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Ugandan opposition candidate Bobi Wine has rejected the results declared so far and calls himself the president-elect, despite the electoral body saying not all votes have yet been counted. Bobi Wine alleges Thursday's polls saw the worst vote-rigging in Uganda's history, but did not provide any evidence to back up his claims. He declared the struggle is just beginning. Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, says he'll address the press again in a few hours on the way forward. Early results from the electoral commission give the incumbent, President Yoweri Museveni, a commanding lead of almost two-thirds of the votes so far counted. The military have surrounded Bobi Wine’s house. - BBC
\t On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the West African nation in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in the capital, Conakry.
\t This was the third time that Conde matched-up against Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea's largest ethnic groups.
In its 142-page decision the seven judges in Malawi's Supreme Court of Appeal, among them the Chief Justice, Andrew Nyirenda, are unanimous in upholding the finding of the Constitutional Court: the May 2019 elections failed in their aim of 'duly electing' a new President.
That's because the country's electoral commission, commenting on the Appeal Court decision, has suggested that it might not be possible to have the new President sworn in by the court's deadline if the original re-run schedule prevails.
In fact, it would be hard to read the Appeal Court's decision as anything other than a sharp rebuke to the commission about the way it handled matters, particularly as the votes were being collected and tallied, and then again when the validity of the polls was tested in court.
The position of Malawi's courts had been that if the results were not affected by irregularities, the elections should stand.
Stating its revised position on the matter, the judges said that it would be hard for a court in Malawi to uphold an election where its conduct was 'largely compromised', especially since voting numbers in such a case could be the result of flouting electoral law.
Uganda Cricket Association's (UCA) plans to host the ICC World Cup Challenge League (WCCL) B round II in August are stalled after the government suspended sporting events on March 18.
\"We can't tell at this point,\" Ondeko said, \"It depends on several factors such as government policies, ICC as well as the countries that will participate in the event.\"
Daily Monitor understands that UCA has had interactions with the International Cricket Council (ICC) regards current atmosphere in the country that is; current coronavirus cases, rate of infections, whether or not borders are open, likelihood of opening up of lockdown and other activities.
\"ICC asked about the situations in Uganda and they are doing that for all the countries supposed to participate in the tournament.\"
\"The ICC is monitoring the situation with all countries participating in the tournament to see what's viable in terms of flights in and out, whether participants will be quarantined, what the SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) are.
Major highways in Kampala on Wednesday experienced heavy traffic after the government partially lifted lockdown measures that barred private transport.
Police said several people had been arrested and their cars impounded for violating the 7pm to 6.30am curfew rules.
According to directives issued last week by President Yoweri Museveni, private transport was allowed to resume from May 26 and to carry a maximum of three passengers.
Public transport will resume on June 2 with buses operating at half capacity to ensure physical distancing rules are adhered to.
\"This opening of public transport will not be allowed in the border districts of Uganda for another 21 days.
ONE of the MDC founding fathers Esaph Mdlongwa has died in his 70s. Mdlongwa, a trade unionist passed away on Wednesday. He was very instrumental during the formation of the MDC in 1999, together with the late Morgan Tsvangirai (president), the late Gibson Sibanda (vice president), Lucia Matibenga (former Public Service Minister), Welshman Ncube (MDC Alliance vice president) and several others. He is also father to popular musician ‘Oskido’ Oscar Mdlongwa who is currently based in South Africa
BET founder Robert Johnson says the Democratic Party has taken black voters in America for granted, and he urges the ascendant Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement to form a new third party to fight for their interests.
\"Vice President Biden said to an African-American, a black American host on his show, even if you think about voting for Donald Trump, you're not black,\" Johnson told Fox News.
Johnson said the permanent interests of African-Americans have diverged in many ways with the Democratic Party; now, with the nation behind the Black Lives Matter movement and racial injustice at the forefront, it's time to act.
BET FOUNDER ROBERT JOHNSON MOCKS CROWDS PULLING DOWN STATUES, CALLS THEM 'BORDERLINE ANARCHISTS'
\"It is very possible a black vote at 12 percent going one way toward Donald Trump could make Donald Trump president,\" Johnson said.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
He said Latinos and white voters are routinely split among the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, so Johnson challenges the idea that black voters should continually vote in a bloc for Democrats.
