Tanzanians will vote Wednesday amid rising concern for democracy under President John Magufuli, who is seeking a second term, and with tensions high in volatile Zanzibar, where violence erupted ahead of the vote.

Long deemed a haven of stability in East Africa, observers say Tanzania has seen a worrying crackdown on the opposition and freedom of speech under the 60-year-old Magufuli and his Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has been in power since 1961.

Magufuli is counting on his ambitious programme of infrastructure development and fiery anti-corruption stance to secure him a second mandate and called for a peaceful vote.

“For those who qualify, vote and go home. Let the electoral body do its work. Peace is very important and I pray it dominates the polls,” he said Tuesday.

Magufuli’s main challenger among 15 presidential candidates is Tundu Lissu, 52, of the Chadema opposition party.

He returned to the country in July after three years abroad recovering from 16 bullet wounds sustained in what he believes was a politically-motivated assassination attempt.

Lissu’s return has reinvigorated an opposition demoralised by a ban on political rallies outside of election time, multiple arrests, attacks, and what rights groups have slammed as the squeezing of democracy.

“I have witnessed through the campaign that Tanzanians are ready for changes and I believe they will turn out to vote tomorrow,” he said at his final rally.

 Early vote –

In a boost for the opposition’s chances, Zitto Kabwe, the head of the popular ACT-Wazalendo party, has endorsed Lissu for the presidency on the mainland.

In return, Chadema is backing veteran opposition candidate Seif Sharif Hamad in his sixth bid for the presidency in Zanzibar, this time against CCM candidate Hussein Ali Hassan Mwinyi.

Zanzibar has a history of tense elections plagued with violence and irregularities and the opposition has again accused the ruling party of seeking to steal the vote.

The archipelago held an early vote for security forces Tuesday which prompted violence that the opposition says left 10 dead and scores injured.

“How can you have an election were you have teargas everywhere and live ammunition? It is in no case a fair election, it is just a farce,” said Hamad.

Trucks loaded with soldiers, police and a militia linked to the ruling party known as “zombies” — clad in black with their faces covered by bandanas — whizzed throughout the city and on Tuesday were seen rounding up and beating several civilians.

“I’m alarmed by reports from Zanzibar and elsewhere of violence, deaths, and detentions,” United States ambassador Donald Wright wrote on Twitter.

Britain’s envoy, David Concar, urged “all involved in the elections to act with restraint and integrity to ensure the will of the people can be expressed peacefully at the ballot box”.

 Increasing intolerance –

Magufuli, elected in 2015, at first made wildly popular moves such as curbing foreign travel for government officials or showing up in person to make sure civil servants were doing their work.

Then, he banned political rallies and became increasingly intolerant of dissent.

A series of tough media laws were passed, arrests of journalists, activists and opposition members soared and several opposition members were killed.

The opposition and analysts have expressed serious concerns about the fairness of the election, pointing in particular to a polls body comprising commissioners personally appointed by Magufuli.

Magufuli touts his expansion of free education, rural electrification and infrastructure projects such as railways, a hydropower dam set to double electricity output and the revival of the national airline.

However analysts say while the economy grew at an impressive pre-coronavirus average of six percent, there was little job creation and aggressive tax collection has hurt the private sector and made doing business harder.

The IMF expects growth to slow to 1.9 percent this year.

The election campaign has taken place with little regard to the coronavirus pandemic. Tanzania stopped giving out official data on infection numbers in April, and Magufuli has declared the country Covid-free, which he attributes to the power of prayer.

On the mainland, just over 29 million registered voters will cast their ballots, while some 566,000 will vote in Zanzibar from 7 am (0400 GMT) until 4 pm (1300 GMT).

Source: AFP

Guinea opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo said on Monday he had won the first round of the Oct. 18 presidential election, but his claim was quickly disputed by the electoral commission and the government, setting the stage for a stand-off.

“Despite the serious anomalies that marred the smooth running of the … election and in view of the results that came out of the ballot boxes, I am victorious in this election in the first round,” Diallo told journalists and cheering supporters.

