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NEWS SECTIONS: World news | Election news | News from Europe | News from North America | News from Latin America | News from Asia and Australia | News from Africa | Urban events | NEWS SPECIALS: Local elections in England & Wales 2008 | London elections 2008 | Latest news story | London and Glasgow terrorist attacks 2007 |

Malawi to hold first local
elections in ten years
Lilongwi, 28 May 2009: The Malawi government has announced that local elections will take place in May 2010, some ten years after they were last held. Constitutionally, local ballots must be held one year after a general election. Last week’s presidencial contest was won by incumbent President Bingu Wa Mutharika. A spokesman for the country’s electoral commission told reporters that local elections are likely to cost US$ 25 million and that his organisation was looking to the government and foreign donors to finance the poll.

This month’s presidential election, which cost the country an estimated $50 million, were largely funded by Britain, Malawi’s former colonial ruler and the United Nations Development Programme.

Malawi held its first ever local polls in 2000, six years after the introduction of multi-party politics in 1994. The then governing party of ex-president Bakili Muluzi won nearly all the 680 seats but voter turnout was less than 15 per cent. The government cancelled the 2005 local elections due to lack of funding. It also claimed that they could not be held during the worst famine in the country’s history.

Mutharika's administration postponed the next polls in 2005 due to lack of funding and after the government said they could not be held in the midst of the worst hunger in history threatening half of its 12 million citizens. The British High Commission welcomed the announcement of next year’s elections, pointing out that in the past it had often been critical of the government’s reluctance to allow people elect new local councils.

DA names its choice
to succeed Helen Zille
Cape Town, 13 May 2009: Ahead of the ceremony to install the successor to Helen Zille as Cape Town mayor, the ruling Democratic Alliance (DA) have named Dan Plato as their nominee for the post. Following a selection meeting to determine its nominations ahead of the city council meeting, the party nominated Plato, currently executive member for service delivery, to succeed Zille, who was elected as premier for the Western Cape Province in last month’s general election. The move also coincides with a change to the coalition arrangements on the city council after the DA decided to govern without the African Christian Democrats.

Plato, ostensibly second in command to Zille on the city council executive, had long been regarded as the frontrunner for the nomination, having beaten off three other candidates in Monday's caucus vote. The mayor-select also stood in for Zille when she was out of the city and acted as her closest adviser, in spite of coalition partner leader and current acting mayor Grant Haskin’s formal role as deputy mayor.

The DA also used the occasion to unceremoniously dump their former coalition partners the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP). The DA claimed that the social conservative party had breached its trust and become a proxy for the ANC, whom it will join in opposition. Haskin’s fate is thought to have been sealed when provincial representatives of the ACDP voted against Zille’s nomination for premier at last week’s inaugural session.

A former member of the apartheid era governing National Party, Plato has served on the city council since 1996, becoming chair of the economic and social development committee in 2000 and mayoral committee member for housing following the DA’s electoral breakthrough in 2006. A Zille loyalist who remained in the DA when many defected during 2004, he was recently rewarded with the pivotal service delivery portfolio and tapped by Zille as her successor.

Cape Town Mayor set to
become regional Premier
Cape Town, 24 April 2009: Partial results from South Africa's general election give the ruling African National Congress (ANC) a strong lead, possibly enabling the party to keep its two-thirds majority in parliament. However, the ANC looks like losing control of the Western Cape province, where the Democratic Alliance (DA) is predicted to win close to 50 per cent of the vote. Should the DA form the government in the Western Cape, the party’s leader and mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, is poised to become regional premier. Last year, Mayor Zille was the awarded the World Mayor Prize.

With about 70 per cent of the votes counted, the ANC had just over 66 per cent of the vote, putting party leader Jacob Zuma in line to become president when the new parliament convenes in May. The Democratic Alliance was in second place nationally with about 16 per cent, but looked likely to win control of Western Cape province away from the ANC.

South Africa's newest opposition party, the Congress of the People, or COPE, was trailing a distant third with about 8 percent. COPE split off from the ANC last year and had been thought of as a potentially strong new challenger.

The ANC's two-thirds majority in parliament allows it to amend the constitution without the cooperation of other parties.