[African Arguments] The government should both support the country's religious minorities and be open to learning from their unique wells of expertise.
Malawi's governing party has called for a third presidential election, citing irregularities and intimidation in this week's re-run vote as unofficial tallies show incumbent President Peter Mutharika losing to the opposition leader.
Voters in the southern African country went to the polls on Tuesday for the second time in 13 months after the Constitutional Court scrapped the initial May 2019 presidential election over mass fraud.
The governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) called Friday on the electoral commission to annul the results collated so far of the second vote and declare a third poll.
DPP administrative secretary Francis Mphepo said in a statement: \"We wish to highlight several incidents that may potentially affect the integrity and credibility of the presidential election results.\"
In February, Malawi's top court found the election was marred by widespread irregularities, including the use of correction fluid to tamper with result sheets.
Image: Dado Ruvic, Reuters
Facebook is acquiring Giphy, a popular website for making and sharing animated images, or GIFs, and will integrate it with its rapidly growing Instagram photo-sharing app, Facebook said in a blog post.
In 2015, Giphy rebuffed a Facebook offer, choosing instead to continue integrating its products with multiple social media platforms, according to news site TechCrunch.
Giphy will become part of Instagram, the photo-sharing site owned by Facebook.
“People will still be able to upload GIFs; developers and API partners will continue to have the same access to Giphy’s APIs; and Giphy’s creative community will still be able to create great content,” said Vishal Shah, Instagram’s vice president of product, in the blog post.
Facebook’s blog post said 50% of Giphy’s traffic already comes from Facebook’s apps, with half of that coming from Instagram.
Western Cape doctors are feeling hopeful about the early results of using nasal oxygen instead of ventilators to treat serious Covid-19 cases at public hospitals.
Head of department Keith Cloete said at Tygerberg Hospital, the team had decided to test the measure on seven people who were in critical care for Covid-19, which can cause serious respiratory problems.
Since then, 114 patients in critical care were assessed, with 70% going on to high-flow nasal oxygen.
ALSO READ | Mediclinic: Only 5% of our beds occupied by Covid-19 patients
The department has therefore decided high-flow nasal oxygen can become an alternate ventilated care.
Turning to bed use, Cloete warned the increased rate of incoming trauma cases meant there would be less intensive care unit beds for Covid-19 cases because they were set aside to cope with the anticipated number of patients in distress because of Covid-19.
[Monitor] The newly revised roadmap for 2021 General Election that authorised virtual campaigning has been challenged in the High Court for violating various fundamental constitutional rights and freedom.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on Thursday asked UK citizens to be cautious and cited \"possible clashes throughout the country\" during the November 28 inauguration.
\"Political tensions are high and demonstrations and clashes are possible throughout the country, particularly in the western region; you should exercise caution and, where possible, avoid travelling around areas where demonstrations may take place,\" the FCO said in a statement.
The office is anticipating possible demonstrations and clashes during the inauguration and Britons planning to visit Kenya during this period have been asked to exercise caution and, where possible, avoid travelling around areas where demonstrations may take place.
The areas where FCO advises against all but essential travel does not include Kenya's safari destinations.
In April, when political parties were scheduled to hold their nominations ahead of the deadline by the electoral commission, UK advised its nationals against all but essential travel to north eastern counties of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera as well as Eastleigh in Nairobi.
President of the People’s National Party (PNP), Dr Peter Phillips, is demanding assurances that the legal and technical issues involved in staging both the local government and general elections on one ballot be ironed out before concluding on what would be a historic move.
Addressing PNP councillors and councillor caretakers at The Mico University College on Sunday, Phillips said that the Government had formally engaged the Electoral Commission of Jamaica on the cost-saving measure.
“The Electoral Commission has identified a number of technical and legal issues that they are examining, and certainly, we would need as a party to be entirely clear that all the arrangements are in place are legal and constitutional and, in fact, are practical, if we are to agree to do it, and that is being done,” Phillips said.
The PNP president told Comrades that the slate of 63 prospective parliamentary candidates was the “best” ever assembled, adding that a majority of the party’s local government standard-bearers were in place.
