Category: Politics

BANJUL, GAMBIA — Election officials started counting marble votes Saturday in Gambia after the polls closed in the country’s first presidential election in decades that did not include former dictator Yahya Jammeh, a milestone seen as a test of democracy in the West African country.

Long lines of Gambians came to vote to exercise their democratic rights as demands for justice in the post-Jammeh era rise. Nearly 1 million registered voters were expected to drop marbles into one of six ballot bins, each adorned with the face and name of a candidate.

The candidates include incumbent President Adama Barrow, who defeated Jammeh in 2016 as an opposition leader.

Barrow’s challengers are former mentor and head opposition leader Ousainou Darboe of the United Democratic Party; Mama Kandeh of Gambia Democratic Congress; Halifa Sallah of the People’s Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism; Abdoulie Ebrima Jammeh of the National Unity Party; and Essa Mbye Faal, former lead counsel of Gambia’s truth commission, who was running as an independent.

“We will never lose this election,” Barrow said after voting in Banjul. “I am a leader who is focused on development, and that development will continue in this country. I know in the next 24 hours my people will be celebrating in the streets.”

Barrow stressed the Independent Electoral Commission must remain impartial.

Darboe voted in Fajara, a neighborhood in Bakau, near the capital, using a walker because of health problems. Flanked by a huge escort, including his wives, he added his voice to calls for peaceful elections.

“We all win if there is peaceful election,” he said.

Independent Electoral Commission presiding officer Musa Mbye told The Associated Press that there were no major problems during the vote. IEC Chair Alieu Mommar Njie said election results would be announced by Monday.

After polls closed, several officials started the counts by laying the marbles on wooden boards to mark 100 to 200 votes per board. Political party representatives and polling station heads also sign off on the vote count. This year, it will also then be put into an app developed for Gambia’s election tracking, aptly called Marble.

All the presidential candidates vowed to strengthen the country’s tourism-dependent economy amid the coronavirus pandemic so fewer Gambians feel compelled to travel the dangerous migration route to Europe.

While the 2016 election that removed Jammeh from power after 22 years saw Gambians go from fear to elation, many are still not satisfied with the progress the nation has made.

“Since President Barrow came to power, the prices of food commodities kept rising. The average Gambian lives in poverty, so we want a candidate to be elected to address this problem,” Kebba Gaye, 23, said in the town of Wellingara. “We youths want to elect a leader that will respect and value our votes. A leader that will create employment for us.”

In a nearby neighborhood, Marietou Bojang, 24, agreed on the need for change, saying people don’t have enough to eat.

“I am voting because myself and other women are suffering silently. A bag of rice has drastically gone up,” she told the AP, adding that not enough has been done to fight corruption.

Many Gambians want certainty that the new leaders will bring the tiny West African nation of about 2.4 million toward peace and justice.

Jammeh, who seized power in 1994 in a bloodless coup, was voted out of office in 2016. After initially agreeing to step down, Jammeh resisted, and a six-week crisis saw neighboring West African countries prepare to send in troops to stage a military intervention. Jammeh was forced into exile and fled to Equatorial Guinea.

Jammeh’s two-decade rule was marked by arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances and summary executions that were revealed through dramatic testimony during Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission hearings that lasted for years.

Last week, the commission handed its 17-volume report to Barrow, urging him to ensure that perpetrators of human rights violations are prosecuted. Barrow said he would do that.

Still, many Gambians feel betrayed after Barrow’s National People’s Party reached a deal with the top figures of the former ruling party, despite Jammeh’s split with that party.

Links to Jammeh are not only an issue for the current president. Opposition candidate Kandeh has been supported by a breakaway political faction that Jammeh formed during his exile in Equatorial Guinea. While Kandeh has kept silent about Jammeh’s possible return to Gambia, his allies are unequivocally saying that Jammeh would come back if they emerged victorious from the election.

Of the other candidates, Sallah and Darboe are established politicians, but they faced challenges from newcomers Faal and Ebrima Jammeh, who are making waves in urban areas.

Source: Voice of America

NAIROBI, KENYA — Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has been reinstated in a deal with the military, following weeks of unrest sparked by a coup. Despite the military promising to release all political prisoners, protesters have vowed to continue demonstrating for democracy.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok got his power back to continue with the country’s political transition. He had been kept under house arrest since October 25 when the military overthrew his government and arrested some politicians.