Although the vote was peaceful in much of the country, a COPE official in Eastern Cape province was shot dead, in what party officials are calling a political killing. ANC leader Zuma is poised to take over the nation's highest office after overcoming a rape charge and repeated charges of corruption. He and his supporters have dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

The DA has captured more than 75 per cent of the overseas votes cast. The party got 7 581 of the 9 857 national votes cast at overseas voting stations last week. Most of these ballots were cast in London.

The Independent Electoral Commission so far estimates that around 77 per cent of South Africa's 23 million registered voters turned out to cast their ballots. Final election results are expected Saturday. (Report by VoA News with additional reporting from Cape Town and London)

Opposition performs strongly
in Senegalese local elections
Dakar, 23 March 2009: Provisional results from municipal elections in Senegal show big gains for political opponents of President Abdoulaye Wade. The polling is seen as a test of strength for the ruling party before presidential elections in 2012. These were the first elections for Senegal's opposition parties since they boycotted presidential and legislative balloting in 2007.

President Wade campaigned hard for his ruling coalition, travelling throughout the country before polls that saw his son Karim enter elected politics for the first time as a candidate for the municipal council of the capital, Dakar.

Provisional results tallied by local private radio stations show the ruling party losing in the Wades' constituency in the Point E neighborhood. The ruling Sopi coalition also appears to have lost the constituency of Prime Minister Hadjibou Soumare' in the city of Thies.

With about half of registered voters turning out Sunday to elect 20,000 regional, town and rural councillors, the Senegalese Press Agency says the 35-member opposition coalition won all six constituencies in the western Ndindy district and seven of eight constituencies in the northern Louga district.

The ruling coalition appears to have scored a big win in the southern city of Ziguinchor by unseating a mayor who had served for 25 years. But provisional results from these municipal elections reflect a change from 2002 when the ruling coalition won more than half the vote and gained control of councils in Dakar and other cities.

President Wade's election in 2000 ended four decades of Socialist Party rule since independence from France in 1960. But since his re-election in 2007, much of the speculation about who will succeed the 82-year-old leader has focused on his son, Karim.

Karim Wade already serves as a presidential advisor and led preparations for last year's summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference in Dakar. Then-prime minister Macky Sall was voted out as president of the National Assembly after asking Karim Wade to testify before a hearing investigating his oversight of spending on that conference. Asked by a local radio station last week if he would run for president to succeed his father in 2012, Karim Wade said, "Only God knows." (Report by Scott Stearns, VoA News)

People are our strength
says Lagos government
Lagos, 9 March 2009: Lagos, Nigeria is already struggling with overpopulation problems. There is widespread poverty, poor sanitation, pollution and perhaps the worst traffic in the world. And the worst may be yet to come. The United Nations projects that by the year 2015 the population will grow to 20 million, making it the third largest city in the world. But, city officials are surprisingly optimistic about the future. They say Lagos has nowhere to grow but up.

For many in Nigeria's largest city, traffic congestion has become a symbol of the country's inability to keep up with its rapidly growing population. Lagos' population currently is listed at over 14 million people but some local officials estimate there are as many as 18 million. But Opeyemi Bamidele the Lagos State Public Information Commissioner says overpopulation is not the problem.

"We do not believe that any nation can be overpopulated because part of our strength lies in our population, part of our strength lies in our diversity," he said." Bamidele says what is needed is good governance, providing traditional government services, like picking up the trash and fixing roads, and development. He says the recently developed bus rapid transit system or BRT, a dedicated main traffic lane for buses, is the beginning of a long-term solution.

But the city's most ambitious plan is to construct shopping and office complexes, to attract foreign investment and transform Lagos into a modern metropolis. The only thing that stands in the way of development is the people who live on this land. One such project is a three-story shopping mall being constructed in the busy market section of Victoria Island.

Lagos Finance Commissioner Rotimi Oyekan says the land owners, mostly market vendors, have been incorporated into development plans. "We are providing them an opportunity to stay where they are in a new environment," he said. "Now that goes a long way, in saying yes, in every class we care. It's not just for the rich. It is also for the not so rich or the underprivileged."

