By Aleks Tapinsh

With the ownership of the largest daily newspaper, Diena [LV], in question, many journalists in Latvia fear business interests and political influence would rule the news coverage ahead of the October parliamentary elections.

“Who is behind Diena,” read last week’s front page headline of the newsweekly Ir. “One year after a change in ownership there appeared a shadow of the oligarchs and a question: Does Latvia still have a free press?”

“The situation is very, very sad, because elections are coming,” a former Diena journalist Gunta Sloga told Swedish radio (SWE). “Many people will not be able to get objective information before the vote, and especially problematic it becomes for those who live in the countryside and do not have an access to the Internet.”

Sloga and a few others had quit the newspaper in 2009 over lack of transparency in the sale from the Swedish company Bonnier. The new owners installed a new manager, who lasted there almost a year. Meanwhile, the owners said the newspaper would maintain its professional integrity. Tralmaks unexpectedly quit in July, bringing the issue of integrity back into the light. The owners appointed Sergejs Ancupovs, the former press secretary for the former prime minister, Valdis Birkavs, as well as a leader of a think-tank connected to certain political parties, to run the newspaper.

On July 20, journalist Kārlis Streips wrote [LV] on his Politika.lv blog:

I'm in deep mourning for Diena. When the first professional journalists departed, I wrote that Diena would still be my newspaper. Now, I don't have a newspaper in Latvia any more. For professional reasons, I'll continue to subscribe, but it'll be all.

In a video [LV] posted on the Diena newspaper’s web site, Ancupovs declined to answer questions about who approached him for this job.

“You know, we won’t be doing that kind of investigation,” he said, after explaining that the Diena newspaper will continue to maintain its objectivity and will not be a subject to political influence.

“Let’s assume that I have fallen from Mars,” he said, calling two journalists who interviewed him, “girls.”

Ancupovs said in a radio interview that the newspaper has always had a political influence. And it will continue to do so.

Jānis Buholcs writes [LV] that the recent change in Diena leadership means it is no longer necessary to hide under the pretense of being above the political influence. Buholcs responds to Ancupovs:

Media controlled by politicians is not the same as media that have their own political sympathies, which those openly espouse. The system of Putin and Berlusconi is not the same as an op-ed in a newspaper.

Pods.lv wonders [LV] if the newspaper's purchase was “the most expensive election campaign”:

If we are to believe information that Diena and Dienas Bizness were paid for 7 million lats (US$13 million), then that's a very expensive toy.

Let's assume that the goal is to influence the election results with the help from these two media outlets and after that liquidate them both. I think it would be too expensive for an election campaign.

On the other hand, considering the amounts of money the plotters could get in many different public bids and purchase requests, then 7 million is nothing but small change.

By Veronica Khokhlova

All About Latvia writes about Saskaņas Centrs (”The Harmony Center”), Lativa's “most popular” political bloc.

By Veronica Khokhlova

Raf Uzar writes about the outcome of the Polish presidential election and the “rydzykisation” of the country.

By Janine Mendes-Franco

KnowTnT.com republishes the results of the country's recently-held local government elections.

By Veronica Khokhlova

Notes and updates on the upcoming 2011 presidential election in Belarus - at BelarusDigest (here, here, and here).

By Janine Mendes-Franco

“For twenty years, successive governments ignored calls from citizens both prominent and ordinary for a formal probe”: On the anniversary of the 1990 attempted coup d'etat, The Caribbean Review of Books believes “it’s time to face the truth and its consequences.”

By Janine Mendes-Franco

As the People's Partnership once more trumps the People's National Movement - this time in the local government elections - B.C. Pires quips: “How much licks can one party take?”

By Rezwan

Narahang at KitaitiSaathi opines that the Nepali politicians should be bold enough to consider a native leader while electing the next Prime Minister of Nepal.

By Sara Moreira

The 25th of July 2010 is a voting day for local and regional government in São Tomé & Príncipe. Blog OPLOP posts a report about the political system and the current electoral situation in a country that celebrates its 35th anniversary this month [pt].

By Gael Brassac

On July 20th, the incumbent President of Rwanda Paul Kagame has officially launched his campaign for another term in office. The campaign will end on August 9th when the election results are scheduled be made official.  Kagame  is determined to win with a similar  comfortable margin [fr] as in 2003 when he won his presidential bid with 95% of recorded votes.

