EAST AFRICAN LEADERS HEADING TO ETHIOPIA FOR IGAD MEETING

By David Ochieng, Addis Ababa ETHIOPIA 

The heads of states and government representatives from Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda are expected in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Friday for the 13th Ordinary Session of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Assembly.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni departs for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for the 13th ordinary summit of the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD)

The meeting will focus on the body’s organisational structure and treaty as well ratification of the rotating head of the regional body.

The last such ordinary session was held in 2010 when then Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki handed over the chairmanship to then Prime Minister of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi.

Since then, Ethiopia has continuously held the chairmanship through its three successive Prime Ministers, Zenawi, Hailemariam Desalegn and currently Abiy Ahmed.

“I am pleased to welcome IGAD Heads of State & Government for the 13th Ordinary Session of the IGAD Assembly. Our region is making good progress and with political will and commitment, regional integration efforts for collective prosperity will materialize in the spirit of MEDEMER!” Abiy said in a post on his official twitter account.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his counterpart from Djibouti, Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, already arrived in Ethiopia while South Sudan’s Salva Kiir and Somalia’s Mohamed Farmajo are expected to arrive having left their respective countries.

The 47th Ordinary IGAD Council of Ministers got underway on Thursday.

During a session, the organisation’s new Executive Secretary, Workeneh Gebeyehu, pledged to build on his predecessor’s momentum and contribute to the revitalization of the organization. Gebeyehu officially took over from Ambassador Mahboub Maalim earlier in November.

IGAD  was  created  in  1996  to  supersede  the  Intergovernmental  Authority  on  Drought  and Development(IGADD),  which  was  founded  in  1986.  This followed the recurring and severe drought and other natural disasters between 1974 and 1984 that caused widespread famine, ecological degradation and economic hardship in the Eastern Africa region. 

23 KILLED IN COMMUNAL VIOLENCE IN SOUTH SUDAN

By Our Correspondent, MAPER South Sudan

At least 23 people were killed in tit-for-tat clashes between two communities in South Sudan’s Western Lakes State on Wednesday, the police said.

Captain Elijah Mabor Makuac, a police spokesperson in the state, told our reporter this morning that preliminary reports said 23 people were killed in fighting between the Gak and Manuer sections of the Pakam community in Maper Town of Aloor County.

He added that 47 others were injured from both parts of the Pakam community.

The police officer pointed out that the cause of fighting between the two sections remains unclear. Mabor said security forces have been deployed to hotspots in the area to restore calm.

Marik Nanga Marik, a lawmaker representing the area in the state legislative assembly, confirmed that deadly clashes erupted between the Gak and Manuer sections in Maper town yesterday.

Nanga further said details on the new violence are still scanty, pointing out that no details yet had reached him about casualties.

In December 2018, local leaders, youth and women of the Gak and Manuer sections in the counties of Aloor and Malueeth agreed to end years of inter-communal conflict.

According to reports, the routine of inter-communal clashes in many parts of the country prevails due to lack of an efficient justice system. - Africa

BURUNDI ACCUSES RWANDA OF ARMED ATTACK, THREATENS RETALIATION

Burundi Warns Rwanda: We Reserve Right of Self-defence

By Our Correspondent, BUJUMBURA Burundi

Burundi accused Rwanda of sending troops earlier this month to attack one of its military positions and pledged to “use legitimate defence” if its northern neighbour continues the hostility.

Eight Burundian soldiers were killed when gunmen attacked their camp close to the Rwandan border on November. 16 this year.

The invaders retreated back into Rwanda after the attack, Burundi said.

“Burundi avails itself of this opportunity to warn Rwanda against these repetitive and multifaceted attacks against Burundi and wants the international community to take note,” the government’s spokesman, Prosper Ntahorwamiye, told reporters on Thursday in Bujumbura.

He warned “In case of recidivism, the government of the Republic of Burundi reserves the right of legitimate defence.”

