<p>Ed Stoddard  <span class="articleLocation">JOHANNESBURG</span></p>
<p>South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, seen as a top contender to lead the ruling ANC into 2019 general elections, said on Sunday that the country must not become a &#8220;mafia state&#8221; as he admitted his party had become associated with corruption.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa&#8217;s comments were among the strongest he has made on governance as the race heats up to replace President Jacob Zuma, whose administration has been hit by scandals and missteps, prompting street protests and calls for him to resign or be removed.</p>
<p>In televised remarks at an event in the platinum mining town of Rustenburg organised by the South African Communist Party (SACP), Ramaphosa responded to a warning this week from the influential South African Council of Churches that graft is turning South Africa into a mafia state.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;If we as the ANC are to counter this grave threat, if the ANC is to recover its leadership role in society, then it is absolutely imperative that we act with urgency and purpose and make sure that we never become a mafia state,&#8221; Ramaphosa said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Because once we become a mafia state all the wheels have come off,&#8221; said Ramaphosa, whose delivery was at times passionate, a marked contrast to his normally reserved manner.</p></blockquote>
<p>The SACP setting was a pointed one as the party is a key political ally of the ANC and has called for Zuma to resign.</p>
<p>Relations between Zuma and Ramaphosa, 64, a former trade union organiser who led negotiations to end white rule in 1994, have become increasingly strained, according to local media reports.</p>
<p>Zuma has consistently denied allegations of corruption leveled against him, his government and some associates, and branded protesters calling for his resignation &#8220;racist&#8221;.</p>
<p>Clad in a leather jacket bearing the ANC&#8217;s black, green and gold colours, Ramaphosa said the party was saddled with an image problem when it came to corruption.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>&#8220;In the public mind, the ANC and its government are increasingly associated, fairly or unfairly, with wrong things that the public continues to see us doing. Like corruption, like pursuing narrow personal enrichment,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa also said that he had met with ratings agency Moody&#8217;s on Friday and their view was that the ANC was on the verge of a split. He said he assured them that would not happen.</p>
<p>Both S&amp;P Global Ratings and Fitch downgraded South Africa&#8217;s credit rating to below investment grade in April after Zuma fired respected former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, a move Ramaphosa opposed and triggered nationwide unrest.</p>
<p>Zuma is to step down as head of the ANC in December but can remain head of state until the 2019 elections. He has signaled his preference that his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former cabinet minister and head of the African Union, replace him.</p>
<p>(Editing by Richard Lough)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


Deputy President Ramaphosa says South Africa must avoid “mafia state” fate

<p>George Obulutsa | <span class="articleLocation">NAIROBI</span></p>
<p>Kenya&#8217;s President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Thursday his government would not tolerate violence between rival camps of supporters in party primaries before a national election in August.</p>
<p>Two parliamentary candidates have been treated in hospital after being caught up in such a clash &#8211; a decade after an eruption of ethnic violence, in which more than 1,200 people were killed, following a disputed presidential poll.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;A culture of hooliganism during the electoral process must not and will not be allowed to gain currency and acceptance,&#8221; Kenyatta told a news conference at the main State House.</p></blockquote>
<p>Kenyatta, the wealthy son of the country&#8217;s first president, is running for a second and final five-year term in the Aug. 8 vote.</p>
<p>The 2013 election passed off fairly peacefully, after opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is seen as Kenyatta&#8217;s main rival, challenged Kenyatta&#8217;s election in court. The court upheld the result.</p>
<p>Kenyatta&#8217;s Jubilee Party and dozens of others are nominating their candidates, to beat the April 26 deadline, and hand over nominees to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) by May 10 as required by law.</p>
<p>The main opposition coalition, the National Super Alliance of Kenya (Nasa), has yet to name its presidential candidate from among its top leaders, who include Odinga, and his 2013 running mate, Kalonzo Musyoka.</p>
<p>Millions of voters will also pick a new parliament and local authorities when they cast their ballots in August.</p>
<p>Contests to lead the country&#8217;s 47 local authorities are expected to be hard-fought affairs due to their budgets of billions of shillings.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>Kenyatta said that all political parties taking part in the nominations had been given police protection to stem any acts of violence or hooliganism.</p>
<p>&#8220;Anybody who engages in acts of violence will be dealt with in accordance with the law, irrespective of who they are,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>(Editing by Duncan Miriri and Alison Williams)</p>