There are  only three challengers running against the Rwandan Patriotic Front’s leader, two former ministers and one senator  who supported him during the 2003 presidential elections: Jean-Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, for the Social Democratic Party, Prosper Higiro for Liberal Party and Alvera Mukabaramba for the Party of Progress and Concord. But where is the real opposition?

Sonia LG from the blog Good Morning Afrika [fr] attempts to provide an answer:

Chasse aux opposants :
-Le parti démocratique vert, lancé en août 2009, par des transfuges du Front patriotique rwandais (FPR), actuellement au pouvoir : qui n'a pas été agréé par les autorités et dont le premier vice-président André Kagwa Rwisereka a été assassiné la semaine dernière.
- Le parti social : Bernard Ntaganda son membre fondateur a été exclu du parti et arrêté le 24 juin et placé sous contrôle judiciaire (accusé de “terrorisme” et d'”incitation génocidaire”.
- Les Forces démocratiques unifiées dont la présidente Victoire Ingabire a aussi été inculpée et placée sous contrôle judiciaire pour “propagation d'idéologie génocidaire”.

Harassment of the political opposition:

-         The Green Party: it was launched in August 2009 by defectors from the RPF party, currently in power. This party was not approved by the authorities and its vice-president André Kagwa Rwisereka was murdered last week.

-         The Social Imberakuri Party [fr]: its founder member Bernard Ntaganda was excluded from his party and arrested on June 24th and he is currently placed under custody pending trial for charges of  ”terrorism” and ”genocidal ideology”)

-         The Unified Democratic Forces:  The party president Victoire Ingabire was also charged  and placed under a custody pending trial for “propagation of genocidal ideology.”

Kris Berwouts, director of the European NGO network for the defence of Central Africa EurAc, stressed the difficulties faced by the opposition parties before the 2010 presidential elections:

Nous avons vu comment les partis d’opposition, qui se préparaient pour la campagne électorale, ont été écartés et comment l’espace politique s’est verrouillé à travers :

• le monopole du régime sur les médias, lesquels ont diabolisé de façon permanente les partis d’opposition et leurs leaders ;
• l’intimidation verbale et physique des partis d’opposition, de leurs leaders, de leurs cadres et militants ;
• la création d’un cadre légal qui permet au régime d’entamer en peu de temps une démarche juridique contre laquelle l’opposition peut difficilement se défendre (fondée sur les accusations de diffusion de l’idéologie génocidaire et du divisionnisme, notions très larges et volontairement peu précisées dans la loi). Ce cadre paralyse les leaders de l’opposition dans leurs activités quotidiennes et est utilisé pour les empêcher d’exercer leurs droits politiques ;
• une politique administrative qui vise à empêcher l’opposition de se faire enregistrer, de s’implanter, d’organiser des réunions ou de se faire connaître auprès du grand public ;
• l’infiltration des partis d’opposition pour les déstabiliser de l’intérieur.

As the opposition parties were preparing for their electoral campaigns, we witnessed how they  had been isolated and how the political scene was restricted using the following measures:

• the regime's monopoly over media, which has constantly diabolized the opposition parties and their leaders;
• verbal and physical intimidation of the opposition parties, their leaders, their executives and militants;
• the creation of a legal framework which enables the regime to rapidly start  legal steps against the opposition parties which can hardly defend themselves (mainly because the accusations of propagation of genocidal ideology and ethnic divisionism are deliberately vague  and overarching legal concepts). This framework paralyzes opposition leaders in their daily activities and is used to ward them off  of  their political rights;
• administrative policies that are trying to prevent the opposition party from registering, getting organized, holding meetings or getting publicity with the general population;
• Infiltration of the opposition parties in order to destabilize them from the inside.

High-ranking officers and Kagame’s former confidents were also  targeted in the pre-election tensions.  As a matter of fact, General Nyamwasa, in exile in Johannesburg, South Africa since February 2010 was shot in front of his house on June 19 after having expressed vigorous charges of corruption in the Kagame  government. In April, two other generals, Emmanuel Karenzi Karake and Charles Muhire were suspended and arrested [fr], the first for immoral behaviour and the second for corruption. All of them are allegedly guilty of terrorism and a reorganization of the command of the army quickly occurred afterwards.

