Sudan’s first multi-party elections in 24 years have put Omar al-Bashir, the president who won power in a coup 20 years ago, firmly in the seat of power. The semi-autonomous south of the country voted Salva Kiir into power there by a large vote. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of war crimes, of which he says he is innocent.
Iraq’s former prime minister, Ayad Allawi, appears to have won the presidential election in Iraq by just two votes but Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki says he will not accept the election results. Allawi has offered to form a government with Al-Maliki, but there is some confusion over how this fits in with Iraq’s constitution.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Business Week, NPR
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
Gus O’Donnell, head of civil servants in Great Britain, says that with 18 years of Conservative rule followed by 13 years of Labour, few UK civil servants will know how to deal with an election that bears no decisive results. He and his team have “rushed out a chapter dealing with elections and hung parliaments from an administrative manual it is working on,” reports Reuters UK.
Links to other sites: CS Monitor, Guardian, UK
Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa, has told South African media that he wants to see Zimbabwe elections take place in 2011 whether or not outstanding issues for the “inclusive” government are resolved. The three parties in the power-sharing government, put in place with Zuma as a key negotiator, are meeting 19 January. Two sticky issues on the agenda are the appointment of an attorney general and the reserve bank governor.
Links to other sites: allAfrica, Radio VOP, Zimbabwean, UK
Sebastian Pinera, a right-wing politician and billionaire, whose investments include the largest stake in Lan Airlines, has won a tight race for president in Chile. Former President Eduardo Frei, who ruled from 1994-2000, has conceded defeat. Pinera had more than 51 percent of the vote, with 60 percent of polling stations closed. The country’s current president, Michelle Bachelet,is barred from running for another term.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe struck a defiant note at a political rally Sunday 13 December in the capital Harare, telling his supporters that they must pull together to ensure they win elections next time around. His Zanu-PF party Saturday had elected him as its leader for another five years. Mugabe reminded them that the power-sharing arrangement, forced up them by the party’s poor showing at the last election, has only another year to run, and then the party should take control again. But the party meeting ended without an agreement on how Mugabe’s successor will be named, a sign that dissent runs deep, according to the Daily Nation, on AllAfrica.
Links to other sites: AllAfrica, BBC, Voice of America
Jose Manuel Zelaya, who was deposed as president of Honduras in a coup 28 June, says he will not participate in a presidential election slated for 29 November and that he has asked his supporters to renounce it. His announcement came in a published letter explaining his case to US President Barack Obama. His decision is a blow to hopes for a negotiated settlement that arose when he and Roberto Micheletti, who pushed him from power, signed a US-brokered agreement in October that called for a unity government until the election. It also called for Congress to decide if Zelaya should be returned to power, but Congress has opted to hand that decision to the country’s highest court. The elections are causing problems for Honduran citizens outside the country, who are unsure where and how to vote: in Florida the Honduran consulate says citizens should vote there, but the Honduran government says the consulate no longer has the authority to authorize this.
The dispute is the latest in a series of diplomatic tussles involving Hondurans. The Honduran ambassador to the UN was expelled from the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva 14 September after the group’s president, Alex van Meeuwen of Belgium, decided that Delmer Urbizo, the Honduran ambassador, was not the legitimate representative of the government of Honduras. Van Meeuwen made his decision after various points of order called by a group of Latin American countries who questioned the Honduran’s credentials and the legitimacy of the government he represents. Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico argued that the UN General Assembly had called on organizations not to recognize the interim government of Honduras. But Urbizo has told GenevaLunch there is no Honduran government in exile under former President Zelaya, and therefore the Honduran people is being deprived of its legitimate right to be represented in international forums.
Links to other sites: CNN, Miami Herald
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 74, has said he will not seek re-election in the elections he called for January 2010. He said his decision was not “a manipulation or a manoeuvre” in a speech from his headquarters in Ramallah, on the West Bank 5 November. He said he had had enough after years of frustration. Abbas succeeded long-time president Yasser Arafat in 2004.
Addressing the Israeli public directly, he said: “Peace is more important than any achievement for a political party. Peace is more important than any government coalition. For many years, my opinion and vision have been that peace was still possible and I have sincerely worked to achieve this goal“.