The attackers overran Burundian military camp in Mabayi commune, Cibitoke province, neighboring Rwanda. Reports said 8 soldiers were killed, and many others injured.

Since the attack, Burundians on social media and other obscure sites have reported of the attack as extremely sophisticated. An armed gang or rebel group couldn’t have had such capabilities, according to reports.

Burundi reported past incidents of aggression to the United Nations, the African Union and the East African Community but none of the international organizations responded or censured Rwanda for the alleged actions.

“If nothing is done, such acts by Rwanda against Burundi constitute a threat to the peace and security of the entire African Great Lakes region,” Ntahorwamiye said.

On April 13 this year, President Kagame hosted Burundian counterpart Pierre Nkurunziza in Huye district, bordering Burundi. It is the last time they ever met

In rare pile up of pressure on Rwanda, the Burundians say the Nov 16 attack was the ninth since 2015 when a failed foup tried to oust President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Since 2015, Burundi has repeatedly accused Rwanda of involvement in the 2015 coup. 

Rwanda has ignored Burundi’s accusations. 

The Rwandan army’s spokesman, Innocent Munyengango, dismissed the allegation and asked Burundi for evidence. “If we were to do it, it would be in broad daylight,” he said by phone from the capital, Kigali. - Africa

ZIMBABWE FACING MAN-MADE STARVATION - UN EXPERT

An estimated 45 million people are threatened with hunger due to a severe drought that is strangling wide stretches of southern Africa.

By Nyawira Mwangi

Zimbabwe is on the brink of man-made starvation and the number of people in need of food security is shocking for a country not in conflict, Hilal Elver, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, said on Thursday.

According to Elver, she found stunted and underweight children, mothers who were too hungry to breastfeed their babies and medicine that was in shortage in hospitals while she was on a 10-day visit to the economically shattered country.

The southern African nation is among the most food insecure states in the world and this food crisis has the potential to spark fighting in the country, she continued to say.

“I urgently call on the government, all political parties and the international community to come together to put an end to this spiraling crisis before it morphs into a full-blown conflict,” Elver said.

Consequences associated with the crisis such as school dropouts, early marriage, domestic violence, prostitution and sexual exploitation are on the rise.

The expert blames widespread corruption, mismanagement, natural disasters, droughts and sanctions for the crisis.

Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic difficulties in more than a decade with more than 60% of the population of 16 million is now considered food insecure.

According to figures by U.N agencies and the government, there are about 5.5 million people in rural areas facing food insecurity while in urban areas, they are about 2.2 million people lacking access to basic public services including health and safe water, at the same time electricity is cut up to 19 hours a day.

“These are shocking figures and the crisis continues to worsen. Where food items are available most people have no money to buy,” Elver said.

The administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has struggled to fulfill promises of prosperity, has been blamed by critics.

Mnangagwa blames recurrent droughts and sanctions imposed by the United States for the crisis.

The U.S. says the sanctions target entities and individuals, including Mnangagwa, over rights abuses, not the country at large.

BENIN ORDERS EU ENVOY TO LEAVE FOR POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

Protesters barricade the streets of Cadjehoun the stronghold of former president of Benin Thomas Boni Yayi in Cotonou after violence broke out following controversial parliamentary polls held without a single opposition candidate.

Porto-Novo, BENIN

Benin ordered the European Union ambassador Oliver Netten to leave the country by December 1 accusing him of engaging in what it termed as “subversive” activities in the country.

Government spokesman Alain Orounla, who spoke at a press briefing on Wednesday, told journalists that bilateral cooperation has been hampered by Netten’s alleged activities.

“An ambassador’s functions presuppose an obligation of courtesy towards the authorities of the host country. Respect for this obligation should be mutual,” Orounla said.

A senior diplomat, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, accused Netten of interfering too much in domestic affairs and constantly calling on civil society to hold protests against the government.

The diplomat divulged that Netten, a German envoy, had received a number of warnings from Benin’s foreign minister over his alleged activities.