Sulaima Al Khalifa, a human rights activist in Sudan, said the current deal did not change the situation on the ground.

“We did not expect it. It was a surprise and shock. We fear there is a lot of pressure happening, Hamdok is under pressure because it’s not even logical and what he has done is not even logical according to the serious event that has happened. Because the violation of the rights of the people is still ongoing. Since 25th we don’t have a state,” she said.

On Sunday, a teenager was shot dead during a protest in the city of Omdurman according to a pro-democracy Sudanese doctors group. The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said 41 people have died so far since the coup.

Jonas Horner, a senior analyst on Sudan affairs at the International Crisis Group, said the prime minister will hold less power after Sunday’s political deal in Khartoum.

“Hamdok appears to have been returned to power under some duress. He has made of the calculation he would rather be inside the process that now appears to be solidly controlled by the military, by the coup-makers from October 25 rather than being outside. The military had relied on bringing Hamdok back in that had been their key strategic approach. Hamdok does bring the military government a level of credibility,” said Horner.

Some people in Sudan see Hamdok as a political hero for standing up to the military before and after the coup.

Horner predicts that sentiment will change drastically in the streets and Hamdok will find himself in a difficult political position.

“He will find himself far less popular with the street and he will find himself very low in this power that he will need to turn this back around in the direction of constituencies on the streets that he really should be pushing for. The relationship between the military and the street will only get worse. The military has shown its cards, it’s clearly not seeking to deliver on the transition that people had called for during Sudan’s revolution in 2018-2019,” said Horner.

In December 2018, Sudanese took to the streets demanding good governance and respect for the rule of law. The street protest eventually drove former president Omar al-Bashir out of power after 30 years in office.

Source: Voice of America

On the last day of a trip to Africa to bolster U.S. influence on a continent that receives much of its foreign aid from U.S. rival China, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said U.S. efforts to strengthen alliances in Africa must be evaluated on results.

The top U.S. diplomat visited Senegal Friday and Saturday on the last leg of a five-day, multi-nation trip during which he outlined the Biden administration’s policy toward Africa, declaring that the U.S. sees African countries as equal partners.

“We have to be judged on what we do and not simply on what I say and so let’s see over the coming months and coming years how we do,” Blinken said at a news conference Saturday in the Sengalese capital of Dakar.

Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall said at the news conference that U.S. influence in Africa “will always be important.” She noted the U.S. “never colonized” Africa and said the Sengalese “see the United States as a country of freedom.”

Earlier Saturday, Blinken met with Senegalese President Macky Sall at the presidential palace in Dakar. The two leaders also attended an event at Dakar’s Institut Pasteur, which hopes to begin producing COVID-19 vaccines with U.S. assistance next year.

On Friday, Blinken summarized the Biden administration’s policy toward Africa in a speech in Abuja, Nigeria.

“The United States firmly believes that it’s time to stop treating Africa as a subject of geopolitics — and start treating it as the major geopolitical player it has become,” Blinken said.

The continent needs billions of dollars annually for massive infrastructure projects such as building roads, railways and dams. Over the past decade, China has provided much of the infrastructure funding Africa has received.

Without mentioning China, Blinken vowed the U.S. would agree only to transparent and voluntary global infrastructure agreements that produce tangible benefits on the continent.

“Too often, international infrastructure deals are opaque, coercive; they burden countries with unmanageable debt; they’re environmentally destructive; they don’t always benefit the people who actually live there,” Blinken said. “We will do things differently.”

Blinken, who witnessed the signing of contracts valued at more than $1 billion Saturday between Senegal and four U.S. companies, said the U.S. is investing in Africa without imposing unmanageable levels of debt.

“As we look at infrastructure investment, and more broadly investment across the board, our purpose, the guiding principle, is to make this a race to the top. And if other countries want to engage in that race to the top … that’s a very good thing,” Blinken said.

Blinken’s visit to Africa was his first as secretary of state. He has said his trip is aimed at fostering cooperation on global health security, battling the climate crisis, expanding energy access and economic growth, revitalizing democracy and achieving peace and security.

The trip is part of the Biden administration’s effort to strengthen alliances in Africa after four years of a unilateralist approach under former U.S. President Donald Trump. It came amid worsening crises in Ethiopia and Sudan.

While in Kenya, Blinken called for ending the violence in Ethiopia, combating terrorism in Somalia and reviving Sudan’s transition to a civilian government.