The decision is seen as a blow to the US administration’s attempts to restart the Middle East peace process, coming just days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the region, which she judged to be a success. Palestinians were outraged when she said Israel’s offer to slow down illegal settlements in the West Bank was “unprecedented”. Al-Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, New York Times
Update 24 October 12:20 The de facto president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, has proposed that he resign from the presidency if Manuel Zelaya, the president deposed by the military 28 June and sent into exile, withdraws his claim to be reinstated as president. A government of national reconciliation would be installed until new elections, programmed for 29 November. Zelaya has said that free and fair elections cannot be held in the current circumstances. Zelaya’s term would have ended in January.
Zelaya returned to Honduras secretly two weeks ago and has been in the Brazilian embassy since then
The de facto government made the announcement Friday, 23 October as talks between the two sides broke down, after the government missed a midnight deadline to reinstate Zelaya. Zelaya rejected the demand, which he said was similar to a proposal made several weeks ago. Reuters, Romandie News,
Jet d'eau, Geneva
Update 10:15 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Canton Geneva elected its new 100-strong Grand Conseil, or parliament, Sunday and voters approved a multi-party mix that sees the power of the Socialists waning and a stronger centre-right. Geneva has long had a centre-left leaning. The biggest winner was the centre-right MCG, Mouvement Citoyens Genevois, which nearly doubled the number of seats it holds, to 17.
Media in French-speaking Switzerland are putting the accent on the populist nature of the party, pointing to its strongly anti-frontalier (workers who cross the border) platform. Le Temps notes that the party has taken advantage of a chink, growing concerns along the border about security and jobs, where many thought it did not have the strength.
Peter Galbraith’s absence as second in command of the United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan was for two weeks shrouded in confusion, notably over whether or not he was still in the job. It now appears that he is not. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced 30 September that he was recalling the former US ambassador. Galbraith was appointed to the post in March 2009 amid speculation that had been pressured by the US to approve the appointment. His stormy relationship with his boss, Norwegian Kai Eide, has made headlines. The two have known each other for years – Galbraith, who is the son of Canadian economist JK Galbraith, was reportedly introduced to his wife by Eide. Both men served in Bosnia. Galbraith has not been in his office since shortly after the Afghanistan elections, when he and Eide reportedly clashed over how to handle the controversial election results. Political blogger Laura Rozen on Politico spoke to Galbraith after reading the UN statement, and he said he hadn’t been informed, then refused to comment further.
The Times, UK, 15 September said Galbraith had been ordered to leave Afghanistan after the dispute with his boss, implying he was about to be fired and that the UN office in Kabul was torn by those loyal to Galbraith and his tougher stance, those following Eide and his softer approach.
UN officials and US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry are pressuring Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, to let the country’s independent Election Commission look into increasingly credible allegations of vote fraud during the recent presidential election. Karzai needs at least 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff and US State Department officials say that the commission needs to determine which votes can be counted. Karzai, in an interview published Monday by French newspaper Le Figaro, says he will respect the work of the Election Commission, 22 of whose staff were killed during the elections, but that he will not be a puppet of the US government. CNN and Figaro (Fre) interview with Karzai
The Democratic party won a decisive victory in Japan, defeating the ruling right-wing Liberal Democrats, the first time since 1955 that another party has taken a majority. The Democrats are now in a position to put into place their liberal plans to provide more social services. They have also said they would like a less subservient relationship with the US and will look at removing US military bases. Financial Times, National Public Radio, Sydney Morning Herald
Japanese prime minister Taro Aso bowed to the inevitable and dissolved the Diet, Japan’s parliament, and called for fresh elections 30 August. His ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, LDP, did poorly in local elections earlier this month and the government’s approval ratings have plummeted as Japan has entered its worst recession since the 1990s. A week ago, Aso survived a no-confidence motion in the lower house of parliament, where the LDP has a majority. BBC, CNN
Taro Aso, prime minister of Japan, has called for elections in August and says he will dissolve the parliament 21 July after his ruling LDP party lost badly in weekend local elections. The party has now lost the dominant role it held for four decades and Aso’s approval rating in polls is at about 20 percent, reports the BBC. Financial Times