Kenya’s president warns against violence during party nominations

<p><span class="articleLocation">Chris Mfula | LUSAKA</span></p>
<p>A Zambian court will rule next week on whether to throw out a treason case against the leader of the main opposition party whose lawyers say the charges are vague and ambiguous, a magistrate said on Thursday.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema was arrested last week in a police raid on his home and charged with trying to overthrow the government.</p>
<p>His lawyers asked the court on Wednesday to dismiss the case, saying the charges were not specific.</p>
<p>Magistrate Greenwell Malumani said he needed time to decide whether to dismiss the treason charge and consider other preliminary issues that had been raised by the defence.</p>
<p>“The issues involved are many and complex and therefore I cannot hurriedly make a ruling. I will adjourn the matter to Wednesday, 26th April for ruling on the preliminary issues raised,” Malumani said.</p>
<p>Hichilema has been charged with plotting with other people between October 10 of last year and April 8 to overthrow the government. The arrest has raised political tension in Zambia, Africa&#8217;s second-biggest copper producer.</p>
<p>The Southern African country has traditionally been relatively stable but relations between the government and opposition have been fraught since last August, when President Edgar Lungu&#8217;s Patriotic Front (PF) party beat the UPND in a presidential election marred by violence.</p>
<p>The opposition says the vote was rigged but Hichilema has so far failed in his legal challenge against the result.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by Tom Heneghan)</p>


Zambia court to rule on opposition leader’s treason case next week

<p>Nelson Banya | <span class="articleLocation">HARARE</span></p>
<p>Two of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe&#8217;s chief rivals said on Wednesday they were allying to deny the 93-year-old another term in office.</p>
<p>Morgan Tsvangirai, 65, who was Zimbabwe&#8217;s prime minister in an uneasy coalition government with Mugabe from 2009 until 2013, said he and Joice Mujuru, who was Mugabe&#8217;s vice president for a decade until she was fired in 2014, would seek to form a coalition government to bring political change.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;This is just the beginning of the building blocks towards establishing a broad alliance to confront ZANU PF between now and the next election in 2018,&#8221; Tsvangirai said, referring to the party led by Africa&#8217;s oldest leader.</p></blockquote>
<p>Mugabe, one of the last of the generation of African nationalists that sough the overthrow of white colonialists, has run Zimbabwe since 1980. He was first prime minister then, in 1987, became president.</p>
<p>In December his ZANU PF party confirmed him as its candidate for the next presidential election expected in mid-2018, when he will be 94.</p>
<p>Tsvangirai, a three time loser to Mugabe, said he expected similar deals to the one with Mujuru would be struck with other political groups.</p>
<p>Tsvangirai, who lost the 2013 presidential vote against Mugabe, is now leading MDC-T, a faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, that was formed after the party was weakened by splits over how to confront Mugabe.</p>
<p>The MDC, evicted from the unity government after its crushing defeat in the 2013 election, has been split over whether to dump Tsvangirai before the next vote in 2018.</p>
<p>Mujuru, who formed a new National People&#8217;s Party in March last year, said the two parties had worked on the agreement for the last six months and would now start negotiating specific details to strengthen their alliance.</p>
<p>Critics accuse Mugabe of wrecking one of Africa&#8217;s most promising economies through policies such as violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms and money printing. He and his party say the economy has been undermined by western powers.</p>
<p>The turmoil within the opposition has been a boost for Mugabe, whose party has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 amid charges of rigging recent elections. Mugabe has rejected the claims.</p>
<p>The southern African nation&#8217;s economy stagnated last year following a devastating drought while its budget deficit exploded as Mugabe&#8217;s administration struggled to pay its workers, which helped fan anti-government protests.</p>
<p>(Writing by James Macharia Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)</p>


Zimbabwean opposition leaders ally to challenge Mugabe

<p>South Africa&#8217;s top court said on Tuesday it will consider whether a motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma should be taken by secret ballot.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>The rand extended its gains to 1 percent against the dollar after the announcement, and opposition parties said there could be a better chance that the motion, when taken, would succeed, if it was held by secret ballot.</p>
<p>The ruling African National Congress party, which has a majority in parliament, has said it will vote against the motion, which is due on April 18. A secret ballot, however, would allow for anonymous dissent.</p>
<p>Zuma, 74, has survived four previous no confidence votes. But opponents, led by the main opposition party Democratic Alliance, believe a recent cabinet reshuffle that led to the dismissal of respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan may have angered enough ANC members to desert Zuma.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;We only need 65 to 70 people from the ANC, and the secret ballot can deliver the votes to remove Zuma,&#8221; Bantu Holomisa, head of the smaller United Democratic Movement (UDM), which is also backing the no-confidence vote against Zuma, said.</p></blockquote>
<p>He earlier posted a court document on his Twitter feed showing the chief justice of the Constitutional Court had given the go-ahead for the parties in the case to give their written submissions by April 21 &#8211; days after the no-confidence vote is scheduled to take place.</p>
<p>&#8220;The debate on the no-confidence motion against Zuma will have to be postponed, we have written to the Speaker of parliament to pushed it back,&#8221; Holomisa told Reuters. &#8220;In the event that the Speaker fails to do so, we will seek a court order blocking the debate from going ahead.&#8221;</p>
<p>The National Assembly is listed as a respondent in the case.</p>
<p>The ANC Chief Whip&#8217;s office has rejected calls for a secret ballot for the no-confidence motion.</p>
<p>(Reporting by James Macharia Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


S.Africa’s top court to hear on secret no-confidence ballot on Zuma

<p>Somali lawmakers gathered behind the blast walls of the capital&#8217;s airport on Wednesday to elect their president, after months of delays and threats from Islamist insurgents bent on derailing the process.</p>
<p>The protracted vote began with 14,000 elders and prominent regional figures choosing 275 members of parliament and 54 senators, who in turn now choose whether to back President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud for a second term or one of 21 rivals.</p>
<p>The presidential vote, which was originally slated for August, is likely to take several rounds before a winner is declared. Live television images showed legislators in a hall preparing for the election.</p>
<p>President Mohamud, who has led the country since 2012 as it tries to rebuild after more than two decades of war and chaos, has the support of about a third of lawmakers, experts say, giving him an edge but not a guarantee of victory.</p>
<p>The threat from Islamist al Shabaab rebels, who regularly launch attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere, meant the government and its Western backers scrapped a plan to give each adult a vote due to the challenge of securing polling stations.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have tightened security and have confidence the new lawmakers will elect or re-elect a candidate they believe can save Somalia,&#8221; Major Hussein Nur, a police officer, said.</p>
<p>Several blasts, probably from mortar bombs, echoed across the seaside capital Mogadishu late on Tuesday. But there were no reports of casualties in the city, which had been subject to a security lock-down in the build up to the vote.</p>
<p>Earlier on Wednesday, gunmen stormed a hotel in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, further north up the coast, killing four guards. Al Shabaab denied it had a role.</p>
<p>Rival presidential candidates have accused each other of buying the loyalty of lawmakers, drawing furious denials. Anti-corruption group Marqaati says tens of thousands of dollars have been handed to individuals to secure support in the vote.</p>
<p>Western donors, who have often criticised President Mohamud&#8217;s government for corruption, say the vote is far from perfect but say it marks a modest step forward from 2012 when just 135 elders picked the lawmakers, who chose the president.</p>
<p>The airport, where the vote is taking place, is guarded by the African Union peacekeeping force AMISOM and is surrounded by high concrete barriers to protect it from attack. U.N. agencies and foreign embassies are located in the compound.</p>
<p>Al Shabaab, which had ruled Somalia for several years, has been slowly driven out of its major strongholds in a campaign by AMISOM and Somali troops. But its fighters continue to launch regular gun and bomb attacks in their bid to topple the government and impose their strict interpretation of Islam.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Somali lawmakers gather to vote for president

<p>Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos will not run in this year&#8217;s presidential election, he said on Friday, calling an end his 38 years in power.</p>
<p>Defence Minister Joao Lourenco will be the presidential candidate for the ruling People&#8217;s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in elections planned in August, dos Santos said. Dos Santos will remain president of the MPLA.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Angola's dos Santos will not run in 2017 presidential election

<p>A new party founded by Zimbabwe&#8217;s former vice president Joice Mujuru suffered a crushing defeat in its first ever election contest again President Robert Mugabe&#8217;s ruling ZANU-PF, showing the task she faces in her bid to challenge her ally-turned-adversary.</p>
<p>ZANU-PF retained the rural Bikita West parliamentary constituency in Saturday&#8217;s by-election after its candidate polled 13,156 votes against 2,453 votes for Mujuru&#8217;s Zimbabwe People First, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said on Sunday.</p>
<p>Mujuru, Mugabe&#8217;s deputy for 10 years, was seen as the most likely successor to the 92-year-old leader until she was purged from the ruling party in 2014 after charges she was plotting against Africa&#8217;s oldest leader. Mujuru denies the charges.</p>
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<p>Mugabe has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980. He turns 93 on Feb. 21 and has been confirmed as the ZANU-PF presidential candidate for the vote which is due in 2018.</p>
<p>Last year Mujuru formed her own political party to challenge Mugabe, raising hopes that a politician who had liberation war credentials and enjoyed the support of some military generals could successfully challenge Mugabe.</p>
<p>The poor showing in Bikita West, which was marked by high voter turnout, comes at a time Mujuru is negotiation with the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on a coalition pact to take on Mugabe in next year&#8217;s election.</p>
<p>The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai did not contest Saturday&#8217;s vote in keeping with its decision to boycott all elections because it argues the election environment favours the ruling party.</p>
<p>ZANU-PF is the dominant party in parliament where it has 221 out of 270 seats in the lower house.</p>
<p>Mujuru could not be reached for comment on Sunday. Her spokesman Jealousy Mawarire said he could not immediately comment.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Former Zimbabwe VP's party suffers defeat in first election