He did not give any figures but said the tally was based on his party’s count, not an official tally being conducted by the national election commission, which has yet to publish results.

The electoral commission said Diallo’s claim carried no weight.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission is the only body authorised to give provisional results. It is neither for a political party nor for any individual to do so,” Mamadi 3 Kaba, a spokesman for the commission, told Reuters.

“We regret the attitude of Mr. Diallo and we say that this declaration is null and void,” he added.

Guinea’s government said in a statement late on Monday that Diallo’s statement was irresponsible and could sow confusion and undermine peace in the West African state. It warned it could launch criminal charges against him.

The government said results from over 15,000 polling stations were still being tallied. “It is impossible, at this stage of the process, to have neither trends, let alone the results of the vote.”

Diallo is the main challenger to Guinea’s 82-year-old incumbent president, Alpha Conde, who is seeking a third mandate after a constitutional change in March which sparked deadly protests.

Following his announcement, Diallo’s supporters swept into the streets in his strongholds, declaring their alleged victory.

Diallo said on Twitter that three young men were killed in the capital, and several others were injured by security forces while they celebrated his victory.

The government was not immediately available to comment on the deaths.

Security Minister Damantang Albert Camara earlier accused Diallo’s party of publishing false results, and warned it risked triggering violence.

“This strategy of forced, premature and unjustified celebration was carefully planned well before the election,” Camara said in a statement.

Rights groups say at least 50 people having been killed over the past year during demonstrations against the constitutional change that allowed Conde to seek at least six more years in power.

(REUTERS)

The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, who is also the current President of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is on a mission of the 15 nation-bloc in Bamako.

He was received by the transitional president Bah Ndaw on Sunday to take stock of the political transition and discuss the next steps to ensure that the deadline of the eventual election is met.

All activity is towards regional solidarity with the now embargo-free Mali still regrouping post-coup d’état August.

The Ghanaian president is the first head of state to visit the West African nations since the ECOWAS-imposed sanctions were lifted.

Source: Africa News

Thousands of opposition supporters have rallied in Abidjan to protest against Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara’s plan to seek a third term, as tensions rise in the lead-up to the country’s high-stakes election.

Three weeks before the October 31 vote, some 20,000 people made their way into a stadium in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital by early afternoon on Saturday, with some holding banners reading: “The people say no to an illegal third term.”

Ouattara, 78, announced in August he will seek another term after the sudden death of his handpicked successor the previous month created a leadership vacuum at the governing RDHP party.

The president’s decision infuriated the opposition who says Ouattara is violating the constitution by seeking another term. Ouattara, in power for a decade, says a 2016 constitutional change means his two-term limit has been reset.

The constitutional council has cleared him and three other candidates to run, including 86-year-old former President Henri Konan Bedie. Those barred include Ouattara’s predecessor Laurent Gbagbo and former rebel leader and Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, both of whom played key roles in a crisis that claimed more than 3,000 lives after disputed elections a decade ago. Both men are living outside the country but retain powerful support at home.

More than a dozen people have been killed in violent protests in recent weeks, sparking memories of the 2010-2011 civil war that broke out when Gbagbo refused to stand down after the electoral commission declared Ouattara the winner.

Opposition figures have called for a civil disobedience campaign and for the election to be postponed, but have stopped short of saying they will boycott the poll, while the RDHP has said the election will take place regardless of whether they participate.

Protester Bohui Armel said the people taking part in Saturday’s rally wanted “to simply to say no to Ouattara’s third term”.

“This is not a political party story. It is not a story of sympathisers but it is a story of the people of Ivory Coast who want to claim their freedom.”

“My advice to President Ouattara is that Ivorians should sit down to discuss. We want peace. We don’t want war,” Eve Botti, a supporter of the FPI opposition party, told the Reuters news agency.

The polls are seen as the biggest test yet of the tenuous stability achieved in the world’s top cocoa producer since the post-election violence that engulfed the country a decade ago.