Finally, the press has also come under pressure. In April 2010, two newspapers, Umuseso and Umuvuguzi were suspended for six months [fr] by Rwandan authorities, accused of “libel and interferences with privacy”. On June 24th, the Umuvuguzi editor in chief Jean-Leonard Rubambage was murdered a day after publishing an article accusing Rwandan secret services to be the instigator of General Nyamwasa’s assassination [fr]. According to the police, the murderer' s motive was to avenge the death of one of his relatives whom Ruganbage would have allegedly killed. It was the first murderer of a journalist since 1998. Few days later on July 8th, Agnès Uwimana Nkusi, editor of the newspaper Uurabyo, was arrested on charges of sectarianism, discrimination, genocide denial and public incitation to hate. She has already spent one year in jail for similar facts between January 2007 and January 2008.

By scorning fundamental civil rights, increasing dubious arrests and unforgivable murders of political leaders and journalists, the man of the reconciliation Kagame  who stabilized  the political and social climate after the 1994 genocide, has re-opened the scars left by the most horrific  period of Rwandan history.  There were numerous trials conducted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda about the genocide since 1994.  The President who has has used limitation of genocidal ideology to justify the recent arrests  has received strong support on the Internet. His supporters will probably come out in force to attend to his expected victory on August 9th. Kagame will then further establish his control over Rwanda. The question is, is it  for better or for worse ?

By Ndesanjo Macha

“Successful Presidential election means the country is now in a position to move forward and join the other independent states of the world,” reads a press release from Somaliland Forum.

By Janine Mendes-Franco

“The fastest route for Guyana to get to the point of being a prosperous country is to find a leader who rejects disunity in all its forms…and embraces the diversity of this beautiful country”: The Guyana Groove wants to know whether people are loyal to party or country.

By Rezwan

Bhola B Rana reports in Nepal today that the election of Nepalese Prime Minister is due today and four Madesh parties are boycotting the election.

By Ndesanjo Macha

Could Nigeria turn into a one-party states?” “There is nothing more dangerous for a developing democracy than for it's citizens to have no idea of when the next elections will be. For some reason, in this, the 21st century, that is indeed the case for Nigeria.”

By Vilhelm Konnander

Raf Uzar discusses how Poland's national unity following the death of the country's president earlier this year now has evaporated, as politics return to old conflicts and fault lines.

By Kevin Rennie

(Julia Gillard - digital. © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

Just twenty-three days after deposing Kevin Rudd, our ranga (redhead) Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called a general election for 21 August. The Oz blogosphere is looking for substance not just spin in this campaign.

Guy Beres in his self-tilted blog hopes that the campaign will go beyond sound bites and catchcries:

In her noon press conference announcing the election date, Julia Gillard was organised, precise in her language, and confident. She looked and acted like a Prime Minister. She was convincing, but her mindless re-iteration of Labor’s election mantra du jour, “moving forward”, felt forced and was truly grating.
Game on for Saturday 21st August

At the phonic The Orstrahyun, Darryl Mason also feared boredomfrom s shallow campaign:

It's a corny phrase already making people grind their teeth, less than 24 hours after the election date of August 21 was announced.

But he is more concerned about the role of the mainstream media in supporting the dominance of the two party system in Australia:

It's about Gillard & Abbott doing everything they can to stop The Greens from gaining the balance of power in the Australian senate, and completely undermining the two party system that has served Australia's richest people so faithfully for so many decades. It's fortunate then that the Labor Party and the Liberals/Nationals coalition can rely on the full support of the Australian Murdoch media doing everything they can to scare people away from voting for The Greens.
Standing Up, Moving Forward, Falling Asleep

Wooly Days‘ Derek Barry was also worried about the media’s role in the political debate:

The problem for journalism is that most journalists are employed by corporate media. The single biggest threat to democracy is the corporation itself with its profit motive subsuming all other motives to the fatal detriment of the body politic. That means large numbers of lobbyists, PR flacks and lawyers working only to make more money for their company. People who don't see society, only consumers.
What if they gave an election and nobody came?

Other bloggers have expressed concerns that personal rather than policy issues may play an unwanted role.

