Sri Lankans ready for first presidential vote since economic collapse

Special Sri Lankans ready for first presidential vote since economic collapse
Police assist electoral officials with ballot boxes and other polling materials, as they board a bus on the eve of Sri Lanka's presidential elections in Colombo on Sept. 20, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 20 September 2024
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Sri Lankans ready for first presidential vote since economic collapse

Sri Lankans ready for first presidential vote since economic collapse
  • About 17 million out of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are eligible to vote
  • Political polarization in Saturday’s election is highest in decades

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will hold its presidential election on Saturday in a vote that will decide the future of the South Asian nation struggling to recover from its financial collapse in 2022, which spurred a popular uprising and drove former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from power.

In the two years since the worst crisis in history hit the country and Rajapaksa fled, his successor, current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, has managed to introduce policy reforms to obtain an International Monetary Fund bailout.

While the austerity measures he introduced — including tax hikes — eased the shortage of essentials such as food, fuel, and medicines, they did not help his popularity.

Wickremesinghe, 75, will nevertheless be among the main figures in the election running as an independent candidate.

A six-time prime minister belonging to the old guard, which Sri Lankans blame for the 2022 crisis, he will compete with over 30 candidates running for office. Among them are Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 55, the leader of a Marxist-led coalition National People’s Power, and Sajith Premadasa, 57, Wickremesinghe’s former deputy and the leader of the largest opposition party, the United People’s Power.

“The election is significant because there is a degree of ideological polarization that we have never seen in a Sri Lankan election, at least since pre-independence really, (since) 1947,” Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, academic and Sri Lanka’s former envoy to the UN, told Arab News.

Elections have traditionally been contested between coalitions of center-right and center-left parties but in the upcoming vote, competition will involve a boarder political spectrum.

“The sitting president is a right-wing conservative, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe. And the main challenger is the leader of the opposition, Mr. Sajid Premadasa, who has repeatedly called himself a social democrat,” Jayatilleka said.

“He’s a moderate progressive of a centrist nature, running against a sitting right-wing president, on the one hand, and a former revolutionary, still Marxist-Leninist, Anura Kumara Dissanayake … on the other. This is very, very new for Sri Lanka.”

The fourth main contender is Namal Rajapaksa, the 38-year-old heir apparent to the Rajapaksa and the son of Mahinda Rajapaksa — Gotabaya’s brother who had served several terms both as Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister.

“Namal Rajapaksa is running for the presidency now, but he’s a serious contender for the presidency next time, in five years,” Jayatilleka said.

“This is a trial run … It’s aimed to retain the vote base of the Rajapaksas and their party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (Sri Lanka People’s Front) and prevent that vote from going with certain ministers of their party, who have defected to the side of President Wickremesinghe.”

Sri Lanka has a presidential system, in which the president heads the government and can appoint and dismiss the prime minister and the other ministers.

Almost 17 million of the island nation’s 22 million people are eligible to take part in Saturday’s vote, where they can select three candidates from the ballot paper.

The first preferences will be counted first and the candidate who secures more than 50 percent of the valid votes will win. If there is no clear winner, the first two candidates will be retained, and the ballot papers will be checked again to see if either of them was a second or third preference.

Those votes will be added to the tally of the two candidates and the one who receives the highest number will be declared the winner.

While the country’s economy is the key issue in the election, Dr. B.A. Husseinmiya, a Sri Lankan historian and former professor at the University of Brunei Darussalam, said there is also a need for change due to public disillusionment with mainstream politicians.

The mass protest movement that erupted in 2022 against then-president Rajapaksa and his prime minister brother, and forced both to quit, was what gave rise to the leftist National People’s Power.

“It’s a most historic occasion when an underdog like the NPP emerges so fast, which is (the result of) all the mistakes the past regimes have made,” Husseinmiya told Arab News.

“I think people everywhere are coming to believe that change is very important if you want to move forward.”


Mali junta appoints general to replace sacked civilian PM

Mali junta appoints general to replace sacked civilian PM
Updated 21 November 2024
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Mali junta appoints general to replace sacked civilian PM

Mali junta appoints general to replace sacked civilian PM

BAMAKO: Mali’s junta has named military officer Gen. Abdoulaye Maiga the new prime minister after sacking civilian Premier Choguel Kokalla Maiga a day earlier following his criticism of the military leaders.

