Islamabad: Jailed ex-PM Imran Khan and his arch-rival, former three-time PM Nawaz Sharif, vowed Saturday to form next govt in Pakistan, making conflicting claims of victory as no political party secured a clear majority in general elections held on Feb 8 in a highly polarised political environment
Candidates backed by Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) clinched 100 seats out of 266 directly elected to National Assembly, surpassing 72 seats secured by Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), led by former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, emerged as third biggest with 54 seats.
Khan claimed his party swept with a two-thirds majority, but alleged massive rigging had stolen their mandate through changed results. He addressed his supporters in an AI-generated video message. “I congratulate each and every one of you for winning 2024 election… you have made history,” he said, while urging supporters to peacefully protest if final election results are not released.
International community, including US, UK, and European Union, have demanded an investigation into claims of election malpractices made by Khan’s party. British foreign minister David Cameron’s statement noted “serious concerns raised about fairness and lack of inclusivity of the elections”.
Pakistan’s foreign office said these statements ignore an undeniable fact that Pakistan held general elections, peacefully and successfully, while dealing with serious security threats.
Amid widespread circulation of videos of alleged poll rigging on X, authorities suspended the service again Saturday. “After closing mobile services in Pakistan during election day, they have now blocked X in Pakistan because PTI was exposing the rigging!!” Khan’s party alleged.
Pakistani voters had not cast ballots only for National Assembly, but also for their representatives in four provincial assemblies. In Punjab, most populous province of Pakistan, PML-N is in lead, while independent candidates are comfortably ahead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In Sindh province, PPP has won a majority, while in Balochistan, country’s largest province in terms of land, a coalition govt is expected as no party has seats required for a simple majority.
A 23-year-old man died Saturday after being shot during clashes in the capital Dakar, two of his relatives told AFP, while a 22-year-old student died Friday in the northern town of Saint-Louis in still uncertain circumstances.
“The international and regional community must bear witness to the excesses of this dying regime,” said presidential candidate Khalifa Sall (no relation).
Modou Gueye, a market vendor, took “a live round to the stomach” on Friday in the Colobane neighbourhood of the capital Dakar, said his brother Dame Gueye, 29, who was with him at the time.
His brother-in-law Mbagnick Ndiaye said he succumbed to his injuries Saturday morning.
Authorities have yet to confirm Gueye’s death, but videos posted to social media suggest there were others injured as well.
In Saint-Louis, Alpha Yoro Tounkara died on the campus of Gaston Berger University where he was studying geography, and a hundred of his classmates held an all-night vigil for him.
The Interior Ministry issued a statement denying that security forces had operated within the university campus.
Reputation in question
Anger has mounted since President Sall last week postponed until December a presidential election scheduled February 25. The postponement came hours before official campaigning was due to begin.
Protests were held across the country Friday and police made wide use of tear gas to keep crowds away from a main central square in Dakar, also closing main roads, rail lines and major markets.
Reporters Without Borders said at least five journalists were targeted by police in Dakar
A new round of protests are planned for Tuesday.
Sall said he postponed the election because of a dispute between parliament and the Constitutional Council over potential candidates who were not allowed to stand, and has said he wants to begin a process of “appeasement and reconciliation.”
The postponement has been criticised by the United States and European Union. Senegal’s parliament backed the move after security forces stormed the chamber and removed some opposition deputies.
Parliament also voted to keep Sall in office until his successor takes office, which is unlikely to be before early 2025. His second term was due to end April 2.
The crisis has called into question the West African country’s reputation for democratic stability in a region beset by military coups.
Taiwan voters will head to the polls on Saturday to elect a new president and legislature.
The presidential election is a three-way race between incumbents Democratic Progressive Party, opposition party Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party.
The emergence of TPP’s presidential candidate Ko Wen-Je has disrupted the traditional two-party race, buoyed by unhappiness among the young of stagnant wages in the face of high inflation.
Global observers have billed this Taiwan election as pivotal for U.S.-China relations and security concerns in the broader Asia-Pacific
More than 19 million voters in Taiwan will head to the polls on Saturday to decide if the ruling Democratic Progressive Party should earn an unprecedented third consecutive presidential term — or if a leadership change is in order.
The traditional DPP-Kuomintang duopoly is being challenged this year by the emergence of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je and his Taiwan People’s Party. With a legislative majority also at stake at these elections, there are fears of a hung parliament, which could hobble policymaking and herald a return of notorious confrontations between feuding legislators.
The walkover poll win by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signalled the death knell for Bangladeshi democracy and could presage more political instability
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has won an overwhelming majority in Bangladesh’s parliamentary election after a campaign fraught with violence and a boycott from the main opposition party, giving her and her Awami League a fourth consecutive term.
While the Election Commission has been slow to announce the results of Sunday’s election, TV stations with journalists across the country reported the Awami League won 224 seats out of 299. Independent candidates took 62, while the Jatiya Party, the third largest in the country, took 11 seats and Kallyan Party got 1. The results for the rest of the constituencies were still coming in.
The election was held in 299 out of 300 parliamentary seats. In one seat, the election was postponed as required by law after an independent candidate died.
A final official declaration from the Election Commission is expected on Monday.
At least 18 arson attacks preceded the vote but the election day passed in relative calm. Turnout was around 40%, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said after the polls closed.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former premier Khaleda Zia refused to accept the election outcome, saying Bangladeshi voters have rejected the government’s one-sided election.
Security incidents, including four deaths in an arson attack on a passenger train on Friday, intensified tensions ahead of the election that was shunned by Zia’s party and its allied groups. They accuse Hasina of turning Bangladesh into a one-party state and muzzling dissent and civil society.
Authorities blamed much of the violence on the BNP, accusing it of seeking to sabotage the election. On Saturday, detectives arrested seven men belonging to the BNP and its youth wing for their alleged involvement in the train attack. The party denied any role in the incident.
On Sunday, a supporter of an Awami League candidate was stabbed to death in Munshiganj district near the capital, Dhaka, officials said. Police did not comment immediately.
A victory for the 76-year-old Hasina, the country’s longest-serving leader and one of its most consequential, would come with a deeply contentious political landscape.
The vote, like previous elections, has been defined by the bitter rivalry between Hasina’s Awami League and the BNP, led by Zia, who is ailing and under house arrest on corruption charges, which her supporters claim are politically motivated.
The two women ran the country alternately for many years, cementing a feud that has since polarized Bangladesh’s politics and fueled violence around elections. This year’s vote raised questions over its credibility when there are no major challengers to take on the incumbent.
Badshah Mia, a rickshaw puller in Dhaka, said he wouldn’t vote given the limited choices, adding that the atmosphere didn’t exude that of “a fair election.”
Sakibul Hasan Chowdhury, a businessman, felt the same. “There is no opposition and no candidate of my choice. So how would I benefit from voting?”
A small business owner, Habibur Rahman, said he was voting for the ruling party candidate in his constituency but added that there didn’t seem to be much of a turnout.
Critics and rights groups say the vote follows a troubling pattern, where the past two elections held under Hasina were sullied by allegations of vote-rigging — which authorities have denied — and another boycott by opposition parties.
The government has rejected a monthslong demand by the BNP to have a neutral caretaker government administer Sunday’s vote.
The government has defended the election, saying 27 parties and 404 independent candidates are participating. But with scores of candidates from the Awami League running as independents and mostly smaller opposition parties in the race, analysts say Hasina’s win is near inevitable.
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, said none of those contesting would be able to mount much of a challenge to Hasina’s party. “The outcome is all but guaranteed, and that is that the Awami League will return (to power) again,” he said, noting that “Bangladesh’s democracy will be in an extremely precarious state once the election is done.”
The vote has also been called into question by accusations of a sweeping crackdown against the BNP. The party says about 20,000 of its members were jailed ahead of the vote on trumped-up charges. The government disputed the figures and denied that arrests were made due to political leanings, saying the numbers of those arrested were between 2,000-3,000. The country’s law minister in an interview with BBC said 10,000 were likely arrested.
Abdul Moyeen Khan, a former minister and BNP leader, said the spate of arrests forced him and scores of other party members to go into hiding for weeks until candidacy nominations were halted. “It was the only way we could ensure our safety and carry on raising our voice (against the government)” he said.
“We are not boycotting an election — what we are boycotting is a fake and one-sided election that this government is carrying out,” Khan added.
Hasina is credited with transforming the economy of a young nation born out of war and making its garment sector one of the world’s most competitive. Her supporters say she has staved off military coups and neutralized the threat of Islamic militancy. And internationally, she’s helped raise Bangladesh’s profile as a nation capable of doing business and maintaining diplomatic ties with countries often at odds with each other, like India and China.
