The National Election Commission (NEC) of Somaliland has begun its voter registration exercise in Sahil region for about two weeks now. Over 100 NEC registration out-posts and registration-teams, numbering 1,400 were deployed throughout Sahil's districts. The registration teams are provided with an array of equipment and high-tech gear for registering the adult ‘voting’ population in Sahil who will cast their votes in the next general election and for all coming future elections.

Twenty out of 40 cabinet ministers in Nigeria have been sacked for non-performance. President Umaru Yar'Adua said his decision is to reposition and strengthen his administration for effective service delivery, Presidential Spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi disclosed on Thursday. According to This Day newspaper, the President after taking a valedictory photographs with the sacked ministers said yesterday’s meeting will be the last for some of them.

Early results in Zambia’s knife-edge presidential election gave a clear lead to Michael Sata, the opposition challenger whose lavish pledges have unnerved investors, for control of Africa’s biggest copper producer. Totals from 19 of the 150 constituencies showed Mr Sata had secured about 60 per cent of ballots cast, with Rupiah Banda, the acting president, trailing on 30 per cent, and the balance going to two other opposition hopefuls.

Horn of Africa leaders attending a regional summit have lashed out at Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) for failing to restore peace and order in the war-torn country."Failed they have, as can easily be seen in the lack of progress in all areas in government. This is the truth that neither the Transitional Federal Government authorities, nor we, can sweep under the rug," Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister and IGAD chairman told the Oct. 29 summit.

Early in its new democracy, South Africa successfully rose to the challenge of ensuring political justice. It developed a progressive and ground-breaking constitution enshrining rights for all of its citizens. Much attention, debate and litigation has taken place around civil and political rights, and these have been further interpreted and secured.

Ghana's election campaign could be tarnished by money from West African drug trafficking, an official has said. Kwesi Aning, head of research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, said the "very fabric" of Ghanaian society was under threat. His comments came as the UN warned in a report that West Africa risks becoming an epicentre for drug trafficking from South America to Europe.

Southern African leaders meeting in Harare on Monday have failed to get Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe to agree on who controls the home affairs ministry which has the police and the registrar general's office under its control. Mugabe and Tsvangirai's failure to agree means there is no cabinet deal yet with a Sadc troika comminque expected to be released in the next few hours. A full Sadc summit will be called soon.

African leaders must take "decisive" action to end the deadlock between Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday. Both men remained deadlocked over who will control Zimbabwe's powerful home affairs ministry, which oversees the police, despite efforts to end the crisis early this week in a high-level security meeting.

The United States says it regrets that the six-week impasse over implementation of a power-sharing agreement for Zimbabwe was not resolved at the recent Southern African Development Community-hosted talks. White House spokesman, Sean McCormack, said the US administration said it was unhappy with President Mugabe’s government for its refusal to implement a genuine and equitable power-sharing deal.

Zambia’s government has announced plans to get its people a greater share of the country’s vast copper wealth. But with its proposals still in the balance, action is still needed. These plans could provide an extra $415 million of copper revenue, allowing it to triple expenditure on health in a country where average life expectancy is 37. The proposals could net Zambia an extra $415 million in 2008 alone. Add your voice and call on Zambia's biggest copper company, KCM, not to undermine Zambia’s development – and abide by the government’s decision. Email them now!http://www.christianaid.org.uk/issues/powercorruption/actions/zambia.as… .

Reflecting on the fifth International Via Campesina Conference held in Maputo, Mozambique, on 19 October, John E. Peck examines the ongoing struggle around ‘biofuels’ and unpacks the extent to which global discourses on solutions climate change have been commandeered by multinational corporations. With a particular focus on Jatropha, the author explores the crop’s likely impact in Mozambique and the consequences for food sovereignty, land use, and contested resources, and argues that true progress towards sustainable agriculture will only be attained once governments cease to emphasise agro-fuel subsidies.

