The outcome could weaken President Joseph Kabila’s rule in the central African state after his own re-election was decried by the opposition as fraudulent in polls which were also criticised by international observers.

“The results of these elections took a long time, but it was to ensure their overall transparency,” said election commission chief Daniel Ngoy Mulunda.

Kabila’s PPRD party won 63 seats in the 500-seat National Assembly, down from 111 after the previous legislative polls in 2006, Mulunda said. The opposition UDPS party came second with 41 seats while the Kabila-allied PPPD followed with 27 seats.

Some 17 seats in the assembly remain unfilled as Congo’s Supreme Court considers requests to have the results of those races thrown out over allegations of fraud or errors. Mulunda said the court had two months to rule on those cases.

Tensions have been high in Congo since the election which pitted Kabila against his chief rival Etienne Tshisekedi. Human Rights Watch has said at least 24 people have been killed by security forces since the first results were announced.

Reuters.

The change is the first in the military council since the generals took power from President Hosni Mubarak during a popular uprising last February.

Although it defused a violent confrontation by ushering Mubarak out, the military has also tried to crush subsequent protests by force, killing dozens. It has only grudgingly agreed to hand over to a civilian president by June, and tried to protect its privileges and avoid civilian oversight.

Major General Ismail Etman, 60, was “exempted from service and replaced by Major General Ahmed Abu El-Dahab, the director of the artillery division,” a defence ministry source said. The decision was announced later by state media.

Since the 1973 war against Israel, Egypt’s army was seen as a respected institution set above the fray. But its direct involvement in politics has exposed it to closer scrutiny.

The generals are not trusted by many young pro-democracy campaigners, who suspect they want to curtail civilian power by exploiting the fragile security situation.

Dozens died when the army tried to suppress protests on the streets of Cairo in November and December and video of soldiers mistreating injured demonstrators sparked widespread anger. The army said troops were also killed.

It has blamed the violence on “invisible hands” determined to sow chaos among Egyptians and undermine the achievements of the uprising against Mubarak.

“NEW LEADERSHIP”

A source close to the military council said it was concerned about its deteriorating public image.

“The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces concluded that the army’s image in the media has suffered over the past year under Etman’s leadership,” said the source.

“The decision is intended to bring in new leadership to improve the armed forces’ performance,” and was decreed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the council, the source added.

Etman led the army department which handled a wide range of issues ranging from media relations to dealing with the concerns of military officers.

Little is known about Etman’s successor, Abu El-Dahab, and it remains to be seen whether the change will alter the army’s public affairs policy.

Tantawi has tried to improve the military’s public image, calling on Egyptians to unite with the army and ordering the formation of a committee of generals to ensure positive media coverage, Egyptian media reported last week.

While no longer a member of the 20-member military council, Etman will however remain one of Tantawi’s many advisers, positions given to officers closely tied to the army leadership, the source at the defence ministry said.

Reuters.

Le leader qui continue de contester les résultats de la dernière élection présidentielle et d’ailleurs les résultats des législatives, reste confiné dans sa résidence de Kinshasa, sa rue est bloquée par la police depuis plusieurs semaines. Une situation que dénonce de nombreuses associations des droits de l’Homme.

Egypt’s generals, who took over from ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February last year, have faced renewed street protests demanding they hand power to civilians sooner than the June deadline they set themselves.

Civilian council members told Reuters they would discuss the presidential election and its timing at a meeting on Monday evening and Tuesday.

The body, which includes a number of influential politicians, can only advise the army and has no power to change the election timetable itself.

“On the agenda is the presidential election and the possibility of advancing the date. We have to debate that,” presidential candidate Amr Moussa, a member of the council, told Reuters ahead of the meeting.

Sherif Zahran, another council member, said the timetable could be accelerated, though the issue was still subject to debate.

Egypt’s authorities had said nominations for the country’s first free presidential race would open on April 15. Army officials and other politicians had indicated the vote would take place in June, though no formal announcement was made.

The head of the military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, met the speaker of parliament and the prime minister on Monday, a source said, to discuss the presidential race.

Egypt held its first multi-candidate presidential election in 2005, a vote won easily by Mubarak. For most of his 30 years in office, Mubarak was elected in a single candidate referendum.

Under new rules approved in a referendum last year, Egypt’s next president will only be able to govern for two consecutive, four-year terms.

A committee overseeing the presidential election vote will meet next week to discuss preparations for the race, a judge was quoted by state media as saying.

Protesters have been camped out in Cairo’s Tahrir Square for days, vowing to stay until the army hands power to civilians. They fear the military wants to hang on to power from behind the scenes after the vote.

