ACCRA, Ghana -Ghana's presidential runoff vote appeared to go smoothly, observers and analysts said, even though the West African nation's ruling party and opposition traded allegations of rigging. President John Kufuor is stepping down after two terms in office in what is expected to be Ghana's second successful handover of power from one legitimately elected leader to another.
Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling party faced opposition candidate John Atta Mills, whose campaign maintains that the country's economic growth has not been felt in people's wallets. Neither candidate, though, secured enough votes to win the election outright. Akufo-Addo received 49.13 percent, while Atta Mills received 47.92 percent.
"On the whole, the election has been peaceful, with just some queues at some of the polling stations too long and too slow," said Kwesi Jonah, a scholar-in-residence at the Institute of Democratic Governance, an independent think tank.
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12/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government has issued a new passport to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, according to a senior official with Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party. Tsvangirai had threatened to pull out of a power-sharing deal with Mugabe unless the passport was issued.
"He now has the document after a long struggle," said the MDC official, confirming a report in the state-owned weekly The Sunday Mail.
Tsvangirai is in neighboring Botswana, but has said he cannot return to Zimbabwe without a valid passport. Party spokesman Nelson Chamisa would not comment on whether the passport was issued.
Asked whether Tsvangirai would join Mugabe's government if given the passport, Chamisa said it was more important that Mugabe's ZANU-PF party "shows sincerity by releasing the people it abducted and resolves the outstanding issues of equitable distribution of cabinet and senior posts" in the government.
Tsvangirai and Mugabe signed the unity deal September 15, but Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the MDC have failed to implement it because they cannot agree on who should control key ministries.
Bangladeshis voted in their droves on Monday in elections that marked the end of two years of emergency rule, with a pair of rival former prime ministers vying to reclaim power in the impoverished nation.
Amid tight security, the first polls since 2001 saw a turnout as high as 70 percent, with none of the violence that forced the last scheduled vote to be cancelled and an army-backed interim government take control. Long queues snaked outside voting stations all day as hundreds of thousands of police and troops stood ready to avert clashes between party activists or any attacks by Islamic extremists.
Despite efforts by the caretaker regime to shake up a political system seen as deeply corrupt, the two leading candidates were former prime ministers who ruled alternately since 1991 and whose mutual hatred has paralysed the country.
Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), wooed voters with promises of cheap food, action against Islamic militancy and curbs on corruption. The women, who were themselves jailed on corruption charges by the current regime before being released to contest the elections, warned of voter fraud but said they would not challenge the result.
After voting in the capital Dhaka, Sheikh Hasina questioned how some ballot papers had been distributed but insisted, "I want the election to take place peacefully. Whatever the result is, we all should accept it."
Zia appeared confident of victory. "If a free and fair election takes place today, we will win with a landslide victory like the 2001 election," she said.
With counting under way, analysts said the result was uncertain as a third of the 81 million electorate was voting for the first time. There were also concerns that a smooth transfer of power could prove difficult if no clear winner emerged. Final results were due after midnight (1800 GMT Monday).
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2008 10:50 ||
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Between this and the financial problem, UK leadership will be under greater than usual strain this coming year. What that will end up meaning for the GWOT is anybody's guess but probably it won't be good.
#3
They are sooo lucky. After a norovirus epidemic had millions of Brits with trombone vomiting and explosive diarrhea (lovely image, that), now to get socked with the flu.
#1
I wonder how many there are a week in California, a similar-sized land area and population.
The government's response - take away knives. Stupidity cubed. Didn't they learn anything when they outlawed guns? Instead, catch the perps and crush their right hand. It'll do a lot more to reduce knife crime than anything else they do. Of course, there will probably be a disproportionate number of muslimbs walking around with a flipper instead of a right hand, but that would only be logical.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/29/2008 20:37 Comments ||
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King Albert on Sunday asked Herman Van Rompuy, a Dutch-speaking Christian Democrat, to take the reins of the Belgian government that quit December 19 after a scandal over the botched bailout of the Fortis bank.
Van Rompuy, 61, is expected to replace Leterme at the head of a quarrelsome alliance of Christian Democrats, Liberals and Socialists in a matter of days.
#1
The slave may have had a better life than she would have in Egypt, but if you want to live in the US you'd better live by the rules. Yeesh, didn't even send her to school. Amazing that in such a short time she seems to have come a long way with her education.
If you read to the end of the story, you'll see that circumstances suggest that they have yet another slave . . . . I'd say it's time the couple starts breaking big rocks into little rocks or perhaps serving ten years as fully supervised caregivers. And they certainly don't seem to be competent enough to have custody of their own children.
#3
Her employers were not satisfied, she said. "Nothing was ever clean enough for her. She would come in and say, 'This is dirty,' or 'You didn't do this right,' or 'You ruined the food,'" said Shyima.
I recommend kicking the rations up a notch by adding a bit of Preston Antifreeze to each recipe.
It's tit for tat in Thailand, as each side in the protests can stop the government seated by the other side.
BANGKOK - Hundreds of protesters rallied against Thailand's new government in central Bangkok on Monday, hours before Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was due to make his maiden policy speech to parliament.
Red-shirted supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006, massed near parliament, which elected Abhisit prime minister two weeks ago. Many of the protesters slept overnight outside the building, and hundreds more arrived by bus early on Monday. Protesters carried pictures of Thaksin and others waved placards that read "Abhisit get out, this is a prostitute's government" and "We are ready to protect Thaksin".
A senior member of Abhisit's Democrat Party told Thai television they were negotiating with protesters to allow MPs access to the building, and they would delay the sitting if necessary.
Under the constitution, a new Thai government cannot start work officially until it delivers its policy statement to a joint sitting of the House of Representatives and Senate. Abhisit is due to deliver his speech at 9:30 a.m. (0230 GMT).
The previous government, led by Thaksin's brother-in-law, had to step down after three parties in the ruling coalition were disbanded by the courts, which said they had committed vote fraud in a general election a year ago. Since that election, pro-Thaksin governments were undermined by a series of court cases and street protests led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a group that includes members of parliament in Abhisit's Democrat Party.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Any of you knowledgeable RBers able to tell me what, if anything, this has to do with the Muzzie terrorists in the south?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Bangladeshis voted in their droves on Monday in elections that marked the end of two years of emergency rule, with a pair of rival former prime ministers vying to reclaim power in the impoverished nation.
King Albert on Sunday asked Herman Van Rompuy, a Dutch-speaking Christian Democrat, to take the reins of the Belgian government that quit December 19 after a scandal over the botched bailout of the Fortis bank. 
