Poll monitors accuse Tunisia’s election authorities of bias

A man dips his finger in ink after casting his ballot at a polling station in Tunis, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022. (AP)
A man dips his finger in ink after casting his ballot at a polling station in Tunis, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022. (AP)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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Poll monitors accuse Tunisia’s election authorities of bias

A man dips his finger in ink after casting his ballot at a polling station in Tunis, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022. (AP)
  • Under President Kais Saied, NGOs have increasingly been targeted for their work, which spans from aid for migrants to human rights to local development efforts
  • Tensions rose last week after the electoral authority published a final list of candidates that included Saied and only two challengers, dismissing a court order requiring that it reinstate three others it had previously barred from running

TUNIS, Tunisa: Election officials in Tunisia doubled down Monday on their decision to deny accreditation to some election observer groups, who said the move shows that the October presidential contest in the North African country won’t be free and fair.
The Independent High Authority for Elections, or ISIE, said in a statement that several civil society groups that had applied for accreditation had received a “huge amount” of foreign funding of a “suspicious origin” and therefore had to be denied accreditation to observe the election.
Though ISIE did not explicitly name the groups, one of its commission members said last weekend that it sent formal allegations against two specific groups to Tunisia’s public prosecutor, making similar claims that they took funding from abroad.
The two organizations, I-Watch and Mourakiboun (which means “Observers” in Arabic) are not the first civil society groups to be pursued by authorities in Tunisia. Under President Kais Saied, NGOs have increasingly been targeted for their work, which spans from aid for migrants to human rights to local development efforts.
Saied has throughout his tenure accused civil society groups of having nefarious motives and being puppets of foreign countries critical of his style of governance. He has alleged that NGOs that receive funding from abroad intend to disrupt the North African nation’s social fabric and domestic politics.
Some of the groups targeted have increasingly criticized authorities’ decisions to arrest potential candidates and bar others from running over the past several months. Other groups, including I-Watch and Mourakiboun, have applied for accreditation to act as independent election observers for the October 6 vote.
In a statement, I-Watch blasted ISIE’s efforts to call its funding into question and called it “a desperate attempt to distract public opinion by hiding the violations it committed and its failure to implement law.”
Siwar Gmati, a member of the watchdog group, told The Associated Press that any foreign funding that I-Watch received for specific projects in the past was provided in accordance with Tunisian law and disclosed transparently.
“We haven’t asked donors for funding relating to this electoral monitoring mission” she said, denying ISIE’s claims.
Financial disclosures published on I-Watch’s website show some of its past programs have been bankrolled by groups such as Transparency International and Deutsche Welle Akademie (DW) as well as the European Union and the US Embassy.
Gmati said I-Watch no longer accepts US funding and is currently engaged in two projects with the EU it received funding for last year.
The quarrel with prospective election observers is the latest in a string of controversies that have plagued ISIE in recent months, during which critics have accused it of lacking independence and acting on behalf of the president. Last week, dozens of Tunisians critical of the commission’s role protested outside its headquarters.
Tensions rose last week after the electoral authority published a final list of candidates that included Saied and only two challengers, dismissing a court order requiring that it reinstate three others it had previously barred from running.
The electoral commission argued that it didn’t receive the court’s ruling by the legal deadline. Critics called the dismissal politically motivated and a court spokesperson told local radio that ignoring a court order in such a way was unprecedented in Tunisia.
ISIE denied I-Watch’s application to observe the election in July and the NGO appealed and requested for clarifications in August. Despite ISIE’s public statements, Gmati said that it had not yet responded directly to I-Watch’s requests.
I-Watch called ISIE’s public statements a “flimsy pretext” to exclude election monitors from observing the Oct. 6 presidential vote.
“It has clearly become involved in the presidency’s program and has become a tool of the dictatorship,” the watchdog group said of the election authority.
The conflict between Tunisia and election observation groups is the latest matter to stain this year’s election season in Tunisia, where presidential candidates have been arrested, barred from participation or denied a place on the ballot. It marks a departure from elections the country has held since it became a bastion for democracy after toppling its longtime dictator in the 2011 Arab Spring. Observers have previously praised Tunisia for holding free and fair elections.
Since Saied took power, however, things have changed for Tunisia’s once-vibrant NGO scene. In 2022, he targeted civil society groups that accept foreign funding, and has said that nobody has the right to interfere in Tunisia’s politics and choices.

 


Israel hits Beirut suburbs with heavy airstrikes

Israel hits Beirut suburbs with heavy airstrikes
Updated 15 sec ago
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Israel hits Beirut suburbs with heavy airstrikes

Israel hits Beirut suburbs with heavy airstrikes

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: The Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah’s central headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday in an attack that shook the Lebanese capital and sent thick clouds of smoke over the city.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television reported that four buildings were destroyed and there were many casualties in the multiple strikes, which marked a major escalation of Israel’s conflict with the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah.