The order for Netten to leave Benin was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the EU in Brussels, who said the order was communicated to the EU on November 20.

The spokeswoman added that the bloc had demanded clarification on the specific reasons for Benin’s decision but had not yet received any response on the same.

Benin, regarded as one of West Africa’s politically stable democracies, has been hit by a wave of protests following controversial parliamentary elections in April. - AFP

TANZANIA WARNS LOCAL MEDIA AGAINST QUOTING FOREIGNERS

Tanzania government spokesperson, Hassan Abbasi

NAIROBI, Kenya

The government of Tanzania through its spokesman is warning local media houses and practitioners that the government will take action against them for quoting foreigners or foreign media.

Hassan Abbasi issued the threat Wednesday after the United States and United Kingdom expressed concerns about irregularities in the local elections held Sunday in Tanzania.

The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that election officials overwhelmingly excluded opposition candidates during the election process.

British Ambassador Sarah Cooke said the lack of accreditation for credible domestic observers, the coordinated disqualification of opposition candidates and the opposition’s decision to boycott the vote had denied Tanzanians the opportunity to decide local leaders in a free fair and transparent manner.

“It has emerged now days again, habit of local media houses and practitioners quoting foreigners’ reports or being used to disseminate baseless foreign news reports and propaganda against our country." He said in his twitter page.

He further alleged that most of the foreign news being disseminated in the country lack merit, professionalism and do not follow laid regulations. “Because of that, the government has directed enough, has warned and pardon enough; what remains now is to take stern disciplinary according to the law.” Threaten the spokesman.

During four years in power, the administration of Tanzanian President, John Magufuli, has stifled independent journalism and severely restricted the activities of non-governmental groups.

Free media has been intimidated by draconian cybercrime laws, critical newspapers and bloggers have been silenced, and opposition activists have been harassed, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. - Africa

UNHCR WELCOMES SOMALIA’S RATIFICATION OF TREATY TO PROTECT IDPs

Mogadishu, SOMALIA

The UN refugee agency on Wednesday welcomed Somalia’s ratification of an Africa-wide treaty on the protection of internally displaced people.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the ratification of the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Africa is a landmark achievement for the country and the African continent.

FILE: Men pray at an IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp in Karin Sarmayo, Somalia.

“The ratification of the Kampala Convention cements the government’s commitment to the millions of highly vulnerable internally displaced people living in Somalia, and to finding solutions for the issue of displacement,” UNHCR Somalia Representative, Johann Siffointe said in a statement.

The Convention known as the Kampala Convention was signed on Nov. 26 by Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo after being passed with a near-unanimous vote by parliament last week.

The Horn of Africa nation is the 30th African Union Member State to ratify the convention since 2009.

The Kampala Convention which was adopted in 2009 by the AU’s 55 members is the world’s first and only regional legally binding instrument for the protection and assistance of IDPs, who often face heightened risks, violations and sexual violence because of their displacement, while they struggle to access their rights and basic protection.

“The move is a significant milestone for Somalia, which has the fourth-largest population of internally displaced people in the world, estimated at over 2.6 million individuals,” UNHCR said.

In 2019 alone, more than 665,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to floods, conflict and drought, said the UN refugee agency.

According to UNHCR, serious protection challenges faced by IDPs include inadequate shelter, poor sanitation, insecurity, threats of evictions and gender-based violence. They often remain in dire need of humanitarian assistance

According to UNHCR, the Kampala Convention covers displacement from causes that include conflict, natural disasters, climate change and projects.

It affirms that States have primary responsibility for their own internally displaced citizens, but also calls for national and regional actions to prevent internal displacement and to ensure that such people are protected and helped. - By CGTN Africa

US WARNS ITS CITIZENS AGAINST TRAVEL TO SOUTH SUDAN

US army soldiers stand guard as a US army aircraft remains on the runway awaiting the arrival of American nationals who are being evacuated due to recent unrest and violence in South Sudan, on December 21, 2013, in Juba. 

