Ghana Election: Vote count tight as accusations fly
The first regional results Wednesday in Ghana’s elections pointed to a tight race for the presidency after the two main camps traded heated words over accusations of electoral fraud.
The electoral commission published results from seven out of the country’s 16 regions, pointing to a narrow lead by opposition candidate John Mahama over outgoing president Nana Akufo-Addo.
Monday’s presidential and parliamentary vote, in a country viewed as a beacon of democracy in West Africa, has been viewed by observers as generally free and fair.
But Mahama late Tuesday accused Akufo-Addo of showing “credentials that are very undemocratic” and harnessing the military to sway the outcome.
“You cannot use the military to try and overturn some of the results in constituencies that we have won. We will resist any attempts to subvert the sovereign will of the Ghanaian people,” the 62-year-old former president said.
He made the accusations after rumours circulated on social media that he had conceded defeat.
Hours earlier, the presidency — releasing an unofficial tally — claimed Akufo-Addo was ahead with 52.25 percent of the vote, against Mahama’s 46.44 percent.
Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told a press conference that allegations of intimidation by soldiers were false.
He also bluntly rejected Mahama’s claim that his party had won a majority, of 140 seats, in the 275-member parliament.
“No candidates at this stage should undermine the work of the EC (electoral commission), it is irresponsible and it would endanger the peace of this country,” Oppong Nkrumah warned.
Mahama and Akufo-Addo, 76, are old rivals who have faced off at the ballot box twice before.
Mahama was president for four years until 2016, before being succeeded by Akufo-Addo. Both of those elections were determined by small margins.
Despite the sharp words, Ghana has a history of electoral stability and grievances are typically pursued through the courts.
Akufo-Addo and Mahama on Friday signed a symbolic peace pact, which the 15-nation regional bloc ECOWAS urged “all political parties and their leadership to respect.”
In a statement, the Economic Community of West African States said, “We appeal to political parties and their followers to refrain from any conduct that may undermine the succesful conclusion of electoral process.”
Source: AFP
French Cameroun: Police lift blocking of opposition leader’s home
Police in Yaoundé who have been surrounding the home of opposition leader Maurice Kamto since September, have lifted the effective house arrest, his party said Tuesday.
Kamto, who lost to President Paul Biya in 2018’s election, has been prevented from leaving his home since the eve of a peaceful protest march in the capital Yaounde on September 22 when demonstrators called for Biya to go.
Kamto had been imprisoned in January 2019 following a march protesting the vote. Biya ordered him freed nine months later under international pressure.
But his subsequent house arrest has been strictly enforced by the strong police presence. Kamto has described it as “sequestration”.
The government alleged that Kamto and his associates had defied laws and regulations by “violating the ban on public demonstration”.
But the security cordon around his house was “lifted entirely this afternoon, said Emmanuel Simh, a vice president of Kamto’s Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC).
“I think Mr Kamto is now free to move around. He was not notified of the ban on him going out, so he will not wait for a notification that he can now move,” said Simh.
Lawyer Hippolyte Meli confirmed the news after going to his client’s home.
Hours earlier the government released a statement saying that “the situation of the MRC leader… will continue to be the subject of careful examination” by the courts, without giving further details.
“Legal proceedings against the leaders and organisers of this movement will continue,” the government said.
Police arrested numerous MRC supporters and officials at the September march, some of whom remain in detention.
The government accuses Kamto and the MRC of seeking to organise an “insurrectionary movement”.
Source: AFP
Southern Cameroons Crisis: Mayor’s residence burnt in Bamenda
Ambazonia Restoration Forces defending the Mezam County have burnt down the residence of the Mayor of Bamenda II, Peter Chenwi. The mayor’s residence situated in the Ntasen neighborhood in Bamenda III Subdivision went up in flames on Monday, December 7, 2020.
The mayor reportedly took part in the so-called regional elections banned by the Ambazonia Interim Government, fled his Ntasen home and relocated to Up-Station in Bamenda.
The Francophone administration in Bamenda, the chief city in Southern Cameroons Northern Zone said in a statement that no human casualty was recorded when armed men stormed the Mayor’s Ntasen residence on Monday.
Ambazonia Restoration Forces have already declared that they would enforce the death penalty all over Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia soonest and the names of many South West Chiefs and North West Fons are prominent on the list.
Cameroon Concord News understands several traditional authorities and councilors across Southern Cameroons were transported to the polling centers in military vehicles just to prove that the elections took place in normal circumstances.
At the heart of the crisis, which started in 2016, was a strike by teachers and lawyers, in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The professionals, supported by citizens of their areas, protested the unfair use of the French language and unjustified appointments of French speakers in their territories. Cameroon is a bilingual country. By 2017, the situation had spiralled out of control and developed into a fully-fledged separatist war. Both government forces and separatists are now bogged down in a conflict that observers say, can only be resolved through dialogue.
By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda
UK first country to roll out COVID-19 vaccine
Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, has received what she calls “an early birthday present; the first of 800,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. She has been self-isolating alone since March, and was pleased get the job.
At this initial phase the elderly, vulnerable and NHS staff have been given priority. The effects of the vaccine are expected to kick in 12 days after administration, and Margaret and everyone else receiving the jab will have another dose in three weeks. Full immunity can be expected a month after the first dose. In the meantime people are being asked to stick to the rules.
The scientists say life might start to go back to normal by April. The British government is touting this as a success for the United Kingdom; being the first to approve a vaccine. In an interview Tuesday morning Health Secretary Matt Hancock broke down.
However, diminishing trust in the government has led to a lot of skepticism about the vaccine. According to the largest survey of UK attitudes and behavior during the pandemic.
A critical mass of people will have to get the jab over the coming weeks and months for it to work. The UK government hasn’t made the vaccine mandatory, so it will have an uphill job convincing the majority that the vaccine is safe and effective.
Source: Presstv
Coronavirus: US deaths hit record levels
Deaths from COVID-19 in the US have soared to more than 2,200 a day on average, matching the frightening peak reached last April, and cases per day have eclipsed 200,000 on average for the first time on record, with the crisis all but certain to get worse because of the fallout from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.
Virtually every state is reporting surges just as a vaccine appears days away from getting the go-ahead in the US
“What we do now literally will be a matter of life and death for many of our citizens,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday as he extended restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, including a ban on indoor dining and drinking at restaurants and bars.
While the impending arrival of the vaccine is reason for hope, he said, “at the moment, we have to face reality, and the reality is that we are suffering a very dire situation with the pandemic.”
Elsewhere around the country, North Carolina’s governor imposed a 10 p.m. curfew, and authorities in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley sent a mass cellphone text alert Tuesday telling millions about the rapid spread of the virus and urging them to abide by the state’s stay-at-home orders.
The virus is blamed for more than 285,000 deaths and 15 million confirmed infections in the United States.
Many Americans disregarded warnings not to travel over Thanksgiving and have ignored other safety precautions, whether out of stubbornness, ignorance or complacency. On Saturday night, police in Southern California arrested nearly 160 people, many of them not wearing masks, at a house party in Palmdale that was held without the homeowner’s knowledge.
Before his death Friday from complications of COVID-19, 78-year-old former Alabama state Sen. Larry Dixon asked his wife from his hospital bed to relay a warning. “Sweetheart, we messed up. We just dropped our guard. … We’ve got to tell people this is real,” his friend Dr. David Thrasher, a pulmonologist, quoted him as saying.
Although Dixon had been conscientious about masks and social distancing, he met up with friends at a restaurant for what they called a “prayer meeting,” and three of them fell ill, Thrasher said.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, offered what sounded like a subtle rebuke of the way President Donald Trump and others in the administration have downplayed the disease and undercut scientists.
“Messages need to be critically consistent,” Birx said Tuesday at a Wall Street Journal conference of CEOs. “I think we need to be much more consistent about addressing the myths that are out there — that COVID doesn’t really exist, or that the fatalities somehow are made up, or the hospitalizations are for other diseases, not COVID, that masks actually hurt you.”
