Separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine divides young voters

March 29, 2019

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Five years after a deadly separatist conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine, the front line between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has become a de-facto border, cutting off a generation of first-time voters from Sunday's presidential election.

Only those who left their homes in the east to live in areas under government control will be able to cast ballots for Ukraine's new president. Since 2014, a separatist war in Ukraine's industrial heartland of Donetsk and Luhansk has killed more than 13,000 people and has prompted many to seek the relative stability of government-controlled areas.

The mood on both sides has become increasingly entrenched. The people who stayed behind in Donetsk are often viewed in Kiev as Moscow supporters, while those who fled for the government-controlled areas are sometimes treated as traitors in their hometowns.

The residents of Donetsk and Luhansk were able to vote in Ukraine's last presidential election in May 2014, when Petro Poroshenko was elected president. Election officials and voters were intimidated by separatists who shut down some polling stations but many stayed open. This year, the Ukrainian government has no presence in the rebel region and anyone wanting to vote would have to cross the front line to do so, which could bring retaliation at home.

Ukraine says 35 million people will be able to vote in Sunday's election, but does not say how many of those voters are stuck in separatist regions or in Russian-occupied Crimea. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions were home to more than 6.5 million people before the war but their statistics agencies this year put their current population at 3.7 million. Crimea has about 2 million people. None of them can vote in their cities and towns.

On a recent morning in Donetsk, a lecturer was teaching a class about the current, chaotic situation in Venezuela, stressing how the United States picks and chooses the regimes they like in the Western hemisphere. The presidential campaign in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, where the U.S. has a major footprint, seemed like it was happening in another country.

Maxim Kaluga, who studies international relations at the Donetsk National University, toes the separatist line that the latest Ukrainian presidential election is not legitimate because Ukrainian authorities are oppressing people.

Kaluga was 16 when Russian and Russian-backed gunmen seized the administrative building in his native city of Donetsk, once a bustling commercial center. Several months later, the war was in full swing. One afternoon, his friend nearly died when a bus stop was shelled near Kaluga's house.

"That was the scariest thing," he says. Speaking out in favor of re-uniting with Ukraine is risky in Donetsk, where activists have been detained, tortured and faced bogus charges on suspicion of being Ukrainian government sympathizers. But what is perceived as Ukraine's blockade of the east has also embittered many against the Ukrainian government.

After Russia annexed Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014, Russia threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine but stopped short of annexing the region. There has been no indication from the Kremlin that Russia wants to annex Donetsk and Luhansk, which are too economically depressed and are nowhere near as predominantly Russian-speaking as Crimea.

Asked if he could see his region returning under the Ukrainian government's rule, the 21-year-old student says they are "not compatible anymore." "We're hoping to join Russia or just keep our identity and become an independent state," Kaluga says.

Nearby, in muddy trenches that look like they are straight out of World War I, a 20-year-old soldier who goes by the nom de guerre of Bach patrols the front line, 700 meters (less than half a mile) away from Ukrainian government positions in the Donetsk region.

Hostilities here died down after a tentative peace accord in 2015 but never fully stopped, meaning that thousands of people like him have to man front-line positions on both sides of the unending conflict.

The fighter says many young people in the east are conflicted about the future of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. "Young people are divided here," he says. "Some think that we have no prospects on our own or as part of Russia, only as part of Ukraine. Some support the Donetsk republic but are too afraid to fight."

In Kiev, 18-year-old Ivan, whose family left Luhansk in 2016, studies on a full scholarship at a private college. He hopes to eventually enroll in a university overseas to study waste management, something that is still an obscure concept in Ukraine. His parents have spent all their savings to move to Kiev.

Living in an unrecognized separatist republic "would close too many doors for us," says Ivan , who asked that his last name not be used for fear his relatives in Luhansk would face repercussions. Ivan is eager to vote in the upcoming presidential election because he is convinced that an individual can make a difference.

"I do believe I can make a difference," he said. "Every citizen should have a position because if you don't come out, if you don't do anything, nothing will ever change." Many natives of eastern Ukraine who left feel it is too dangerous for them to come back to the region even for a visit because of their pro-Western views.

Kateryna Savchenko works in radio in Kiev and acts in a theater collective mostly made up of internal exiles. She left her eastern hometown of Horlivka in 2014 but is optimistic about her future in Ukraine.