Mia Freedman at Mamamia blogs about ‘pop culture, politics, body image, food, motherhood, feminism, fashion and celebrity’. She has other concerns about the way the Prime minister may be presented in the media:

It only took a few days and now the first conservative columnist has sounded the alarm bell: parents, lock up your daughters. We have a Prime Minister who is living in sin and she’s going to corrupt the kiddies.
Really?
PM Julia Gillard is a bad influence because she’s in a defacto relationship. Wait, is this 2010?

There have also been suggestions that Gillard’s atheism may be a factor in the election but few bloggers have tackled this one head-on as yet.

@laepingjudas – unhinged and uncensored canvassed the potential impact of the PM’s personal life:

I don’t give a toss that she is a woman (or more importantly, a ranga), unmarried and childless – how do any of those things impact on the ability of a person to conduct themselves in the best interests of the nation?

They don’t, but we are, of course, going to see the tired old clichés that revolve around such issues wheeled out ad infinitum by the unthinking majority; particularly those of a conservative bent.
Julia Gillard – a ranga atheist Prime Minister… who cares?

Brisbanite Kellie of Gen X Journey highlighted the mainstream media’s fixation with fashion and hairstyle:

So poor old Julia trotted out to an event wearing what critics call a cheap motel bedspread. Sure it wasn’t to my taste, but what a way to shoot a girl down. She tried, she failed and now they’ve brought in every fashion consultant in the country to give her advice.
What’s Julia wearing today? Should we even care? There’s an election coming up for heaven’s sake.

The question of her being Australia’s first woman PM has certainly been raised, as indicated in my earlier post Australia: Dramatic Fall of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

One disaffected blogger tried to explain to his young child why the former PM had disappeared from the TV screen:

Bear, 3 and a half years old: ‘Where's Kevin Rudd?'

I'm stumped. I want to give her a neutral take, let her get all the positives from seeing a woman in a position of power. Despite my own disappointment at the consummate sell-out she, and Labor, now represent …
3 year old politics: ‘Where's Kevin Rudd?'

This rather cynical comment on Paradise Feeds greeted the news of the election:

I kinda like these elections held in 30 days – wouldn’t have to listen to the lies for two years that way
floridagold

Grog’s Gamut was just as cynical about political spin and the PM’s sloganeering when analysing her announcement speech:

There’s not much point analysing the words – they’re focus group dross. Such speeches always are.

Enjoy the next 5 weeks; just don’t expect logic and political fortitude to play a big role.
Election 2010: Day 1 (or let’s check with a focus group – it might be Day Zero)

For those who don’t like slogans, there is a twitter tag to have their say: #mofo

Landscape artist Andy Dolphin used his art blog My Week in Art to give us his caricature of the new PM:

For several weeks I've been attempting to capture her in a caricature without going for the obvious profile shot with the exaggerated nose as the focal point. Despite what this news story might imply, there's more to Ms Gillard than her nose.
Julia Gillard: Digital caricature

The caricature is the one featured above.

Let’s hope the campaign moves on from moving forward fairly quickly.

By Lova Rakotomalala

A historical presidential election is underway in Guinea as the official results of the first round [fr] are about to be made official. The second round is scheduled for August 1st [fr] because examinations of fraud allegations has pushed back the original scheduled date of July 18th. Unofficial polls of the first round seem to indicate that Cellou Dalein Diallo and Alpha Condé would have a good chance to move on to the second round.

Despite the punctual allegations of fraud, the overall sentiment is that of relief and satisfaction that the polls were done without any turmoil so far and a remarkable voters turnout [fr].  There was also an important increase in online media conversation related to the elections. Bloggers have addressed several topics from the fraud allegations that have surfaced, the peaceful proceedings and the concern that ethnicity might have driven most of the voters' choice.

The authorities also revealed yesterday that theyhave uncovered a plot to destabilize the second round of voting (source: VOA News and BBC Afrique [fr] ).

