Guinea's Supreme Court Upholds June 27 Election Results

Mamadou Dian Balde, editor-in-chief of L'Independant and Le Democrate weekly newspapers says Guineans were not surprised by the court's ruling

James Butty21 July 2010

Photo: AP

Local residents watch as election workers count presidential votes at an outdoor polling station in Conakry, Guinea, 27 Jun 2010. Guinea on Sunday held its first free election since independence more than half a century ago.

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Guinea's Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the results of last month's presidential election paving the way for a runoff.

A number of losing candidates, including former Prime Minister Sidya Toure, had challenged the results of the June 27 first round vote, alleging fraud.

But, the high court Tuesday night upheld the preliminary results, saying former Prime Minister Cellou Diallo won 44 percent of the vote followed by opposition leader Alpha Conde with 18 percent.

The court ruled that both candidates will meet in a runoff election, the date yet to be determined.

Mamadou Dian Balde, editor-in-chief of L'Independant and Le Democrateweekly newspapers in Guinea's capital, Conakry, said Guineans were not surprised by the Supreme Court decision.

“People were not surprised because, for the first time, the CENI (Guinea’s Independent National Electoral Commission) about the first results, said Alpha Conde and Cellou Diallo were the two candidates who were qualified for the second part of the presidential election. Sidya Toure was the third,” he said.

AFP

A man puts up electoral posters on a wall in a street of Conakry ahead of Guinea's first free election since independence in 1958., 24 Jun 2010

Supporters of Sidya Toure’s Union of Republican Forces (UFR) party said their candidate was cheated out of the second place position to third during the first round.

Balde said the Supreme Court carefully considered all the evidence.

“I think the Supreme Court did a good work because they delayed the vote of [the towns of] Mandiana, Kakan, and Matam because the CENI didn’t give them results about those areas,” Balde said.

Toure had said he would abide by whatever ruling the Supreme Court would make, but he would not say which of the two candidates in the runoff he would support.

Balde said both Lansana Kouyate and Toure, the two losing candidates in the first round, are likely to throw their support behind Cellou Diallo, the first place finisher in the first round.

“Sidya Toure and Lansana Kouyate, I think that the both will support Cellou Dalein Diallo because Sidya Toure said that Sekouba Konate helped Alpha Conde against him [Toure]. I don’t think that he will go behind [support] Alpha Conde after saying that. So, if Sidya has to support someone, I think it will be Cellou Dalein Diallo,” Balde said.

General Konate, Guinea’s minister of defense, became interim president after military junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was flown to Morocco after being shot in the head by a bodyguard.

Balde said there is a likelihood that political realignment in the second round might happen along ethnic lines.

“I think that Sidya Toure’s people, who are behind him, are Soussou people from Conakry and Boke because his ethnic group Dialonke is a minority. Those Soussou people, Alpha Conde is trying to get them because Alpha Conde was born in Boke, a Soussou town. So, even if Sidya Toure call his people to support Cellou Diallo, who is a Fulani, the Soussou people won’t do that,” Balde said.

Balde said Cellou Diallo will likely win the runoff.

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Burundi Parliamentary Vote Begins Friday

Peter Clottey22 July 2010

Photo: AFP

Burundi's main opposition leader Agathon Rwasa sits underneath the portrait of Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza during an interview with journalists in the south western Burundian town of Rumonge, 12 May 2010

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A leading member of Burundi’s opposition Forces for National Liberation (FNL) has called on supporters of his party as well as other opposition parties to boycott the parliamentary election scheduled to begin Friday.

Jean-Bosco Habyarimana, spokesman for the FNL accused both President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government and the Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) of undermining the credibility of the parliamentary vote.

“It was known that we will not participate in this election. You remember we rejected the results of the (local) election because of the fraud that characterized those elections. We requested for a dialogue in which we could maybe correct the problems and then try to get a solution but the government refused,” he said.

Burundi’s opposition groups rejected the results of the 24^th May local elections, saying it was fraught with irregularities and voter intimidation. They demanded a re-run of the vote. But, the electoral commission refused, saying the election was transparent and credible.

Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, chairman of the electoral body said the parliamentary vote will continue as planned despite the opposition boycott.

But, opposition leader Habyarimana said his party will not participate in an election in which the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) is pre-determined to win.

“The one who refused us is the one who refused the dialogue so that we can correct the faults that characterized the community elections. He is the one who (prevented) us from continuing in the electoral process,” Habyarimana said.

He also described Friday’s vote as illegal.

“All what is being done is against the law” he said.

