Sierra Leone on Monday anxiously awaited preliminary results from watershed elections that international observers declared free and fair, despite allegations of vote-rigging from some parties. Preliminary results from Saturday’s presidential and legislative ballots were expected later in the day.
Ballot-counting was under way on Sunday across Sierra Leone after the West African country voted in presidential and parliamentary elections seen as a test of whether it has fully emerged from its decade-long civil war. Voting was peaceful, although some polling stations opened late and many people had to wait in long lines in the rain.
Clear differences emerged on Monday among African leaders over their visions for the continent’s system of governance as they gathered behind closed doors to thrash out how to forge a closer union. Heads of state began a debate in which they split over whether to create a United States of Africa or simply upgrade existing institutions.
Zimbabwe’s leader Robert Mugabe, under fire at home over a crumbling economy, said on Sunday that Africa needed to get its act together and warned that no amount of external aid would lift it out of its quagmire. ”We must unite, not just politically but economically,” he told a cheering crowd in Accra.
South African President Thabo Mbeki’s mission to resolve the crisis across the border in Zimbabwe faces slim prospects of success due to deep-rooted suspicion between the protagonists, analysts say. Mbeki was entrusted with the task by fellow Southern African leaders at a summit last month.
A defiant Robert Mugabe openly acknowledged an assault on Zimbabwe’s opposition leader on Friday as he sought his ruling party’s nomination to stand once again in next year’s presidential election. The veteran president told supporters he had not received one word of criticism from his fellow Southern African leaders at a summit the day before.
Zimbabwe’s ruling party was expected to pick Robert Mugabe again as its candidate on Friday for next year’s presidential election after the beleaguered leader won strong public backing from his peers. The central committee of the Zanu-PF was to meet in Harare where it was set to rubberstamp a decision by its politburo earlier this week to extend Mugabe’s tenure.
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/ 19 January 2007
Pressure from the international community, NGOs and civil society led to the acquittal recently of five alleged coup plotters imprisoned in Burundi in August this year. The men were arrested and charged with plotting to overthrow the government, but the accusations were widely believed to have been fabricated by elements in the government.
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/ 15 January 2007
After a spate of arrests of members of the media over the past six months, Burundian authorities recently released three journalists who had been detained for more than a month. The Mail & Guardian spoke to them on a recent visit to Burundi. ”Everything is still in a blur,” says Domitile Kiramvu. ”I still ask myself questions. It is too good to be true.”
Zimbabwean newspaper owner Trevor Ncube is set to contest the stripping of his citizenship in a High Court application. The case has drawn condemnation from international press bodies such as the International Press Institute, the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum.