ARIWO !

Opposition candidates appeal presidential election results in Benin

March 26, 2011

COTONOU, March 26, 2011 (AFP) – The main challengers in Benin’s disputed presidential vote have filed appeals over results showing incumbent Boni Yayi won with 53 percent, the constitutional court said Saturday. Tension has risen in the small west African country since the vote, with police firing tear gas to disperse opposition protesters in the economic capital Cotonou on Thursday. ”We have received a total of eight appeals, including three from citizens and five from candidates who competed in the presidential elections,” Sylvain Nouwatin, secretary general of the constitutional court, told AFP. The deadline to file appeals expired late Friday. The five candidates to appeal include Yayi — arguing that his victory margin was greater — as well as his main challenger Adrien Houngbedji, who has dismissed the results showing he had 36 percent and claimed victory for himself.

Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, who had been seen as a third major candidate but finished far behind with six percent, also filed an appeal. Both Houngbedji and Bio Tchane allege that Yayi benefited from illegal voting stations. They have already alleged fraud in the March 13 ballot, which had previously been postponed twice because preparations were not complete. ”More than 140,000 votes were credited to candidate Boni Yayi through these fraudulent practices,” Houngbedji told AFP on Saturday of the alleged illegal voting stations. Bio Tchane’s campaign has made similar allegations in its appeal, his spokesman Raymond Dossa said. He cited dozens of alleged examples from the country’s north, where Yayi is from. The court now has 10 days to rule on the appeals. A new president is due to be sworn in on April 6. UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s special representative for west Africa, Said Djinnit, expressed concern over the post-electoral situation on Friday….

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Benin police end protest with teargas

March 25 2011 at 12:21am

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cotonou - Benin authorities on Thursday fired teargas to disperse youths protesting against the re-election of President Boni Yayi in recent polls after they refused to clear roadways, police said.

“We could not accept that their presence in the roads obstruct others' freedom,” national police chief Anki Dosso Maiga told reporters.

“After having asked them in vain to leave the area, we fired teargas to disperse them.”

Several hundred youths gathered at two locations in the economic capital Cotonou in support of opposition candidate Adrien Houngbedji, who has claimed he won the March 13 election and alleged fraud in the ballot.

Tyres were burnt in the roadway and protesters held signs labelling Yayi a “thief”. Teargas was fired at both locations, police said.

Benin's constitutional court announced early on Monday that it had approved results showing Yayi had won the vote in the first round with 53 percent, compared to Houngbedji's 36 percent.

Houngbedji immediately rejected the results, claimed victory for himself and alleged widespread fraud in the ballot.

Candidates were given five days to file appeals with the court over the results. Sylvain Nouwatin, the court's secretary-general, said Thursday that four appeals had been filed, though not in the name of any of the candidates.

Voting day passed calmly despite chaotic preparations that had caused two earlier postponements of the ballot.

The first-time use of an electronic voter register had led to opposition allegations that more than a million people had been left off it - a figure others said was exaggerated.

A mop-up voter registration was to be held on Wednesday and Thursday before the election, but was extended into Saturday when crowds mobbed sign-up centres and equipment broke down.

Other issues had also led to the two earlier poll delays, including failure to distribute electoral cards on time and designate and train polling station agents.

A string of protests involving several hundred people took place over the electoral roll controversy in the run-up to the vote, and authorities fired teargas to break up another demonstration last month.

Houngbedji, 69, and running in his fifth presidential election, had pushed for a third postponement of the ballot, arguing that voter registration should continue.

Yayi, a 58-year-old economist, was seen as a symbol of change when he took office in 2006 in the country, which is dependent on cotton cultivation and its port, but has since been weighed down by corruption scandals.

Houngbedji was supported by many of the country's traditional political elites.

Sapa-AFP

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Nicephore Soglo, Former President of Republic of Benin, Responds to the Recent Statement of Goodluck Jonathan in Cotonou