On Saturday in Senegal, Blinken addressed the civil war between Ethiopian government forces and rebels in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.

“Intensive diplomacy is ongoing with leadership from the African Union and its high representative, former Nigerian President Obasanjo supported by the United States,” Blinken said.

“We continue to push for an immediate end to hostilities without preconditions and humanitarian access to the millions of people who need life-saving aid,” he added.

Despite large contributions of money and vaccines to contain COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, the U.S. has had little success in gaining influence on the continent.

Nevertheless, Blinken said U.S. President Joe Biden would continue working to improve relations with African countries.

“As a sign of our commitment to our partnerships across the continent, President Biden intends to host the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit to drive the kind of high-level diplomacy and engagement that can transform relationships and make effective cooperation possible,” Blinken said.

The top U.S. diplomat did not say when the summit would take place.

Source: Voice of America

The UN envoy for Somalia, James Swan, urged stakeholders to move quickly to conclude the lower house elections before the end of the year.

“Although progress is being made, the efforts of Somalia’s political leaders will need to be redoubled in the coming weeks to bring the elections for the Federal Parliament to a successful conclusion, so that the presidential elections can then be held as soon as possible,” Swan, special representative of the secretary-general for Somalia, told the Security Council via videoconference.

Swan welcomed completion of the indirect elections for the Upper House of Somalia’s Federal Parliament, which began in July, and the start of those for the lower chamber, known as the House of the People.

“The completion of these elections is more important than ever, so that all effort can return to the key governance, security, and development priorities in Somalia.”

The envoy said the UN will continue its engagement and support towards advancing the indirect polls, with clan representatives electing parliamentarians who will then vote for the president.

While 14 women will be among the 54 senators in the Upper House, representing 26 percent of parliamentarians there, Swan said this figure falls short of the 30 percent quota for women’s participation.

Only two of the 275 seats in the lower house have been filled so far, and 30 percent are also reserved for women.

“We continue to stress that women’s full inclusion and representation in political life, and in all sectors of life, is key for Somalia’s sustainable peace and development,” said Swan.

Meanwhile, the terrorist group Al-Shabaab remains a serious threat to security in Somalia.

Nearly 1,000 civilians have been killed or injured in armed conflict so far this year, with the group responsible for some two-thirds of civilian casualties.

Swan paid tribute to the Somali security forces and troops serving with the African Union mission in the country, AMISOM, who face Al-Shabaab on a daily basis.

Source: Nam News Network

WASHINGTON — The leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico are meeting Thursday for their first trilateral summit in five years, to discuss longstanding issues such as climate change, migration, economic competitiveness, as well as newer challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House Thursday. The leaders will first have bilateral meetings with Biden before converging for the first North American Leaders’ Summit since 2016.

“It’s the culmination of 10 months of work to revitalize North America’s platform that is both critical to our domestic economic success, as well as a partnership that can play a critical role in resolving regional and global challenges,” White House deputy press secretary Chris Meagher said Wednesday.

Challenges include migration, Cuba, competition

However, the so-called “three amigos” also have rocky terrain to cover.

After taking office, Biden halted the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocol, known as the “Remain in Mexico” program, but Texas and Missouri successfully sued the federal government to have it restarted. That is likely to happen in coming weeks.

“The feeling of the United States that Mexico is not doing enough on security, I think will be a possible point of tension as well,” said Ryan Berg, a senior fellow in the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Surely the leaders will discuss the Remain in Mexico program, the fact that Title 42, as well, is still on the books, the migratory flows, as well as how Mexico can help the United States in the Northern Triangle countries.”

Also, some of Washington’s economic and climate policies are likely to draw Canadian ire. Trudeau has said he intends to push back against Biden’s Buy American program, which Ottawa sees as protectionist.

“There’s no doubt that there are still issues in the U.S.-Canada bilateral relationship,” Berg said. “There’s supply chains, there’s the issue of the Keystone XL, of course, which the Biden administration canceled early on.”

Beyond the borders

The three are also likely to discuss issues outside of their borders, such as recent protests in Cuba and the U.S.-led economic blockade on the island, over which Biden and López Obrador disagree.

They are also likely to discuss what Biden has described as a “sham” election that saw longtime leader Daniel Ortega jail opponents and brutally repress dissent to take a fourth consecutive term in the central American nation of Nicaragua.

