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| Nigeria postpones parliamentary vote to Monday Posted: 02 Apr 2011 06:08 AM PDT ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria postponed parliamentary elections until Monday after voting materials failed to arrive in many areas, a major blow to hopes of a break with a history of chaotic polls in Africa's most populous nation.
"The decision we have taken is weighty indeed but it is an important step in further ensuring the credibility of the 2011 elections," Attahiru Jega, head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said in a televised address. Voting materials failed to arrive in the capital Abuja and other regions, including Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom states in the southern oil-producing Niger Delta, Plateau state in the central "Middle Belt" and Borno in the remote northeast. "At the moment I have ballot papers for the House of Representatives but no results sheets. For the Senate I have results sheets but no ballot papers," Maria Owi, resident electoral commissioner in Akwa Ibom, told Reuters. Jega blamed the delay on a failure to get voter materials shipped in from outside Nigeria on time, but was confident everything would be in place for the vote to go ahead on Monday. The parliamentary polls are seen as a test of whether Nigeria can break with a history of vote fraud and violence. Presidential elections are due in a week's time and governorship votes in the 36 states a week after that. Jega made no suggestion of any delay to those ballots. The electoral commission has put in place tougher measures to prevent cheating and intimidation, which raised such doubts over the last elections in 2007 that foreign observers said they may not have reflected the will of the people. Voters had gathered eagerly to register at polling stations across the country's two most populous cities -- the commercial hub Lagos in the south and Kano in the north -- but elsewhere tempers were frayed by the delays. "This time around, for the first time, we want to get it right so that when people see Nigerians, they do not say 'that is a problem nation'," said community development worker Solomon Gbinigie in the populous Ebute Metta district of Lagos, ahead of the postponement. Gunshots in the volatile oil-producing Niger Delta also raised worries of more violence. Successful elections in Africa's giant would be another fillip for foreign investment in Nigeria and across the fast-growing continent as well as strengthening Nigeria's international clout. But failure could raise questions about how well-entrenched democracy is, more than a decade after the end of military rule. (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/ ) (Additional reporting by Reuters reporters in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Yenagoa, Maiduguri and Bauchi; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Matthew Tostevin) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Libya rebels say hit by coalition air strike Posted: 02 Apr 2011 06:08 AM PDT BREGA, Libya (Reuters) - At least 10 rebels were killed by a coalition air strike on Friday, fighters at the scene said on Saturday, in an increasingly chaotic battle with Muammar Gaddafi's forces over the oil town of Brega.
With the more experienced and better organised rebel army locked in combat with Gaddafi's forces, hundreds of young, inexperienced volunteers could be seen fleeing east towards Ajdabiyah, after coming under heavy mortar and machinegun fire. A Reuters correspondent at the scene of the air strike saw at least four burnt-out vehicles including an ambulance by the side of the road near the eastern entrance to the town. Men prayed at freshly dug graves covered by the rebel red, black and green flag nearby. "Some of Gaddafi's forces sneaked in among the rebels and fired anti-aircraft guns in the air," said rebel fighter Mustafa Ali Omar. "After that the NATO forces came and bombed them." Rebel fighters at the scene said as many as 14 people may have died in the bombing, which they said happened around 10 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) on Friday. But at the rebel headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi, spokesman Mustafa Gheriani told Reuters that the rebel leadership still wanted and needed allied air strikes. "You have to look at the big picture. Mistakes will happen. We are trying to get rid of Gaddafi and there will be casualties, although of course it does not make us happy". He could not confirm that rebels had died in the air strike. In Brussels, a spokeswoman for NATO, which this week assumed command of the military operation launched on March 19, said the alliance was looking into the reports. "NATO is always concerned by reports of civilian casualties. NATO's mission is to protect civilians and civilian areas from attack," spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said. Gaddafi forces fired rockets on Brega overnight and fighting continued further west around the town's university early on Saturday, rebels said. But at the eastern gate of the town, dust rose from the road as volunteers known as the "shebab", or youth, streamed away in cars after coming under heavy fire from Gaddafi's forces. The young volunteers have frequently fled under fire, raising questions about whether the rebels will be able to make any headway against Gaddafi's better-equipped and better-trained forces without great Western military involvement. CEASEFIRE REJECTED Brega is one of a string of oil towns along the coast that have been taken and retaken by each side after the U.N. mandated intervention which was intended to protect civilians in Libya. Rebels have been trying to marshal their rag-tag units into a more disciplined force after a rebel advance along about 200 km (125 miles) of coast west from Brega was repulsed and turned into a rapid retreat this week. Their stalled campaign has left rebel-held areas in western Libya, notably the city of Misrata, stranded and facing fierce attack from Gaddafi's forces. "They are trying to starve and kill people inside the city by all means," said a British-based doctor who had spoken to his friends in the city earlier on Saturday. But he said the city was quieter after heavy shelling on Friday. "People are a bit relieved." On Friday, a rebel leader, speaking after talks with a U.N. envoy in Benghazi, offered a truce on condition that Gaddafi left Libya and his forces quit cities under government control. The Libyan government dismissed the ceasefire call. "They are asking us to withdraw from our own cities .... If this is not mad then I don't know what this is. We will not leave our cities," spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters.' State-controlled Libyan television also said that coalition forces bombarded "civilian and military locations" late on Friday in western Libya. It said the strikes were in the towns of Khoms, between the capital Tripoli and Misrata, and Arrujban, in the southwest. While Western action has failed to bring any end to fighting or a quick collapse of Gaddafi's administration, there have been reports of contacts between Tripoli and Western capitals. Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa defected in London this week and a Gaddafi appointee declined to take up his post as U.N. ambassador, condemning the "spilling of blood" in Libya. Other reports of defections are unconfirmed. A British government source said Mohammed Ismail, an aide to Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, had visited family members in London, and Britain had "taken the opportunity to send some very strong messages about the Gaddafi regime". (Additional reporting by Angus MacSwan in Benghazi, Tom Pfeiffer in Cairo, Maria Golovnina in Tripoli; writing by Myra MacDonald; editing by Peter Millership) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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