Mustafa Atobajeun and more than 40 families own the property being developed on Victoria Island. They have been temporarily relocated to another part of the city. He says the government has promised they will have shops in the new building, collect rent from the tenants, and own the developed property in 30 years. But he says the government also promised to provide a place to sell their goods during the transition, but that has not happened and they are struggling to survive. (Report by Brian Padden, VoA)

Deposed mayor calls for
more strikes in Madagascar
Antananarivo, 10 February 2009: Antananarivo's deposed mayor Andry Rajoelina is calling for a protest march to demand the resignation of Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana. This comes after both the opposition leader and the president agreed to United Nations mediation to resolve the political impasse. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is expected to act as facilitator in negotiations between the president and the opposition leader. Some political analysts fear the impasse could plunge the country into an economic crisis. Mialy Randriamampianina, a Malagasy journalist, described the situation as volotile.

"Today, the strike is going to restart again after Andry Rajoelina asked the people to go on strike again and to continue the strike until President Marc Ravalomanana resigns as the president of Madagascar. He also said they are going to continue with what they are protesting about, and even if some people were dead, those who died wouldn't have died for nothing, and that they are going to continue with the strike and protests," Randriamampianina pointed out.

She said some political analysts are hopeful that an agreement between the president and the opposition leader to hold talks over the impasse could bring stability to the country.

"But something which is new, and I think is good news, is that now we have the UN special representative in Madagascar who had a meeting with President Marc Ravalomanana in the morning and also met with the former mayor Andry Rajoelina in the afternoon. And both of them agreed about holding a dialogue in order to re-establish the peace in the country," she said.

Randriamampianina said the opposition leader maintains the protest demanding the resignation of the president would continue.

"He said before the meeting with the UN special representative in Madagascar that he is going to continue with the strike action. And the fact is also that many people trust in the way he does things in the country about improving the political situation in the country and the economic one. And he and his supporters think that the best way for these problems to be resolved is that President Marc Ravalomanana must resign from his post," Randriamampianina noted.

She said the opposition leader was of the view that the president would come forward and negotiate with him.

"He said he wants the president to react to some of these charges so that they will hold discussions together in order to have an agreement between them because they have never had the opportunity to hold talks together. We don't know yet when the discussion and this meeting is going to come on. But it is already a good thing that they are going to be meeting each other," she said.

Randriamampianina said most people welcome the announcement that the president and the opposition leader will hold talks.

"The population is taking it as good news because the fact is that Madagascar is a poor country. And that even if they want to go on strike, most of the people are afraid of their poor economic status and want the crisis to stop. They are also afraid that if the problems are not resolved, it would take a long time before anything is done and that some say would worsen their economic plight," Randriamampianina pointed out.

Opposition leader Rajoelina blames the death of the protesters, who were shot over the weekend while marching towards the presidential palace, on President Ravalomanana. While meeting with the UN special representative, Rajoelina demanded the establishment of a transitional government and an early national election after bringing Ravalomanana to justice for what he described as the bloody violence that killed dozens of people and injured hundreds of anti-government demonstrators over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the Ravalomanana government has named a new defense minister following Monday's resignation of Cécile Marie-Ange Manorohanta. She announced her resignation in a broadcast statement, saying that her conscience did not support the weekend killings. President Ravalomanana also announced plans today to announce the composition of his transitional government. It would be led by his Prime Minister Monja Roindefo, son of Malagasy nationalist Monja Jaona. (Report by Peter Clottey, VoA News)

BACKGROUND
On 31 January 2009, Mayor Andry Rajoelina announced he was in charge of the entire Malagasy Republic, declaring at a rally, "Since the president and the government have not taken their responsibilities, I therefore proclaim that I will run all national affairs as of today." He said a request for President Ravalomanana to formally resign would shortly be filed with the Parliament of Madagascar. On 3 February, Rajoelina was dismissed as Mayor and a special delegation, headed by Guy Randrianarisoa, was appointed instead. Rajoelina denounced the decision, saying that there was "no valid reason" for it and that he was prepared to face arrest if necessary; he warned that the city would "not accept this decision"

Rajoelina held another rally on 4 February, before a crowd of some 2,000 people. On that occasion he described the appointment of Randrianarisoa as "an insult to the people of Madagascar"; he instead designated Michele Ratsivalaka to succeed him as Mayor and gave her his mayoral scarf. (Report by Peter Clottey, VoA News and local reporters)

Cameroon’s ‘Paris Dream’
leaves thousands homeless
Yaounde, 5 January 2009: More than 7,000 people have been left homeless in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, since city officials began tearing down slums to make space for development projects. The city is also cleaning up areas prone to flooding and landslides. The initiative has led to displacement and protests. Three shantytowns have been pulled down this year in what city officials are calling a cleanup operation. When the project is finished, the former slums will be transformed into public gardens or sold to private developers. Plans have also been made to improve drainage on the ancient riverbeds to protect new structures against flooding. Authorities call the plan The Paris Dream.