In the context of good neighbourly relations between states that share common borders like Nigeria and Benin, it is normal that exchanges and visits at high level take place regularly. This is also a good sign of the excellence of secular, historical, cultural, social and economic relations forged by the peoples of Nigeria and Benin as well as their leaders, during their common history.
I would have liked to believe that the brief visit in Benin Friday, March 18, 2011, by the Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Goodluck Jonathan was part of that framework, but for his astonishing statement that strongly stroke the national opinion and the political class.  I quote:
"I congratulate the people of Benin for the presidential election held without violence and would like to invite candidates and voters to accept the election results, and avoid violence and war. Nigeria will not accept violence or war at its doorstep. "
Unquote
In this very sensitive period where the people of Benin is facing enormous difficulties before, during and after the presidential election on March 13, 2011, this injunction to politicians and voters and, as a hole, to the people of Benin, is unacceptable.
Benin is admittedly a small country, but it is a great nation, proud of its history and its independence.
If the Head of State of Nigeria during his visit on March 18, 2011 had sought to hear the different actors of the Beninese political scene, starting with the former Heads of State and to provide advice to each other in order to avoid a looming crisis, his mission would have been highly appreciated by all the people of Benin. He would not only have acted as a friend and neighbour, but would certainly have accomplished a useful and preventive work, especially in his capacity as a regional leader and current Chairman of ECOWAS.
It is unfortunate that this injunction was made in the presence of the Head of State of Benin guarantor of its dignity and integrity. The Republic of Benin is a member of ECOWAS, the AU, as well as the UN and other international organizations.
As a former Chairman of ECOWAS who while in office, contributed to the settlement of the fratricidal war in Liberia, I would have hoped that His Excellency Mr. Goodluck Jonathan had not had to take sides in the current political situation in Benin .
It is as though, not content to use the influence conferred upon them by the demographic and economic weight of their countries, the French President, British Prime Minister or the Chancellor of Germany, intervened in the internal life of The Holland, The Kingdom of Belgium and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Can one ever imagine in the United States of America, the Government of New York state summoning the state of Massachusetts or the Connecticut ; or the state of California summoning any of the states of Nevada, Arizona ; or the state of Texas summoning those of Louisiana or Arkansas. ?
The European Union and the American Federation would not survive.
Our dream is that as soon as possible, ECOWAS become a federation such as Brazil that it surpasses in terms of population, and assume a major role in the political, economic, international fields.
Thank you.
Mr. Dieudonné Nicephorus SOGLO
Former President of the Republic of Benin,
Former Chairman of ECOWAS
Vice-President of the African Forum
former Heads of State and Government

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Open Letter to Mister Goodluck Ebele Jonathan By a Citizen of Benin, and a Friend of Nigeria

Dear President,

I am a citizen of Republic of Benin, residing and working in France. I am writing to you as the chairman of the Association “ Les Amis du Nigeria” which aims at reinforcing friendship and brotherhood between the citizens of our two sister nations.

It has come to my hears that the very day when Mister Yayi Boni was unduly making announce of the results of the ongoing election in my country, the Republic of Benin, your Excellency was invited in Cotonou, in what appears as a technical but a political visit. That visit may have been scheduled since a long time. But I would like to point out the fact that the moment of its occurrence was not chosen at random. It appears to be a maneuver of Mister Yayi Boni intended to use your arrival in Benin, as President of Nigerian and current Chairman of ECOWAS, to proclaim international support to his dishonest election rigging operation. This is quite regrettable. Because, in some way, your arrival in Cotonou on invitation of Mister Yayi Boni on the 17 th of march 2011 is supposed to mean that not only you as a person but the government and the whole people of Nigeria that you represent lend their support to Mister Yayi Boni in his ongoing elections rigging operation.

As a citizen of Benin and a passionate friend of Nigeria, I would like to point out that are our two countries are sister nations bound by geographical and historical links. That Democracy should be the only way to rule our nations toward progress and prosperity. Mister Yayi Boni, the current President of Benin, although, in minority in the present election, is unduly trying to claim victory. This is the ultimate truth of your invitation in Benin, which aimed at using your arrival as an implicit international support to Mister Yayi Boni.

Dear President, your Excellency, may I remind you that ever since elections have been taking place in Benin, in 50 years time, no President has ever claimed victory in the first round of election. May you realize that you have been induced in a situation which is likely to tarnish your image and eventually affect the good relationships between Nigeria and Republic of Benin. May you, as President of the Republic of Nigeria stay off the crooked operation of election rigging conducted in a Machiavellian way by Mister Yayi Boni.

May God Bless your effort to lead Nigeria toward the betterment of the condition of its people !

Thank you

Binason Avèkes

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Ex-dictator calls for calm in upcoming presidential elections in Benin

COTONOU, March 9, 2011 (AFP) – Benin’s former dictator Mathieu Kerekou has urged candidates in Sunday’s presidential ballot to ensure a calm vote after controversy over the electoral list led to two postponements. Kerekou, who came to power after a 1972 coup, was later elected president and led the country for a total of some three decades, issued the appeal in a rare public statement late Tuesday. ”I would like to humbly invite the candidates for the highest public office in our country to show restraint so that presidential elections are held peacefully and with respect for republican values,” he said in the televised statement. He said all political parties should adhere to a consensus reached to resolve problems with the electoral list. President Boni Yayi will be seeking a second term in Sunday’s vote, which has been postponed twice.

continued

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Benin opposition candidates demand another poll delay

- A group of candidates vying in Benin's presidential poll due this weekend, demanded on Thursday that the poll be delayed for another week so that more voters omitted from the voters roll may be registered.
If accepted, it would be the third delay in the election initially planned for February 27.
The country's top legal body last Friday authorized a one-week delay so that complaints over voter cards and election lists could be resolved.
"The law that had allowed the second postponement was not properly applied since the same problems remain to this day," the group made up of 11 of the 13 presidential candidates said in a statement.
The group said an international audit of voters registers should be carried out and voters roll be published in all polling stations before any election is held.
"We demand a postponement of at least a week so as to include all those who are not in the electoral register," Victor Tokpanou, a candidate and spokesman for the group said.
Marcel de Souza, spokesman for incumbent President Boni Yayi had said on Tuesday that no further postponement was possible.