He said that the electorate was looking for the PNP “... to provide a set of representatives in local and central government whose only objective is to serve the people of Jamaica and not to serve themselves or to secure personal benefit for themselves.
\"Money consuming government agencies and departments/arms (like Parliament and others) have continued to receive lots of money than production facilitating MDAs - which are critical in creating jobs and related opportunities,\" says Ramathan Ggoobi, the senior economics lecturer at Makerere University Business School.
\"The coronavirus pandemic has helped us to once again demonstrate the economic capacity and the vast opportunities that our country has,\" Kasaija said, \"The budget for Financial Year 2020/21 will support the economy to fully recover, harness the potential that we have, and get back to our progressive journey of double digit GDP growth rate.\"
It is now estimated that the economy will grow by just 3.1% in the financial year ending June 30, about 40% slower than the average growth rate of 5.4% in the previous four years.
Even the new measures in the budget which Kasaija said would stimulate the economy to safeguard livelihoods, create jobs, support businesses, and ensure industrial recovery, are not universally convincing; not least his claim that \"the budget would focus on production and not consumption\".
That is an 8% increase from last year in taxes on business laying off workers, cutting salaries, and crying out for waivers over the COVID-19 crisis.
As the country continues to fight tirelessly to control the spread of Covid-19, a total of 5 million children are set to benefit from the three phase program of World Vision aimed at mitigating the after-effects of the pandemic in the vulnerable community.
The Government together with World Vision on Wednesday launched the second phase response program where it dispersed USD 3.3 million (Shs 15 billion), that will be used to buy reading materials for children and facilitating radio programs in 38 districts.
According to World Vision national director Mr Jason Evans, the expanded response will focus on support for children impacted by Covid-19 through education, child protection, food and livelihoods.
With this phase two response program here in Uganda, world vision aims to support 5 million Ugandan children, their families and communities to adapt and thrive during and after the Covid-19 pandemic,\" Mr Evans said.
According to the Mr Evans, the program will include supporting learning continuity for school age children, ensuring effective reporting and referral mechanisms for child protection are maintained, increasing food and nutrition security of the most vulnerable households during and post Covid-19 as well as facilitating radio station teachings programs for children.
By Kudzai Muchenjekwa CHILD rights groups have roped in traditional leaders in Sanyati district to assist in the fight against child marriages following reports that most food-insecure families in the area were marrying off their underage daughters in exchange for food. The programme, which is being spearheaded by Padare, Gender and Media Connect and Berina Arts, seeks to educate communities to guard against child marriages. Speaking at the launch of the programme last week, Sanyati district development co-ordinator Amigo Mhlanga said it was high time men stood up and joined women to fight the scourge. “We want to urge all men to fight child marriages. For long, child marriages have been taking place, but no action has been taken. Now, we want men to help women to fight these men who infringe the rights of young girls,” Mhlanga said. Chief Neuso described parents who married off underage girls as criminals who should be arrested and prosecuted. “Those who marry off children and those who marry children are both criminals and should be arrested. It is not an acceptable thing to do, children should be allowed to grow to become adults and have a say in who they marry,” he said. Headman Tawanda Hlabati said men should protect their families and avoid barter trading their underage daughters for food or other commodities particularly during lean seasons. “If men spend time with their families and also give them protection as they need to, we will not see all this unwanted behaviour. If a father loves his child, he will not exchange her for money just because they need food. They are human beings, not goods.”
BY SIMBARASHE SITHOLE KADOMA-BASED Jindarume Fidza Matsveru of Orchestra Gwindingwi band has released a four-track DVD. Matsveru rose to fame in 2004 after he won a prize at the Chibuku Road to Fame competition before recording his debut album, Ndangariro, the following year. The sungura artiste has four albums under his sleeve and is currently working on his fifth offering, set for release in November. Matsveru told NewsDay Life & Style that he had been recording tracks without videos, but he had since recorded a DVD with various songs. “Since 2005, we have been releasing albums without videos so we just released a DVD with different songs from all the albums,” he said.
\"Ours is not going to be the politics of praise and favour; it will be politics of a service, inclusiveness and humanity,\" Dr Lina Zedriga Waru Abuku said after being unveiled as People Power deputy principal by Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, last month.