Fraud was discussed at length within the Guinean blogosphere, even prior to the first round poll.   Guinee58 posts a sample of the  ballot that  was made available to the voters for the first round [fr]:

Guinean Ballot photo courtesy of http://Guinee50.com

Laura Hirahara at Impunity watch provides a context about the fraud allegations and the confirmed ones:

The first round of voting on July 27th, in which 77 percent of registered Guinea voters took part, occurred without violence.  However, since the results were announced by Guinea’s Supreme Court, many of the 24 candidates that did not make the run-off have made official complaints of voter fraud. The electoral commission charged with investigating voting irregularities has confirmed “many cases of fraud,” in addition to the claims being made.

Details of  frauds in a few cities in North Guinea were reported online.  In Faranah et de Siguiri, the following allegations were made [fr]:

A Faranah, le chef du quartier  a été surpris en train de voter au Bureau N° 346, avec 75 (Soixante quinze) cartes d’électeurs subtilisées. Ensuite, dans la Commune urbaine de Siguiri,  la commission administrative de centralisation des votes n’a pu dépouiller  que 2 Bureaux sur 71. Le reste des résultats sont arrivés dans la salle, sans enveloppes sécurisées.

In Faranah, the head of the community was found to have voted with 75 stolen electoral registrations in the bureau N 346. Then, in the urban borough of Siguiri,  the administrative commission of ballot collection could only count 2 out of 71 offices. The rest of the results arrived in the counting room without  sealed envelopes.

Conakry a Flickr photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/attawayjl/

Siaka Kouyaté at Actu Guinee reports that two arrests were made following charges of registration card fabrication [fr]:

Le commerçant dénommé Diallo Sadakadji et son fils, tous deux coupables d’édition et de distribution de près d’un million de fausses cartes d’électeurs, ont été arrêtés hier, mercredi, 30 juin 2010, à leur domicile à Kaporo, dans la Commune de Ratoma.

A merchant named Diallo Sadakadji and his son were arrested on June 30 2010 at their home in Kaporo on the borough of Ratoma under the charge of printing and distributing about one million false voter registration cards.

Les Electeurs Testeurs would like to go beyond the allegations of fraud and wonder what the second round means for the future of Guinea as they going forward [fr]:

Pour le reste, le repli identitaire ne marchera plus. Il faut des alliances. Et seule l’objectivité pourra guider désormais le choix des autres ethnies en majorité les jeunes à aller vers l’un des deux candidats en liste pour le second tour de la présidentielle.

For the rest now, it seems the voting according to ethnic identity will not work anymore. One will have to make alliances. Therefore, only objectivity can guide the choice of the other ethnicities, especially the young ones as they will select between one of the two candidates left for the second round of the presidential elections.

Les Electeurs Testeurs discuss further ethnocentrism as a factor in the electoral vote and argues that it was overblown in the media and that Guineans were able to look past ethnic considerations [fr]:

Contrairement à cette image véhiculée par les medias, celle d’une Guinée où la réconciliation serait utopique, nous avons vu une autre Guinée durant ces campagnes qui s’achèvent. Les populations de la Guinée profonde ont su réservé cette surprise à tous les candidats en se mettant au dessus des clivages ethniques. Mais malheureusement, un incident a troublé cette atmosphère paisible hier. C’est une première et encore une fois c’est l’intérêt national qui a prévalu. La Guinée est et reste une famille.

Contrary to the image portrayed in the media in which a reconciliation in Guinea was an utopia, we saw a different Guinea as these campaigns came to an end. Guineans surprised the candidates and put ethnic cleavage behind them. There was one unfortunate incident that troubled the peaceful scene yesterday. I was an isolate incident and the national interest prevailed. Guinea is and will always be one big family.

The non-violent atmosphere was a welcome sight everywhere given the incident of the years passed. Journalists agree this was an important step. Journalist Souleymane Diallo opines via the blog Guinea Oye:

the country’s first free vote since independence from France in 1958 was “a renaissance, an important step in the liberation of Guinea. Up until now there had never been a proper election in Guinea. This is the first time it was impossible to know the name of the future president the day before the vote”

Every Guineans hope that patience and reason will prevail as the results of the first round are posted. One electoral observer offers the following take on the election proceedings so far:

They’ve been patient, they’ve been enormously good natured and I think genuinely relieved because they have never had a vote in this country, which was not rigged by the government in power. So, that there is a sense that they really want change and they are in such a good mood

Global Voices Guinean author Abdoulaye Bah contributed with links to this article.