In a televised statement, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the central command center was embedded deep within civilian areas.

Footage broadcast by Al-Manar TV showed at least one smoldering crater at the site of the attack.

Security sources in Lebanon said the attack targeted an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based. It was the heaviest attack in Beirut in almost a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

The strikes hit Beirut shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue Israel’s attacks on Iranian-backed fighters in Lebanon in a closely watched United Nations speech, as hopes faded for a ceasefire that could head off an all-out regional war.

A year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated sharply this week, raising fears of an even more destructive conflict between the heavily armed adversaries.


Iranians protest Gaza, Lebanon ‘bloodbath’

Iranians protest Gaza, Lebanon ‘bloodbath’
Updated 27 September 2024
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Iranians protest Gaza, Lebanon ‘bloodbath’

Iranians protest Gaza, Lebanon ‘bloodbath’
  • In Tehran after Friday prayers, a protest took place around Enghelab Square in the city center
  • Demonstrators carried portraits of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as well as Palestinian and Hezbollah flags

TEHRAN: Thousands of Iranians protested on Friday in the capital Tehran and other cities to condemn Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, AFP journalists and state media reported.
Officials had on Wednesday called on the nation to demonstrate in support of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon “and to condemn the barbaric crimes of the Zionist regime in Palestine,” the official IRNA news agency said.
Hezbollah is part of the “Axis of Resistance,” Iran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East which have targeted Israel, and also US forces, in support of Palestinian militants Hamas.
In Tehran after Friday prayers, a protest took place around Enghelab Square in the city center, an AFP journalist said.
Demonstrators carried portraits of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as well as Palestinian and Hezbollah flags.
“Israel is destroyed. Lebanon is victorious,” they chanted, deploring “a bloodbath in Lebanon.”
Protesters also burned Israeli and US flags.
State television aired footage of other demonstrations in Semnan, Qom, Kashan, Kermanshah, Shiraz and Bandar Abbas.
Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, triggering a war with Israel and near-daily cross-border fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel, which has hit back.
Those exchanges have intensified dramatically over the past week. Israeli raids on Lebanon since Monday have killed hundreds in the deadliest violence since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
As the violence escalates, analysts say Iran is walking a tightrope by trying to support Hezbollah without getting dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands.


Israel’s Netanyahu, at UN, says he came to refute lies he heard there this week from other leaders

Israel’s Netanyahu, at UN, says he came to refute lies he heard there this week from other leaders
Updated 27 September 2024
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Israel’s Netanyahu, at UN, says he came to refute lies he heard there this week from other leaders

Israel’s Netanyahu, at UN, says he came to refute lies he heard there this week from other leaders
  • “I didn’t intend to come here this year. My country is at war fighting for its life,” Netanyahu said
  • He insisted that Israel wanted peace but said of Iran: “If you strike us, we will strike you”

UNITED NATIONS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his leadership strained by conflicts on two fronts, took the UN General Assembly podium on Friday and said he was there to refute the untruths he had heard from other leaders on the same rostrum earlier in the week.
Netanyahu, armed with visual aids as he has been in the past, defended his nation’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel that triggered an Israeli military operation that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
“I didn’t intend to come here this year. My country is at war fighting for its life,” Netanyahu said. “But after I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight.”
He insisted that Israel wanted peace but said of Iran: “If you strike us, we will strike you.” He once again blamed Iran for being behind many of the problems in the region.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry. The ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but more than half the dead have been women and children, including about 1,300 children under the age of 2.
In recent days, Israel has turned its attention to the border with Lebanon, where it is targeting Hezbollah militants and has inflicted civilian casualties as well. Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after the Hamas invasion, and ongoing fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border. Israel is vowing to step up its attacks on Hezbollah until its citizens can return safely to their homes.
Late Wednesday, the United States, France and other allies jointly called for an “immediate” 21-day ceasefire to allow for negotiations as fears grow that the violent escalation in recent days — following 11 months of cross-border exchange of fire — could grow into an all-out war.
The United Nations says over 90,000 people have been displaced by five days of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, bringing the total to 200,000 people who have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.
Israel has maintained its military operations are justified and are necessary to defend itself.
As Netanyahu took the stage, there was enough ruckus in the audience that the presiding diplomat had to shout, “Order, please.”
The two speakers who preceded Netanyahu on Friday each made a point of calling out Israel for its actions. “Mr. Netanyahu, stop this war now,” Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said as he closed his remarks, pounding the podium. And Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, speaking just before the Israeli leader, declared of Gaza: “This is not just a conflict. This is systematic slaughter of innocent people of Palestine.” He thumped the rostrum to audible applause.