"I see no room for development there. Things are much better on the Ukrainian side," she says. "It's great that in this country we have an opportunity to choose."

A look at Ukraine's 3 top presidential contenders

March 28, 2019

By their nicknames, the top contenders in Ukraine's presidential election resemble a colorful operetta cast: "The Chocolate King," ''the Gas Princess," ''The Servant Of The People." Opinion polls before the March 31 vote indicate that no one will come close to the 50-percent support needed to win in the first round. These three appear to have the best chances of making it into the second round three weeks later, each of them bearing vivid qualities.

PETRO POROSHENKO

Poroshenko, the incumbent, came to power in 2014 with the image of a "good oligarch." The bulk of his fortune came from a seemingly innocuous source, the chocolate-maker Roshen, hence his nickname "The Chocolate King."

He promised to divest himself of the whole business upon becoming president. Five years later, there's little sweetness left in his image. He hasn't sold the chocolate business. Critics denounce him for having done little to combat Ukraine's endemic corruption, the war with Russia-backed separatists in the east grinds on with no clear strategy for ending it and while his economic reforms may have pleased international lenders, they've left millions of Ukrainians wondering if they can find the money to pay their utilities bills.

But the 53-year-old Poroshenko also has scored some significant goals for Ukraine's national identity and its desire to move out of Russia's influence. He signed an association agreement with the European Union — which predecessor Viktor Yanukovych turned away from, setting off the protests that eventually drove him out of office. Ukrainians now can travel visa-free to the European Union, a significant perk. He pushed relentlessly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to be recognized as self-standing rather than just a branch of the Russian church.

YULIA TYMOSHENKO

Tymoshenko has abandoned the elaborate blond hair braid that made her the most recognizable figure of the 2004 Orange Revolution protests, but she's retained the vivid rhetoric and populist leanings.

In her third run for the presidency, the 58-year-old Tymoshenko is playing heavily to the economic distress of millions of Ukrainians. She has promised to reduce prices for household gas by 50 percent within a month of taking office, calling the price hikes introduced by Poroshenko to satisfy international lenders "economic genocide." She also promises to take away constitutional immunity for the president, the judiciary and lawmakers.

Before entering politics, Tymoshenko was widely called "the Gas Princess" because she headed a middleman company that imported Russian gas. Her popularity soared after the 2004 revolution and she was named prime minister. But her star soon fell again as she and President Viktor Yushchenko quarreled, and he dismissed her after nine months in office. She returned to the premiership in 2007 and lasted until 2010, when she lost the presidential election to Yanukovych.

In 2011, she was arrested and charged with abusing power as premier in a natural gas deal with Russia. Tymoshenko said the proceedings were politically motivated revenge, and Western governments voiced concern about her incarceration. She was released amid the disorder of the 2014 overthrow of Yanukovych, and lost a presidential election to Poroshenko three months later.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY

Zelenskiy may be approaching the point where life imitates art. The 41-year-old comic actor's most famous role is his TV portrayal of a schoolteacher who becomes president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral. Even before he announced his candidacy, Zelenskiy's name was turning up high in pre-election public opinion polls, with potential voters seemingly encouraged by his "Servant of the People" TV series (which became the name of his party).

Like his TV character, Zelenskiy the candidate has focused strongly on corruption. He proposes a lifetime ban on holding public office for anyone convicted of corruption and calls for a tax amnesty under which someone holding hidden assets would declare them, be taxed at 5 percent and face no other measures.

He supports Ukraine's eventual membership in NATO, but only if the country were to approve this in a referendum. Zelenskiy's clean image has been shadowed by his admission that he had commercial interests in Russia through a holding company and by persistent speculation about links with oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who owns the television station that airs "Servant of the People."

What's at stake in Ukraine's presidential election

March 28, 2019

Awash in corruption, plagued by a war with Russia-backed separatists, reliant on international institutions for billions of dollars in aid, Ukraine presents stern challenges for its next president. Sunday's election, which will require a second round if none of the 39 candidates wins an absolute majority, comes five years after mass protests drove the pro-Russia president to flee the country. The upheaval led to Russia annexing the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, to a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people and to economic decline.