Mamadou Koulibaly 2008-10-28

Mamadou Koulibaly, president of Côte d’Ivoire’s national assembly takes issue with France’s reticence in confronting the ills of its African colonial past. Unlike other western democracies that have by and large acknowledged their culpability, France continues to fall short of doing this. In July of 2007, Sarkozy gave a speech in Dakar that embodies this inability to speak frankly about France’s African past.

cc The ‘competent’ authorities of the government of José Eduardo dos Santos recently authorised the demolition of the Kinaxixe market. This architectural landmark in the centre of Luanda was an icon of Angolan urbanisation. Thus the government of this man destroyed the African patrimony inherited through the process of European colonisation, a patrimony with which we helped co-create this nation. The Kinaxixe market represented the cultural process that gave birth to our identity, as well as that of the leader of this government that destroyed it.

The Kanaxixe market was reduced to rubble by the new civil war underway in Angolan territory. This attack on the market is part of the war against all men and women in Angola carried out by agents wielding power promiscuously, and who conduct personal deals to amass fortunes through the use and abuse of this power and the property of the nation. This is a ‘pacific civil war’, as some think based on a lack of information, but one which at various times has been marked with the blood of the many victims of this attack on personal property, mostly urban land, and especially in Luanda. This war is a successor to that which took place between the ‘national liberation movements’, initiated to seize control of the state, which the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola – Partido do Trabalho (MPLA) was able to achieve in 1975.

Few are aware of this land war since up to now only one side has resorted to violence, the plunderers who make use of the authority and arms of the state against the people. The victims have not yet responded by using violence. Their only defence has been public denunciations of these attacks through national and international organisations. The organisation which I lead, SOS Habitat, has been one of the protagonists of this pacific approach to defence resulting, among other things, in defusing the potential for spontaneous violence by the many victims of land grabbing. Despite this, those responsible for these attacks are systematically guaranteed impunity.

Do not forget that the civil war in Angola was based on the legitimacy of a revolution, led by the MPLA, which proposed the end of capitalism in Angola. Long before the Kinaxixe market debacle, the ideals of this revolution had been thrown on the garbage heap of our history by the ex-‘revolutionaries’ who, despite this change in ideology, continue to rule via the domination of state administration by the MPLA. They are unwilling to abandon this inherited one-party dictatorship, despite the fact that it has been unconstitutional since 1991.

The government of José Eduardo dos Santos has destroyed and thrown away the material and cultural wealth of our country. In order to generate wealth for a few individuals, part of the collective memory of Luanda and the entire country has been transformed into historical ruins. Some rich individual or government insider will probably cover the land of the Kinaxixe market with a modern shopping centre.

Before this perpetration, this same government ordered the demolition of the Palace of Dona Ana Joaquina, building in its place a replica of the same building. In indignation over this crime, the MPLA Deputy Lúcio Lara took a piece of rubble from this landmark building into the National Assembly where, in the name of all of us – the millions of victims of this senseless act – he wept. It was a bold form of protest which (from my point of view) contested the actions of the head of his party (the MPLA) and of the dos Santos government. Dos Santos is the individual who is ultimately responsible for the decisions of the government and the state of Angola. He must necessarily be aware of this crime and the impunity with which it took place. But the gesture of the deputy, despite the seriousness it represented, had little impact on the continued impunity with which these types of malfeasances are carried out.

Following this, many houses of the poor were demolished in various Luanda shantytowns and their inhabitants abandoned among the remaining rubble or, under threat of arms of the state, dumped in ‘warehouses of the poor’ such as those the government of the MPLA has erected in Calemba, Zango, and Panguila. These new and emblematic colonial ‘native quarters’ have, paradoxically, been built in Angola following independence. The musical tradition of the common people, which the MPLA used extensively to mobilise the population against Portuguese colonialism has a line that says, ‘they rounded us up in corrals as if we were cattle.’ And now the government of the MPLA, led by José Eduardo dos Santos, is doing exactly the same thing as Portuguese colonialism. These ‘warehouses of the poor’ are a direct manifestation of endo-colonialism (internal colonialism) and the paradigm of urbanisation of the suburbs of Luanda adopted by this MPLA government, to expel the majority of the poor and marginalised population presently living in the capital from the city and outside the reach of basic government services and gainful employment. The phase of planned social apartheid, used by José Eduardo dos Santos to strengthen his regime of endo-colonialism, is now taking form.