On Thursday, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is widely expected to authorize emergency use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, and shots could begin almost immediately after that. Britain on Tuesday started dispensing the Pfizer vaccine, becoming the first country in the West to begin mass vaccinations.
Still, any vaccination campaign will take many months, and US health experts are warning of a continuing surge of infections in the coming weeks as people gather for the holidays.
California officials painted a dire picture as more than 22,000 residents test positive for the coronavirus each day, with about 12% inevitably showing up at hospitals in two to three weeks. They fear the spike could soon overwhelm intensive care units. Southern California’s Riverside University Health System Medical Center went so far as to open an ICU in a storage room.
For the sixth day in a row and 11 of the last 12 days, North Carolina hit new highs in the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19. The patient count has doubled over the past month to nearly 2,400.
In Georgia, the number of confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections has soared more than 70% in the past week, and hospitals are sounding alarms about their ability to absorb new COVID-19 patients.
The state is averaging more than 5,000 confirmed or suspected cases per day. Even then, Georgia ranks only 44th among the states for the most new cases per capita in the past 14 days because infections are spreading so rapidly everywhere else.
More than 2,500 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized Monday statewide. That’s below the summer peak of 3,200 but more than double the most recent low point in mid-October.
“We are effectively reversing the gains we made after the summer surge,” said Amber Schmidtke, an epidemiologist who does a daily analysis of Georgia’s COVID-19 numbers.
Source: ABC News
Racism in European Football: Turkish President condemns remarks made against Pierre Webo
Paris Saint-Germain’s decisive Champions League game with Istanbul Basaksehir on Tuesday was suspended in the first half as the players walked off amid allegations of racism by one of the match officials. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he “strongly” condemned the alleged racist remarks.
The row erupted after Basaksehir assistant coach Pierre Webo, the former Cameroon international, was shown a red card during a fierce row on the touchline with staff from the Turkish club appearing to accuse the Romanian fourth official of using a racist term.
Television microphones picked up a furious Webo repeatedly asking why a racist term had been used to describe him.
The game at the Parc des Princes stopped in the 14th minute, with the players walking off around 10 minutes later.
Basaksehir’s Senegal international striker Demba Ba, among the substitutes for the away side, could be heard remonstrating with the official, saying: “When you mention a white guy, you never say ‘this white guy’, you just say ‘this guy’, so why when you mention a black guy do you say ‘this black guy?'”
“I strongly condemn the racist remarks made against Pierre Webo, a member of the Basaksehir coaching staff, and I believe that UEFA will take the necessary measures,” Erdogan tweeted after the incident.
The match, being played behind closed doors because of the coronavirus pandemic, is decisive for PSG who need a draw to clinch qualification for the last 16 from Group H, which also contains RB Leipzig and Manchester United.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Corrupt France: Prosecutors seek prison term for ex-president Sarkozy in graft trial
Prosecutors in the graft trial of French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday called for him to be sentenced to a prison term of four years of which he should serve two.
The 65-year-old rightwinger, the country’s first modern head of state to appear in the dock, is accused of trying to bribe a judge with a plum retirement job in exchange for inside information on an inquiry into his campaign finances.
Prosecutors asked for the same punishment for Sarkozy’s lawyer and co-defendant, Thierry Herzog, as well as for the judge, Gilbert Azibert.
They said Herzog should also be disbarred for five years.
Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, had told the court Monday that he “never committed the slightest act of corruption” and vowed to go “all the way” to clear his name at the landmark trial.
The corruption and influence-peddling charges — among several legal cases against him — carry a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of one million euros ($1.2 million).
‘Dragged through mud’
Defending himself in court for the first time on Monday Sarkozy said he relished the prospect of getting a fair hearing after being “dragged through the mud for six years”.
“What did I do to deserve this?” asked Sarkozy, who wore a dark suit and a surgical mask under his nose, vowing to “go all the way for the truth”. The courtroom was as packed as virus restrictions would permit.