A look at some of the issues at stake as Ukraine chooses a new president:

CORRUPTION

Endemic corruption was one of the key complaints against the president ousted in 2014 and persists under his successor, Petro Poroshenko. Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index shows Ukraine at 120 among 188 countries rated for clean government -- a marginal improvement from recent years but still in the neighborhood of notably dodgy countries such as Niger and Mali.

Poroshenko initiated some anti-corruption measures that were demanded by the International Monetary Fund for the release of billions of dollars in loans. But the fledgling efforts suffered a considerable blow this month when the main anti-corruption law was declared unconstitutional. State defense enterprises, meanwhile, are embroiled in a military embezzlement scandal.

Top candidates have vowed various severe measures against corruption, including mandatory life in prison for cheating the military, lifetime bans on holding public office and a onetime tax amnesty for hidden assets. But corruption is so pervasive that such measures could show little effect, while rising public anger demands more visible action.

All the top candidates pledge they will pursue European Union membership for Ukraine, but the bloc appears reluctant to welcome a country that can't or won't tackle corruption.

RUSSIA

The top candidates also favor Ukraine seeking NATO membership, a move that would be anathema to Russia and that could obstruct attempts to resolve other tensions such as the war in eastern Ukraine and Russia's seizure of 24 Ukrainian sailors last year.

The prospects of any resolution of the conflict in the east are dim, though the top candidates have different approaches of how to tackle the issue. Poroshenko, who is seeking a second term, favors the so-called Normandy Format talks of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, although those negotiations have been all but dormant. Yulia Tymoshenko wants talks held among the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum, which calls observing the territorial integrity of former Soviet republics that gave up their nuclear weapons, even though Russia flouted that pact when it annexed Crimea.

Upstart Volodymyr Zelenskiy says the matter can be solved only through direct talks with Russia. That idea has received some favorable news coverage in Russia, suggesting Moscow is looking for a way out of a conflict that has cost it heavily in international sanctions.

QUALITY OF LIFE

Daily life for many Ukrainians is poor and dismal — the average wage is just $350 a month. Thus, a 25-percent hike in prices for natural gas last year was a severe blow to many households.

Tymoshenko likened that to "genocide" and has vowed to cut gas prices by 50 percent or more. But doing so would risk the disapproval of the international financial institutions giving Ukraine aid; the price hike met demands for the gas market to be rationalized.

Ukraine's medical care system, largely unchanged since the Soviet era, has been notoriously poor, especially outside major cities. Reforms are underway, but some candidates say the changes are insufficient and make access to general practitioners difficult. Tymoshenko and Zelenskiy both propose introducing medical insurance.

ECONOMY

Ukraine's economy is recovering from the severe decline it experienced after the 2014 upheaval, but gross domestic product is still substantially below its level in 2013. The willingness of the next president to undertake reforms — and the composition of the new parliament to be elected in September — will likely promote or discourage investors. Before the presidential vote, economists were predicting modest growth of about 2.5 percent a year, marred by inflation expected at about 10 percent.

Poroshenko can point to the economic improvement during his tenure, including a rise in foreign direct investment. Zelenskiy calls for simplifying the tax code and for removing obstructions to new enterprises, so that "you can open a business in an hour." Tymoshenko has promised to lower the tax on entrepreneurs by half and to redirect Ukraine's economy from reliance on raw materials to producing finished goods.

DEMOCRACY

Regardless of who wins, the election will be a significant test of Ukraine's commitment to orderly democracy, influencing both citizens' trust in the authorities and international partners. The pre-election period has been increasingly messy. Poroshenko's own interior minister has accused the president of using public money to try to buy votes.

After Zelenskiy's campaign found listening devices in its Kiev building, an Interior Ministry official suggested the national security service was involved and the security service in turn opened a criminal case against the ministry on the grounds of undermining state security.

Far-right groups have become increasingly unruly as the campaign period progressed.

Ukraine's ultra-right increasingly visible as election nears

March 27, 2019

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — As Ukraine's presidential election draws near, its ultranationalist groups are becoming increasingly visible, posing a dilemma for the West. Thousands of far-right activists marched to incumbent President Petro Poroshenko's administration headquarters earlier this month, chanting about alleged corruption and throwing funeral-style bouquets and toy pigs to symbolize the embezzlement of state funds. Ultranationalists have also gone to campaign rallies where they fight with police and heckle Poroshenko, who is running for a second five-year term in the March 31 presidential election. And earlier this month, the ambassadors of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations sent a letter to the Interior Ministry voicing concern about the ultra-right's assertive posturing ahead of Sunday's presidential vote.

