Day: August 25, 2021

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Malawi Braces for Another Election Challenge

Malawi's Constitutional Court has agreed to hear a challenge to last year's presidential election rerun from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party. President Lazarus Chakwera defeated the DPP's Peter Mutharika in the rerun after the court nullified the 2019 election, which Mutharika had won. The DPP argues the rerun should also be nullified after the High Court quashed the appointment of four DPP commissioners to the Malawi Electoral Commission.

This past June, the High Court quashed the appointment of four DPP commissioners Jean Mathanga, Linda Kunje, Steven Duwa and Arthur Nanthuru, saying their appointment was invalid and unconstitutional.

The court acted after the governing Malawi Congress Party had challenged the appointment of the commissioners.

In his ruling, Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda further said the quashing of the appointments did not affect the validity of the June 2020 re-run presidential election.

But the opposition DPP said Nyirenda erred in his ruling because he touched on issues beyond his mandate.

The party wants the court to also invalidate the rerun election because it was managed by commissioners who it says were wrongly appointed.

They argue that the Malawi Constitution does not recognize an election that was presided over by undeserving commissioners.

Charles Mhango is a lawyer for the opposition DPP.

“My clients believe strongly that the elections that took place on 23rd June, electing President Chakwera, is also null and void because the principal of the law is very clear; out of nothing, come nothing,” he said.

Critics fear the case will result in another long and protracted legal battle which will cost the government a lot of money.

They believe the case could have been avoided had the government listened to the advice of the former attorney general, Chikosa Silungwe, that the government should recognize the commissioners.

Osman Kennedy, a law lecturer at Blantyre International University, told VOA that serious implications will happen only if the court rules in favor of the DPP.

“Because what will happen is that we will revert back to 2020 when Mutharika was the president. Because the court may say ‘no, if you [President Chakwera] were elected by the commission that was illegal, then you were not elected, then you were no longer the president and therefore we are reverting the status quo back to Mutharika and Chilima respectively.'”

Social commentator Humphrey Mvula said the case demonstrates failure by political leaders to accept electoral defeat.

“Our challenge as most African countries including Malawi is that we rarely accept that we have lost the elections. We always want to fight and always want the court to tell us that we have lost the elections. Even at that time, we have been able to trash the decision of the court," he said.

Former president Mutharika has said he does not recognize the results of the rerun election he lost to Chakwera.

In the meantime, the Constitutional Court has set Monday next week to decide whether to proceed with the case and if so, how.

Source: Voice of America

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Habré’s Victims, Analysts Reflect on His Legacy

The former president of Chad, Hissène Habré, died on Tuesday at age 79, five years into a life sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His trial in Senegal marked the first time an African country tried a former leader of another African country for crimes committed in office. However, his conviction was less than perfect justice.

Hissène Habré oversaw the killing and torture of tens of thousands of people during his rule as Chad’s president from 1982 to 1990. He was also accused of rape and sexual slavery.

At the time, Habré received support from the United States and France to defend against Libya’s invasions of northern Chad.

He was found guilty of crimes against humanity in 2016 by a Senegalese court, and was still serving his life sentence when he died of COVID-19.

Allan Ngari is the organized crime observatory coordinator for West Africa with the Institute of Security Studies in Dakar.

“It was the first time for universal jurisdiction to be successful in Africa. It was the first time that a former head of state was found guilty for personally committing acts of rape. But it came almost 26 years later from when he was deposed of presidency in Chad,“ he said.

Habré’s victims and their supporters worked tirelessly over those years to bring the former dictator to justice.

Reed Brody is a member of the International Commission of Jurists and a human rights lawyer who has worked with Habré’s victims since 1999.

“That a band of torture victims never gave up and were able to turn the tables and bring a dictator to justice in Africa before an African court — these are enormous achievements that I feel proud of and that I know the victims feel proud of,“ he said.

One of those victims is Clément Abaifouta, the president of the Association of Victims of the Crimes of the Hissène Habré Regime.