“I would assume that other critical issues across the hemisphere will be on the agenda as well,” said Jason Marczak, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. ”Very concerned about what was seen just recently in Nicaragua with Daniel Ortega … imprisoning political prisoners, leading to a sham vote in Nicaragua just recently. And so I think that there will be other regional topics that are on the agenda, which are important for U.S.-Mexico collaboration as well as Canada as well.”

But, he said, getting these three leaders in one space to hash out these critical issues together is key.

“It’s important to have on the agenda both issues in which there is agreement and also issues in which, on the surface, there might not be agreement,” he said. “But having a conversation — especially a private conversation — is the best way to at least be able to see each other’s perspectives and see if some common ground can be inked out.”

Source: Voice of America

Mogadishu – Wrapping up a five-day visit to Somalia, a senior United Nations official today called on the Somali leadership to accelerate efforts towards the completion of the country’s electoral process.

“It is important that we complete this process to enable the peace and stability of Somalia to take off in a meaningful way,” the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, said in Mogadishu.

The recently-appointed UN official, who holds responsibility for the continent of Africa at the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Department of Peace Operations (DPPA-DPO) in New York, was in the Horn of Africa country as part of a familiarization visit.

“I’m here to familiarize myself with the UN operations, and also to have discussions with the government, the leadership of Somalia, civil society organizations, especially women and youth, who, as you know, the United Nations works closely with on the ground,” she said.

Government meetings

In Mogadishu, her schedule earlier in the week included meeting Prime Minister Mohamed H. Roble and other senior officials of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mohamed Abdirizak.

Somalia’s parliamentary elections were among the topics discussed. The country is completing the vote for its Upper House and beginning those for the Lower House, known as the House of the People.

“To underscore the United Nations’ continued support for a Somali-led, Somali-owned process – that was a fundamental message – that we are with them, and we intend to work with them to the very conclusion of whatever processes we need to do to make this country viable, to make this country stable, to ensure peace for its citizens and sustainable development that reaches every member of the community,” Ms. Pobee said, adding that ensuring the minimum 30 per cent women’s quota for parliamentary representation in the elections was also discussed.

The UN official was keen to visit one of Somalia’s Federal Member States (FMSs), and, on Tuesday, she journeyed to the city of Baidoa in South West State. She met there with the Acting President of South West State, Ali Said Fiqi, and other senior officials of the FMS’s administration.

“I would like to commend South West State for being one of the first Federal Member States that successfully completed the elections to the federal Upper House. I would also like to call on the leaders to conduct the House of the People elections without further delays in a peaceful, transparent and inclusive manner,” she said in media remarks there.

Civil society’s role

In her meeting with representatives of Somali women leaders in Mogadishu, Ms. Pobee highlighted the importance of the country’s women’s taking part in all spheres of the country’s public life.

“I got a clear sense that they know exactly what the significance of their participation is. They have very clear ideas on political processes, on what this country needs to go forward. And I think there’s also a keenness to participate,” she said.

“I also urged them to speed up the process of the elections on the issue of representation of women, the commitment to reaching the 30 per cent quota,” Ms. Pobee added. “We have managed to attain 26 per cent, but it is important, particularly in the Lower House elections, to ensure that we meet that target.”

In her meeting with Somali youth representatives, the UN official noted that youth represent the majority of Somalia’s population and have a critical role to play in their country’s progress, in areas ranging from politics to development, education to human rights and more.

“The youth are 70 per cent, people the age of 30 and below, and they’re therefore an important, really important, segment of the society, of the country. And as a group, they necessarily have to be included in the development process and in political processes,” Ms. Pobee said. “True participatory democracy cannot advance if these very important segments of the society are left out.”

While in the Somali capital, Ms. Pobee also met with senior officials from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), members of the Council of Presidential Candidates and representatives of the international community.

Source: United Nation

WASHINGTON — A federal agency charged with making sure that government employees do not use their positions to influence elections released a scathing report this week, finding that at least 13 senior members of the administration of former President Donald Trump, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, engaged in “willful violation” of the Hatch Act, a federal law limiting their political activities.

The report, released by the Office of Special Counsel, reveals a major problem for the United States when it comes to preventing senior administration officials from misusing their positions for political gain. According to the OSC, the only person in a position to punish Hatch Act violations by the most senior officials in the executive branch is the president.