WASHINGTON DC

The United States on Tuesday issued a travel advisory to its citizens against travelling to South Sudan, a day after recalling its ambassador to the world’s youngest nation.

"Violent crime, such as carjacking, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings is common throughout South Sudan, including Juba. Foreign nationals have been the victims of rape, sexual assault, armed robberies, and other violent crimes," it said.

The safety warning further said armed conflict in South Sudan is ongoing and includes fighting between various political and ethnic groups. It pointed out that weapons are readily available to the population.

The travel advisory also warned journalists that reporting in South Sudan without the proper documentation from the South Sudanese Media Authority is considered illegal, and any journalistic work there is very dangerous.

The US State Department, however, advised its citizens who are planning to travel to South Sudan to exercise extreme care in all parts of the country, including Juba. 

“Travel outside of Juba with a minimum of two vehicles along with appropriate recovery and medical equipment in case of mechanical failure or other emergency,” it said.

The US government also urged its citizens to void travel along border areas.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir, opposition leader Riek Machar and a handful of other opposition groups signed a peace deal in September 2018. The rival leaders had been unable to create a unified army and determine the number of states since the deal was signed.

On November 7, the parties agreed to give themselves another 100 days beyond the November 12 deadline to form the transitional government.

The United States, the top humanitarian donor to South Sudan, said it was frustrated by rival leaders for failing to form the unity government as scheduled. - Africa

“TO BOYCOTT ELECTIONS IS DEMOCRACY” – TANZANIA PRESIDENT

Tanzania President, John Magufuli, addressing residents of Isaka village in Shinyanga region yesterday

By Staff Reporter, Shinyanga TANZANIA

The President of Tanzania, John Magufuli, has applauded Tanzanians for participating in the just ended local elections that saw his ruling party scoring landslide victories in almost all of more than 330,000 local leadership positions.

The country’s opposition parties boycotted the 24 November elections citing irregularities carried out by election officials who overwhelmingly excluded opposition candidates by nullifying their applications.

More than half of opposition candidates were told they could not stand because of spelling mistakes, blank spaces on forms and other bureaucratic errors.

“I thank those who participated in the elections and those who boycotted, because to boycott elections is also democracy.” He said adding that to win an election is democracy like losing.

Addressing residents of Isaka in Kahama district yesterday, Magufuli congratulated his party Chama Cha Mapinduzi for winning the elections urging unity for prosperity. “Elections are over, our party has sailed through, now let us unite for development. “ He said.

The elections’ credibility and fairness have been questioned by the United States and British challenging the unfair election process that excluded almost all opposition parties.

In a statement issued yesterday by the US embassy in Tanzania showed deep concern of the US over reports of irregularities in the process.

“This troubling development calls into question the credibility of the election process and results.” Read the statement adding that the government of Tanzania's refusal to provide observation accreditation in a timely manner to credible, experienced organisations in addition, eroded confidence in the process.

On its part, the British High Commissioner to Tanzania, Sarah Cooke, said that coordinated disqualification of opposition candidates and their decision to boycott elections have all denied all Tanzanians the opportunity to decide their local leaders in a free, fair and transparent manner.

File: British High Commissioner to Tanzania, Sarah Cooke (L) talk to Tanzania President, John Magufuli at State House Dar es Salaam

“We are deeply concerned about the handling of the civic elections; the lack of accreditation for credible domestic observation, coordinated disqualification of opposition candidates and their decision to boycott elections have all denied all Tanzanians the opportunity to decide their local leaders in a free, fair and transparent manner.” Insisted the High Commissioner.

Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema), the main opposition party, said earlier this month it would not be taking part in the elections because of alleged government manipulations, including the mass disqualification of its candidates. Several other smaller parties also joined the boycott.

"Our party believes it is wiser not to support such electoral cheating," Chadema Chairperson, Freeman Mbowe said in November. "To continue to participate in elections of this kind is to legitimise illegality."