<p>Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta approved a law on Monday requiring back up plans for an August election if electronic voting systems fail, despite fierce opposition from rivals who say any manual arrangements will open the ballot to rigging.</p>
<p>Veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga disputed the result of the 2013 race, which he lost to Kenyatta after electronic voter identification and other election systems collapsed. He has led opposition to the new law.</p>
<p>The build-up to the 2017 vote has already been marred by protests and clashes with police that led to at least four deaths. Last year&#8217;s demonstrations were sparked by a row over who sat on a committee overseeing the conduct of the election. The government agreed to replace the commissioners in a deal with the opposition.</p>
<p>Odinga has tried and failed to win the presidency in three previous elections, including in 2013 and 2007 when Odinga said the poll was rigged and about 1,200 people were killed in ethnic fuelled violence.</p>
<p>The presidential office said in a statement that Kenyatta had &#8220;assented to the Elections Laws (Amendment) Bill 2016 that allows a back-up mechanism to the electronic voting method.&#8221;</p>
<p>This allows the electoral oversight committee to put in place &#8220;a complementary mechanism for identification of voters and transmission of elections results&#8221; if electronic voting fails.</p>
<p>It did not specifically mention a &#8220;manual&#8221; system, but the statement said any complementary arrangement had to be &#8220;simple, accurate, verifiable, secure, accountable and transparent.&#8221;</p>
<p>The opposition has said the use of manual systems in past votes was used to rig voting lists and other aspects of elections. It has warned of &#8220;mass action&#8221; if a manual system is used again, without specifying what that would entail.</p>
<p>Opposition politicians have planned a meeting on Wednesday to discuss what steps to take over the law.</p>
<p>The government has promised a free and fair vote, and has dismissed charges of abuses in previous votes.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Kenyan president signs election amendments law despite rigging fears

<p>Almost 300 members of Somalia&#8217;s federal parliament were sworn in on Tuesday, although parliament&#8217;s election of a new president to head the government was postponed.</p>
<p>The ceremony at least gives the chronically unstable Horn of Africa country a quorate assembly, four weeks after the conclusion of a month-long election conducted among 14,000 representative citizens.</p>
<p>The lawmakers were supposed to pick a new president on Wednesday, but the electoral commission said on Tuesday that the vote had been postponed to an as yet unspecified date.</p>
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<p>&#8220;As you witnessed, 243 lawmakers and 38 upper house members have been sworn in,&#8221; Abdikarim haji Abdi, the chief secretary of Somalia’s federal parliament, told reporters at a police training camp in the capital Mogadishu, where the ceremony took place.</p>
<p>This left 32 members of the lower house still to be sworn in, because their elections either had not yet taken place or were disputed. In addition, 34 new seats in the upper house were only created by the electoral committee last week for the six federal states, in order to resolve a disagreement.</p>
<p>Once all the remaining seats are filled, the parliament will have a total complement of 347 legislators. However, the 281 already sworn-in are enough to be able to elect a president.</p>
<p>Plagued by Islamist militancy, famine and maritime piracy, Somalia has been at war for more than a quarter of a century, but diplomats and some citizens hope the current political process will help bring some stability.</p>
<p>Legislator Khalif Sheikh Abdullahi told Reuters before the swearing-in ceremony that the oldest MP would temporarily act as House speaker, in line with the constitution, until a full-time speaker was elected.</p>
<p>Somalia&#8217;s weak U.N.-backed government is dependent on foreign funds to pay the fledgling armed forces and a contingent of 22,000 African Union peacekeepers.</p>
<p>The outgoing parliament, elected in 2012, was picked by 135 elders. The government said threats from the al Qaeda-linked insurgents of al Shabaab made a one-person, one-vote election this year impossible, but that the choice of 14,000 representative electors did constitute progress towards democracy.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Somalia swears in federal lawmakers who will pick future president