“Indeed, the 2020 election revealed that, at least with respect to an administration’s senior-most officials, the Hatch Act is only as effective as the White House decides it will be,” the report found. “Where, as happened here, the White House chooses to ignore the Hatch Act’s requirements, then the American public is left with no protection against senior administration officials using their official authority for partisan political gain in violation of the law.”

Ethics laws seen as insufficient

Liz Hempowicz, public policy director for the Project on Government Oversight, an independent good-government group, told VOA the unprosecuted violations revealed in the report go to the heart of what many Americans see as the biggest problem with the country.

“The number one concern for constituents across the board is corruption in government, and even more specifically, corruption in government that is never held accountable,” she said.

Hempowicz decried “violations of an ethics law where the watchdog organization in charge of enforcing the law cannot or will not bring enforcement actions against very high-level individuals who violate the law incredibly publicly.”

Hempowicz continued, “It just goes to some of the main concerns we’ve heard from the public. And it reinforces the idea that these ethics laws that we have to protect the people’s interests are not sufficient.”

Multiple violations

The report lists a large number of violations of the Hatch Act during Trump’s term in office, but much of the report is focused on the months immediately prior to the 2020 presidential election, and particularly to the Republican National Convention (RNC). Trump sparked controversy by deciding to hold the convention, a purely political event typically staged in a large city outside Washington, on the grounds of the White House itself.

The report says that while it may have been a breach of political norms, it was not de facto illegal to hold the RNC at the White House. However, during the convention, the OSC documented individual violations of the law.

During the RNC, Pompeo and then-Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf both appeared in their official capacity in events designed to improve the former president’s chances of reelection. Pompeo, who was on a diplomatic trip to Israel at the time, delivered a livestreamed address to the convention. Wolf prerecorded an official naturalization ceremony, in which immigrants to the United States officially become citizens, for a similar purpose.

Numerous violators

The report lists numerous other senior officials who, on one or more occasions, used appearances made in their official capacity to boost the former president’s reelection campaign.

They include then-Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette; then-Senior Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway; then-Senior Adviser to the President Jared Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law; and then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

Others were then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; then-Senior Adviser to the President for Policy Stephen Miller; then-national security adviser Robert O’Brien, and several others.

As elected officials, neither Trump nor former Vice President Mike Pence was subject to the Hatch Act during his term in office, and therefore broke no rules by campaigning in his capacity as president or vice president.

However, the OSC concluded that the president and vice president knew about the frequent and ongoing violations of the law, pointing out that the agency had briefed the White House multiple times and had sent “an unprecedented 15 warning letters to senior administration officials notifying them that they had violated the Hatch Act.”

Calls for change

The OSC is led by Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner, who was nominated by Trump and confirmed to his position by the then Republican-led Senate in 2017. His office regularly brings enforcement actions against more junior executive branch appointees. However, the agency has long believed that its authority ends with Senate-confirmed members of the administration and people appointed directly by the president.

According to the OSC, the report was issued “to educate employees about Hatch Act-prohibited activities, highlight the enforcement challenges that OSC confronted during its investigations, and deter similar violations in the future.”

In recognition of its inability to effectively enforce the law, the OSC recommended a number of legislative changes. Among other things, the agency is asking Congress to give it the authority to apply monetary penalties to senior administration officials for Hatch Act violations, even after they have left office. The agency also wants the ability to issue regulations related to the Hatch Act, and suggests that Congress determine what areas of the White house complex can be used for political activity.

‘It was egregious’

Experts concerned with good governance and transparency said there was nothing particularly unexpected in the report, but they praised it for drawing attention to the significant gaps in enforcement that allowed the violations to take place in the first place.

“I don’t think there was anything that was surprising,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a group that promotes good government. “We all saw the activity as it occurred. It was egregious.”

Nevertheless, he told VOA, the report is important.

“We have a tendency, as a society, to move on from crises … without going back and following the thread about what the consequences are … and we don’t learn as a result,” said Stier. “The OSC report is a very important look at the need for reform of the basic infrastructure of the way our government operates.”

The OSC and other watchdog agencies like it were set up more than 40 years ago, in the wake of the Watergate scandal that brought down former President Richard Nixon.

“It’s about time that we revisit, in our present world, what we need by way of structure inside government to ensure that we continue to have a first-grade, corruption-free and effective government,” Stier said.

Source: Voice of America

Fourteen activists who planned to participate in the Beijing provincial assembly election have withdrawn four days ahead of the November 5 vote, saying their personal safety is at risk.