At any time other public spaces and many of our homes already marked for demolition may be levelled, with our expulsion serving the private interests of a few. These same few amassed fortunes during the war, even as the war blocked most attempts to promote the general well-being of the population.

Many of our public and private spaces are about to be razed in order to serve or become the property of others for the development – as they see fit – of private projects, allegedly with some public utility, but in the planning of which we have not participated nor have we designated others to participate for us. It is evident that commercial enterprises serve the public in some way and depend on the public for their market. But is it necessary that this ‘public service’ provided by the private sector has to be based on the destruction of our collective property and the expulsion of the rest of us, as is presently taking place?

Various buildings in the city become the object of private appropriation following a predatory stage of negligent and rudderless ‘government management’, leaving them ready to be gutted and turned over to private interests.

The rights and aspirations of all of society are being extinguished in order to build the property base and illicit wealth of the ‘land lords.’ To the detriment of all (but a few), this process makes José Eduardo dos Santos, his agents and clients, co-proprietors of our country (without legal title), transforming it into an immense ‘Fazenda [plantation] Angola,’ which is becoming our collective space of suffering and death. Despite this, it is amazing that this fazenda is still being referred to by these same predacious individuals as a country and state enjoying democracy and the rule of law.

The international community – for whom human rights, the rule of law and democracy are considered essential for human development – is silent in the face of this endo-colonialism. It has become an accomplice rather than run the risk of losing business opportunities with Fazenda Angola. It fears the cooling of relations with the government of José Eduardo dos Santos if it were to contest the predatory crimes that are so abundantly evident. It shamelessly ignores the acts committed against us, as is evident in the praise which it continues to heap on the government of the MPLA led by José Eduardo dos Santos, as the prime minister of Portugal, José Sócrates, recently did at the International Exhibition of Luanda (FILDA). For the representatives of these countries – themselves historical predators of humanity on an international scale – everything is reduced to a question of economic opportunities and modernisation of the market, even claiming it to be a ‘well intentioned’ urban renewal, conveniently ‘understanding’ and accepting the justifications presented publicly to them.

Obviously for those intent on appropriating the state of Angola, the preservation of historical landmarks in the development of Luanda – of its physical configuration, its ancestral buildings and culture as foundations of the Angolan nation – have little interest for the ‘headmen’ of the Angolan ‘democratic market economy,’ presently being built in the mould of colonial economics.

As the history of humanity has long shown, the (persistence of) identifiable values of a dominated society always represent a danger for any dictatorship. These values keep the collective memory of communities alive, sustaining their cohesion and capacity for resistance. Thus in the case of Angola, these values are being erased in order to consequently erase our citizenship, transforming us into zero value in the account ledgers of a political economy which reserves for us a future of docile servitude within a dictatorship of endo-colonialism. This project of endo-colonialism seeks to reproduce in each of us the colonial slave (monangabê) which, in the absence of an irreverent poet like Jacinto, evokes neither lament of the situation nor the rebellion that the process threatens to generate.

If we continue in this direction all we will remember in the future is the work of ‘headman’ José Eduardo dos Santos and of ‘his’ party, the MPLA. The MPLA is the first and principal hostage of the personal hegemony that he exerts over the state and the country. We run the risk of getting to the point where available information will suggest that nothing existed before him and that all that we become, as individuals and as a country, we owe to his predatory saga of material and cultural possessions of the Angolan community. We will thus have the perception that Angola is the invention of José Eduardo dos Santos, which history (if written accurately) will show to be the destroyer of the patrimony and the collective memory of Angola.

If will permits this strategy to be carried to its final consequences by dos Santos and by his principal hostage, the MPLA – once our collective memory has been totally erased – all that will be left of our citizenship will be a shell. We will then, as citizens, be nothing more than an empty casing. Our loss of political space will have reduced us all to the mere appearance of citizens, a state, in fact, in which the majority of us live in the present context. Our situation as citizens, which at the present time is precarious, will, in the gloomy future that the endo-colonialism of José Eduardo dos Santos offers, be one that could result in our being abandoned in ‘warehouses of the poor’ amidst material and cultural rubble. In this Eduardian social apartheid our citizenship will wither away, under guard of a variety of mercenaries using against us the arms of the ‘state’ and Fazenda Angola, despoiled as the land has been and reduced to useless gente gentia, held hostage by the outlaw bands of this dictator.