Having held different positions in many organisations, including at the Centre for Peace and Security Governance in Juba, South Sudan, and the Uganda National Committee for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, Dr Zedriga, a lawyer by profession, says she had opted to retire and concentrate on empowering girls in northern Uganda.
According to Bobi Wine, Dr Zedriga has been tested on all fronts and qualifies for any position that would cause impact to their political group that is eyeing the presidential seat in 2021.
Dr Zedriga says the turn of events that brought about the death of two People Power supporters, Ritah Nabukenya, who was allegedly knocked down by a police vehicle in Nakawa, Kampala, and Dan Kyeyune, who was shot dead in Nansana, Wakiso District, cemented her decision to join the political pressure group.
Bobi Wine says Dr Zedriga will be charged with grassroots mobilisation, especially among the women.
An effort to clean up plastic waste and turn it into building materials shifts gear as COVID-19 arrives and protective gear falls short
GULU, Uganda - When the Ugandan government ordered all non-essential workplaces shut to contain the coronavirus pandemic in late March, Peter Okwoko and his colleague Paige Balcom kept working.
But the pair - who had been turning collected plastic waste into building materials such as roofing tiles and pavers since last year - shifted gear and instead began manufacturing makeshift plastic face shields from discarded plastic bottles.
\"The doctor from Gulu regional referral hospital requested we make 10 face shield masks urgently because they didn't have enough\" and the hospital had just received its first COVID-19 patient, said Okwoko, 29, a co-founder of Takataka Plastics.
Late last month, the Ministry of Health said Uganda's public hospitals are likely to run out of existing stocks of protective equipment within three months.
Balcom, 26, a mechanical engineer who met Okwoko in 2019 while doing research on plastic pollution in Uganda, said some of the material used in the face shields now comes from hospital waste, such as used intravenous drip bottles.
Evariste Ndayishimiye, a retired general, will take over from President Pierre Nkurunziza, after he beat the main opposition candidate Agathon Rwasa, and five others, avoiding a runoff by securing more than 50% of the vote.
The main opposition candidate, Agathon Rwasa, president of the National Council for Liberty (CNL), has already described these results as “fanciful” and accused the government of “cheating” and “pure manipulation”.
Election held in the midst of COVID-19
\tAccording to partial results compiled by AFP covering 105 communes, Mr. Ndayishimiye obtained an absolute majority of the votes in 101 communes.
The CNL is also outraged at the case of the Musigati commune (west), where Mr. Ndayishimiye received 99.9% of the vote.
Burundi is ranked among the three poorest countries in the world according to the World Bank, which estimates that 75% of the population lives below the poverty line, compared to 65% when Mr. Nkurunziza came to power in 2005.
Violence rocked Guinea's capital Conakry on Friday as supporters of opposition leader Cellou Diallo clashed with security forces who tried to disperse them.
They threw stones and blocked roads. Police responded with teargas and bullets. The clashes erupted as soon as provisional results released by the electoral commission showed president Alpha Conde winning with a big margin.
Conde, 82, won twice as many votes as his nearest rival, opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo, with 37 of 38 districts counted, according to preliminary results from the commission.
Opposition supporters accuse the electoral authorities of rigging the vote for incumbent president Alpha Conde.
Sekou Koundouno, head of mobilisation for the opposition coalition FNDC said Conde had committed 'high treason'.
\"He is an illegal and illegitimate candidate who is stubbornly pursuing his obsession to turn Guin ea into a monarchy in which, by the way, he will dictate orders to his subjects,\" said Kounduno.
Diallo maintains that he won with a landslide despite irregularities, according to his own tally. He remains barricaded in his home which security forces have besieged since Monday.
ICC warning
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor warned on Friday that warring factions in Guinea could be prosecuted after fighting erupted.
“I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages and contributes in any other way to crimes … is liable to prosecution either by the Guinean courts or the ICC,” she said.
#ICC Prosecutor #FatouBensouda: "I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages or contributes, in any other way, to the commission of #RomeStatute crimes, is liable to prosecution either by #Guinean courts or by the #ICC."
— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) October 23, 2020
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
The opposition has won Malawi’s historic rerun of the presidential election, the first time a court-overturned vote in Africa has led to the defeat of an incumbent leader.
President Peter Mutharika, who had sought a second five-year term, earlier Saturday called the rerun of the election “the worst in Malawi’s history.”
Malawi’s drama was just the second time in Africa that a court has overturned a presidential election, following a ruling on Kenya’s vote in 2017.
As Malawi prepared for its new vote, incumbent Vice President Saulos Chilima, who split last year’s results with Chakwera, decided instead to stand as his running mate in a bid to maximize chances of unseating Mutharika.
An attempt by Mutharika’s government to get Malawi’s chief justice to step down just days before the new election had failed amid an outcry.
The beleaguered country was dealt a catastrophic blow in January 2010 when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the countrys capital. It was regions worst earthquake in 200 years. The quake leveled many sections of the city, destroying government buildings, foreign aid offices, and countless slums. Assessing the scope of the devastation, Prime Minister Préval said, Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. He called the death toll unimaginable. Fatalities were reported to be around 230,000 by early February.
Since then the numbers have been revised. According to a draft report commissioned for the United States Agency for International Development, the number of fatalities were between 46,000 and 85,000 people. The United Nations mission in Haiti was destroyed, 16 members of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti were killed, and hundreds of UN employees were missing. International aid poured in, and the scope of the damage caused by the quake highlighted the urgent need to improve Haitis crumbling infrastructure and lift it out of endemic poverty—the country is the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.
Already a victim of regular hurricanes, this earthquake-devastated country quickly faced another challenge: cholera. In November, the Haitian government said that the death toll had reached 1,034, with 16,799 people treated for cholera or symptoms of the disease.
The country was thrust into further disarray following Novembers presidential election. There were widespread allegations of irregularities, such as ballot-box stuffing, people casting multiple votes, discarded ballots, vandalized polling stations, and voter intimidation. Opposition candidates called for a revote, but their requests were rebuffed. On December 7 2010, the countrys electoral commission announced that Mirlande Manigat, the top vote getter, and Jude Célestin, the hand-picked candidate of Pré val, would face off in the second round of voting.
On Saturday 4th July hairdressers and barbers will reopen their doors across England, fifteen weeks since they closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The announcement by the Prime Minister has been welcomed by many who are looking forward to their first haircut in nearly four months. However, these venues will look and operate differently to []
The post Essential advice on staying safe ahead of barbershops and hair salons reopening appeared first on African Voice Newspaper.
Despite seeming to have softened his stance on the Ush10 billion ($2.6 million) that Ugandan legislators allocated themselves as part of the Covid-19 supplementary budget, President Yoweri Museveni is said to have ordered an audit of the expenditure.
In a letter dated April 28 to the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, President Museveni said he instructed the Auditor-General to go over how the funds were used.
In a recent televised address on coronavirus, President Museveni described the Covid-19 cash as a trap that the MPs had laid for themselves and “morally reprehensible.”
Despite Speaker Kadaga’s efforts to explain that MPs were to use this money to sensitise their constituents about the pandemic and for maintenance of ambulances in their constituencies, President Museveni and the Cabinet insisted the allocation was illegal and inappropriate.
As at April 12, the number of MPs that had returned the money stood at 101 out of a total of 458 legislators.
[DW] In the fight for Uganda's presidency, allegiances are shifting: As incumbent Yoweri Museveni shows up top in the opinion polls, his more youthful rival Bobi Wine is winning over ruling party MPs and making new allies.
Malawians return to the polls on Tuesday for the second time in just over a year to vote for a new president after Peter Mutharika's re-election was annulled over rigging.
The election is much anticipated after the Constitutional Court early this year ruled that the May 2019 vote, won narrowly by Mutharika, was fraught with \"grave and widespread irregularities\" including the use of correction fluid on results sheets.
Tuesday's election is practically a two-horse race between the president and his main rival Lazarus Chakwera, who lost the May 2019 election by 159,000 votes.
Last week Kachale vowed \"the highest commitment of myself and the entire commission to deliver a credible election whose results will be acceptable by all stakeholders\".
Gift Trapence of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, which led months-long countrywide street protests against last year's election results, has high hopes this time around.