UN says strikes on Lebanon killing children ‘at a frightening rate’

UN says strikes on Lebanon killing children ‘at a frightening rate’
Updated 27 September 2024
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UN says strikes on Lebanon killing children ‘at a frightening rate’

UN says strikes on Lebanon killing children ‘at a frightening rate’
  • “The attacks on Lebanon are killing and injuring children at a frightening rate,” UNICEF’s Lebanon representative Edouard Beigbeder said
  • “The suffering of children must stop“

BEIRUT: The UN children’s agency condemned this week’s sharp escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah, saying that the bombardment of Lebanon was killing children “at a frightening rate.”
Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in a deadly exchange of cross-border fire since the Iran-backed group’s Palestinian ally, Hamas, attacked Israel on October 7.
Israel shifted its focus this week from Gaza to its northern front with Lebanon, while Hezbollah has launched barrages of rockets into northern Israel.
Since Monday, Israeli warplanes have bombarded what the military says are Hezbollah targets around Lebanon, leaving around 700 people dead, according to the Lebanese health ministry, which says the majority were civilians.
On Monday and Tuesday, 50 of those killed were children, UNICEF said, citing ministry data.
“The attacks on Lebanon are killing and injuring children at a frightening rate,” UNICEF’s Lebanon representative Edouard Beigbeder said, according to the statement.
The situation “has moved from crisis to catastrophe. The suffering of children must stop,” Beigbeder said, calling for a halt in the fighting.
Israel has hit back against accusations of large numbers of civilian casualties, accusing Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields.


18 dead in Sudan’s El-Fasher after paramilitary attack on market: medic

18 dead in Sudan’s El-Fasher after paramilitary attack on market: medic
Updated 27 September 2024
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18 dead in Sudan’s El-Fasher after paramilitary attack on market: medic

18 dead in Sudan’s El-Fasher after paramilitary attack on market: medic
  • “We received last night at the hospital 18 dead,” some of them burned and others killed with severe shrapnel injuries, a source at El-Fasher Teaching Hospital said
  • The plight of Sudan, and El-Fasher in particular, has been under discussion this week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York

PORT SUDAN: A paramilitary attack on a market in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher killed 18 people, a medical source told AFP on Friday, after world leaders appealed for an end to the country’s wartime suffering.
The Rapid Support Forces’ shelling of the market on Thursday evening also injured dozens, activists said separately, as the paramilitaries and regular army vie for control of the North Darfur state capital, 17 months into their war in the northeast African country.
“We received last night at the hospital 18 dead,” some of them burned and others killed with severe shrapnel injuries, a source at El-Fasher Teaching Hospital told AFP, requesting anonymity for their own protection.
The plight of Sudan, and El-Fasher in particular, has been under discussion this week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“We must compel the warring parties to accept humanitarian pauses in El-Fasher, Khartoum and other highly vulnerable areas,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said on Wednesday.
The Teaching Hospital is one of the last still receiving patients in El-Fasher, where reports of a “full-scale assault” by RSF on the city last weekend led UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to call for an urgent ceasefire.
The paramilitaries have besieged El-Fasher since May, and famine has already been declared in Zamzam refugee camp near the city of two million.
Paramilitary “artillery shelling continued this morning” on residential neighborhoods and the market, the local resistance committee said on Friday.
The committee, which reported the dozens of wounded in Thursday’s market attack, is one of hundreds of pro-democracy volunteer groups across Sudan that provide crucial aid to civilians caught in the crossfire.
Sudan’s war has killed tens of thousands of people. The World Health Organization cited a toll of at least 20,000 but United States envoy Tom Perriello has said some estimates reach 150,000.
US President Joe Biden, who raised particular concern over the assault on El-Fasher, on Tuesday urged all countries to cut off weapons supplies to the country’s rival generals, Sudanese Armed Forces chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
“The world needs to stop arming the generals. Speak with one voice and tell them: ‘Stop tearing your country apart. Stop blocking aid to the Sudanese people. End this war now,’” Biden told the UN General Assembly.
On the sidelines of the UN talks, Guterres met with Burhan, expressing concern about “escalation” and the risk of “a regional spillover,” the UN said.
Both sides have been repeatedly accused of war crimes.
The RSF, descended from Darfur’s Janjaweed militia, have specifically been accused of ethnic cleansing.
Dagalo released a video Thursday evening addressing the UN gathering, hours after Burhan took the stage in New York wearing a formal suit instead of his military fatigues.
Rejecting Burhan’s participation, Dagalo said the RSF had “formed a force to protect civilians” and was “open to all initiatives” aimed at peace.
Also on Thursday, air strikes and shelling rocked the capital Khartoum as the army attacked paramilitary positions across the Sudanese capital, witnesses and a military source said.
The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Turk, warned on Thursday that, “if El-Fasher falls, there is a high risk of ethnically-targeted violations and abuses, including summary executions and sexual violence, by the RSF and allied militia.”
Darfur is home to more than five million displaced people, or around half of the country’s current internal displacement, which the UN said is the world’s worst.
“Sudan is now also the world’s largest hunger crisis,” the UN said in a statement on Wednesday.