continued

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The Root Interview: The Former President of Ghana Speaks Bluntly

Jerry Rawlings says he’s disappointed in many African leaders and in the failure of African countries to work together more closely. When The Root interviewed the former president, he was blunt and forthcoming about the evolution of African countries since independence and about his disappointment with his fellow Africans and their former colonial rulers.
The Root is a daily online magazine that provides thought-provoking commentary on today's news from a variety of black perspectives. Read the interview below.
Jerry John Rawlings is addicted to politics. Son of a Scotsman and a Ghanaian, he twice led coups against what he saw as corrupt governments and he acknowledges that his regime committed "a few punishments here and there," during 19 years as head of state of Ghana. Yet, he gave up power in 2001, after losing an election in 2000, and made way for multiparty democracy. Now 62, the former Ghanaian Air Force captain, who stepped down nine years ago, still has a lot to say about his small West African country, which celebrated its 53rd year of independence on March 6.
NB: The Root (TR), Jerry Rawlings (JR)
The Root: Many African countries celebrate their 50th anniversary of independence in 2010. How do you assess their progress?
Jerry Rawlings: Well, I would have wished that we had made a lot more progress--social, economic and our political sense of purpose--in line with the aspirations of our forefathers, what they were fighting for. But it appears the colonial battle was not as atrocious as the new colonial battle. It has proven to be a lot more difficult, and more and more we are losing ownership of the resources of our continent. And not many of our leaders have a decolonized mind.
TR: The link between France and its former African colonies is very strong. Do you see the same linkage between England and its former African colonies?
JR: I don't know. Some may be close in one respect and weak in others, while others may be close and strong in another respect. But don't forget that Britain does not come alone: She comes along with the English-speaking--the U.S., Germany and all. Whereas France, I think, has attempted to maintain a stronger monopoly or grip on the resources of its colonies. I may be wrong, but that's what it looks like to us.
And it appears that there is a lot more assimilation between francophone Africans and France. On the one hand, you could easily get the impression that they enjoy a higher quality of relationship than Africans and the British. But when you look deeper, and go deeper into the history, you're running to some very atrocious and very sordid historical experiences that really put you off.
TR: Is it too soon to implement the "United States of Africa" strongly proposed by Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana?
JR: It's not too soon. It's long overdue, but Africa has been so badly disintegrated in spite of the regional groupings we created to create markets for our own products. Our colonial relationship was so strong that it was undermining our attempts to unify.
TR: Some say that the Western form of democracy is a poison for Africa. What do you think?
JR: It would not have been a poison for Africa if we could adapt it to our own indigenous form of democracy. Our form of democracy listens to all parties, and out of it we distill what is best for all of us. Western democracy is "winner take all," ... which is not healthy. They end up silencing the opposition, treating opposition like enemies; everything is for them, and they deny everything to the opposition. And this is what makes it tough for us.
TR: What did you think of President Barack Obama's speech to Africa in Accra on July 11, 2009?
JR: He just said what anybody else would have said.
TR: Nothing new?
JR: It's not fair to say nothing new, but even if it was nothing new, it was coming from the right person. He was a man with a sense of dignity; he was a man who has restored international morality back into politics; he has restored the international morality that Tony Blair and Bush destroyed. He managed to bring it back by virtue of his stature, ... his beliefs, his sense of ethics and things like that. He believed in the might of right, while the other people believed in the right of might.
TR: You came to power twice through coups. Today, would you have done things differently?
JR: No. I would have done things exactly the way I did.
TR: So you think that sometimes coups are necessary when there are no other means to get change?
JR: So it seemed in those days. As to whether it's still applied today, this is what I cannot say. But in those days, I know it was a necessity.
TR: Do you miss being president?
JR: It was a very tiring job for me.
TR: You did it twice...
JR: Yes, I had to come back again because if I hadn't, there would have had another explosion. I stood for elections because when I heard the messages from those multiparty characters [I thought] they would wind the clock back. So for me it was a very tiring job, really. Some people enjoy it, I did not.
TR: You did not, but you don't really seem to have retired...
JR: How can I retire? In Africa, it's difficult to retire! Because what I fought for has not changed. I mean, Jesus Christ taught us a lesson some 2,000 years ago, and we're still teaching the same thing. So it is with politics in Africa, I guess. So long as the nonsense continues, I will continue to speak out.
TR: Aren't you afraid of interfering with the action of your former vice-president and current Ghana President John Atta-Mills? That you might create confusion about who is the head of state?
JR: They may or they may not [be confused]. But I will because I did not come for my party or my president, I came for a principle. And so long as you step aside or you want to keep up with that principle, you will hear me. I will talk.
TR: Some report tensions between [current Ghana president] John Atta-Mills and you.
JR: Yes. To some extent, it's true because I keep telling him he has surrounded himself with people who shouldn't be there. He has surrounded himself with people who keep stabbing the party, and some of us, in the back. I keep warning him that if he does not change, if he does not improve, he will be a one-term president. He's not listening now, and by the time he starts listening, I think it's almost too late. People are disillusioned with him and the people around him.

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