12, February 2020
Portugal freezes Isabel’s accounts at request of Angola govt 0
The Angolan government’s request to freeze overseas accounts of Isabel dos Santos has been granted by the Portuguese authorities, a number of media outlets including the Expresso newspaper have reported.
This is the latest leg in a resolve by Luanda to bring the billionaire daughter of ex president Jose Eduardo dos Santos to book for alleged corruption and pillaging of public funds.
Isabel was head of the country’s oil firm, SONANGOL, a post she was controversially handed by her father. President Lourenco fired her months after taking office in 2017. Her brother Jose Filomeno is also facing corruption charges over his time at the head of the national sovereign fund.
Local accounts of Ms Dos Santos were frozen by a court late last year before an exposé into corruption files linked to her wealth were released last month. She has repeatedly rubbished the reports and stressed that she had earned all her wealth legally.
Luanda has slapped charges of embezzlement and financial misappropriation against the 46-year-old who has been living outside the country for the better part of the time that her father left office. She is on record to have said that she would consider running for the presidency when next polls are held.
Lourenco vows to recover stolen funds hidden abroad
President Joao Lourenco last Friday told visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel that his reformist government was working to recover funds stolen from public coffers and stashed abroad.
“With the support of everyone, civil society and specialised international institutions, we are implementing initiatives to combat money laundering, as well as to recover assets that have been set up with public resources… (or) been illegally transferred… outside the country,” he said.
He said his government was determined to fight corruption in the graft-tainted oil-rich country.
“We are deepening the foundations of the rule of law, where there is no impunity for acts of corruption and for practices of nepotism and influence peddling,” he said in an address during Merkel’s one-day visit to the country.
Dos Santos built up a vast business empire over the past two decades, with stakes in several Angolan and Portuguese companies. Her fortune is valued at $2.1 billion by Forbes Magazine, which named her Africa’s richest woman in 2013.
Source: Africa News
12, February 2020
Cameroon Opposition Alleges Ballot-Stuffing as Elections Marred by Violence 0
Vote counting in Cameroon’s local and parliamentary elections on Sunday has been marred by violence and opposition claims of fraud committed by the ruling party. Opposition leaders accuse the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement of ballot stuffing, which it denies.
Opposition candidates and officials of Cameroon’s elections management body, ELECAM, argued at a polling station Monday in the southwestern town of Limbe.
As vote counting continued in Sunday’s local and parliamentary elections, some parts of Cameroon saw protests sparked by allegations of fraud.
Fritz Ngeka Etoke is an opposition Social Democratic Front candidate for parliament.
He accuses President Paul Biya‘s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) party and election officials of rigging the vote.
“It is a shame. The international community should see,” he said. “We caught one lady with about 500 CPDM ballot papers. This is one case; the president of a polling station has stuffed the box. Is it not a pity?”
Etoke alleged the CPDM also declared itself the winner in English-speaking villages where civilians fled fighting between the military and rebels, despite no one voting.
Local ruling party officials dismissed the fraud allegations as unfounded.
The government, however, acknowledged fraud allegations and election disputes in almost every town where the opposition fielded a candidate.
Disgruntled opposition supporters blocked traffic in several western towns, and some protests against the alleged fraud turned violent.
The governor of the French-speaking western region, Augustine Awa Fonka, says clashes in one village left one man dead and several wounded.
He would not identify the man or give details on how he was killed but, called for a return to peace.
“There is no point for people coming out, blocking the roads, quarreling, fighting,” he said. “Violent acts here and there are unnecessary, so I am calling on the population to be calm, to be vigilant. They should avoid provocations. If you do not succeed today, it is not the end of the world. You prepare for the next elections. I think at this point in time, we badly need peace.”
The government deployed the military to English-speaking towns to protect voters from insurgents who had vowed to disrupt the polls.
But some villagers who talked to reporters accused the military of using the deployment to have troops cast multiple votes for the ruling party.
The minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, rejected the claims. He insists the polls were fair and successful, despite what he described as a few challenges.
“All went well in the 24,988 polling stations,” he said. “Any form of challenge to the verdict of the polls other than the constitutional legal means will not be tolerated,” he said.
The ruling CPDM party is calling on its supporters and all Cameroonians to wait calmly for official election results.
Source: VOA