The protests reflect the growing presence of far-right groups in Ukraine and their power in shaping the nation's political agenda, leaving the West in a quandary. On the one hand, the ultranationalists have played a key role in fighting Russia-backed separatist rebels in the east and are now challenging government corruption. On the other, they are pushing with increasing boldness for changes that go against traditional democratic ideals.

In a series of violent actions that underline their strength, right-wing radicals in recent years have assaulted gatherings by LGBT and women's rights activists, attacked Roma encampments around the country, derailed a lecture on the history of the Holocaust and brawled with pro-Russia veterans. The ultra-right groups also have a strict, military-style structure, and many of their members have battlefield experience from years of fighting in the east.

While the far-right groups have so far failed to unite behind a single presidential candidate, they have gained growing clout, with the government reluctant to challenge them. Andriy Biletsky, the leader of the National Corps, one of the most visible ultra-right groups, predicted that the nationalists "will become the backbone of civil defense in Ukraine."

Andriy Yermolayev, the head of the New Ukraine independent thinktank, said the government in the past had turned a blind eye to the rise of nationalist groups, using them as a scare tactic. He added that now the ultra-right has turned on the authorities.

"The well-organized and aggressive nationalism in Ukraine is a child of the government," Yermolayev said. "The government has lost control over radical nationalists. Poroshenko has lost that game." The government has also been beset by allegations of corruption, after a journalistic investigation linked Poroshenko's top associate and an arms factory he controls to alleged embezzlement in the defense sector. The president denied any wrongdoing and ordered an official probe into the claims.

The country's ultranationalist groups came to the fore in 2014, when they spearheaded massive street protests that led to the ouster of Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych. Russia responded by annexing Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and backing separatists in the east, moves that drew Western sanctions. Thousands of Ukrainian nationalists then headed to the east, forming volunteer battalions that served as a vanguard for the Ukrainian forces in the rebel regions.

Since then, the influence of nationalist groups has steadily grown, driven by public dismay over the country's economic woes and rampant corruption. Mostly teenage members of the ultra-right groups have followed the guidance of war veterans, practicing martial arts and learning how to handle weapons. The number of ultra-nationalists is estimated at about 10,000, and they can quickly take thousands to the streets and resort to violence.

"They have undergone organizational, military and ideological training," Yermolayev said. "They are strongly motivated and active." Torch-bearing ultra-right activists regularly march to the beat of drums across the downtown Ukrainian capital, chanting "Death to Traitors of Ukraine!" During one scuffle at the memorial to a Red Army general killed in WW II, an elderly woman approached a group of radical nationalists shouting "Hang the Russians!" and defied them, saying: "I'm Russian, hang me!" One of the right-wingers, Kiryl Nedin, pushed her back and was briefly detained for resisting police.

At one demonstration, Yevhen Karas, the leader of C14, a highly visible nationalist group, boasted of the growing power of the ultra-right. "Of all the political parties in Ukraine, I think, no one (except us) can gather so many people, who sincerely and regularly will come to protests and actions," he said.

International human rights groups have strongly criticized the Ukrainian government for failing to track down and punish those responsible for the acts of violence and intimidation. The government has promised to rein in the ultranationalists, but has taken no action.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the right-wing organizations will be stopped. "They all know it very well," he said. "And... there will be no amnesty for them." The Ukrainian ultra-right argues that the nationalist ideology will eventually prevail not only in Ukraine but across Europe as well. A growing nationalist wave has taken hold in Europe, with populist governments in countries like Hungary and Poland and an increased presence of the far-right Alternative for Germany party in Germany's politics.

Miroslav Mares, an expert on right-wing extremist groups at Brno University, said Ukraine's far right has been successful in reaching out to ultranationalist forces in Europe. "They have good relations to some neo-Nazi groupings in Central and Eastern Europe," Mares said. He added that early in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, some members of Europe's neo-Nazi groups trained and fought with the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian ultra-right paramilitary group created by Biletsky that advocated white supremacist views.