Yet her critics say her rise has risked turning Bangladesh into becoming a one-party state where democracy is under threat, as emboldened government agencies increasingly use oppressive tools to mute critics, shrink press freedoms and restrict civil society.
The global economic slowdown is also being felt in Bangladesh, exposing cracks in its economy that have triggered labor unrest and dissatisfactionwith the government.
After casting her ballot, Hasina dismissed concerns over the legitimacy of the vote, telling reporters she was accountable to the people and whether they accepted the election or not was what mattered to her.
“I’m trying my best to ensure that democracy should continue in this country,” she added. “Without democracy, you cannot make any development.”
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Associated Press journalist Al-Emrun Garjon contributed to this report.
The creators of Hope Sogni hope to show the game could be run differently
“Hope Sogni” — created by the sports agency Dark Horses with Twise.ai and Maggie Murphy, pioneering chief executive of Lewes FC — has been designed to challenge Gianni Infantino, who was re-elected unopposed in March for another four-year term in charge of the sport’s governing body.
The Swiss-Italian lawyer has been criticised for a number of comments made since first taking the role in 2016, including a bizarre speech on the eve of last year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Sogni can be spoken to in real time, and set out a manifesto based on greater equality between men’s and women’s football, while also critiquing the likely awarding of the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia.
“It is important to invest in both, but also to address the historical disparities and underinvestment in women’s football. This may require a weighted approach that prioritises the development and growth of women’s football, while still ensuring adequate support for men’s football. The goal is to create a more balanced and inclusive landscape for the sport.”
On the potential of a Saudi Arabia World Cup, Sogni added: “I believe that hosting the men’s World Cup in Saudi Arabia in 2034 raises important questions about human rights and equality.
It is crucial for Fifa to consider the impact of its decisions on the global football community and the values it represents. I would advocate for a thorough evaluation of the host country’s commitment to human rights, gender equality, and inclusivity before making a final decision.
“It is important to evaluate host countries based on their commitment to human rights, gender equality, and inclusivity, regardless of their geographic location,” she says. “The focus should be on promoting fairness and inclusivity in the selection process, rather than singling out specific regions.”
El Banco Central argentino devaluó este lunes un 22 % el peso en el tipo de cambio oficial mayorista en las primeras operaciones, según los operadores de mercado, después del sorpresivo triunfo del ultraderechista Javier Milei en las elecciones primarias celebradas el domingo, un resultado que cayó de forma negativa en los mercados
The Argentine peso has plunged in value after a man who admires Donald Trump won presidential primary elections.
Javier Milei, 52, and his Liberty Advances coalition took about 30% of the total vote, according to official results.
Candidates in the main opposition coalition, United for Change, took 28%, while the governing Union for the Homeland coalition achieved 27%.
Mr Milei, 52, won in 16 of the country’s 24 regions, appealing to voters angry about inflation at 116% and the country’s cost of living crisis.
The presidential election is due to be held in October.
Mr Milei, an economist, wears leather jackets, sings rock songs to his supporters and calls his political opponents “thieves”. He is nicknamed ‘the wig’ due to his unusual hairstyle.
A member of the lower house of Argentina’s Congress since 2021, he has pledged to shatter the political status quo and severely shrink the state.
He says Argentina’s central bank should be abolished and wants to replace the peso with the dollar.
The sale of human organs should be legal, he has said, while he characterises sex education as a ploy to destroy the family.
And while gun ownership is currently severely restricted in Argentina, Mr Milei proposes the “deregulation of the legal market”.
Following his primary win, the central bank allowed the peso to slide almost 20%.
The current government has grappled with triple-digit inflation, poverty reaching 40% and recurring debt crises.
In his closing campaign event last week, held in an arena, Mr Milei railed against the political elite “caste” who he describes as “robbers” taking money out of voters’ pockets.
Speaking after the primary results had been announced, he said: “We are facing the end of the caste model.
“Today we have stood up to say enough to the model of decadence. Today we took the first step for the reconstruction of Argentina.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says he will not try to form a government after his party won the general election by a huge margin.
“I don’t believe there’s any basis for the formation of a government in this parliament,” the leader of the conservative New Democracy party told President Katerina Skellaropoulou on Monday after she gave him the order to do so.
Mitsotakis is expecting to be in an even better position after a second vote, which could take place as early as next month.
New Democracy targeting 39% mark to secure single-party rule and avert the prospect of another election.