In response to the invitation of endo-colonialism to develop its project, competent foreign predators have already formed partnerships with Angolan predators by creating companies claiming to be ‘nationalist’, where by co-ownership arrangements the Angolan economic agents own more than 50% of the respective capital. Paraphrasing the Angolan nicknamed the ‘great poet,’ we are objectively faced with the ‘scavenging of the lifeless African corpse’ which denounced the crime, except in this case the scavenging is taking place remorselessly under the direction of José Eduardo dos Santos, heir to the sceptre of Agostinho Neto – poet, physician and the first president of Angola.

If we all cease to struggle, if we anesthetise ourselves with the crumbs that are left on the palace table of the endo-colonial headman or from the fear of seeking freedom, the perverse economic, political and cultural project of endo-colonialism which will restructure the very essence of Angola will be concluded as an extreme but very successful and ‘refined’ violation of our natural condition as humans, free and endowed with basic rights, (theoretically) ‘respected’ in the Eduardian ‘democracy.’

Thus Angola will continue, endo-colonial in nature, to be a great place to live for everyone except Angolans, as denounced by the Angolan singer Dog Murras. As witnessed by its complicity, this situation is not a concern for the ‘democratic humanists’ of the international community, especially in its Angolan manifestation. In particular it does not bother the European states and their commission, whose agents and investors in the Eduardian endo-colonial economy long ago chose to close their eyes in order to satisfy their appetite for petroleum, the expansion of their markets, and the exploitation of other Angolan natural resources. They only see Angola as an el dorado where they can quickly ‘make a killing’ instead of, above all else, seeing our country as a place of human beings equal to themselves.

It seems to me that this will continue until, in another February, we write the names of new heroes in the history of the liberation of Angola. Unfortunately I have a few doubts about this, because our honest and fearless peaceful protests have been of little use. And of even less use still will be, following every new attack, to continue to ‘angelically’ carry to the National Assembly (as did Deputy Lúcio Lara of the MPLA) parts of our demolished lives and soak them with our tears in this ‘cathedral of appearances’ where they present the fantasy of ‘democracy to satisfy the foreigners.’ Mister José Eduardo has declared to us and the world, in all seriousness, that democracy and human rights won’t reduce hunger. Thus in his actions he is being coherent with what he believes.

Having arrived at this point of endo-colonial violence, we can only remind Mr. dos Santos, the headman of Fazenda Angola, along with his employees and the clients of his endo-colonialist project, that they who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. But I also wish, from the depth of my heart, that this harvest will take place through a September of voters rather than a February of heroes which, in reality, is what is being sown by dos Santos’s predatory. Free us, with urgency.

* Luiz Araujo is the director of SOS Habitat, an Angolan NGO.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Dibussi Tande reviews the following from the African blogoshphere:

Grandiose Parlor
Ayobami Ojebode
Chris Blattman’s Blog
The Road to the Horizon
Aloysius Agenda

Thank you for profiling my blog, . You're right, Cairo isn't the best place to find anything even vaguely resembling sanity. LOL I have lived here the sum total of two and a half months and was in Kenya and India prior to that. Sadly my sanity was not to be found in either of those places either.

I have chosen not to comment on the political situation here until I am more familiar with it. Any thoughts I chose to share at this early juncture would not be sufficiently informed by my own observations and experiences as opposed to those fed me by various media outlets. I hope you will check back with me in the future.

In response to: : On the eve of the emergence of South Africa as an independent country, Mr. Mandela was summoned to the US embassy where he met with a representaive of the US Chamber of Commerce who instructed him that the US was opposed to the nationalization policy of the ANC. Indeed, the ANC abandoned the principles for which so many paid with their lives.

The ANC government adopted the IMF and World Bank favoured neoliberal economic principles which advocate for privatization, austerity and deregulation of the so-called "free market". These policies have, indeed widened the gap between the rich and poor in the country.