Abdoulaye Maiga had, until now, served as government spokesman in the West African country, which is plagued by extremist and separatist violence and has been led by the military since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.

“Major General Abdoulaye Maiga is appointed prime minister,” said a decree issued by junta chief Gen. Assimi Goita and read out by the secretary general of the presidency on state television station ORTM.

Abdoulaye Maiga was not in the first group of colonels who overthrew the civilian president in August 2020 and who have since been promoted to generals, but he quickly joined them.

His appointment to replace civilian prime minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga confirms the military’s hold on power.

In June 2022, the junta promised to organize elections and hand over power to civilians by the end of March 2024 but later postponed elections indefinitely. Gen. Maiga will have to form a new government to replace the one sacked on Wednesday, which the junta closely controlled. Some key junta figures, such as Defense Minister Gen. Sadio Camara and Minister of Reconciliation General Ismael Wague, were Cabinet members.


Kenya scraps Adani deals as Ruto attempts to reset presidency

Kenya scraps Adani deals as Ruto attempts to reset presidency
Updated 21 November 2024
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Kenya scraps Adani deals as Ruto attempts to reset presidency

Kenya scraps Adani deals as Ruto attempts to reset presidency

NAIROBI: Kenyan President William Ruto sought on Thursday to turn the page on a challenging year, canceling controversial deals with India’s Adani Group and vowing to tackle corruption, police kidnappings, and gender-based violence.

With the country on edge over multiple issues, there was a heavy police presence around parliament in Nairobi ahead of Ruto’s annual State of the Nation address.

His speech did not shy away from the many controversies during his administration.

The biggest shock was his announcement that India’s Adani Group would no longer be involved in plans to expand Kenya’s electricity network and its main airport, Jomo Kenyatta International.

The Adani Group was to invest $1.85 billion in the Jomo Kenyatta airport and $736 million in state-owned utility KETRACO, despite claims of corruption in the procurement process.

The final straw may have come when the Indian group’s founder, Gautam Adani, was charged in the US on Wednesday with massive bribery and fraud. Ruto said his decision was based on “new information provided by investigative agencies and partner nations.”

He also addressed the deep concern in Kenya over a spate of abductions by security forces following mass protests between June and August over an unpopular finance bill.

Rights groups accuse the security forces of a brutal crackdown, with more than 60 people killed during the protests and dozens kidnapped in the following months, many of them tortured and some killed.

Ruto said many detentions were legitimate actions against “criminals and subversive elements.”

But he added: “I condemn any excessive or extrajudicial action which puts the life and liberty of any person at risk, including disappearances and threats to life.”

He also addressed gender-based violence after reports that 97 women have been murdered in the last three months alone.

To loud cheers from the women in parliament, Ruto called on all of society to help raise boys “into morally upright men who will never need to affirm their masculinity at the expense of women.”

Ruto won a hard-fought election in 2022 with a pitch to help the country’s poor.

However, large debts have left Kenya spending more on interest payments than health and education.

While economic growth has remained relatively strong at 5.4 percent last year, a third of Kenya’s 52 million people live in poverty.

“It is undeniable that for many Kenyans, times are hard, and the struggle to meet their basic daily needs is daunting,” Ruto said.

But he listed a series of successes, including taming inflation — down from 9.6 percent to 2.7 percent over two years — stabilizing the currency and increasing agricultural production.

He also heralded a new health insurance scheme, beset by technical difficulties since its launch last month. 

He vowed it would ultimately provide “accessible and affordable” health care nationwide.

Ruto came into his speech with an urgent need to reset his presidency after mounting criticism, including from church leaders, over abductions, the cost-of-living crisis, and corruption.

Recent weeks have also seen international condemnation over the forced extradition of foreign nationals kidnapped on Kenyan soil, including four Turkish refugees and the Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye.