Given that a third election is a distinct possibility in the case that frontrunner New Democracy decreases its electoral percentage and a seven-party Parliament emerges, the polls on June 25 have added significance
Finland’s youngest prime minister will leave her post as the leader of the country’s Social Democrat party following a defeat of the Social Democrats in a national election.
The National Coalition Party (KOK), led by Petteri Orpo, came out ahead in the general elections held on 2 April in Finland. It won 20.82% of the vote and 48 seats in the Eduskunta/Riksdag, the single chamber of parliament, which is 10 more than in the previous general elections on 14 April 2019. It is slightly ahead of the Finns Party (Perus S), a right-wing populist, nationalist and eurosceptic party led by Rikka Purra, which scored the best result in its history: 20.05% of the vote and 46 elected members (+7). Its leader even received the highest number of votes for her name, around 38,000, and 35,000 for the outgoing Prime Minister Sanna Marin, whose Social Democratic Party (SDP) came third with 19.93% of the vote and 43 seats (+3). The three parties were really running neck and neck. In Finland, however, it is up to the leading party to form a government.
“There is no far-right party in Finland”, assured Petteri Orpo, Sunday April 2 to the foreign press, at the end of a suspenseful electoral evening from which he emerged victorious, by a short head. . Promised to the post of Prime Minister at 53, the candidate of the National Coalition (right) was very clear: in the phase of preparation for his government team, he does not want to close any doors.
In the past, several right-left coalitions (known as “blue-red”) have emerged, as was the case under the government of Harri Holkeri (1987-1991), or those of Jyrki Katainen and Alexander Stubb ( 2011-2015). These legislative elections nevertheless carry their share of firsts: never the Party of Finns, anti-immigration formation advocating national preference, had never come in second position. Applauded by her supporters with cries of “Finland! Finland! Riikka Purra was delighted to have achieved the “best electoral result” in the history of her party, which she is the first woman to lead.
The government negotiations will not begin until after Easter. Beyond this consensual horizon lies the unknown. Petteri Orpo, indecipherable behind his glasses and his placid smile, allows himself the freedom to lean on one side or the other, according to his interests. “All the experts here in Finland are expecting very difficult negotiations due to major disagreements on many issues, underlines Aino Tiihonen, political scientist at the University of Tampere. The most probable hypothesis is that Petteri Orpo will speak at the same time with the Social Democrats and the Party of Finns”.
Nigeria will elect governors in 28 of its 36 states, as well as state assembly members, with fierce contests expected in cities in which Obi did well in the presidential vote, such as Lagos and the capital, Abuja. In both of these he used a campaign built on social media to upset the odds by winning votes with a promise to tackle corruption.
Nigeria’s electoral commission has postponed governorship elections planned for this weekend by another week, citing limited time to reset its voting machines nearly two weeks after a controversial presidential vote was disputed by opposition parties.
“This decision has not been taken lightly but it is necessary to ensure that there is adequate time to back up the data stored on the over 176,000 BVAS machines from the Presidential and National Assembly elections held on 25th February 2023 and then to reconfigure them for the Governorship and State Assembly elections,” electoral body INEC said in a statement late Wednesday.
Nigeria is not new to poll delays. Previous elections in the West African country have been postponed at very short notice, sometimes just one day before they were due to take place.
INEC’s Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), an electronic voting machine configured with fingerprints and facial recognition features, was at the center of the controversy that blighted the February 25 polls.
Voters are accredited with the BVAS device, which also transmits election results from polling stations to an online server. But results were not transmitted on time in the last election, sparking allegations of vote rigging
Particular focus will fall on Lagos, home to 20 million people, thriving technology and arts sectors and an economy that would be ninth-largest in Africa were it a country. It is also the home town of Tinubu, who is considered the “godfather” of the city he used to govern and is said to be desperate to ensure his party maintains power of it.
Were he to lose, assuming he is sworn in as president, he would be the first sitting Nigerian president not to control his home state.
Voters will also cast their ballot for Nigeria’s two houses of parliament, the National Assembly and Senate.
To win the presidency, a candidate must get the most votes, but also win 25 percent in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.
If no candidate wins, a runoff will take place within 21 days between two frontrunners — an unprecedented outcome that some analysts say is a possibility this time around
Tunisia has been plunged into political uncertainty after it recorded the lowest electoral turnout in its recent history following President Kais Saied’s suspension of parliament and subsequent redrawing of the country’s political map.