Prosecutors say he and Herzog tried to bribe judge Azibert in return for information on an inquiry into claims Sarkozy had received illicit payments from late L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt during his 2007 presidential campaign.
The state’s case is based on wiretaps of conversations between Herzog and Sarkozy, something the former president denounced during his address to the court.
Azibert was a senior advisor at France’s highest appeals court at the time. He never got the job in Monaco.
Sarkozy, meanwhile, was cleared of any wrongdoing in the Bettencourt affair but still faces a raft of legal woes.
He remains charged over allegations that he received millions of euros in funding from Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi towards his 2007 election campaign, and he is also accused of fraudulently overspending on his failed 2012 reelection bid.
Only one other French president, Sarkozy’s political mentor Jacques Chirac, was put on trial after leaving office, but he was excused from having to attend his 2011 corruption trial due to ill health.
Chirac received a two-year suspended sentence over the creation of ghost jobs at Paris town hall that were used to fund his party when he was the city’s mayor.
Source: AFP
US: Biden secures Electoral College win
All US states except Wisconsin appear to have met a deadline under federal law to resolve disputes arising from the November 3 presidential election, thereby ensuring Democrat Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
Tuesday is the so-called safe harbor deadline for states to resolve disputes arising from the election. Under US law, Congress will consider a state’s election result to be “conclusive” if it is finalized by the safe harbor date.
Other than Wisconsin, every state appears to have met the deadline, which essentially means Congress has to accept the electoral votes that will be cast next week and sent to the Capitol for counting on January 6.
Those votes will officially elect Biden as the country’s next president.
“What federal law requires is that if a state has completed its post-election certification by December 8, Congress is required to accept those results,” said Rebecca Green, an election law professor at William & Mary law school in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The Electoral College is a creation of the Constitution but Congress sets the date for federal elections and, in the case of the presidency, determines when presidential electors gather in state capitals to vote.
In 2020 that date will be December 14. But Congress also set another deadline, six days before electors meet, to insulate state results from being challenged in Congress.
By day’s end on December 14, every state is expected to have made its election results official, awarding 306 electoral votes to Biden and 232 to President Donald Trump.
Trump’s refusal to accept defeat
The attention being paid to the normally obscure safe harbor provision is a function of Trump’s unrelenting efforts to challenge the legitimacy of the election. He has refused to concede, made unsupported claims of fraud and called on Republican lawmakers in key states to appoint electors who would vote for him even after those states have certified a Biden win.
But Trump’s arguments have gone nowhere in court in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Most of his campaign’s lawsuits in state courts challenging those Biden victories have been dismissed, with the exception of Wisconsin, where a hearing is scheduled for later this week.
Like the others, the lawsuit does not appear to have much chance of succeeding. But because it was filed in accordance with state law procedures for challenging election results, “it’s looking to me like Wisconsin is going to miss the safe harbor deadline because of that”, said Edward Foley, a professor of election law at Ohio State University’s Moritz School of Law, in comments to AP.
Judge Stephen Simanek, appointed to hear the case, has acknowledged that the case would push the state outside the electoral vote safe harbor.
Missing the deadline won’t deprive Wisconsin of its 10 electoral votes. Biden electors still will meet in Madison on Monday to cast their votes and there’s no reason to expect that Congress won’t accept them. In any case, Biden would still have more than the 270 votes he needs even without Wisconsin.
But lawmakers in Washington could theoretically second-guess the slate of electors from any state that misses the December 8 deadline, Foley said.
Already one member of the House of Representatives, Republican Mo Brooks of Alabama, has said he will challenge the electoral votes for Biden on January 6. Brooks would need to object in writing and be joined by at least one senator. If that were to happen, both chambers would debate the objections and vote on whether to sustain them. But unless both houses agreed to the objections, they would fail.
Bush vs Gore precedent
The unwillingness of Trump and his supporters to concede is “dangerous because in an electoral competition, one side wins, one side loses and it’s essential that the losing side accepts the winner’s victory. What is really being challenged right now is our capacity to play by those rules,” Foley said.