<p>KINSHASA &#8211; Congolese politicians have agreed in principle to a deal under which President Joseph Kabila leaves office by the end of 2017, opposition leaders said on Friday, an unexpected breakthrough after dozens were killed in anti-government protests this week.</p>
<p>If the deal does succeed, it would be a major achievement for the Catholic church, which has been mediating talks in an attempt to prevent Democratic Republic of Congo sliding back into years of anarchy and civil war.</p>
<p>Pope Francis has heaped pressured on Kabila and the opposition to find a peacefulsolutionto the crisis in Congo.</p>
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<p>&#8220;At first glance, a miracle is possible and the bishops have won their bet,&#8221; Albert Moleka, former chief of staff to the leader of the main opposition bloc Etienne Tshisekedi, said.</p>
<p>    A government spokesman said the proposal would be presented to the full delegation at the talks on Friday afternoon, but he declined to comment on the specifics of the deal.</p>
<p>In return for Kabila staying on for another year, the constitution will not be changed to let him stand for a third term, a prime minister will be named from the main opposition bloc and Tshisekedi will oversee the deal&#8217;s implementation, opposition leaders Martin Fayulu and Jose Endundo told Reuters.</p>
<p>&#8220;Kabila stays for one year,&#8221; Fayulu said. &#8220;He will not try to stand for a new term.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, Kabila himself has so far said nothing and the parties have yet to sign the deal, which requires final approval by all delegates at the talks.</p>
<p>The negotiations could still be tough, with the opposition insisting on Friday that Kabila step down in time for elections to take place no later than November 2017.</p>
<p>Church leaders have presented these talks as a last ditch effort to prevent violence spinning out of control after a bloody week that saw protesters killed and deadly clashes between various ethnic militia across the country.</p>
<p>BLOODY PROTESTS</p>
<p>The head of the U.N. human rights agency said on Friday that Congolesesecurityforces had killed at least 40 people and arrested 460 in protests this week.</p>
<p>The violence has raised fears Congo is heading toward another major armed conflict, a risk that has prompted several donor nations to condemn Kabila for failing to stand down.</p>
<p>Millions were killed in wars between 1996 and 2003.</p>
<p>&#8220;Most of &#8230; (Kabila&#8217;s coalition) would welcome this (deal) because they’re under so much pressure,&#8221; said Pascal Kambale, a Congolese human rights lawyer working for the Open Society Foundations.</p>
<p>But Jean Marc Kabund, the secretary general of Congo&#8217;s largest opposition party, the UDPS, warned that the deal was not yet a sure thing.</p>
<p>&#8220;Today is the last day (of negotiations),&#8221; he told Reuters. &#8220;It&#8217;s make it or break it.&#8221;</p>
<div class="related-content group-one">A presidential election scheduled for last month had been postponed until at least April 2018 because of what the government said were delays registering voters. This deal would mean it must happen by the end of next year.</div>
<p>Kabila has declined to commit publicly to not changing the constitution to extend his term, leading many to conclude that this is what he secretly wants to do.</p>
<p>His allies have argued that he is committed to respecting the constitution but that promising to step down would make him a lame duck and possibly spark apowerstruggle that could put his life in danger.</p>
<p>His father, President Laurent Kabila, was assassinated by a bodyguard in 2001 and Congo has never had a peaceful transition of power.</p>
<p>It was not immediately clear how the wider population would react to an agreement. On Twitter, a leader of the youth activist group Filimbi, Floribert Anzuluni, said it constituted &#8220;high treason by everyone&#8221;.</p>
<p>However, many in the capital Kinshasa, who spoke to Reuters after the protests subsided, said they were tired of the violence and hoped for a negotiated settlement.</p>
<p>(Editing by Tim Cocks and Louise Ireland/Richard Balmforth)﻿</p>


Congo agrees to deal for Kabila to step down

<p>MASVINGO, Zimbabwe(Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was confirmed on Saturday as his party&#8217;s sole candidate for the next presidential election in 2018, when he will be 94.</p>
<p>Supporters at a party conference sang a song titled &#8220;Mugabe should rule until eternity&#8221; as the veteran leader rose to give a speech in which he called for an end to infighting within the ruling ZANU-PF over his eventual successor.</p>
<p>&#8220;We came with our problems, which we heard. We also came knowing we had differences. We agreed our differences should end and fighting should stop,&#8221; said Mugabe, who has faced unprecedented protests this year.</p>
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<p>Mugabe, the only ruler that the southern African nation has known since independence from Britain in 1980, has come under pressure from a deteriorating economy, corruption and cash shortages that have seen the central bank introducing a new &#8220;bond note&#8221; currency in November.</p>
<p>In July, he was deserted by some of his once stalwart supporters, war veterans that have backed him in previous elections.</p>
<p>Still, Mugabe retains unrivalled support in ZANU-PF, which is grappling with factional fights as party officials manoeuvre for advantage in a post-Mugabe era.</p>
<p>ZANU-PF&#8217;s various entities, including the youth and women&#8217;s wings, confirmed him as the sole candidate to contest the 2018 election at the end of a two-day conference on Saturday, which was held in Masvingo town, 300 km (186 miles) south of the capital, Harare.</p>
<p>That means potential successors who wish to challenge Mugabe for the leadership of the party would have to wait for the 2019 party congress when ZANU-PF chooses its leaders.</p>
<p>There are two camps vying to succeed Mugabe, with one with faction supporting Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa while another backs first lady Grace Mugabe.</p>
<p>In one of its resolutions, the ZANU-PF Youth League said presidential term limits should be abolished and Mugabe should be declared life president.</p>
<p>Under the constitution adopted in 2013, Mugabe can only serve one final term.</p>
<p>Political analysts say Mugabe runs an effective patronage system that rewards supporters and punishes those who seek to challenge his rule, as happened to his former vice president of 10 years Joice Mujuru in 2014.</p>
<p>(Editing by Helen Popper)﻿﻿</p>
<p> </p>
<p>﻿</p>
<p> </p>


