A few days ago the junta published a transition charter which states that new elections will eventually take place (date to be determined by a council) and that "all those taking part in the transition will be banned from running" apnews.com/article/africa…
What stands out here seems to be that we don't know how long the transition will be and thus, how long the now Acting President Doumbouya will serve in his role
ECOWAS says they want elections within 6 months, and they've already imposed sanctions on the junta. But Doumbouya's stance towards ECOWAS can also be seen as confrontational, exemplified by this photo of him greeting Cote D'Ivoire leader Alassane Ouattara armed with his pistol
As a note, there's a lot of fake news going around about Doumbouya. For example, this letter purported to be written by him where he tells Uganda's Museveni not to lecture Guinea about democracy is most likely not real
It does show how some in other countries are using Doumbouya as a folk hero figure to express frustrations about their own leadership and government corruption. Even some ECOWAS leaders are sympathetic toward Doumbouya, though Guinea has been suspended from both ECOWAS and the AU
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Zelensky is named in the Pandora Papers for offshore accounts set up *before* the election. You have to feel bad for Ukrainians, who trusted him enough to give him 73% of the vote... after he spent the campaign railing against the exact same thing theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/…
The question is where do Ukrainians even go after being betrayed by the politicians who engaged in corruption and the comedian who hammered politicians for engaging in corruption
It's not like Zelensky's government has been smooth sailing until this point, and he's still polling first. Not sure to what degree this news will take hold either. Polls and his approval rating remain important indicators here
Today's Activa poll for the Chilean presidential election shows pro-Pinochet candidate José Antonio Kast in second place, which would put him in the run-off
However at the moment, the same poll shows left-wing candidate Boric is expected to crush Kast in a second round
I like how the standard polisci argument for why the American electoral system is unfair under FPTP but will never change is just that legislators will never vote against their own interests. As if that isn't terrible
To some degree it's true but it's a mistake to think that's something set in iron, and effective mass movements could have a lot of influence here
Hard mode: A third party (I know Yang wants this but anyone really famous could run as a "reformer" and sweep Congress in 2/3 cycles if they're popular enough and truly cut across demographics. That's a *huge* lift)
Easy mode: Run someone in the major parties committed to reform
South Africa's former finance minister wants discussion of a referendum on autonomy or independence for the Cape region to be halted, saying "We are one united country" (via @Ellibec) citizen.co.za/news/south-afr…
A recent poll showed that 48% of voters in the province of Western Cape said yes to the idea of becoming independent
Even the ANC has had to comment on this apparently. This recent press release (yesterday) from the Cape Independence Advocacy Group says the ANC might be open to a referendum but they'd want all of South Africa to vote on the issue capeindependence.org/post/watershed…
Also running and losing can arguably help your next campaign by shoring you up in terms of name recognition. Which is why we know who Zephyr Teachout is, and why she's able to mount these kinds of high profile campaigns, because she challenged Cuomo despite incredibly long odds
This is pretty much what it comes down to in any situation, no matter how annoying "oh, they're trying AGAIN" might seem
Rome is about to hold its mayoral election. On the ballot is Sergio Iacomoni AKA Nero, running with his "Nero List" ("Lista Nerone").
Iacomoni is a well-known Roman Empire reenactor who has traveled the world with his historical society and says he wants to "resurrect Rome"
Hardcore
The platform for the Nero List (Full name: "Roman Historical Movement - Nero List") involves heavy subsidizing of traditional Roman festivals and music, as well as a promise to "sponsor bagpipers in each municipality" movimentostoricoromano.it/programma