Polls opened Wednesday 8 July as 176 million Indonesians began to vote to choose their president directly for only the second time in the nation’s history. Front-runner is incumbent president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is widely respected for his handling of the economy. He faces current vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, and former president, Megawati Sukarnoputri. If he wins more than 50 percent of the vote he will avoid a run-off election in September. BBC, Sydney Morning Herald
The last day of campaigning in Iran’s presidential campaigns has closed with both sides for the two main candidates expressing outrage. “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is thought to be in a tight race with his main rival, reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi,” writes the BBC based on its correspondent’s observations of a campaign that he says was “dull” to start with. TV appearances now have crowds fired up, and the final one by President Ahmadinejad, where he accuses his opponents of lies and falsifying documents, is likely to push supporters of his opponent into the streets in protest. Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, NPR
The conservative majority in the European Parliament looked set to extend its majority after Europe-wide elections mostly held Sunday 7 June. Voters punished the Left in Germany, France, Spain and in Great Britain, where the ruling Labour party is struggling to maintain its grip on power. Voter participation dropped to a new low of 43 percent of eligible voters. It was the first time citizens of all 27 member-states voted. BBC, Reuters, Le Temps (Fre), NZZ (Ger)
James Purnell, the British work and pensions secretary, has resigned from Gordon Brown’s cabinet, the third member to leave in three days. Purnell, a moderate member of the Labour Party, called for Brown to resign as well in order to give the party a chance in the next general election, which must be called within 12 months: the last election was four years ago and elections are required every five years. The party is facing a likely thumping in local elections and elections for Britain’s seats to the European Parliament this week, after the scandal over spending by MPs (Members of Parliament) that has stayed in headlines for weeks. BBC, International Herald Tribune/NYTimes, Times, UK
Four women were elected to the Gulf region’s oldest parliament 16 May in Kuwait’s third general election in three years. Among the winners were economist Rola Dashti and US-educated university teacher Aseel Al-Awadi, a member of Amnesty International. Women won the vote in Kuwait only in 2005. BBC, CNN
Geneva is home to the UN Human Rights Council, set up in 2006
Geneva, Switzerland and New York, USA (GenevaLunch) – The US announced 1 April that it intends to seek a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council “with the goal of working to make it a more effective body to promote and protect human rights.”
Raul Alfonsin, the first democratically elected leader of Argentina after the military regime that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983, has died after an illness, age 82. His economic record has been criticized but he is credited with bringing the country back to a democratic regime. BBC
Israel’s parliamentary elections are too close to call, with more than 97% of the vote in, reports the Jerusalem Post: Kadima, the party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, appears to have won the most seats but the opposition Likud Party has the largest bloc. Final results will be made known 18 February.
Vaud and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss go to the polls this weekend to vote on one of the most critical foreign relations issues in recent years, a government-sponsored initiative to extend indefinitely the country’s six-year-old agreement with the European Union providing for the free movement of labour.
Israel’s Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni has asked President Simon Sheres to hold early elections after her efforts to form a coalition government failed. Polls show her party leading, but with a small majority. CNN, Jerusalem Post
Votes are still being counted, but Canada appears to have its third minority government in four years, but with Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party minority strengthened. CBC
Bern, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Swiss citizens are likely to go to the polls in February to vote on the free movement of people being extended to Romania and Bulgaira, as well as on whether or not to accept the new biometric passports.
Israel’s Kadima Party is today voting for a new leader to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with “Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz the clear front-runners,” reports the Jerusalem Post. Olmert will most likely offer his resignation as PM a few days after the election.
Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – The Young Greens Monday registered with the federal Chancellory their 150,000 signatures for a vote on environmentally acceptable cars. Once the government verifies the signatures the proposal will be added to a federal popular referendum ballot, the date of which will be determined later.
The ballot item in fact covers far more than just 4×4 gas guzzlers, with 13% of the cars driven in Switzerland targeted, including some family cars, vans and sports cars. And not all SUVs are targeted. Diesel cars would need fine particle filters. For the rest, there are four main criteria for vehicles to be allowed on the roads under the proposal: they must not exceed 2.2 tons (empty), no dangerous frontal parts, emit less than 250 grams of CO2 per kilometre, which corresponds to about 11 litres of petrol for 100 km.
The popular referendum item has the backing of several groups, including the WWF and Pro Velo, but there are strong reservations from others, including the TCS (Touring Club Suisse) and auto import groups.