He said it was now the time for a free and independent electoral commission to be established to steer the democratic process away from partisan interests that jeopardise the wellbeing of nationhood. 

Local observers worry that this new development sets a bad precedent ahead of general elections next year. - Africa

CHINA WARNS U.S. OF RETALIATION OVER HONG KONG LAW

By Jessie Pang, HONG KONG

China warned the United States on Thursday it would take “firm counter measures” in response to U.S. legislation backing anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, and said attempts to interfere in the Chinese-ruled city were doomed to fail.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed into law congressional legislation which supported the protesters despite angry objections from Beijing, with which he is seeking a deal to end a damaging trade war.

The legislation requires the State Department to certify, at least annually, that Hong Kong is autonomous enough to justify favorable U.S. trading terms that have helped the territory grow as a world financial center. It also threatens sanctions for human rights violations.

Beijing warned that the United States would shoulder the consequences of China’s counter measures if it continued to “act arbitrarily” in regards to Hong Kong, according to a foreign ministry statement.

Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed government said the legislation sent the wrong signal to demonstrators and “clearly interfered” with the city’s internal affairs.

Anti-government protests have roiled the former British colony for six months, at times forcing businesses, government, schools and even the international airport to close.

The financial hub has enjoyed a rare lull in violence over the past week, with local elections on Sunday delivering a landslide victory to pro-democracy candidates.

Hong Kong police entered the Polytechnic University on Thursday at the end of a nearly two-week siege that saw some of the worst clashes between protesters and security forces.

It was not clear whether any protesters remained at the site as a team of about 100 plain-clothed police moved into the sprawling campus to collect evidence and remove dangerous items such as petrol bombs. Police said any protesters found would receive medical treatment and arrests were not a priority.

The university became a battleground in mid-November, when protesters barricaded themselves in and clashed with riot police in a hail of petrol bombs, water cannon and tear gas. About 1,100 people were arrested last week, some while trying to escape.

Reuters witnesses at the university said garbage and abandoned gear including sleeping bags, helmets and gas masks were strewn everywhere, but no protesters could be seen.

More than 5,800 people have been arrested since the unrest broke out in June over a proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, the numbers increasing exponentially in October and November as violence escalated.

Demonstrators are angry at police violence and what they see as Chinese meddling in the freedoms promised to the former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, such as an independent judiciary.

China says it is committed to the “one country, two systems” formula put in place at the handover and has blamed foreign forces for fomenting the unrest, an allegation repeated on Thursday in response to the U.S. law.

“This so-called legislation will only strengthen the resolve of the Chinese people, including the Hong Kong people, and raise awareness of the sinister intentions and hegemonic nature of the U.S. The U.S. plot is doomed,” the Chinese foreign ministry statement said.Some analysts say any move to end Hong Kong’s special treatment could prove self-defeating for the United States, which has benefited from the business-friendly conditions in the territory of 7.4 million residents.

Trade between Hong Kong and the United States was estimated to be worth $67.3 billion in 2018, with the United States running a $33.8 billion surplus - its biggest with any country or territory, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Li Ka-shing, the city’s most prominent tycoon, told Reuters he was getting used to “the unfounded verbal and text punches” thrown at him by both sides of the political divide in Hong Kong.

Li and his fellow Hong Kong tycoons are under mounting pressure from Beijing to speak out against the protests, which present the most serious challenge to Communist Party rule since Tiananmen.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE FOR FRANCE IN THE SAHEL?

By Tom Wheeldon

The death of 13 French soldiers in a helicopter accident in Mali on November 25 has underlined the challenges France's armed forces face in the Sahel, amid intensifying insurgent attacks and doubts about the effectiveness of its military allies in this vast region to the south of the Sahara Desert.

The largest single loss of life for the country’s military forces since 1983, Monday’s helicopter crash increased France’s death toll in its Sahel campaign to 41.