Abaifouta endured four years of torture at the hands of Habré’s regime. During that time he not only witnessed the deaths of many of his co-detainees from torture, illness and sexual violence, but he was forced to dig their graves.

He says when Hissène Habré was convicted, all of Africa celebrated and jumped for joy because Africans proved they were capable of trying dictators on African soil. "The case of Hissène Habré is a lesson for all dictators: you cannot hide. Justice is like the sun. It will always catch you," he said.

Habré and the Chadian government were ordered to pay Abaifouta and the other victims tens of millions of dollars, and the African Union was tasked with setting up a trust fund. The victims, however, have yet to see a penny and the fund was never established.

Abaifouta said he will continue to pressure the Senegalese authorities and the African Union to begin the process of reparations.

Habre is to be buried in Dakar on Thursday, his family told the Agence France-Presse.

Source: Voice of America

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Afghan Girls Boarding School Temporarily Relocates to Rwanda

With Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban, which had banned young women from formal education, the country's only girls boarding school is temporarily relocating to Rwanda for a "study abroad" session.

Shabana Basij-Rasikh, the co-founding president of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), said in a social media post Tuesday that the private school's nearly 250 students, faculty, staff and family members had left the capital city of Kabul as of last week.

"SOLA is resettling, but our resettlement is not permanent," she wrote in one of a series of Twitter posts. "A semester abroad is exactly what we're planning. When circumstances on the ground permit, we hope to return home to Afghanistan."

Basij-Rasikh wrote that they are en route, by way of Qatar, to the central African nation, where they intend to study.

The Rwandan Ministry of Education responded to Basij-Rasikh's tweet, saying that it looked forward to welcoming the SOLA community to Rwanda.

The central African nation is one of several countries that the U.S. State Department said had agreed to temporarily host evacuated Afghans. It is not yet known how many Afghans Rwanda will accept.

On Friday, Basij-Rasikh posted a video showing her burning students' records to protect their identities from the Taliban.

In Twitter posts Tuesday, the school official said her heart breaks for her country.

"I've stood in Kabul, and I've seen the fear, and the anger, and the ferocious bravery of the Afghan people. I look at my students, and I see the faces of the millions of Afghan girls, just like them, who remain behind," Basij-Rasikh wrote. "Those girls cannot leave, and you cannot look away. If there's one thing I ask of the world, it is this: Do not avert your eyes from Afghanistan. Don't let your attention wander as the weeks pass. See those girls, and in doing so you will hold those holding power over them to account."

Source: Voice of America

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Gunman Kills 3 Police Officers, Security Guard in Dar es Salaam

A heavily armed gunman fatally shot three police officers and a security guard in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, near a French embassy building. Police later killed the man, whose target and motive were not immediately clear.

A gunman near the French Embassy in Dar es Salaam opened fire on Wednesday creating fear among the residents.

The inspector general of police, Simon Sirro, confirmed the incident a few hours later but did not disclose details about the shooting or the suspect.

The police chief said: “We have lost our two soldiers but the man who carried out the murder was also killed but we want to know where he comes from and who he is and I will give you the information later.”

Shortly afterward, officials confirmed the death of another police officer and a security guard in the shooting.

The attack came just hours after President Samia Suluhu Hassan met with police officials.

Eyewitnesses say the shooting caused panic. Daudi Mwamala is an Uber driver who was at the scene.

Those with cars at the front didn’t have any chance to reverse their cars or anything, Mwamala said. What they did was open their car doors and run and some of the traffic police were also running.

Juma Selemani, a Dar es Salaam resident, says he thought police officers were firing shots to stop a bank robbery.

At first, he said, we were not scared as we thought maybe they are soldiers continuing with their work, but later we saw a man firing bullets in the air. He added that one traffic policeman said my fellow officer has died.

The U.S. Embassy in Tanzania has issued a security alert warning its citizens to avoid the area.

Source: Voice of America