Their protests have yet to create the kind of street pressure that helped topple Mubarak a year ago.

Reuters.

Jeune Afrique.

D’abord, il y eut les manifestations anti-CNT à Benghazi , berceau de la révolution, puis l’attaque dans la même ville du bâtiment où se trouvaient les membres du Conseil pour discuter de cette loi. Ces incidents ont précipité la démission du numéro deux du CNT, Abdelhafidh Ghoga.

Pour répondre aux exigences des manifestants, le texte annonce que seront exclues les personnes accusées d’avoir participé à la répression de la révolte de 2010. Dans la nouvelle mouture, un article a été abandonné, celui interdisant à un Libyen ayant la double nationalité de se présenter à l’élection.

Selon le texte du CNT, sur les 200 sièges de la future Assemblée, deux tiers seront réservés aux listes des partis politiques en attendant une loi sur les partis, le dernier tiers aux indépendants.

Enfin, prudent, le CNT précise que la porte reste ouverte et que le texte peut encore être révisé.

RFI.

One policeman was killed during protests late on Friday, in which demonstrators threw rocks, overturned cars and burned tyres and security forces fired tear gas, after the country’s top court said Wade had the right to seek a new term.

Calm returned to the capital Dakar on Saturday but security was boosted around the presidential palace, where truckloads of police in full riot gear were deployed, armed with tear gas grenade launchers and truncheons.

“Abdoulaye Wade has declared war on the people,” Amath Dansakho, the head of the PIT party and member of the M23 opposition activist group, told reporters following a meeting with other political and civil society leaders.

“The decision that we have just made will prove to Wade that this is a country of free people. We will render the country ungovernable,” he said.

Friday’s clashes came after Senegal’s top legal body validated the candidacy of 85-year-old Wade and 13 rivals for the February 26 vote, but turned down the presidential bid of world music star Youssou N’Dour, saying he did not have the required 10,000 signatures of support.

Wade’s rivals say the constitution sets an upper limit of two terms on the president. But Wade, who came to power in 2000 and was re-elected in 2007, has argued his first term pre-dated the 2001 amendment establishing the limit.

M23 said in a press release on Saturday the court’s decision was a “constitutional coup, and a prelude to what will be an electoral coup” and called on Senegalese across the country to resist Wade’s re-election bid.

Senegal’s influential Mouride Muslim brotherhood urged calm.

“The marabout calls on everyone to do what us needed to preserve peace in the country,” Serigne Bass Abdou Khadre Mbacke said, refering to Mouride leader Serigne Cheikh Sidy Moctar Mbacke.

“He asks leaders and the opposition to open talks aimed at ensuring we move forward to transparent elections.”

The French foreign ministry also called for calm in its former colony. “France calls on all Senegalese political and social forces to show restraint and avoid all forms of violence,” it said.

POLICEMAN KILLED

Senegal’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday a policeman had been killed during Friday’s clashes, which began after protesters that had gathered in a public square attempted to march towards the presidential palace.

The policeman “was gravely injured in the head by a brick that had been thrown, and he succumbed shortly afterward”, the ministry said in a news release, adding security forces remained committed to preserving the peace.

Music star N’dour accused Senegal of using security forces to intimidate people after police shoved him and knocked his spectacles off his face as he attempted to visit jailed human rights activist Alioune Tine.

“This is becoming more and more a police state, they are even tapping telephones,” N’dour said at a news conference.

“My answer will be political, even if the threats are, as they were today, to attack me physically.”

Wade appealed for calm on state television late on Friday and promised free and fair polls.

Senegal is the only country in mainland West Africa to have not had a coup since the end of the colonial era. February’s poll, and a possible run-off a few weeks later, are seen as a test of social cohesion in the predominantly Muslim country.

Critics say Wade, who spent 26 years in opposition to Socialist rule, has done nothing during his 12 years in power to alleviate poverty in a country where formal employment is scarce, and has dragged his heels on tackling official graft.

Wade points to spending on education and infrastructure projects such as roadbuilding as proof of progress towards turning Senegal into an emerging market country and a trade hub.

His candidacy has raised eyebrows abroad. The senior U.S. State Department official for Africa, William Fitzgerald, told French RFI radio that Wade’s candidacy was “a bit regrettable”.

Rival presidential hopeful Amsatou Sow Sidibe called on Wade to withdraw his candidacy voluntarily. “Peace and tranquility in Senegal depends on it,” she told Reuters by telephone.

Reuters reporters late on Friday saw youths set fire to tyres and overturn cars in Dakar. Protests were also reported in the towns of Thies, Mbour, and Kaolack, where state radio said the local headquarters of Wade’s liberal PDS were burned down.