France started its military operations there in 2013, after Mali asked it to help regain territory seized by Islamist extremists who had hijacked a Touareg rebellion in the country’s northern desert regions the previous year.

The French military succeeded in this initial task – but the jihadist insurgency has since spread throughout Mali and across the border to Niger and Burkina Faso. Despite the presence of 4,500 French troops throughout the Sahel, escalating attacks have seen more than 170 Malian and Burkinabé troops killed since September.

In a statement on Tuesday, French Defence Minister Florence Parly said that now is “not the time for questioning the merit” of Paris’ military engagement in the Sahel.

But some analysts have suggested that she doth protest too much. “Since the beginning of the French military involvement in the region, everything got worse,” Jeremy Keenan, a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, told Agence France-Presse. “There is no progress.”

The hard-left party La France Insoumise (LFI) expressed a similar view on Tuesday: the country needs “a serious and rational discussion to find a way out of a war, the meaning of which is lost on a large number of our fellow citizens as well as Malians themselves”, LFI MPs asserted in a public statement.

The following day, none other than France’s most senior military officer added fuel to this argument. General François Lecointre, the armed forces’ chief of staff, declared on France Inter radio that “we will never achieve a definitive victory” in the Sahel – although he insisted that France’s military operations there are “useful, good and necessary”.

France’s military presence in the region has by no means been unilateral; it has been working with allies on the ground since 2013. That year, the United Nations formed the MINUSMA peacekeeping force in Mali – one of the largest UN deployments.

However, it is also the most dangerous: more than 200 Blue Helmets have been killed in Mali. MINUSMA troops “are shot like hares”, François-Xavier Freland, former FRANCE 24 Mali correspondent and author of Mali, au-delà du jihad (Mali, Beyond Jihad), put it last year.

In an attempt to build a more long-term security solution in the region, the G5 Sahel bloc was transformed into a military alliance at Paris’ behest in 2017, bringing together forces from Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

Yet, in light of its constituent armies’ mounting death tolls amid mushrooming insurgent attacks, it is clear that the G5 Sahel is “not working”, said Thierry Hommel, director of the Forum for West Africa’s Future and a Sahel specialist at Sciences Po University in Paris. “It’s a coalition of armies that nobody trusts: they’re seen as inefficient and corrupt and benefitting from impunity, which is to say that they can kill anybody they like and get away with it.”

“Military figures tend to say the Chadian military is quite brave – the others tend to run away when terrorists come,” Hommel continued. “But often even the Chadian fighters don’t have guns because of corruption in procurement.”

Indeed, the Sahel states score poorly in the most recent Transparency International Corruption Perception Index: for example, Chad is ranked at 165 out of 180, and Mali at 140.

Corruption is just one form of bad governance that engenders insurgent activity, said Emmanuel Dupuy, head of the IPSE think-tank in Paris and an expert on the Sahel. Countries in the region are “not paying attention to their peripheries, and this is exactly where terrorist groups have found fertile ground – in places where the state is incapable of performing its basic missions in terms of providing public services, justice and simply administering the area, you see terror groups replacing the state”, he pointed out.

In any case, the vast, sparsely populated nature of the Sahel means that “large spaces of territory there are difficult to control under the best of circumstances”, added Andrew Lebovich, a specialist in the region at Columbia University and the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Given that insurgent groups are benefitting from such “fertile ground” just south of the Sahara Desert, Paris’ rationale for its military role in the Sahel is that stabilising the region will make Europe safer by preventing jihadist groups from enjoying a safe haven in the continent’s near abroad. Macron reiterated this idea at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, underlining that French military engagement in the Sahel is aimed at “enhancing our own security”.

Hommel argued that this thesis should be challenged: “None of the terror attacks on European soil have been committed by people coming from the Sahel. It’s good for insurgent groups there to say that they’re affiliated to people like al-Qaeda but they seem to be acting on a local level – and if they are local, they are not a threat to our security.”

