On April 17th presidential elections are scheduled in Algeria. The current president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been in power for the last fifteen years, will run again. His candidature has caused a lot of resistance by opponents, which have staged several protests. Next to the current president, eleven candidates have registered for the elections. The Constitutional Council have examined all applications and approved those of six candidates. Despite this number, changes that Bouteflika will win again are huge.
Op 14 maart vond in de Rode Hoed te Amsterdam een burgerdialoog plaats met Europees Commissaris voor Justitie, Burgerschap en Fundamentele Rechten en tevens vicevoorzitter, Viviane Reding, en burgemeester Eberhard van der Laan onder leiding van Caroline de Gruyter.
In Nigeria zijn de afgelopen week meer dan tweehonderd mensen gedood toen mannen op motors verschillende dorpen onder vuur namen en huizen in brand staken. Vermoedelijk waren het Fulani herders die een wraakactie uitvoerden. De herders zijn al jaren in een vete verwikkeld met de Hausa boeren. Ze beschuldigen de boeren ervan grond die voor hun kuddes bestemd is te gebruiken als landbouwgrond. Die grond is voor beiden cruciaal. De herders stelen vee, vernietigen landbouwgrond en –producten en voeren dit soort wraakacties uit om hun grond terug te winnen en de boeren te verdrijven. De boeren vrezen dat de herders steeds meer georganiseerd en heviger bewapend worden. Omdat de politie niet genoeg ingrijpt, en de grond nog steeds betwist wordt, komt er voorlopig geen eind aan deze vete.
Exit polls predict a landslide victory for the centre-right Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the parliamentary elections of Sunday 16 March. Winning almost half of all votes, the SNS will gain an overall majority in the Serbian parliament. SNS leader, Alexander Vucic, is widely believed to become Serbia’s new prime minister. The turnout was 50.3 percent, 3.3 percent less than the last elections in 2012.
Following a referendum on Sunday 16 March, Crimea declared itself an independent state on Monday 17 March. The newly formed Republic of Crimea formally applied to join the Russian Federation the same day. The West claims the referendum to be illegal and says it will impose new sanctions.
In Turkey, tensions soared on 11 and 12 March when tens of thousands of people took to the streets and gathered to mourn the death of Berkin Elvan. He died after being in a coma for nine months. Last June he was hit on the head by a tear-gas canister while going to buy bread during the protests against the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He was a symbol for the police brutality that, among others, caused the Gezi-protests of last year to escalate. These protests started as a relatively small environmentalist movement to save Istanbul's central Gezi Park but evolved into a nationwide wave of protests against Erdoğan, who is seen as increasingly authoritarian.
On Wednesday 12 March, the European Parliament agreed on a framework for sanctions against Russia. The sanctions would impose travel bans and asset freezes on people and firms Brussels believes to have violated the integrity of Ukraine. The EU is prepared to take harsher measures such as arms embargo’s and trade measures, if need be.
De No REDD in Africa Network (NRAN) heeft op 12 maart in een open brief naar de VN en de Keniaanse regering opgeroepen om het REDD project in Kenia te annuleren om zo gedwongen verhuizingen van de Sengwer gemeenschap te stoppen. Het REDD initiatief: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, is bedoeld om de uitstoot van broeikasgassen te verminderen maar brengt in Kenia negatieve gevolgen voor de inheemse bevolking met zich.
Libya’s Prime Minster, Ali Zeidan, was ousted by parliament, the General National Congress, after a vote of no confidence on Tuesday 11 March. Zeidan was blamed for letting an oil tanker, laden with rebel sold oil, escape naval forces. Zeidan will be temporarily replaced by Defence Minister Abdallah al-Thinni.
On 30 January Serbia president Tomislav Nikolic called early parliamentary elections for 16 March. According to the president Serbia “shall certainly get a government with more energy and enthusiasm and released from problems that this government has solved.” The coalition government, in which the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is the main party, explained its request for early elections by the need to ensure ‘as wide as possible support for accelerated reforms and modernization of Serbia’. However, the fact that SNS is skyrocketing in all polls (above 40%) is considered as crucial factor for SNS to go to the polls and having its leader Aleksandar Vucic as prime minister.