"Zimbabwe's Mugabe should rule until eternity", sing supporters

<p>KINSHASA (Reuters) &#8211; ﻿﻿Democratic Republic of Congo&#8217;s main opposition bloc said on Saturday it was not planning a march against President Joseph Kabila when his mandate expires on Monday, a decision that could defuse anticipated protests.</p>
<p>The opposition accuses Kabila of trying to cling to power, and the decision not to stage a mass protest was announced hours after talks between the opposition and ruling coalition failed to reach a compromise on Kabila&#8217;s political future.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are not going to have a march to give these bandits the opportunity to fire on the population,&#8221; opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi told Reuters. He said he expected people to remain vigilant and protest &#8220;each in his own way&#8221;.</p>
<p>However, it is not clear how much influence a largely discredited political opposition holds over an angry and impoverished population and authorities were bracing for unrest.</p>
<p>Kabila, who has ruled since 2001, is barred by the constitution from standing in the next election, which was originally scheduled for last month.</p>
<p>The government says it cannot organise a presidential vote until 2018 and the constitutional court ruled in May he can stay on until then.</p>
<p>Delegates at the political talks said they would resume on Wednesday once the Catholic bishops mediating the negotiations have returned from a trip to Rome to meet Pope Francis.</p>
<p>In a statement, the opposition said differences remained over how the country would be governed after Monday and whether Kabila would commit to not changing the constitution to seek a third term.   ﻿</p>
<p>Kabila says he is committed to respecting the constitution but has refused to promise not to change it. The presidents of neighbouring Rwanda and Congo Republic changed their constitutions last year to allow themselves to stand for third terms.</p>
<p>While Tshisekedi said the talks had &#8220;failed&#8221;, another opposition leader, Joseph Olengankhoy said they had made &#8220;significant progress&#8221;.</p>
<p>Government spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters he was confident the two sides would reach a compromise after the bishops met in recent days with Kabila and the main opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi.</p>
<p>Mende said authorities had taken measures to prevent violence on Monday. Police in Kinshasa have set up checkpoints to search cars and the government has asked telecoms companies to cut most social media services from Monday.</p>
<p>Congo has not seen a peaceful transfer of power since independence in 1960 and world powers fear protests, particularly in the sprawling capital of Kinshasa, could spark violence in the chronically unstable central African giant.</p>
<p>(Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Helen Popper)﻿﻿</p>
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Kabila's political future still uncertain on final day in office