Habyarimana said despite the boycott his party will continue to offer stiff opposition to President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government.

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EU Withdraws Election Observers From Darfur

VOA News07 April 2010

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The European Union is withdrawing its election observers from Sudan's Darfur region, just four days before Sudan begins national elections.

EU mission chief Veronique de Keyser told reporters of the move Wednesday, after flying into the North Darfur capital of El-Fasher to meet the team of six monitors. De Keyser said earlier that she was concerned about the observers' safety, and that they would not have sufficient access to credibly evaluate the polls.

President Omar al-Bashir has threatened to expel international observers who push for a delay in the elections. He also threatened to cut the tongues out of any observer who "insults" Sudan.

Sudan is due to begin three days of presidential, parliamentary and regional elections on Sunday. However, a number of opposition parties have declared a boycott of the presidential vote.

Late Tuesday, the main political party in Sudan's southern region said it also will boycott the legislative and local polls in the north of the country.

The parties accuse the ruling National Congress Party of preparing to rig the results.

The government has rejected opposition calls for a delay, insisting that the first multi-party elections in Sudan since 1986 will take place on schedule.

These elections are a key part of the 2005 peace accord that ended a 21-year civil war between Sudan's northern and southern regions. This is a prelude to a referendum scheduled to be held in January on whether the semi-autonomous south will become completely independent.

The war in Darfur, a separate conflict, has raged since 2003. The United Nations says the fighting and related violence has killed up to 300,000 people and displaced some 2.7 million others. Sudan puts the death toll much lower, at 10,000.

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Ivory Coast Elections Could be Delayed Again

Anne Look | Dakar

Photo: VOA

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Controversy over the voter list in Ivory Coast is threatening to once again push back long-delayed presidential elections. Election-related protests erupted around Ivory Coast this past week.

Ivorian investigators have confirmed evidence of "fraud" in the voter list for the country's upcoming presidential elections.

President Laurent Gbagbo accused the Independent Electoral Commission in January of approving a voter list that contained the names of almost a half million foreigners. The accusations were followed by calls for electoral commission head, Robert Mambé, to resign.

Announcing the investigators' findings Friday, spokesman Mohamed Diakité said the consequences of this alleged fraud were "extremely serious."

He says despite opposition from electoral commission members, its central committee and President Gbagbo, electoral commission head Robert Mambé gave the unauthorized names to the technicians who then added them to most of the lists. He says this finding brings the legitimacy of the electoral list into question.

Mambé, an opposition member, said he does not plan to resign and the voter list in question should never have been released.

He says he will continue to fight to finish what he knew from the beginning would be a difficult mission. He says he did not commit fraud nor did he instruct others to commit fraud.

The vote is an attempt to find a lasting political solution to nearly a decade of internal conflict in the once stable West African nation, but voter registration issues have prompted Ivory Coast to push back the election several times since President Laurent Gbagbo's mandate ran out in 2005.

Questions of nationality were at the heart of the civil war in 2002 and remain sensitive in Ivory Coast, which has a large immigrant population. Observers say recent political stalemate demonstrates just how far the country is from resolving the questions of "Who is Ivorian?" and "Who can vote?"

Last week, mounting frustration erupted into violent protests outside courthouses around the country, first in Katiola and Divo, where one police officer was killed, and finally in Man, near the Liberian border, on Friday. Thousands of people there stormed the courthouse, accusing the magistrate of trying to strike them from the voter list.

The former rebel faction in the North, the New Forces, had released a statement earlier denouncing what they called attempts to remove northerners from the provisional voter rolls, by questioning their nationality without proof. They cautioned against the "unpredictable consequences these attempts to strip people of their nationality could provoke."

Justice Minister Mamadou Koné has not only condemned the outbreaks of violence, but also called for local magistrates to follow proper legal protocol when seeking to remove people from the voter rolls. State security forces prevented him from reading his statement on national television.

Opposition members have accused Mr. Gbagbo's party of pressuring courts to remove people from the voter list and of stalling elections to remain in power. The opposition continues to call for the poll to happen in March, as planned.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast has called for calm and continues to urge the country to organize elections as soon as possible.

The deadline for the publication of the definitive voter list has been pushed back to February 14, and observers say recent political disputes make holding an election in March near impossible.

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Togo Opposition, Ruling Party Both Declare Victory in Presidential Vote

Opposition candidate Fabre says Thursday's vote was full of irregularities

Scott Stearns | Abuja05 March 2010

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Togolese policeman walks by a poster supporting opposition presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre in Lome, Togo - File Photo

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• Togo Voting Calm, Despite Fears of Violence

Togo's main opposition candidate and its ruling-party are both declaring victory in Thursday's presidential election as vote counting continues.