The process of "manufacturing" millionaires was expedited in order to dangle phony possibilities and opportunities to a people emerging from a brutal system that had dehumanized them and systemically ensured that only white people were entitled to citizenship and all the rights that accrue thereof.

The "cadre deployment" system allowed the ANC to appoint only its members to plump positions in the public and private sectors of the economy. This has resulted in the creation of oligarchs who, a decade ago were "revolutionaries" purporting to fight for the "masses". Go figure!

The author neglects this critical and significant development which has resulted in the paralysis of initiative in favor of mediocrity and incompetence. The so-called masses have no jobs, no means of survival while the ANC leadrship swims in milk and honey. Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa have joined the ranks of the filthy rich in a country that can't afford to feed all its people or adequately take care of its guests and neighbours. I am referring to the xenophobic insanity that targeted fellow African brothers and sisters while the richest immigrants, who come from the west were sipping champagne in the rich white suburbs.

The deposition of Mbeki and the formation of the new party by followers of Terror Lekota, former minister of Defence, will not give rise to any palatable and meaningful change. The squabble among the factions within the ANC is in keeping with the Stalinist tendencies of the organization which have been widely documented. The prospect of senseless violence is looming in the horizon as the fight for the wealth that belongs to all South Africans threatens to engulf the entire country.

One of the major stumbling blocks towards progressive governance is the existence of two constitutions and two constituencies. The ANC abides by, and is loyal to its constitution. Everyone else clings to the hope that the constitution of the country is the supreme document that everyone has pledged allegiance to. Not so! Policies that have national implications are passed during ANC conventions and end up as laws arising from such a charade.

Mr Zuma is not supposed to be under consideration for any national office given his history of breaking the laws of the land. Let's remember that he was fired for corruption by Mbeki. Contrary to what Mr Gumede has stated, Mr Zuma was not exonerated by judge Nicholson. The issue before the judge was whether Mr. Zuma's rights were violated by not allowing him to make representations to the National Prosecuting Authority as required by the constitution in instances where an accused has been previously informed that he would not be prosecuted. Why the judge veered into the internicine strife within the ANC by implicating Mbeki in some conspiracy to have Zuma prosecuted is ludicrous and ridiculous.

South Africa is on an irreversible path to anarchy and self-destruction. The ANC has made sure that it does, so to speak!

Member States from the East African Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (SADC), and Common Markets of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) met in Uganda to discuss the merger of the three economic blocs and the current financial crisis. Leaders of the three communities signed an agreement defining the roadmap for the project that seeks to create Africa’s largest trading bloc with a combined population of over 527 million people and a combined gross domestic product of $624 billion. The plan will be implemented with the signing of a comprehensive accord within six months. Within a year, the three regional communities will develop a legal framework and measures to facilitate the movement of business people, will have a single airspace and an inter-regional broadband Internet network, and will coordinate regional transportation and energy.

Meanwhile, military and defense officials from the EAC member states attended a seminar in Rwanda, the fourth of the five regional series, to discuss strategies on managing defense and sustainable peace in a democratic society and to formulate the East African defense protocol to further the political integration agenda. Meanwhile, climate experts and ministers of the Economic Community of West African States have committed to coordinate their national efforts to combat climate change as a new report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that ‘warming global temperatures can cut West African agricultural production by up to 50 percent by the year 2020’. SADC, one of many regional and sub-regional organisations invited by Zambia to observe this month’s presidential elections, has sent its electoral observer mission to ensure the promotion of common political values and to observe the management and conduct of the elections.

African ministers responsible for mineral resources met to discuss how African mineral exporting countries can gain optimum benefits from increasing exports and the price boom. They have adopted the ‘Africa Mining Vision 2050’, a document prepared by the African Union (AU) to provide a credible scheme for addressing the various challenges crippling the mining sector. The AU Commission chairperson, while addressing the 9th meeting of the Regional Consultation Mechanisms of the United Nations agencies and organisations working in Africa on food crisis and climate change, called for an urgent review of African agricultural policies to prioritise and better integrate them in national budgets and development interventions. In addition, the department of trade and industry of the AU Commission in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and the government of South Africa organised the Conference of African Ministers of Industry (CAMI-18) under the theme ‘the Acceleration of Industrial Development of Africa - the need for Value Addition and Industrial Transformation’.