The safe harbor provision played a prominent role in the Bush v. Gore case after the 2000 presidential election. The Supreme Court shut down the state of Florida’s court-ordered recount because the safe harbor deadline was approaching. The court’s opinion was issued December 12, the deadline in 2000.
Former vice president Al Gore conceded the race to George W. Bush, then the Texas governor, the next day.
In his dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer said the deadline that really mattered was the day on which the Electoral College was scheduled to meet. Whether there was time to conduct a recount by then “is a matter for the state courts to determine”, Breyer wrote.
When Florida’s electoral votes, decisive in Bush’s victory, reached Congress, several Black House members protested but no senators joined in. It was left to Gore, who presided over the count as president of the Senate, to gavel down the objections from his fellow Democrats.
Source: FRANCE 24 with AP
Champions League: Inter look to Lukaku for survival
Inter Milan are counting on prolific striker Romelu Lukaku to power the former three-time winners into the Champions League last 16 on Wednesday in a must-win clash against Shakhtar Donetsk.
The Belgian scored a double in a 3-2 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach last time out to keep the Italian giants alive in the continental competition whose knockout rounds they have not reached since the 2011-2012 season.
Bottom of Group B, Inter need to win at the San Siro and for ‘Gladbach and Real Madrid not to draw their match.
“I’ve never played so well in my life,” said Lukaku after bagging four goals in as many European games this season.
In total, the Belgian has scored 12 goals in 13 games this season, including the opener at the weekend in a 3-1 Serie A win over Bologna.
For 27-year-old Lukaku it is the first time in his career that he has scored more than seven goals in his first 10 league games of the season.
Lukaku has come into his own since joining Antonio Conte’s side from Manchester United in 2019 for 80 million euros ($89 million).
In his first season Lukaku scored 34 goals in all competitions, matching the performance of Brazilian Ronaldo in his debut season for Inter in 1997-1998.
The Belgian’s high energy levels and sharp play at Inter are in contrast to United where he spent two seasons, scoring 42 goals in 96 appearances, but just 15 goals in his final season.
He was never far from fan criticism, over his weight and professionalism, as he fell down the pecking order once Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho.
But Lukaku has found a rich vein of form at Inter alongside Argentine Lautaro Martinez and former United teammate Alexis Sanchez.
Conte had been a long-time admirer of Lukaku, who started his career at Anderlect, and tried to sign him for Chelsea before the Belgian’s move from Everton to United.
His move to Italy at the same time as Conte, was also eased by the presence of his brother Jordan Lukaku, 25, who played as a defender for Lazio.
Inter finished second in Serie A last season, one point behind Juventus, although Lukaku’s own goal in the Europa League final handed Sevilla victory.
– ‘Rough diamond’ –
Inter have scored 26 goals from their first 10 matches, their best haul at this stage since the 2009/2010 campaign when they won an unprecedented treble under Mourinho.
“Romelu can still get better,” predicted Conte whose side are second in Serie A, five points behind city rivals AC Milan.
“I described him as a rough diamond when he arrived. I felt that by putting in the work, he could become one of the best strikers in the world.
“He’s like an American football player.
“He’s on the right track because he’s a humble player who works hard for the team and has everything in his locker — physical qualities and also the running ability to make a mark on an open pitch.
“I’m happy with him, the team, with Lautaro and with Sanchez, who could become even more decisive and score a few more goals given the qualities he possesses.
“However, he previously barely played at all for two years while at Manchester United, now he’s playing a lot of games and can also be a decisive player when coming off the bench.”
Former Juventus and Chelsea manager Conte is bidding to avoid a financially-damaging fourth group stage exit from the Champions League.
The 51-year-old’s best result as a coach was leading Juventus to the 2012/13 quarter-finals, and he reached the last 16 with Chelsea in 2017-2018.
“It’ll be a tough game because Shakhtar could go through if they get a good result, but we also want to play our own hand,” said Conte.
“We need to react as a team and show the right level of maturity. It’s one more step for us but we’re well up for it and our morale is high.”
Source: AFP