Opposition candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre says Thursday's vote was full of irregularities, but he remains confident of victory.

Fabre told reporters in Lome late Friday that according to results complied by his Union of Forces for Change party, they are averaging between 75 and 80 percent of the vote, a total that he says would have been higher without anomalies that he says included stuffing ballot boxes.

Government spokesman Pascal Bodjona disputes that claim. He told French radio that the ruling Rally for the Togolese People party and President Faure Gnassingbe have won what he called a resounding victory. A ruling-party statement called on opposition leaders to regroup so as to preserve the general calm that prevailed during this vote.

The United Nations says more than 400 people were killed in post-election violence in 2005 that also sent thousands of Togolese refugees into Ghana and Benin.

President Gnassingbe is running for re-election after winning that 2005 vote following the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo for more than 38 years.

Before Thursday's vote, Fabre said he had no confidence in the fairness of the ballot and suspected that President Gnassingbe would manipulate the electoral commission to steal the vote.

The president said an unprecedented deployment of Togolese and regional security forces would help guarantee a fair ballot. Casing his vote, he said it was up to voters to decide if he would be re-elected.

Final results are expected Saturday or Sunday.

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Togo Voting Calm, Despite Fears of Violence

Anne Look | Dakar05 March 2010

Photo: AP

A Togolese man casts his vote for president as international and national poll observers inspect a polling station in Lome, Togo, 04 Mar 2010

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• Togo Opposition, Ruling Party Both Declare Victory in Presidential Vote

Voting was peaceful in Togo's presidential poll Thursday, despite fears of violence and fraud.

Election officials in Togo counted ballots aloud after polls closed Thursday in the country's presidential election.

The poll was widely seen as a test of the democratic process in the West African country. Its last presidential election in 2005 was marked by violence and accusations of vote tampering.

But voters leaving the polls Thursday in the capital city, Lome, were for the most part pleased with the calm in which people cast their ballots.

A voter in Lome says the voting happened in an orderly fashion. He says the only problem he noticed were the people who could not find their names on the voter lists and were forced to go from center to center to find where they should vote. He says he is concerned about transparency in the counting of the votes, but he hopes this election will bring about change in Togo.

Security forces were on hand, but there were no reports of violence.

Missions from the European Union and the 15-member Economic Community of West African States were on the ground to help ensure that Thursday's vote went smoothly.

An ECOWAS observer says he is pleased with the transparency and calm with which the voting took place. He says they did not note any incidents in the capital city. He says they also observed the counting of votes in several polling places.

Heads of polling places around the capital also pointed to the peace and transparency with which the casting and counting of votes had taken place.

At the polls, current president, Faure Gnassingbe, faced six opposition candidates in his run for a second term.

He is the son of late dictator Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled the country for 38 years, and his election in 2005 was a highly-contested vote that resulted in violence that left hundreds dead and displaced tens of thousands.

The results of the presidential race are expected to be announced Sunday.

VOA NEWS

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Togo hopes for more peaceful poll

The opposition expects to do well in the capital Lome Email Print Have Your Say ( 0 ) Polls have opened in the presidential election in the west African state of Togo. President Faure Gnassingbe is running for a second term, and his main challenger is Jean Pierre Fabre of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC). The vote is being closely watched by the international community amid hopes of avoiding repetition of the violence that marred the last election. All parties have been stressing the need for a peaceful poll. President Gnassingbe is hoping to be re-elected in circumstances that will win the approval that was so lacking at the last election. The 2005 vote happened soon after the military had installed him in power on the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema. The main opposition party, the UFC, believes it won the last election. Hundreds died in ensuing protests. Campaigning this time around has been peaceful and has at times strayed into good-natured rivalry. But the authorities are taking no chances and are mixing the message of harmony with the presence of a 6,000-strong election security force. Election observers from the European Union, the African Union and the west African regional grouping Ecowas are on hand, along with the Francophone organisation. The structures in place for this election point to a desire to be seen to be doing the right thing. For the first time there is an independent electoral commission. The government website is being more than just a government mouthpiece and talks in fair terms about the opposition campaigns. But there have been claims that the ruling party of President Gnassingbe has far more resources behind its campaign than the opposition and that the vote will not be fair. The run-up to the election saw some opposition leaders suspend participation in the campaign because they were unhappy with the organisation of the election. Source: BBC

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