Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The Democratic Republic of Congo’s opposition will be allowed to hold a Kinshasa rally on Friday to protest against voting machines they fear will permit fraud in December’s key election, an opposition official said. Political tensions are rising in the DRC before the long-delayed …
Read More »Zimbabwe opposition quarrel as leader lies in hospital
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s main opposition was embroiled in a power struggle on Friday over who is in charge of the party months before key elections, as leader Morgan Tsvangirai receives cancer treatment in hospital. Two vice presidents of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party clashed openly over …
Read More »UK Labour mobilises to push Corbyn into power
Brighton, United Kingdom | AFP | In a former church, 40-odd activists are learning how to become effective frontline troops in the battle to sweep Labour opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn into power. “The next campaign is already going on,” said 19-year-old Connor Hodgson-Brunniche, a student at York University, who came down …
Read More »Iranian, 74, sentenced to die over ‘half-naked’ parties
Tehran, Iran | AFP | Iran has sentenced a 74-year-old man to death for hosting “mixed and half-naked parties”, the head of Tehran’s judiciary said on Tuesday. Chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said the man led “a corruption gang” which held parties with drugs and alcohol, and where women were “sexually …
Read More »Senegal ruling party coalition claims election landslide
Dakar, Senegal | AFP | The ruling coalition of Senegal’s President Macky Sall won a widely expected landslide in a legislative election, his prime minister said Monday, bolstering Sall’s prospects for re-election in 2019. The Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition swept all but three of the country’s 45 electoral departments, …
Read More »In Senegal, Sall faces 91-yr-old ex-president and jailed mayor
President Sall faces double challenge as Senegal elects MPs Dakar, Senegal | AFP | Senegal holds a legislative election on Sunday following a campaign gripped by tension between the rival coalitions of President Macky Sall, his predecessor Abdoulaye Wade and Dakar’s detained mayor. The election is seen as a crucial test …
Read More »S.Africa’s Zuma tries to quell high-risk succession battle
Soweto, South Africa | AFP |South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday sought to calm an increasingly fractious battle to succeed him that is threatening to split the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party. Zuma, who has been hit by corruption scandals and his country’s poor economic performance, will step …
Read More »Memorial of South Africa icon turns into anti-Zuma protest
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A memorial service Saturday for anti-apartheid icon Ahmed Kathrada was transformed into a fierce attack on South African President Jacob Zuma, under fire after a controversial cabinet reshuffle. Party veterans of the ruling ANC, sacked finance minister Pravin Gordhan and Kathrada’s widow lined up to …
Read More »Uganda’s political parties share Shs3 billion
The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development has confirmed it has released Shs3billion for political parties with representation in Parliament. The Electoral Commission Spokesperson Jotham Taremwa said the money had been wired to four political parties that are also members of the Inter Party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD). National …
Read More »UPC is not for sale
COMMENT: By Harold Acemah Early in the morning of Wednesday, June 15, a friend called me from Kampala to deliver some bad news he had just read in the Daily Monitor of that day. He told me, with anguish, that UPC and Uganda House had been sold to the proprietor …
Read More »