Reuters.

La très faible affluence des premières heures reflète le désintérêt quasi généralisé des électeurs. Au début des législatives, les électeurs se pressaient en longues files d’attente devant les bureaux de vote.

Contrairement aux partis islamistes qui ont présenté des candidats pour tous les sièges, la plupart des partis laïcs boudent ces élections qu’ils estiment aussi dispendieuses qu’inutiles. Le Conseil consultatif n’a, en effet, aucun pouvoir législatif. Son seul intérêt est qu’il participera, avec le Parlement, au choix des 100 membres de l’Assemblée constituante chargée de rédiger la nouvelle Constitution.

Cette Constitution pourrait paradoxalement sceller la mort du Conseil consultatif dont la plupart des courants politiques réclament la disparition sous sa forme actuelle. Le Conseil n’aurait donc plus que quelques mois à vivre.

L’élection de la Choura doit se dérouler dans deux zones géographiques et se termineront le 22 février 2012.

RFI.

Étienne Tshisekedi appelle à la grève générale à partir de lundi. Celui qui s’est autoproclamé « président élu » de la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) après avoir rejeté la réélection du chef de l’État sortant Joseph Kabila, s’est exprimé vendredi 27 janvier depuis son domicile de Limete (est de Kinshasa) où il est assigné à résidence. « Lundi 30 janvier, il faut qu’il y ait une grève générale sur l’ensemble du territoire national et jusqu’à nouvel ordre », a-t-il déclaré par téléphone.

L’opposant est également revenu sur les évènements de la veille. Jeudi, les forces de l’ordre congolaises ont fait l’usage de gaz lacrymogènes et procédé à quelques arrestations afin de disperser de petits groupes de partisans venus le soutenir à proximité de son domicile. L’accès à ladite résidence de l’autoproclamé « président élu » était également interdit aux journalistes présents sur place.

Le parti de Tshisekedi, l’Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS), avait appelé mercredi les Congolais à se « mobiliser massivement » jeudi « pour accompagner » leur leader « à son bureau de travail au Palais de la nation ».

Les “mercenaires” de Kabila

« J’ai tenté de sortir de chez moi pour me diriger vers le palais de la Nation où je devais prendre mes fonctions de président de la République démocratique du Congo. À peine avais-je quitté ma maison que j’ai été arrêté à un barrage », a expliqué l’opposant. « Des “mercenaires” se sont montrés extrêmement méchants à mon égard, ils ont tiré même à balles réelles sur ma voiture. J’ai été obligé de rentrer chez moi. Je crois que trop c’est trop », a-t-il ajouté.

Le leader de l’Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS) a une nouvelle fois demandé notamment aux « militaires comme aux civils d’arrêter M. Kabila partout où il se trouverait et de me le livrer ligoté et vivant afin que nous puissions le juger pour les crimes qu’il a commis sur le sol congolais ». Il a également menacé de considérer comme venant d’un pays ennemi du peuple congolais tout « diplomate » qui irait présenter ses vœux de nouvel an au président Kabila.

Son intervention a eu lieu quelques heures après la publication par la Ceni des premiers résultats partiels et provisoires des élections législatives du 28 novembre. Sur 432 des 500 sièges à attribuer (soit près de 87% du total), le Parti du peuple pour la reconstruction et la démocratie (PPRD) du chef de l’État en a déjà obtenu 58. Mais il en reste encore 68 à pourvoir. Dans la précédente assemblée de 2006, le PPRD en avait obtenu 111.

Jeune Afrique.

Les violences ont duré jusque dans la nuit. « Wade n’a qu’à s’en aller, il faut dégage » hurlaient à la lumière des flammes des jeunes manifestants rencontrés dans le quartier populaire de la Medina. «Nous avons entendu que sa candidature a été validée par le Conseil constitutionnel, nous dénonçons cette énième violation de la Constitution » expliquait un autre avant d’ajouter « la seule voie qui permette de pousser le président Wade à reculer, c’est d’occuper la rue ».

En toute fin de soirée les leaders du M23, le mouvement du 23 juin qui rassemble des partis d’opposition et des organisations de la société civile se sont discrètement réunis au domicile de l’un d’eux. Ils affirment que leur mouvement a été infiltré par des éléments qui ont semé la violence, et annoncent qu’ils déposeront un recours devant le Conseil constitutionnel. Ils ont prévu de se retrouver, aujourd’hui, samedi pour voir comment amplifier ce qu’ils appellent une résistance citoyenne active.

RFI.