Its main opposition alliance called on Saied to “leave immediately” as voters overwhelmingly snubbed the legislative election in what officials at the country’s Instance Supérieure Indépendante pour les Élections (ISIE) said was a participation rate of 8.8%.
Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, president of Tunisia’s “Salvation Front” alliance, which boycotted the vote and has accused Saied of a coup against Tunisia’s democracy said the president had “lost all legal legitimacy”. An abstention rate of more than 91% “shows that very, very few Tunisians support Kais Saied’s approach”, Chebbi told Agence France-Presse
The refusal by most Tunisians to participate in the election should not in any way be perceived as voter apathy. Tunisians are still as interested in the future of their country as they have ever been. They had no enthusiasm for this vote because they knew from the very beginning that its outcome would not help better the grave economic and social conditions they are living in.
What makes things even worse for Saied and his cronies is that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has postponed its authorisation for an urgently needed $1.9bn loan from December 2022 to at least January 2023. This delay amid a gaping deficit and a deepening cost of living crisis will undoubtedly worsen the economic struggles of Tunisians and make their situation even less tolerable. Together with the gradual abolition of bread subsidies and the plans for other substantial public spending cuts, this delay in IMF funding could result in an uprising
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated President Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election on Sunday that marked a stunning comeback for the leftist former president and the end of Brazil’s most right-wing government in decades.
Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court declared Lula the next president, with 50.9% of votes versus 49.1% for Bolsonaro. The 77-year-old Lula’s inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 1.
A right-wing alliance led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party looks set to win a clear majority in the next parliament, exit polls said on Sunday after voting ended in an Italian national election.
If confirmed, the result would cap a remarkable rise for Meloni, whose party won only 4% of the vote in the last national election in 2018, but this time around was forecast to emerge as Italy’s largest group on 22.5-26.5%.
As leader of the biggest party in the winning alliance, she is the obvious choice to become Italy’s first woman prime minister, but the transfer of power is traditionally slow and it could take several weeks before the new government is sworn in.
Will the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, concede defeat in the October presidential election if—as the polls currently indicate—his rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who served as president in 2003-10, wins? This question is already hanging over the election campaign and will feature ever more prominently as polling day approaches.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has expressed nostalgia for the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985—years whose memory is a source of pain for many Brazilians. Like similar regimes in neighboring states, Brazil’s military dictatorship stifled freedom of speech and violently suppressed opposition, killing or disappearing some 475 critics, including members of the armed resistance, and torturing thousands more.
Bolsonaro has stated that he will refuse to leave power if he loses next year’s presidential election to ‘fraud’. The far-right leader is now attacking the integrity of the country’s electronic voting system, the same system through which he was elected in 2018.
In a press conference today, he declared, “I am giving advance warning to the judges of the Supreme Court. I will give the presidential sash to whoever beats me at the polls fairly, but not with fraud.”
He added; “I am not going to allow a fraudulent voting system at these elections…We cannot face the elections next year with this system, it is not accepted anywhere in the world.”
Mélenchon’s alliance, known as NUPES (the New Ecological and Social Popular Union), includes France’s main green party, along with the Socialists, the Communists, and France Insoumise.
This new coalition, which unites La France Insoumise, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, the Parti Communiste and the Parti Socialiste, has asserted itself as the main opponent to the president. The results of the first round of the legislative elections for French citizens abroad, published on Sunday, June 5, illustrate this face-off. While for the most part Macronist candidates came out on top (with the exception of Manuel Valls) the left-wing alliance made a breakthrough, qualifying for the second round in 10 constituencies out of 11. That is to say, twice as many in 2017. Enough to make the Macronist ranks wary, even worried.
Emmanuel Macron’s troops remain confident but are not certain of winning an absolute majority. With the gradual decline recorded by the polls, the president’s lieutenants have seriously downgraded their ambitions, now fearing a narrow majority, and even a defeat – unthinkable several weeks ago, but now considered “not impossible” at the Elysée Palace.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is asking voters to re-elect his center-right Liberal-National coalition government, after a three-year term dominated by the pandemic, climate disasters, and accusations of dishonesty.
Morrison’s popularity has waned since he defied polls to clinch a “miracle” win over Labor in 2019, and this election is seen as a referendum on his self-confessed “bulldozer” leadership style.
Australian elections are typically a two-horse race between the Liberal-National coalition and the Labor Party
The Morrison government has been called a climate “holdout” by the United Nations Secretary-General after outlining a plan to get to net zero by 2050 by creating massive new gas projects. The government says it backs a transition from coal to renewable energy, but has no plans to stop new coal projects.