<p>The United States said on Monday Gambia had reached &#8220;a very dangerous moment&#8221; as West African leaders prepared to travel there to tell long-ruling leader Yahya Jammeh to accept his election defeat and step down.</p>
<p>Jammeh had quickly conceded defeat to Adama Barrow, his challenger in the Dec. 1 presidential election. But in a volte-face that drew international condemnation he rejected the poll results on Friday.</p>
<p>His ruling party said he would challenge the election outcome at the Supreme Court, raising the prospect that Barrow&#8217;s victory, which was poised to end 22 years of Jammeh&#8217;s authoritarian rule, could be overturned.</p>
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<div class="teads-player" id="teads1">&#8220;It is a very dangerous moment,&#8221; Samantha Power, U.S. ambassdor to the United Nations, told reporters following a closed-door briefing of the 15-member Security Council on the situation in the tiny riverside nation.</div>
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<p>She said some military officers had sided with Jammeh following his shock reversal. But she added that the Council was unified in its condemnation of the former coup leader&#8217;s actions.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everybody is singing from the same sheet of music and the song is clear: you have lost the election, President Jammeh, and you must give up power peacefully,&#8221; Power said.</p>
<p>Liberia&#8217;s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel peace laureate and current chair of the West African regional body ECOWAS, is due to travel to Gambia on Tuesday.</p>
<p>She will head a delegation of West African heads of state including Nigeria&#8217;s Muhammadu Buhari, John Mahama of Ghana and Sierra Leone&#8217;s Ernest Bai Koroma.</p>
<p>&#8220;These heads of state will ask him to leave power,&#8221; the foreign ministry of Gambia&#8217;s neighbour, Senegal, which has taken a particularly aggressive stance towards Jammeh, said in a statement. It called the trip &#8220;a last chance mission&#8221; for Gambia&#8217;s president.</p>
<p>The United States, European Union, African Union, United Nations and ECOWAS have all pressed Jammeh to respect the election result.</p>
<p>Gambia&#8217;s Communications Minister Sheriff Bojang was not reachable for comment on Monday.</p>
<p><strong>&#8220;WE WANT PEACE&#8221;</strong></p>
<p>Barrow told Reuters in the capital Banjul that he expected Johnson Sirleaf&#8217;s delegation to ensure an &#8220;expedited transitional period&#8221; that would pave the way for a transfer of power.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are not talking about a military option. We want to safeguard our democracy and we want peace,&#8221; he said, but added that he was concerned for his own safety.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have no official security. As president-elect, I should not be exposed in the way I am today,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Barrow said he had not had any communication with Jammeh&#8217;s government since the president&#8217;s televised announcement on Friday. Unarmed supporters surround his residence in the capital Banjul as protection and move with him when he leaves his home.</p>
<p>Jammeh seized power in a coup in 1994 when he was an army lieutenant and went on to win four elections that were criticised by rights monitors. International human rights groups accuse him of widespread violations and repression.</p>
<p>He declared Gambia an Islamic Republic last year and in October announced its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.</p>
<p>Rights groups say Jammeh exerts strong influence over the Supreme Court, which has not held session in a year and a half. There is currently only a sitting chief justice. And so in order to hear Jammeh&#8217;s complaint, legal experts believe at least four more judges must be appointed.</p>
<p>Gambia&#8217;s bar association on Monday rejected the prospect of a Supreme Court staffed with new appointees to hear Jammeh&#8217;s challenge and called on its members to boycott the country&#8217;s courts until he hands over power to president-elect Barrow.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the present circumstances, any Supreme Court empanelled by the outgoing President Jammeh for the purpose of hearing his election petition would be fundamentally tainted,&#8221; it said.﻿</p>
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U.S. labels Gambia crisis "very dangerous"

<p>Ghana&#8217;s main opposition leader, Nana Akufo-Addo, has won the country&#8217;s presidential election with an absolute majority over President John Mahama, the private radio stations Joy FM and Citi FM said on Friday.</p>
<p>The two respected news stations based their projections on results from Wednesday&#8217;s election announced at the constituency level. The electoral commission is set to begin releasing results on Friday.</p>
<p>Joy FM&#8217;s website showed Akufo-Addo winning with 53 percent of the vote with Mahama on 45.15 percent, based on a count of 217 constituencies out of 275 in total. Citi FM gave Akufo-Addo 54.8 percent based on 190 constituencies.</p>
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<p>Akufo-Addo, 72, served as attorney general and then as foreign minister in the New Patriotic Party government, which held power for eight years starting in 2001. It is his third time running for president on the party ticket.</p>
<p>Mahama fought the election against the backdrop of an economy that has slowed since he took power in 2013, in part because of lower global prices for the West African country&#8217;s exports of gold, oil and cocoa.</p>
<p>Ghana&#8217;s two strong parties regularly hold peaceful and highly competitive elections. Twice since 2000, the government of the day has been overturned.﻿</p>
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Ghana opposition leader wins presidential election – media reports