Nevertheless, France has been keen to persuade other EU countries to send troops to fight in the Sahel. Thus far, only Estonia has signed up. The Baltic state intends to send 50 troops. - France 24

U.S. QUESTIONS CREDIBILITY OF TANZANIA'S LOCAL ELECTIONS

Tanzania president, John Magufuli in army regalia

By Osoro Nyawangah, Dar es Salaam TANZANIA

United States has shown deep concern over reports of irregularities in the 24 November 2019 Tanzania’s local government elections that was boycotted by opposition parties citing violence and intimidation.

Tanzanian opposition leaders have complained that tolerance for dissent has diminished rapidly since President John Magufuli took office in 2015 on pledges to reform the East African nation’s economy and crackdown on corruption.

In a statement released today by the Embassy in Tanzania, US said that election officials overwhelmingly excluded opposition candidates during the election process pushing them to withdraw from participating.

“This troubling development calls into question the credibility of the election process and results.” The statement read, adding that the United States is deeply concerned with the reports of the irregularities in the elections.

The statement further said that the government of Tanzania’s refusal to provide observation accreditation in a timely manner to credible, experienced organisations in addition, eroded confidence in the process.

In August last year, the US embassy issued the same concern citing unwarranted arrests of opposition candidates and acts to suppress freedom of assembly and speech in a constituency and local government by-elections.

Official results released on Monday showed President John Magufuli's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party had scored landslide victories in almost all of the more than 330,000 local leadership positions up for grabs in Sunday's ballot, which decided who would take office at the grassroots of government in villages, cities and towns across Tanzania.

The ruling party candidates won more than 99 percent of the 12,000 village chairmanships contested, as well as all of the country's more than 4,000 street leadership positions. 

Chadema, the main opposition party, said earlier this month it would not be taking part in the elections because of alleged government manipulations, including the mass disqualification of its candidates. Several other smaller parties also joined the boycott.

"Our party believes it is wiser not to support such electoral cheating," Chadema Chairperson, Freeman Mbowe said in November. "To continue to participate in elections of this kind is to legitimise illegality."

He said it was now the time for a free and independent electoral commission to be established to steer the democratic process away from partisan interests that jeopardise the wellbeing of nationhood.

Other opposition political party, Alliance for Change and Transparency – Wazalendo (ACT) also joined hands with CHADEMA claiming that they had seconded a total of 355,424 to contest all positions countrywide but the Returning Officers nullified 96% (341,2017) and clearing only 4% (14,217) on failure to fill the forms properly.

In the 2015 general elections in Tanzania, the current President, John Magufuli, under CCM gunned 8,882,935 (58.46%) votes followed by CHADEMA presidential candidate, Edward Lowassa who got 6,072,848 (39.97%) votes with ACT-Wazalendo candidate Anna Mghiwira scoring 98,763 (0.65%) votes.

 

In the national assembly, the ruling CCM made up with 252 seats, CHADEMA had 70 seats, Civic United Front got 42 seats and ACT-Wazalendo holding one seat.

Rights groups say the intimidation of political opponents has escalated sharply under Magufuli leadership, a strongman whose administration has wielded wide-ranging laws to silence government critics.

In a country where reliable and independent political data is scarce and the media is increasingly under threat, analysts said the local polls could set the tone for 2020 presidential, parliamentary and council elections.

A lawyer from the Legal and Human Rights Centre in Tanzania, Fulgence Massawe, said the elections have exposed serious weaknesses in electoral laws.

According to him, for one to hold a seat he/she must have political legitimacy which comes from the people.

“How can someone hold political office when no one voted them into office in the first place? Even if he/she was the sole candidate people should have go to the polls to give him/her political legitimacy, just like we did during the single party era,” he said.

Magufuli, who is expected to run again in 2020 elections, has been strongly criticised by watchdogs for the human rights record of his four-year government.

Free media has been intimidated by draconian cybercrime laws, critical newspapers and bloggers have been silenced, and opposition activists have been harassed, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. - Africa