City authorities say they fear a calamity in some of the settlements. Many were built on ancient riverbeds and are exposed to a high risk of flooding. Also, many of the city’s poorest residents have lived in the slums for years and have nowhere else to go. Several humanitarian groups now consider them refugees and are providing aid – among them, the UN refugee agency and the Cameroon Red Cross.

Critics of the operation have sprung up from all walks of life. In early September, the government banned public debates on the subject planned by a coalition of NGOs.

Over the past three years, Yaounde has been undergoing a transformation never before seen in the country. New roads have been opened, sidewalks have been paved, wild unoccupied lands have been transformed into public gardens and garbage collection has greatly improved.

But many say the demolitions are overshadowing these operations. For homeless residents like Daniel Essono, the Paris Dream is a nightmare. “Only the rich and their children will benefit from the proposed gardens," he said. "What we want is shelter and food. When you send us into the streets, you are taking even the little that we have away. You do not expect us to be happy.”

Authorities have promised to resettle some of those who can produce title deeds and building permits. But they make up less than two percent of all the affected residents and it would make very little difference to others losing their homes. The city government says it recognizes the problem but says it cannot resettle most of them because they are squatters.

The demolitions have exposed Yaounde’s long years of chaotic growth. Most of its streets are not paved, and only about 60 percent of the population has access to clean drinking water.

With a population of more than two million, uninhabited land has become scarce and expensive. New slums are springing up every year. And the urban population continues to grow. (Report by Nforngwa Yaounde, VoA News)

Senegalese opposition
to fight local elections
Dakar, 17 December 2008: Some 20 Senegalese opposition parties and groups have formed an alliance to fight local elections, scheduled for 22 March 2009. At a conference of party leaders, earlier this month, it was decided to take part in next year’s regional and local elections. A spokesman for the new alliance, the Siggil Senegal Front (FSS), said the division of candidates between the various parties would be decided early in 2009. In 2007, opposition parties boycotted parliamentary elections after they alleged massive fraud during the presidential vote earlier that year.

Local elections spark
violence in Nigeria
Jos, 3 December 2008: Aid workers say they are struggling to cope with the fallout of violent clashes between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria’s central city of Jos, in Plateau state, which killed and wounded hundreds of people and displaced some 10,000. Preliminary police figures show that some 200 people died in the violence, triggered by disputed local election results, but the number is thought to be higher.

People fled their homes when fighting broke out in Jos North on 28 November following local council elections between candidates of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP); members of ANPP accused the PDP of rigging the vote.

In Jos North local government area the ANPP is led by a Muslim and the PDP a Christian; the fraud allegations triggered sectarian violence, according to Oxford University researcher Adam Higazi. Vote-rigging is rife in Nigeria, with many claims of fraudulent practices in the 2007 local and federal elections, Higazi said. “When you have an election in a politically tense area of Plateau that is contested along religious lines, you are more likely to have trouble.”

Serious violence last broke out in Jos in 2002, and in 2001 riots there killed up to 1,000 people. The 27 November elections were the first to take place since the 2001 violence. (Report by IRIN News)

Mayor Monitor rates the performance of mayors from across the world More

Malawi to hold first local elections since 2000 (Photo: Malawi capital Lilongwi)

DA names its choice to succeed Helen Zille

Cape Town Mayor set to become regional Premier

Opposition performs strongly in Senegalese local election

People are our strength says Lagos government

Deposed mayor calls for more strikes in Madagascar

Cameroon’s ‘Paris Dream’ leaves thousands homeless

Senegalese opposition to fight local elections

Local elections spark violence in Nigeria