election

Bringing Uruguay's tyrants to justice

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:15:07 +0200

Uruguay's last military dictator was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday for the role he played in the brutal oppression of the early eighties. On Sunday, the country will decide whether hundreds of others involved can also be brought to justice.

Eighty-three-year-old Gregory Alvarez, who led the country's dictatorial regime from 1981 to 1985, was charged with 37 "aggravated homicides". He follows eight others involved in the 1973-1985 regime who have so far been sentenced. They will be the first and last, however, if in a referendum held simultaneously with Sunday's presidential election, the electorate votes to uphold a law that protects the remaining hundreds of military officials involved.

Around 6,000 people were imprisoned for "political reasons" during the regime, meaning that one in every 500 citizens was imprisoned at some point. On top of that, 300,000, or ten percent of the population, fled the country.

To give a "yes" to annulling the protection law, voters are asked to place a pink ballot slip inside their voting envelope. The poll will need a 50% turnout to be validated. Two decades into democracy, the issue remains a controversial one. But on Tuesday (Oct. 20), some 60,000 people filed into the streets of Montevideo, completely donned in pink, in support of the vote.

UPDATE (27/10/09 - 9pm Paris time): exit polls indicate that only 47.36 % voted in favour of repealing the amnesty law. Former guerrilla fighter Jose Mujica won 48% of the presidential vote. He will face a second round against centre-right Luis Alberto Lacalle on 29 November.

French under attack for Bongo victory

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:53:58 +0200

The day that Ali Ben Bongo was proclaimed the winner of Gabon's presidential poll, opposition supporters set fire to the French consulate in Libreville, underscoring the level of anti-French anger fuelled by Bongo's victory.

Ali Bongo declared winner, but will opposition admit defeat?

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:19:54 +0200

Ali Bongo has just been declared winner of Sunday's presidential election. But his 41.73% majority is unlikely to go unchallenged. Yesterday, our Observer Adriankoto Harinjaka Ratozamanana spoke to Bongo's biggest opponent, Pierre Mamboundou, who said that he would not recognise the victory of late president Omar Bongo's son, who he considers "fraudulent".

This post was updated after it was published, at 2pm Paris time.

Will Gabon go up in flames tonight?

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:53:07 +0200

August 7 in Libreville. Photo by our Observer Adriankoto.

Gabon's presidential election results are to be announced tonight (September 2). One of our Observers in the country explains that the three-day gap between the vote and the results might have given rise to fraudulent activities. He also raises concerns over the unrest that could surge once the results are announced.

Nicaise Moulombi is president of Libreville-based NGO 'Growth, health and environment'.

It's true that it would have been difficult to announce the results earlier. Gabon is a pretty big country made up of nine provinces, and infrastructure and transport is not good. So it takes time for all the results to arrive in Libreville. And plus there were 18 candidates and 4,000 polling stations, so counting the votes was a slow process.

Three days however leaves enough time for certain people to bribe those who deliver the reports. Why not give projections in each province to assure citizens that there's no fraud going on? My concern is that the fraud will take place when the results reach the capital. But at least this time, the three candidates were all anticipating the possibility of tomfoolery. So they asked their election teams to send them photos of the election reports from each province before they were sent on. That way it will be harder to alter them in Libreville.

The situation is very strained and the three main candidates are going to have to keep their supporters under control when the results are announced. I think they should talk to each other now and adopt a common stance to avoid any unrest. I hope they won't put their individual interests before those of the people of Gabon."

Gabon election: “For the authorities there is ‘good media’ and ‘bad media’”

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:48:23 +0200

One of our Gabonese Observers voices his concerns over the restrictions placed on journalists covering the presidential election.

The presidential election in Gabon takes place on Sunday. In the past few days, the government has taken some worrying steps concerning media coverage of the vote. Press freedom activists Reporters Without Borders have already predicted that the event is "likely to be heavily restricted"...

Have you witnessed a violation of press freedom in Gabon? Post your comment here.

Norbert Ngoua Mezui is secretary general of the Gabonese Media Observatory, a recently created media self-regulation association. He's also editor of fortnightly paper Nku'u Le messager. He spent three weeks in prison in 2006 for alleged defamation of the country's finance minister.

Journalists from two foreign media outlets, l'Express and FRANCE 24, were refused visas to follow the elections, while other journalists have been put up in grand hotels in the capital and can talk to whatever important person they want to. It's inconceivable. For the authorities, it seems that there is ‘good media' and ‘bad media'.

The decision that shocked me most was to ban journalists from entering polling stations. According to what the Interior Minister said on Thursday, following a decision by the council of ministers, journalists can only enter a polling station if they're following a candidate. And then they must leave. That was not the case in previous elections. So nobody will be monitoring the vote counting - which is supposed to be a public event according to Gabonese law. Nothing is there to prevent ballot fiddling. And then...

