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SINGAPORE (AFP) — Singaporeans Tuesday poured scorn on the process to select their new president after an establishment figure was deemed the only eligible candidate, meaning no election will be held. Halimah Yacob, a former speaker of parliament from the city-state’s Muslim Malay minority, will be the first woman to hold the largely ceremonial role if — as expected — she is formally nominated to the presidency Wednesday. But the 63-year-old will avoid an election […]
by Stephanie AGLIETTI Agence France Presse KIGALI, Rwanda (AFP) — Rwandan President Paul Kagame sailed to a third term in office with a tally hovering around a whopping 98 percent of votes, partial results showed Saturday. There had been little doubt that the 59-year-old would return to the helm of the east African nation which he has ruled with an iron fist since the end of the 1994 genocide. With 80 percent of results counted, […]
by Stephanie Aglietti Agence France Presse KIGALI, Rwanda (AFP) — Rwandans began voting Friday in a presidential election widely expected to return strongman Paul Kagame to office for a third term at the helm of the small east African nation. Across the country dubbed “the Land of a Thousand Hills,” voters trooped to polling stations covered in the blue, yellow and green colours of the national flag to cast their ballots in the third election […]
by Leila Macor Agence France-Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) – In Miami, Madrid and across Latin America Venezuelans living abroad enthusiastically cast ballots in a vote organized Sunday by the opposition that sought to undermine unpopular President Nicolas Maduro. “I feel like a liberator!” exclaimed Monica Rodriguez in Miami, the city with the biggest expatriate Venezuelan population and one of 500 worldwide to host a poll. The 44-year-old, pushing her baby in a carriage, was […]
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AFP) – Despite being marred by violence, vote-buying, and flaws in the electoral roll, results from Papua New Guinea’s sprawling election should reflect the will of the people, observers said Monday. Counting is underway after two weeks of voting in the vast and remote country ended Saturday, and the Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) which monitored the polling gave a generally positive assessment. “Our group is of the view that despite […]
HONG KONG, China (Reuters) – New Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam struck a conciliatory tone on Wednesday (July 5) and vowed to improve ties with the legislature, but she suggested fresh reforms to bring greater democracy to the Chinese city would not be tabled anytime soon. Lam, in her first week in office, spent about an hour answering lawmakers’ questions in an especially arranged meeting, where the mood appeared less hostile compared with sessions involving […]
NEPALGUNJ, Nepal (AFP) – Nepal’s troubled south began voting Wednesday in the first local elections for two decades, a key stage in the country’s post-war transformation from feudal monarchy to federal democracy. The elections began last month in other parts of the nation but were repeatedly delayed in the southern plains, which were hit by deadly protests two years ago. The Madhesi ethnic minority says federal boundaries set by a new national constitution will leave them […]
by Briseida Mema and Rusmir Smajilhodzic Agence France-Presse TIRANA, Albania (AFP) – Albania votes in parliamentary elections on Sunday with hopes that a long tradition of polling fraud, violence and disputed results will come to an end and propel the country toward European Union membership. The Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama, 52, appears to have just a slight advantage over the center-right Democratic Party of Lulzim Basha, 43, according to opinion polls. After […]
WASHINGTON DC, United States (Reuters) – United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions, appearing at a high-stakes Senate hearing, on Tuesday (June 13) denounced as “an appalling and detestable lie” the idea that he colluded with Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. Sessions testified about his dealings with Russian officials and whether he intentionally misled Congress as the Senate Intelligence Committee probes the Russia matter. As Sessions entered the crowded hearing room, a swarm of […]
by Carola Sole with Sebastian Smith in Rio de Janeiro Agence France Presse BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Judges on Brazil’s electoral court were expected to start voting Wednesday in a case that could topple scandal-tainted President Michel Temer. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) is examining whether the 2014 reelection of President Dilma Rousseff and her then-vice president Temer should be invalidated because of corrupt campaign funding. There was no indication in the opening session late Tuesday as […]
by Ali Noorani Agence France-Presse TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) – In a working-class district of Tehran teeming with porters, motorbikes and pickup trucks, residents have little enthusiasm about next week’s presidential election. Iranians have tried it all — reformists, establishment figures, rabble-rousing populists, and for the past four years a moderate cleric, President Hassan Rouhani, who struck a historic deal to reintegrate Iran into the world. But residents of Molavi, in capital’s south, say their lives […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Koreans went to the polls Tuesday to choose a new president after Park Geun-Hye was ousted and indicted for corruption, this against a backdrop of high tensions with the nuclear-armed North. More than 139,000 voting stations opened at 6 am local time (2100 GMT) across the country under overcast skies, with turnout expected to hit a record high. Voters have been galvanized by anger over the sprawling bribery and abuse-of-power […]
