new voters register.
Though it is yet to give an exact date for the exercise, the EC has given indication of compiling a new register once it gets the green light from health experts.
The EC had scheduled April 18 for compilation of the new voters register ahead of the December general elections but had to put it on hold due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.
The move to discard the old voter register, the EC contends, is in favour of the new Biometric Voter Management System (BVMS) which would among other things have a facial recognition ability.
The NDC has however vehemently resisted attempts by the EC to register citizens for a new register amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The sudden death of outgoing Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza Tuesday came as a shock to everyone on the African political scene.
Nkurunziza ruled Burundi with an iron first for 15 years, including a controversial third term that saw hundreds killed in protests and more than half a million fleeing the country.
Burundi has begun seven days of mourning after the death of President Pierre Nkurunziza, who died Monday at a hospital in the town of Karuzi.
The rise of Imbonerakure will be Nkurunziza’s defining characteristic of his human rights record,” said Mudge.
Nelleke van de Walle, deputy director for central Africa at the International Crisis Group, said the future of Burundi depends on what the political system left behind by Nkurunziza will do in the coming months.
The Electoral Commission (EC) yesterday conducted a pilot voters' registration exercise at the Accra Ridge Church to test its Biometric Verification Systems for the upcoming December polls.
The pilot was to ascertain the durability of the equipment towards a successful registration exercise scheduled for June 30.
The prospective voters spent about five minutes to go through the electoral processes at either of the two registration centres mounted at the premises, with a maximum of 20 voters observing COVID-19 precautionary measures and hygienic protocols.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Times, the Public Relations Officer of the Commission, Sylvia Annoh said the exercise was smooth and was to ensure the commission identified any challenges that might occur during the actual registration and find ways of addressing them before and during the exercise.
She explained that the registration officers did not encounter any challenges during the processes or the equipment breaking down, saying, \"We are adhering to the protocols to ensure no one got infected with the virus.\"
Confirmed cases = 18,630
\t
\t\tActive cases = 4,467
\t\tRecoveries = 14,046
\t\tNumber of deaths = 117
Ghana Health Service stats valid as of July 1, 2020
June 25: 15,473 cases; mask arrests, apex court ruling
\tCase load as of today hit a total of 15,473 cases with 11,431 recoveries and 950 deaths, according to stats released Friday evening by the Ghana Health Service.
Confirmed cases = 15,473
\t\tActive cases = 3,947
\t\tRecoveries = 11,431
\t\tNumber of deaths = 95
John Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 12, 2020
June 22: 14,154 cases; how recoveries jumped
\tGhana recorded a boom in recoveries over the weekend as over 6,000 patients were added to the tally which now stands at 10,473 according to authorities.
Confirmed cases = 14,154
\t\tActive cases = 3,596
\t\tRecoveries = 10,473
\t\tNumber of deaths = 85
John Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 21, 2020
June 15: 13,203 cases; law enacted to penalize mask flouters
\tCase load hit a total of 13,203 cases with 4,548 recoveries and 70 deaths, according to stats released Friday evening by the Ghana Health Service.
Total confirmed cases = 12,193
Total recoveries = 4,326
Total deaths = 58
Active cases = 7,809
\tFigures valid as of close of day June 16, 2020
June 15: 11,964 cases; schools reopen, masks obligatory etc.
Confirmed cases = 11,964
\t\tNumber of deaths = 54
\t\tRecoveries = 4,258
\t\tActive cases = 7,652
\tJohn Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 14, 2020
June 13: 11,118 cases, NDC advocates mass testing
\tGhana’s case load as of this morning stood at 11,118 cases with the disclosure of 262 new cases.
June 11: Cabinet meeting resolutions
\tBurundi’s cabinet issued a statement after an extraordinary session to discuss the way forward in a post-Nkurunziza era.
In the issuance of condolences to the government, Chad for instance addressed its official message to Vice-President Simdimwo whiles the Botswana president addressed his message to Pascal Nyabenda referring to him as President of National Assembly and Acting President of Burundi.
The opposition has won Malawi’s historic rerun of the presidential election, the first time a court-overturned vote in Africa has led to the defeat of an incumbent leader.
The post Opposition wins historic rerun of Malawi’s presidential vote appeared first on Los Angeles Sentinel.
[East African] There are a thousand and one sayings that start with \"be careful what you wish for\" and end in different annoying ways.
ONE of the MDC founding fathers Esaph Mdlongwa has died in his 70s. Mdlongwa, a trade unionist passed away on Wednesday. He was very instrumental during the formation of the MDC in 1999, together with the late Morgan Tsvangirai (president), the late Gibson Sibanda (vice president), Lucia Matibenga (former Public Service Minister), Welshman Ncube (MDC Alliance vice president) and several others. He is also father to popular musician ‘Oskido’ Oscar Mdlongwa who is currently based in South Africa
There is a shift in usage trends with most people using platforms for entertainment.