The press is relatively free in Gabon. It's not Ethiopia or Eritrea! We can talk about almost any subject - the poor quality of roads, corruption etc. We can criticise the government and its decisions. But there are limits. For example, the fortnightly Tango paper has been banned from publishing since August because the communication minister didn't appreciate their article on the election. However, only the national communication council has the legal right to disallow a publication from going to press. There are also taboo subjects, particularly those which directly affect the Bongo clan. If you directly attack the late president or his friends, you risk intimidation from the intelligence services, or a court case for defamation. We're in a transitional period and we don't know how things are going to turn out. But we've already seen a case of intimidation back in April when presidential candidate Bruno Ben Moubamba came back to the country and tried to launch an anti-corruption campaign. A number of journalists, me included, were called up by the intelligence services. And nobody published anything."

Our Afghani Observers weigh in on the election

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:03:44 +0200

Posted on Flickr by From Afghanistan With Love

Four of our Afghani Observers, who have been to the polls today, explain how their country has changed since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and what they're hoping to see from their next president.

There are 41 candidates in total, including current president and favourite to win, Hamid Karzai. His closest competitors are former Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullah Abdullah, and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani.

The election is proving to be a far from peaceful affair. The Taliban have made various threats of attack in the past few days and called for a boycott of what they consider a "sham orchestrated by the Americans".

Was Taraneh raped and murdered, or did she never exist?

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:24:39 +0200

Taraneh was a 28-year-old beautician who was arrested by Basij forces, raped and tortured for 22 days, and then set on fire and left in the desert. At least, that's what dissident Web users say. According to the authorities, the woman in question has been living in Canada for the past two years; and they have evidence to prove it — they've interviewed her family. So who's telling the truth?

The story of Taraneh Mousavi emerged online on 14 July, when protest blog Iranian Leftists wrote about the suspected torture, rape and murder of a young woman after allegedly talking to a friend of the aforementioned. It reported that the beautician was arrested on 28 June along with around 40 protesters. Although she herself was not participating in the protest, it was said that she was detained for wearing high heels and fashionable clothes. While the other detainees were turned over to the police at Nobonyad police station, Taraneh was taken to a house in Hosseinieh Ershad district by the Basij militia.

The post reported that a few days later the family of the young woman received a telephone call from an anonymous caller who said that Taraneh had been hospitalised following an "accident" in which her womb and anus and were damaged. When her family went to the Imam Khamenei Hospital in Karaj to look for her, a nurse told them that a girl matching Taraneh's description had been brought into the hospital by plain clothes officers and then removed a few hours later.

Two days later, the website reported that Taraneh was dead. They published what they say is the account of one her friends. The alleged friend says that Taraneh's family received another phone call in which they were informed that her burnt body had been found in the desert between Karaj and Qazvin (north-west of Tehran).

The story caused such a hullabaloo online that it managed to reach Thaddeus McCottor, a Republican congressman from Michigan, who delivered a speech to Congress on July 20, asking Supreme Leader Khomeini to look at the photo of Taraneh, saying: "Here is the truth denied by Khomeini and his misogynistic murderous regime."

Cleavages enter the electoral campaign

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:18:13 +0200

In the run up to Germany's legislative elections Chancellor Angela Merkel's party seem to have given up on political persuasion and instead resorted to sex. This latest poster, revealing ample cleavage, reads: "We have more to offer".

The poster comes from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) candidate for the Berlin district of Kreuzberg. Vera Lengsfeld's message appears to be that both her and party leader Merkel have large cleavages. The voter can only assume she is referring in an obscure way to better policies...

Mexican blogger pushes for election boycott

Team Observers — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:08:34 +0200

This video was created by a blogger who's encouraging the Mexican electorate to boycott the midterm polls next month, in which all 500 of the lower house seats are up for grabs. Moisés Aisemberg says that the current politicians "loot" the country and are therefore not worth voting for. It's estimated that 60% of voters won't turn up and 10% invalidate the vote. The Catholic Church has condemned the movement.

Our Observer Gabriel Infante passed on this information to us.

Posted on Moisés' YouTube page.

Czech youths protest their leaders with eggs

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:53:33 +0200

For politicians in the Czech Republic, the European elections have turned the country into something of a sticky battleground. For the past two weeks the country's leaders have been faced with increasing numbers of attacks by egg-throwers. At first they tried to make a joke of it, but after the assaults became more violent, the politicians were relieved today to see the young activists put down their egg cartons.

In order to coordinate their efforts, the 5,000 activists set up a Facebook group on Tuesday. In four days they had already attracted 45,000 fans. Some of them blame the Social Democrat (CSSD) leader, Jiri Paroubek, for toppling the Czech government in the middle of their EU presidency with a vote of no confidence -- something widely considered selfish and unpatriotic. Others can't forgive him for supporting a violent police assault on techno party CzechTek in 2005 when he was prime minister. And then there are those who refuse to condone his cooperation with the Czech Communist Party, which, until recently, had been unanimously ignored by the Czech political establishment. To sum up, as it is expressed on their Facebook page, they don't like the "lies, anger, nastiness and arrogance of the Social Democrats and, first of all, of Mr Paroubek".

Not enough to incite violence, however. Today the activists put down their eggs for fear of the movement becoming too aggressive. They'll speak their minds in the polls now, they say, leaving the politicians to clean themselves up.

Prague 27 May. Paroubek is the one wearing the striped jumper. Posted by "ignor64".

Video caption reads "We don't want communists in Prague!" Posted by "Pepeee007".