Labor says it will cut emissions by 43% by 2030 — higher than the coalition’s target of 26-28%, but less than climate scientists say is needed to keep global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius, as agreed under the Paris Accord. Climate-focused Independents want emission cuts closer to 60% by 2030 and to disrupt cozy relations between government and the mining industry.
Can La Nouvelle Union populaire écologique et sociale (NUPES, the New Popular Environmental and Social Union) swing the French Assemblée nationale to the left in the legislative election rounds on June 12 and 19? The coalition, which includes France’s major left-wing parties (La France Insoumise (LFI) Parti Socialiste (PS), Europe Ecologie les Verts (EELV) and Parti Communiste Français (PCF)), promises a co-existence with French President Emmanuel Macron by installing Jean-Luc Mélenchon as prime minister. Mr. Mélenchon came third in the first round of the French presidential election on April 10.
To what extent can the results of the first round of the presidential election be projected onto the legislative election? While the tallies for each legislative district are available, deducing 577 separate election results based on the election of the president is more than hazardous.
Portugal’s ruling centre-left Socialists won an outright parliamentary majority in snap general election, securing a strong new mandate for the prime minister, Antonio Costa.
Costa says parliamentary victory ‘doesn’t mean absolute power’ but he will no longer need to negotiate to form a coalition
A stable government is crucial for Portugal to make the most of a 16.6 billion euro ($18.7 billion) package of European Union recovery funds it is due to receive by 2026.
There are about 1.2 million hunters in France, and together with their supporters and families, they could represent a pool of around five million voters
There are two main issues with hunting in France – animal cruelty and safety issues.
Philipino boxer Manny Pacquiao has mastered the art of fighting. At 42, he has 12 world boxing titles across eight weight divisions. Out of the 72 bouts in his career, he’s won 62.
Former boxing champion turned senator, Manny Pacquiao says he will seek corruption charges against some of his former political allies within the Duterte government if he wins the Philippine presidential election next year.
Speaking to CNN in an interview on November 11, the presidential candidate said he planned to investigate some members of President Rodrigo Duterte’s outgoing.
September’s primary elections to choose a Green candidate for the French presidential elections in May 2022.
MP Delphine Batho, MEP Yannick Jadot, the mayor of Grenoble Éric Piolle and former EELV number 2 Sandrine Rousseau will face each other in September at the environmentalist primary of the presidential election, after the validation of their sponsorships during the night from Sunday to Monday. The five organizations of the environmental pole (EELV, Générations, Mouvement des progressistes, Génération écologie and the Independent Ecologist Alliance) mandated 219 sponsors who were able to vote for seven declared candidacies, according to the organizers.
The centrist candidate Jean-Marc Governatori, who had denounced having been robbed of his sponsorships by the exclusion of Cap 21 by Corinne Lepage, last Wednesday, for differences on certain commitments to be kept, did not collect enough sponsorships.
The candidates of the primary are : the mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle, the MEP Yannick Jadot, the former number 2 of EELV Sandrine Rousseau , MP Delphine Batho and entrepreneur Jean-Marc Governatori.
UN and EU observers were not invited to monitor 2021 Republic of the Congo presidential election, and the interior ministry refused to allow the Catholic Church’s 1,100 observers to take part.
The president of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, won an election on March 21st with 88% of the vote, despite being deeply unpopular.
Oil is the lifeblood of Congo’s economy, making up three quarters of state revenues. But the country’s 5.4 million citizens, 41% of whom the World Bank says live below the global poverty line, have little to show for it.
Extreme poverty has only increased since the last election, according to the World Bank, as oil revenues have sharply declined amid slumping global prices.
Meanwhile, the country’s opaque national oil company and other key private and public sector institutions remain under the control of a group of Sassou’s closest associates, transparency campaign Global Witness has said.
Guinea has been through a period of political instability since the 82-year-old president, Alpha Condé, changed the constitution to run for a third term.
Dozens of people have been killed in political violence in recent months.
Guinea’s government has suspended all street protests in what it says is a move to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Republicans reveal ‘stunning’ scale of Democratic early voting in battleground states and say they fear Trump’s attack on mail-in voting will badly backfire
“For Democrats to avoid a potential stolen election… we need to make sure the vote is as overwhelming as possible.” Jennifer Holdsworth, an attorney and Democratic strategist.
Trump 
Le journal du peintre 2 