The African Development Bank in partnership with the AU Commission will organise a conference of Africa’s finance ministers and central bank governors to examine the effects of the global financial crisis on African economies and how to mobilise a common response to the crisis. African ministers in charge of public service, at their sixth conference, adopted, among other resolutions, the draft of the African Public Service charter with the amendments for presentation to the assembly of heads of state and government of the AU. African heads of state and government who are members of the African Peer Review Mechanism attended their first extraordinary summit in Benin to further look at the review report on the Federal Republic of Nigeria and to begin examining the report on Burkina Faso. In his introductory statement, the president of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe, recognising that the land issue ‘represents a harsh manifestation of the colonial legacy and the gross historical injustices that shape land ownership patterns in Africa today’, addressed the topic in the context of resource control and management.

Meanwhile, the European Union Commission has expressed their willingness to work with China to develop African infrastructure and to ensure that its natural resources are well managed while identifying and addressing other areas for trilateral cooperation. African Development Bank Group President, Donald Kaberuka, while meeting with non governmental organisations, focused on the impact of Bank operations on the lives of small-scale farmers and rural populations in accessing drinking water, sanitation and electricity.

In peace and security related news, the AU Panel of the Wise welcomed resolutions adopted by the Peace and Security Council of the AU to balance the fight against impunity and the promotion of reconciliation in the Sudanese region of Darfur. The Panel further called on Sudanese parties to extend their full cooperation to the AU, the United Nations and the League of Arab States efforts to restore lasting peace in the region. The organ Troika of SADC heads of State and government met in the Kingdom of Swaziland in an extra-ordinary summit to review and consult on the political and security situation in Zimbabwe, the Kingdom of Lesotho and in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. In the meantime, SADC postponed a crisis meeting on the political instability in Zimbabwe after the government refused to renew the passport of Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai for him to travel to Swaziland. However, crisis talks continued in Zimbabwe in a bid to save the Kenya-style power-sharing deal in danger of collapse over cabinet-sharing disagreements between President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. A spokesperson for Somali insurgents admitted responsibility for attacks on AU forces, telling local media that they have killed at least seven soldiers, but, the Somali military deny the claim. During a round table discussion of the AU-UN panel on the support of regional peacekeeping operations, the AU was urged to find sustainable mechanisms to support Africa’s mediation, peacemaking and peacekeeping efforts.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights will hold the 44th ordinary session in Abuja, Nigeria from November 10-24, and the Forum on the Participation of NGOs in the Ordinary Sessions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights will be held from the 7-9 of November. In other news, former president Festus Gontebanye Mogae of Botswana is the winner of the 2008 Mo Ibrahim Prize for good governance in Africa. The annual award is given to former sub-Sahara African heads of state or government who were democratically elected and demonstrated good governance.

Finally, a report presented to the second session of the conference of African ministers of culture announced that the great museum of Africa will be built in Algeria and must express the present and the future of Africa’s freedom from colonialism and racism as well as the characteristics that realise African unity.

Underlining the fundamental absence of an effective legal framework around the mining sector’s increasing presence and power in the West African region, Moussa K. Traoré assesses the social and economic impacts of an industry that has uncovered riches for countries’ leaders while leaving local populations excluded and deprived. Concluding that far greater information and dialogue are needed between the companies, authorities, and local stakeholders, the author argues for an increased role for civil society as a means of ensuring industry benefits become more widespread.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/404/Mine_Zimbabwe_tmb.jpgRefle… on an Institut Panos Afrique de l’Ouest (IPAO) training workshop for West African journalists held at beginning of October, Tidiane Kassé provides an introduction to the murky world of extractive industry in the region and the role of the media in informing public opinion.

Nigeria's Supreme Court on Thursday deferred ruling on a challenge to President Umaru Yar'Adua's April 2007 election victory, but did not set a date for handing down its final judgement. Former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari and former vice president Atiku Abubakar, Yar'Adua's main challengers in last year's polls, have appealed to the Supreme Court to annul his victory in an election deemed flawed by foreign and local observers.