Heavy gunfire erupts in South Sudan’s capital Juba

Heavy gunfire erupts in South Sudan’s capital Juba
Updated 21 November 2024
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Heavy gunfire erupts in South Sudan’s capital Juba

Heavy gunfire erupts in South Sudan’s capital Juba
  • The gunfire began around 7 p.m. local time and continued sporadically for more than an hour before dying down
  • Analysts said the sacking of Akol Koor reflected a power struggle at the highest levels of government

NAIROBI: Heavy gunfire erupted in South Sudan’s capital Juba on Thursday evening after security forces moved to arrest the former head of the intelligence service, according to Reuters reporters and an alert sent to United Nations staff.
The gunfire began around 7 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) and continued sporadically for more than an hour before dying down, Reuters reporters said.
A UN safety alert to staff members in Juba, seen by Reuters, said the shooting was related to the arrest of the former head of the National Security Service (NSS). It urged UN staff to shelter in place.
In early October, President Salva Kiir dismissed Akol Koor Kuc, who had led the NSS since the country’s independence from Sudan in 2011, and appointed a close ally to replace him.
Reached by telephone, a military spokesperson said he was trying to establish what was going on.
Analysts said the sacking of Akol Koor reflected a power struggle at the highest levels of government. It came weeks after the transitional government that Kiir leads announced that elections expected in December would be postponed for a second time.
Rival factions loyal to Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar fought a civil war from 2013 to 2018 that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
The two have governed together since then as part of a transitional government. There has been relative peace, but the opposing forces clash periodically in addition to frequent fighting among a patchwork of armed groups in rural areas.


Putin says hit Ukraine with new mid-range ballistic missile

Putin says hit Ukraine with new mid-range ballistic missile
Updated 21 November 2024
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Putin says hit Ukraine with new mid-range ballistic missile

Putin says hit Ukraine with new mid-range ballistic missile
  • Putin said in a televised address that Russia carried out “testing in combat conditions of one of the newest Russian mid-range missile systems”
  • Russia struck the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a barrage of missiles early Thursday

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the country’s forces had hit Ukraine with a new mid-range ballistic missile.
Putin said in a televised address that Russia carried out “testing in combat conditions of one of the newest Russian mid-range missile systems... Our engineers named it Oreshnik,” which means hazel tree in Russian.
Russia struck the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a barrage of missiles early Thursday.
The Ukrainian air force and President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of apparently using an intercontinental ballistic missile, while Ukrainian experts were still examining the evidence to ascertain the type of missile used.
Putin said in his address that Russia launched a combined strike on a defense industry target in Ukraine.
He described Oreshnik as a “ballistic missile” that was deployed in this case “in a non-nuclear hypersonic configuration,” saying that the “test” had been successful and had hit its target.
Air defenses cannot intercept the Oreshnik, which attacks at a speed of Mach 10, or 2.5-3 kilometers per second, Putin said.
“Modern air defense systems... cannot intercept such missiles. That’s impossible,” he said.
“As of today there are no means of counteracting such a weapon,” the president boasted.
He said Russia was testing the Oreshnik in combat conditions “in response to the aggressive actions of NATO countries toward Russia.”


UK urged to honor ICC’s arrest warrants against Israeli leaders

UK urged to honor ICC’s arrest warrants against Israeli leaders
Updated 21 November 2024
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UK urged to honor ICC’s arrest warrants against Israeli leaders

UK urged to honor ICC’s arrest warrants against Israeli leaders
  • Warrants issued on Thursday against Israel’s ministers, officials of Hamas

LONDON: The British government has been urged by the Council for Arab-British Understanding to immediately honor International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The ICC issued the warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu, Gallant, and an official of Hamas, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza and the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory.

CAABU director Chris Doyle emphasized the gravity of the situation, accusing the UK government of failing to hold Israel accountable for its actions in violation of international law.

Doyle said: “This decision highlights how woefully the UK government has handled the situation of Israeli atrocities and war crimes.

“It now must demonstrate, with concrete action, that this government will honor its pledge to uphold respect for international law and the ICC by abiding in full with the ICC decision.”

Doyle also called for immediate measures, including a full arms embargo on Israel, the cessation of military and security cooperation, and an end to arms sales while atrocities were allegedly being carried out in Gaza.

CAABU warned that failure to comply with the ICC’s warrants could severely damage the UK’s international standing, making it complicit in alleged crimes against humanity, including forced displacement, apartheid, and genocide.

“The UK’s reputation globally would be trashed,” Doyle cautioned.

The organization stressed that the ICC’s warrants represented a crucial step toward justice and accountability for Palestinians. However, Doyle stressed the need for swift action.

He said: “There is no time to wait; justice delayed is justice denied. The UK needs to uphold international law, accountability, and ensure justice with immediate effect by complying with these arrest warrants.”

The UK government has yet to issue a formal response to the ICC’s decision.