Voting got off to a slow start on Sunday in Cameroon’s presidential elections, which incumbent Paul Biya seems assured of winning to extend his 29-year rule. The 78-year-old veteran is seeking a sixth term against 22 other candidates, with opposition complaining that his control over the electoral system is so complete the outcome is a foregone conclusion. On paper, seven million people are eligible to vote.

This article from Project Syndicate looks at Egypt’s public finances. 'The interest that the country pays on its foreign loans is larger than its budget for education, healthcare, and housing combined. Indeed, these debt-service costs alone account for 22% of the Egyptian government’s total expenditures. The impact has become impossible to ignore. With growing political uncertainty and a slowing economy, Egypt is likely to witness decreasing government revenues, increasing demands for urgent spending, and rising interest rates on government borrowing. This could lead to a fiscal catastrophe for the government at the very moment when the country is attempting a complicated political transition.'

Police in the Tunisian capital have used tear gas in an attempt to disperse hundreds of protesters who were attacking authorities with stones and batons. The protesters, who are aligned with conservative Islamic groups, had gathered at the main university in Tunis on Sunday to protest against a ban on wearing the niqab, or full-face veil, as well as the closing of a mosque near the campus.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network sent a 15 member mission to observe Zambia‘s tripartite elections held on the 20th of September 2011. The objectives of the mission were multifaceted and included; to observe the Zambia’s electoral processes, to explore and understand civil society initiatives within and around the electoral process. Lastly, the mission sought to glean lessons and insights to inform Zimbabweans as we prepare for the referendum and the general elections in the future.

Sierra Leone's opposition parties have announced an indefinite suspension of their participation in parliament, citing 'attacks on democracy' they say are being perpetrated by the governing All Peoples Congress (APC) party of President Ernest Bai Koroma. Among other things, they demanded the 'immediate' lifting of a ban by the police on political processions, rallies and public meetings.

On 22 September, a shocking study from Oxfam International provided the evidence and insight on how the World Bank, coupled with the United Nations, used the carbon credit scheme introduced by Al Gore, and other green advocates, to literally rob landowners in the country of Uganda of their property, and even bringing about the death of a child when they burned down homes and villages. All so that a grove of trees could be planted on that land.

This Cameroon Elections 2011 page from Google displays which party leader people are searching Google for the most and which issues are most important in the election campaign.

25 years old this year, El-Ouali Amidane is another Sahrawi prisoner of conscience serving a five-year sentence in a Moroccan prison, which everyone hopes will end this October 2011. He was jailed for taking part in a peaceful demonstration for self-determination inside the Moroccan Occupied Territory, as an active member of the Sahrawi human rights organisation CODESA. El-Ouali has become passionate about writing short stories; below we publish two pieces shared with international campaign networks by his family.

42-year old Hamdi would like to marry but he can’t afford to, thanks to his economic situation – one that is shared by many other Sahrawis in the occupied territory.

A Moroccan soldier on a motorbike who struck and killed a Sahrawi pedestrian has not been prosecuted for his actions.

Tortured for taking part in political protest, a young Sahrawi has lost his childhood ambitions for a better life.

Returning home from Algeria, Salama finds that as a Sahrawi living in occupied territory, he has ‘become a breathing person without a soul.’

Mehdi is employed and has a house and car. But he knows that he could lose it all if he openly shows allegiance to the Sahrawi cause.

Morocco’s repression of Sahrawi resistance through beatings, detention, torture and disappearance has helped create and sustain a new generation of nationalist activists demanding independence, writes Jacob Mundy. All the major dissident Sahrawi civil society groups are led by past victims of repression.

Young Senia has spoken before delegates of the UN Special Political and Decolonization Committee and met with politicians and NGOs in the UK, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Here she explains parallels between the Sahrawi tea ritual and the people’s quest for freedom.

The right of the people of Western Sahara to decide their own destiny has historically encountered two major obstacles: Spain’s efforts to divide the territory between Morocco and Mauritania and invasion of the territory by the two countries, writes Roger S Clark.

For four decades the UN has clearly and repeatedly affirmed the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination, writes Juan Soroeta Liceras. Morocco’s continued occupation of Western Sahara violates international law, just like the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Morocco is to blame for the current stalemate in the talks to end the long dispute with Western Sahara, writes Ahmed Boukhari. Morocco has refused to discuss the nationalist Polisario Front’s proposal for a process of self-determination that would include independence.

Enaama Asfari’s persecution by Moroccan authorities, recounted here by his wife Claude Mangin, illustrates the horrible extent to which the occupying power will go to quash Sahrawi resistance. But true freedom fighters will not give up until they liberate their homeland.