<p>Long queues formed at voting stations in Ghana on Wednesday as President John Mahama ran for a second and final term against a backdrop of an economy that has slowed sharply since he took power.</p>
<p>There have been few opinion polls but most political analysts say the vote could be close, with a strong challenge from opposition leader and former foreign minister Nana Akufo-Addo.</p>
<p>Ghana is held up a beacon of democracy in West Africa with a track record of peaceful elections. Twice since 2000 voters have rejected the government of the day.</p>
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<p>Some voters queued overnight to cast their ballots in a show of enthusiasm for a hotly-contested vote.</p>
<p>&#8220;I needed to register the strong feeling I have about this country with my thumb and the least I could do was to sacrifice sleep,&#8221; said Comfort Laryea, 78, who waited to vote since 4 a.m. (0400 GMT) in the Teshie suburb of the capital. She declined to say who she would vote for.</p>
<p>For years, Ghana had one of Africa&#8217;s most dynamic economies but it hit the buffers in 2014 due to lower global prices for its gold, oil and cocoa exports and a fiscal crisis that featured a spike in the budget deficit and elevated inflation.</p>
<p>The currency also halved in value since 2014, though it has largely stabilized this year. The government is mid-way through a $918 million International Monetary Fund programme to restore economic stability.</p>
<p>The ruling National Democratic Congress argues that, despite the difficulties, Ghana is poised for a return to growth above 8 percent and it has improved roads, schools and hospitals.</p>
<p>The opposition New Patriotic Party says the government has mismanaged the economy and squandered the country&#8217;s resources causing hardship and a rise in unemployment.</p>
<p>Security forces have deployed in strength and political parties who have sent thousands of agents to the country&#8217;s 29,000 polling stations to spot any irregularities.</p>
<p>The opposition challenged the 2012 election result leading to an eight-month Supreme Court case most said reinforced the country&#8217;s democracy.</p>
<p>The opposition says it has little faith in the electoral commission and its first-time commissioner Charlotte Osei.</p>
<p>There are 15.7 million registered voters in the country of 26 million and 275 parliamentary seats are also being contested. Five other candidates are also contesting the presidency, though they are considered to have little chance of victory.﻿</p>
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Voting begins in Ghana's election as Mahama runs for second term

<p>A Gambian court freed a prominent lawyer and 18 other political prisoners on bail on Monday pending an appeal of their jail sentence for &#8220;unlawful assembly&#8221;, in a sign that President Yahya Jammeh&#8217;s shock election defeat last week could end years of repression.</p>
<p>A Reuters witness was present for the decision to release Ousainou Darboe along with other senior members of the United Democratic Party (UDP), who had been jailed for three years in July for taking part in a small protest near the capital Banjul.</p>
<p>Darboe appeared thin in a long blue robe but grinned broadly as he hugged family members and friends in the courtroom. He was greeted by cheers and cries of &#8220;A new Gambia!&#8221; as riot police attempted to control a large crowd of supporters outside.</p>
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<p>Jammeh ruled Gambia for 22 years with and iron fist and little tolerance of dissent. Rights groups say the government routinely imprisoned and tortured political opponents.</p>
<p>But his ouster at the ballot box, and his shock acceptance of his defeat despite previously saying he would rule for &#8220;a billion years&#8221;, has raised hopes that democracy is dawning in the tiny, riverside West African nation of 1.8 million people.</p>
<p>The election results gave Adama Barrow, a real estate developer who once worked as a security guard at retailer Argos in London, a clear win over Jammeh.</p>
<p>Barrow has said he will free political prisoners.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is finally time for the families of those people wrongly detained to be reunited with their loved ones,&#8221; Amnesty International&#8217;s Steve Cockburn said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Adama Barrow has promised to release all political prisoners and he should ensure this goes beyond opposition figures and includes everyone jailed simply for expressing their views,&#8221; he added.﻿</p>
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Election

Deputy President Ramaphosa says South Africa must avoid “mafia state” fate

Kenya’s president warns against violence during party nominations

Zambia court to rule on opposition leader’s treason case next week

Zimbabwean opposition leaders ally to challenge Mugabe

S.Africa’s top court to hear on secret no-confidence ballot on Zuma

Somali lawmakers gather to vote for president

Angola's dos Santos will not run in 2017 presidential election

Former Zimbabwe VP's party suffers defeat in first election

Kenyan president signs election amendments law despite rigging fears

Somalia swears in federal lawmakers who will pick future president

Congo agrees to deal for Kabila to step down

"Zimbabwe's Mugabe should rule until eternity", sing supporters

Kabila's political future still uncertain on final day in office

U.S. labels Gambia crisis "very dangerous"

Ghana opposition leader wins presidential election – media reports

Voting begins in Ghana's election as Mahama runs for second term

Gambia court frees prominent lawyer

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Election

Deputy President Ramaphosa says South Africa must avoid “mafia state” fate

Kenya’s president warns against violence during party nominations

Zambia court to rule on opposition leader’s treason case next week

Zimbabwean opposition leaders ally to challenge Mugabe

S.Africa’s top court to hear on secret no-confidence ballot on Zuma

Somali lawmakers gather to vote for president

Angola's dos Santos will not run in 2017 presidential election

Former Zimbabwe VP's party suffers defeat in first election

Kenyan president signs election amendments law despite rigging fears

Somalia swears in federal lawmakers who will pick future president

Congo agrees to deal for Kabila to step down

"Zimbabwe's Mugabe should rule until eternity", sing supporters

Kabila's political future still uncertain on final day in office

U.S. labels Gambia crisis "very dangerous"

Ghana opposition leader wins presidential election – media reports

Voting begins in Ghana's election as Mahama runs for second term

Gambia court frees prominent lawyer

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