21, October 2019
Pride of Africa: Stable Botswana to vote in rare cliffhanger 0
Botswana votes on Wednesday in the most closely fought general election in the history of the southern African country, long known as one of the continent’s most stable democracies.
Former president Ian Khama has shaken up the country’s traditionally calm politics by dramatically renouncing his hand-picked successor Mokgweetsi Masisi.
Khama left the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in May, accusing President Masisi — who had been his deputy until last year — of autocracy.
The bitter feud has threatened to fracture the BDP, which has governed the diamond-rich country since it gained independence from Britain in 1966.
The split came after the ruling party saw its share of the vote fall below 50 percent for the first time in the last elections in 2014.
It has faced an increasing challenge from a coalition of opposition parties, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), which has added another group to its ranks since the last election.
“It’s the most contested election we have seen, and genuinely the outcome is in doubt to some extent,” said Botswana economic analyst Keith Jefferies.
“It’s possible that the BDP could be unseated.”
The UDC has received a boost from an unlikely source: Khama.
The opposition group was his fiercest critic when he was president, but Khama has urged voters in many regions to cast their ballots for the UDC in a bid to oust Masisi and the BDP.
Khama’s father co-founded the BDP and served as the country’s first president. He retains plenty of influence, particularly in the central region — a BDP stronghold — where he is a traditional chief.
– Khama ‘the wild card’ –
The rift between the president and his predecessor started last year, when Khama resigned near the end of his constitutional limit of two five-year terms.
Khama handed the reins to Masisi in April 2018, 18 months ahead of the next election, as part of the BDP’s carefully crafted process for transferring power.
But Masisi quickly started reversing several of Khama’s key policies, including lifting his ban on elephant trophy hunting, infuriating his predecessor.
Peter Fabricius, an analyst at the Pretoria-based think tank Institute of Security Studies, said “Khama is the wild card”.
“This is quite a close election and it could go either way,” he added.
Masisi told AFP that Khama’s policies had hurt the ruling party.
The BDP is “definitely going to perform far better” without Khama, Masisi said, predicting an “overwhelming victory, landslide”.
UDC leader Duma Boko was also confident, telling AFP: “I think we will win this election and we should”.
Voter Alice said: “It’s time for a new government, enough of the BDP”.
“Things are not right in our government… the corruption is just too much,” she told AFP, asking to be identified only by her first name to protect her job.
– ‘We are never going to fight’ –
The unprecedented political drama has raised fears that Khama’s defection could unsettle Botswana after more than five decades of peace and stability.
But Masisi ruled out any such scenario, urging everyone to “accept the results” of the vote.
“I have already accepted the results whatever might come,” he told AFP.
“Botswana is never going to be in crisis if one person wins or the other doesn’t win, there will be another opportunity.”
“We are never going to fight,” Masisi said, adding that stability is in the DNA of Botswana’s people.
But past elections have never been this close. If the opposition wins, the country’s democratic credentials and reputation for good governance will face a new test — a peaceful transfer of power.
Analysts said a BDP loss would be unlikely to send people into the streets. However, they did warn that an unexpected landslide for the ruling party could spark opposition protests claiming the election was rigged.
Duma said at the weekend that the vote would not be free and fair because of unbalanced media coverage by the public broadcaster.
Nearly half of Botswana’s 2.2 million people are expected to cast their ballots in the parliamentary and local elections.
The BDP, UDC and two smaller parties will vie for 57 parliamentary seats. The party with the most seats chooses the president.
Thanks to Botswana’s diamond-spurred wealth it is ranked as an upper-middle-income country, but it has one of the world’s highest rates of income inequality.
Source: AFP
31, October 2019
South Sudan: Machar calls for delay in interim government formation 0
South Sudan’s former vice president and rebel leader Riek Machar has called for a six-month delay in the formation of a transitional unity government after he accused the administration of President Salva Kiir of failing to implement a peace agreement aimed at ending a bloody conflict.
Last month, the opposing parties agreed to establish a transitional government by November 12 following months of talks and broken ceasefire deals.
But Machar’s spokesman Puok Both Buluang said he did not believe the former rebel leader would be able to join a unity government before the deadline.
“It’s not rocket science that the government in Juba lacks political will to implement the peace deal,” the spokesman added.
He also urged the government to release funds it had agreed to spend on implementing the agreement, adding that the additional six months would “give room” for resolving issues.
At a public event, President Kiir did not directly comment on the remarks, but said all sides to the pact had committed to forming the unity government on November 12.
“I want to welcome (the opposition) and forget all the bitterness,” he said.
South Sudan, the youngest country in Africa, has been gripped by a bloody civil war since December 2013, when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup. The two sides were then involved in a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the impoverished country along the ethnic lines. Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced thus far.
The September 2018 deal was hammered out under pressure from international and regional powers.
The peace deal called for a unity government, but it has been delayed as the government says it cannot afford the disarmament and the assimilation of former rebels in the army, which is a key provision of the accord.
An international body monitoring the ceasefire said the government has so far allocated $10 million of the pledged $100 million.
Under the pact, the two sides have agreed to hold elections after a three-year transition period.
They do not see eye-to-eye on some details of the deal. The number of states South Sudan should have is among the outstanding issues.
A UN Security Council delegation arrived in Juba earlier this month to try to convince the two sides to resolve their differences over the accord.
A similar peace agreement, which returned Machar to vice presidency, was reached in 2015 but fell apart a year later in a deadly clash that forced Machar into exile.
Source: Presstv