“This is an extremely big test for Ivory Coast,” Jessica Moody, a researcher in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera last month. “There is a high risk that the election will be contentious and will send the country back to war.”

Amid the rising tensions, envoys from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc, the African Union and the United Nations headed earlier this week to Abidjan where they met officials, the opposition and members of the civil society.

“The joint mission expressed deep concern over the lack of trust among Ivorian political actors,” according to a joint statement from the delegation led by Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Ghana’s foreign minister and current chair of the ECOWAS council of ministers.

The delegation “strongly condemned the acts of violence and hate speech with ethnic overtones, which have unfortunately entered the field of political competition and are likely to have a negative impact on the progress made so far in the country”. it said.

This week’s mission was the second by the UN’s special envoy for West Africa, Mohamed Ibn Chamba, who last month called for a “peaceful, inclusive, transparent and credible presidential election” after meeting with President Ouattara.

The International Crisis Group last week called for the election to be postponed and for ballot preparations to be overhauled.

“The chances of this election spawning a serious crisis are high,” the independent think-tank said.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Eleven political and military figures arrested during Mali’s coup have been released, including former prime minister Boubou Cisse, the transition authorities announced.

New army strongman Assimi Goita issued an official statement late Wednesday saying “the political and military personalities arrested on August 18 have been set free”.

They would however “remain at the disposition of the courts if needed”.

Those released including former National Assembly speaker Moussa Timbine and eight generals.

The rebels put in place a president and a transition government while retaining a grip on power.

A transition government tasked with leading Mali back to civilian rule was appointed on Monday, with numerous members of the junta occupying key posts.

Colonel Goita was named vice president of the transition government last month.

West African regional bloc ECOWAS on Tuesday lifted its tough sanctions on Mali after recording “notable advances towards constitutional normalisation”.

The 15-nation group called for the civilian and military figures detained during the bloodless coup to be freed.

ECOWAS has also demanded the dissolution of the junta, which calls itself the National Council for the Salvation of the People.

(AFP)

Mali’s interim president Bah Ndaw appointed a 25-strong government on Monday in which members of the military occupy key posts, according to a decree broadcast live on state television.

At least four central cabinet posts — defence, security, territorial administration and national reconciliation — go to colonels in the army, said the decree read by the president’s secretary-general Sekou Traore.

(AFP)

Bah Ndaw, a retired colonel who has been designated Mali’s interim president following last month’s coup, made his first public appearance on Thursday, meeting a regional mediator, AFP reporters saw.

Ndaw, 70, met former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, in Bamako on a mission for the 15-nation bloc ECOWAS, on the eve of his swearing-in.

Ndaw’s appointment was announced on Monday by Colonel Assimi Goita, who heads a junta of young military officers who seized power on August 18, ousting elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Goita himself will serve as vice president, under the announcement.

The interim president will rule for a maximum of 18 months before staging nationwide elections.

ECOWAS — the Economic Community of West African States — slapped sanctions on Mali on August 20 to push for swift restoration of civilian government, including the appointment of civilians as interim president and prime minister.

The bloc may announce on Friday whether the plan meets criteria for easing sanctions, Jonathan said on Thursday.

An official close to the sanctions discussion, who declined to be named, said that “there are still consultations going on”.

Jonathan was due to meet other Malian officials on Thursday, besides Ndaw, including prominent figures whom the military detained after last month’s coup.

ECOWAS has demanded the release of all detainees. Keita was released, but former prime minister Boubou Cisse, among other officials, remains in detention.

Mali’s neighbours have taken a hard line with the junta, fearful that the fragile nation of some 19 million people could spiral into chaos.

Swathes of the vast country already lie outside of government control, due to a lethal jihadist insurgency that first emerged in 2012. It has also inflamed ethnic tensions.

Current restrictions include border closures and a ban on commercial trade and financial flows but not on basic necessities, drugs, equipment to fight coronavirus, fuel or electricity.

Source: AFP

Ivory Coast ex-rebel leader and former premier Guillaume Soro, whose bid for the presidency has been invalidated by a court, insisted Thursday his candidacy was “irrevocable” even as he attacked the October 31 elections as a scheme to enshrine 78-year-old Alassane Ouattara as head of state.

