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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Is Bernie Sanders still in with a chance? It is a slim one, but in these primary elections one never knows. There have been a number of surprising upsets.
Even if Joe Biden comes out on top and has to face Donald Trump for the presidency the Democratic Party has been pushed to the left by Senator Sanders. That is all to the good.
By Reinhard Jacobsen
BRUSSELS | PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (IDN) – Former secretary general of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group, Dr. Patrick I. Gomes whose five-year tenure concluded end of February, has called on "all political leaders to let the rule of law prevail and the country remain calm".
He told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC): "Guyana has always been held in high regard for good governance and respected by the 79-member countries of the ACP family of nations, so it is expected that this will continue in the interest of the good of all, Guyana and the Caribbean."
By Franck Kuwonu, Africa Renewal
NEW YORK (IDN) – Voters across the continent will be heading to the ballot box this year to choose their leaders in presidential, parliamentary and local elections ending with Ghana in December.
Comorians will be electing a new 33-member national assembly following presidential elections in 2019 while Ghanaians will select their parliamentarians and president on 7 December.
Viewpoint by John Newsinger*
This is the first of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.
LONDON (IDN) – Donald Trump was elected to the United States presidency in 2016 by the votes of the Christian right. Some 81 percent of evangelical Christians, who made up a third of the total electorate, voted for him.
Viewpoint by Mary C. Murphy*
CORK, Ireland (IDN) – Ireland’s traditionally centre-right conservative political system has been rocked by a wave of support for Sinn Féin in the February 8 general election. The previously small left-wing republican party, with historic links to the paramilitary Provisional Irish Republican Army, now has legitimate ambitions to form part of the next Irish government in coalition with other parties.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Following an exhaustive review of petitions submitted by the opposition, judges of the Malawian Constitutional Court ruled against Peter Mutharika whose presidential victory in May 2019 was attributed to massive fraud.
Veteran diplomat Vernon Mwaanga of neighboring Zambia said the Court raised the bar for African countries where elections are plagued by irregularities.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – A prominent university lecturer, poet and gender rights activist has been ordered to serve nine more months in prison for the 'crime' of criticizing President Yoweri Museveni on Facebook.
The sentence outraged rights activists. Joan Nyanyuki, director for East Africa at Amnesty International said: “This verdict flies in the face of Uganda’s obligations to uphold the right to freedom of expression. It demonstrates the depths of the government’s intolerance of criticism.”
By Radwan Jakeem
NEW YORK (IDN) – The Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan is living through an historical transition. For the first time since the country adopted the Constitutional Law on the independence of the Republic and held the first presidential election in 1991, Nursultan Nazarbayev is not contesting the forthcoming polls on June 9, 2019.
He was elected for a fifth term in the 2015 elections and was entitled to hold the office of the President until 2020. But he stunned the nation March 19, announcing during a nationally televised address that he would be relinquishing the office he had held for nearly three decades.
By Sean Buchanan
LONDON (IDN) – Amid a deterioration of trust in democracy, people around the world clearly disillusioned with formal political institutions are turning their anger into protest.
Besides being self-seeking, the political class is seen as riddled with corruption, leading to a situation where democratic progress has slowed to a near halt. Indeed, even some countries which had been demonstrating robust and open governance systems are now starting to backslide with democratic norms, while their institutions are under threat.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In the Western world there is a constant debate about democracy. In the U.S. the Democrats charge quite correctly that the House’s constituencies are gerrymandered against them. Then there’s the insoluble issue of the Senate’s anti-democratic bias where its numbers are tilted against the Democrats by the fact that rural, less populated, states which tend to be conservative, elect two senators, just as do the Democratic-inclined, heavily populated, states.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.