Many of the activists are related to people arrested in a July 9, 2015, purge. Authorities arrested more than 300 lawyers and activists in what has become known as the 709 Crackdown.

The 14 activists declared their candidacies on Oct. 15 only to issue a joint statement on Nov. 1 saying that out of consideration of freedom and personal safety, all 14 decided to withdraw from the race.

Wang Qiaoling, whose husband, lawyer Li Heping was arrested in the 709 crackdown, sent the statement via Twitter. It stated that 10 of the candidates had been placed under strict government supervision since declaring. Some were taken to the police station to “drink tea,” a tactic used by Chinese secret police to intimidate dissidents. Some were constrained to their neighborhoods.

The provincial assembly focuses on street-level functions, such as establishing local policies and approving local budgets and expenses.

According to the statement, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau set up a special case team and “[the candidates] will know the result in two months.”

To become a formal candidate, a hopeful must pass a political screening process. According to an article in China Daily by the state-owned Xinhua News Agency, a citizen “must first register and win confirmation of his or her qualifications for lawmaker candidacy. Then receive a nomination as ‘deputy candidate’ by political parties, social organizations, or 10 or more voters in one constituency.”

The article also said, “There is no such a thing as an ‘independent candidate,’ as it’s not recognized by law.”

Wang Qiaoling told VOA Mandarin that “it’s not convenient” for her to say anything beyond the statement.

When asked whether she’s under pressure to refrain from making further comments, she answered “definitely yes.”

VOA Mandarin contacted one of the candidates, Ye Jinghuan, who replied to say because authorities are monitoring her phone, she takes calls only from close relatives.

VOA Mandarin contacted her sister, Ye Jingchun, who is also a rights activist. She said the 14 candidates had no choice but to withdraw.

“There is also pressure from their relatives and friends,” she told VOA Mandarin. “The authorities usually talk to those around you to put pressure on you, making it hard to bear the mental burden.”

Ye Jingchun, who participated in the 2011 and 2016 Beijing provincial assembly elections as an independent candidate, said this time there’s even more pressure from the authorities.

She said in 2011 and 2016, independent candidates would receive police attention only for their campaign activities. “But this year, everyone is placed under surveillance. They are no longer free to take a call from outside of the country. … Some were forced to ‘travel,’ some were forced to stay home. I think it will last until Nov. 5, the election day,” she told VOA Mandarin. Authorities employ forced chaperoned travel to send dissidents away from events of domestic or international importance.

Ye Jingcho endorsed the high-profile announcement the 14 candidates used to declare their candidacies and then withdraw. “So, when you quit, people understand why,” she said.

Local elections will be held in the Beijing municipal area on Nov. 5 to select about 5,000 district People’s Congress representatives and more than 11,000 township People’s Congress representatives.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a central conference focused on work related to people’s congresses held on Oct. 13-14 that “Democracy, a shared value of humanity, is a key tenet unswervingly upheld by the CPC and the Chinese people.”

The local level elections are the only ones in China that use a direct election system, where candidates who win a majority of votes will be elected as local representatives.

“We all know the chances of being elected are very small,” Ye said, “but even if I didn’t win, my neighbors, my friends get to know a little bit more about the meaning of voting, so I have no complaints or regrets.”

Source: Voice of America

BINDURA, ZIMBABWE —

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa says he will attend COP26, becoming the first Zimbabwe leader to visit the United Kingdom since Zimbabwe was accused of human rights abuses and election rigging. Mnangagwa also said a U.N. rapporteur had proved his government was right about the sanctions issue.

Winding up an annual conference of the ruling ZANU-PF party Saturday in Bindura, 80 kilometers north of Zimbabwe’s capital, Mnangagwa said he was looking forward to attending the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, in Scotland, which begins Sunday.

“I wish to inform the conference that tomorrow morning (Sunday) I travel to Glasgow, United Kingdom, after over two decades have passed without Zimbabwe leadership going to United Kingdom. I have been invited by [British Prime Minister] Boris Johnson, and [he] has indicated he might meet me; one on one, as well as other leaders like India prime minister and others, we are meeting them,” he said.

Mnangagwa also said he was happy about a report by U.N. Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan after a two-week visit to Zimbabwe. The Belarus national urged the U.S. and other Western governments to lift sanctions they imposed on Zimbabwe nearly two decades ago and for alleged election-rigging and human rights abuses.

Source: Voice of America