“My candidacy is firm, unchangeable and irrevocable,” Soro told journalists in Paris, adding his country was “on the brink” since President Alassane Ouattara’s decision to seek a third term in office.

Soro urged the country’s opposition parties to unite against Ouattara even as he insisted that the October 31 presidential poll “does not make any sense” as it was designed to “endorse the institutional state coup d’etat of Alassane Ouattara”.

Soro, who served as prime minister from 2007 to 2012, urged Ivory Coast opposition leaders to unite and to “seize (regional bloc) ECOWAS in order to obtain transparent elections”.

And he insisted that on October 31, “there will be no election”, without further explanation.

Ivory Coast’s top court rejected 40 presidential election candidates, validating the contested bid of the incumbent head of state but sidelining his predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo and Soro, a one-time Ouattara ally.

On Tuesday the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights called on the Ivorian authorities to allow Soro to contest the vote.

Tensions are running high ahead of the poll in the West African state where more than 3,000 people died in post-election violence in 2010-11.

This week, protests broke out in several cities including in southeastern Bonoua, the hometown of Gbagbo’s wife Simone, where about 300 people, mainly youngsters, marched against Ouattara’s candidacy in defiance of a ban on demonstrations.

Ouattara had said in March that he would not seek a third term but made a U-turn just four months later when his preferred successor, prime minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, died of a heart attack.

The argument behind his bid pivots on modifications to the constitution in 2016. Supporters say this has reset the two-term limits to zero, entitling him to run again.

Violent protests against Ouattara’s candidacy left around 15 dead last month, reviving memories of the post-election bloodshed nearly a decade ago.

(AFP)

Former Ivorian rebel leader and ex-prime minister Guillaume Soro, who has been barred from contesting an upcoming presidential election, should be allowed to run, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights said Tuesday.

The court — established by members of the African Union in 2004 — issued a provisional ruling calling on Ivory Coast to “take all necessary measures to immediately remove all obstacles” preventing Soro from competing in the October 31 vote.

However, the ruling is likely to have limited impact, as Ivory Coast withdrew its recognition of the court’s jurisdiction in April this year.

(AFP)

Tensions mounted on Saturday between Mali’s military junta and the country’s longtime political opposition after the coup leaders failed to invite prominent opposition figures to a planned forum on the country’s political future.

The meeting ultimately was cancelled and the junta leadership instead met with imam Mahmoud Dicko, an opposition leader who on Friday urged the junta to speed up the transition to civilian rule so the West African country could avoid further crushing financial sanctions.

“I ask them to be part of the solution and not another problem,” he said.

Only a week earlier, the opposition coalition known as M5-RFP that includes Dicko had publicly backed the coup, with thousands of their supporters taking to the streets after the junta’s overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. M5-RFP had led several months of demonstrations calling for his resignation three years before his final term was due to end.

In a statement late Friday, one M5-RFP leader said the alliance regretted not being invited to take part in Saturday’s planned discussions between the junta and various political actors.

“The M5-RFP is and remains a major player in this desired change and must be at the forefront in determining the structure of the transition,” Choguel Maiga said.

The path back to democracy has been a stumbling point with West African heads of state, who on Friday urged the junta to restore civilian rule within a year. But the junta has proposed a three-year timeline. That has led to the unraveling of talks and more threats of sanctions.

The regional bloc known as ECOWAS already has cut financial flows to Mali, and neighboring countries have closed their borders in a bid to step up pressure on the coup leaders.

The international community has expressed alarm over the coup, fearing that the political vacuum could allow Islamic extremists to expand their reach. A similar coup in 2012 led to the militants overtaking major towns in the north where they implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law, amputating the hands of those charged with theft.

A French-led military operation in 2013 ousted the extremists from power but the Malian military and its partners have faced an insurgency ever since.

There are concerns that the new political upheaval could erode what gains have been made in the fight to stabilize Mali.

Source: AP