The Ukrainian far right also appears to have ties in other countries. Australian Brenton Tarrant, accused of slaughtering 50 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch in New Zealand, mentioned a visit to Ukraine in his manifesto, and some reports alleged that he had contacts with the ultra-right. The Soufan Center, a research group specializing on security, has recently alleged possible links between Tarrant and the Azov Battalion.

Yermolayev, the political analyst, noted that a violent image projected by Ukrainian nationalists could serve as an argument for those in the European Union who are reluctant about putting Ukraine on a membership track any time soon.

"How can you integrate a country plagued not only by corruption but also nationalism?" he said.

Landmark Istanbul loss a blow to Turkey's Erdogan

June 23, 2019

ISTANBUL (AP) — The opposition candidate for mayor of Istanbul celebrated a landmark win Sunday in a closely watched repeat election that ended weeks of political tension and broke President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party's 25-year hold on Turkey's biggest city.

"Thank you, Istanbul," former businessman and district mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, 49, said in a televised speech after unofficial results showed he won a clear majority of the vote. The governing party's candidate, former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, conceded moments after returns showed him trailing well behind Imamoglu, 54% to 45%. Imamoglu increased his lead from a March mayoral election by hundreds of thousands of votes.

Erdogan also congratulated Imamoglu in a tweet. Imamoglu narrowly won Istanbul's earlier mayor's contest on March 31, but Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, AKP, challenged the election for alleged voting irregularities. He spent 18 days in office before Turkey's electoral board annulled the results after weeks of partial recounts.

The voided vote raised concerns domestically and abroad about the state of Turkish democracy and whether Erdogan's party would accept any electoral loss. AKP has governed Turkey since 2002. "You have protected the reputation of democracy in Turkey with the whole world watching," Imamoglu, his voice hoarse after weeks of campaigning, told supporters.

Following his second victory, tens of thousands of people erupted in mass celebration across Istanbul, including outside the offices of the Republican People's Party, which backed Imamoglu. Jubilant supporters chanted "Mayor again! Mayor again!" Others hung out of cars, blaring horns and waving red-and-white Turkish flags.

Erdogan campaigned for Yildirim in Istanbul, where the president started his political career as mayor in 1994. The ruling party still controls 25 of Istanbul's 39 districts and a majority in the municipal assembly.

Imamoglu will have to work with those officeholders to govern Istanbul and promised Sunday to work with his political opponents. AKP also lost control of the capital city of Ankara in Turkey's March local elections, which were held as the country faced an economic downturn, battled high inflation and two credit rating downgrades in the past year.

Melahat Ugen said she switched her vote to the opposition because she could not afford to cover basic expenses. "I've certainly never voted left before," she said. "But I'm 62, and a bag of onions costs too much. Everything is imported and we can't afford it."

Analysts say the result would increase pressure on Erdogan's government, which is grappling with a shaky economy and multiple international crises. "The significance of Ekrem Imamoglu's win in Istanbul cannot be understated.... he represents a much-needed change in political discourse," Lisel Hintz, an assistant professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, said.

Hintz said the mayor-elect withstood a divisive campaign by the government and prevailed with a positive message. "We now have to wait and see whether Imamoglu's tenure as mayor will be interfered with in any way, whether by cutting off funding and hampering his office's ability to provide services or by removing him under some legal pretext," Hintz said.

Addressing Erdogan in his speech, Imamoglu said, "I'm ready to work with you" to solve Istanbul's problems. The president has previously signaled an unwillingness to do so. Istanbul, a city of more than 15 million, draws millions of tourists each year and is Turkey's commercial and cultural hub. Straddling Europe and Asia, Istanbul accounted for 31% of Turkey's GDP in 2017.

Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara office director of the German Marshall Fund, argued that the loss of Istanbul is likely to fuel speculation of divisions within the ruling party and among its supporters. "It's now clear that a sizable portion of the AKP voters is seriously dissatisfied by policies of the AKP," he said. "The (opposition) was a house that was united. The AKP house looked like one that was already divided."

The loss, he argued, also has international implications. Erdogan was already at odds with Western allies over Turkey's plans to buy the Russian-made S-400 missile defense system and its challenge of EU-member Cyprus over natural gas drilling rights.

Bulut Emiroglu and Ayse Wieting in Istanbul contributed.

Erdogan defends Istanbul vote redo, critics see power grab

May 07, 2019

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted Tuesday that rerunning the Istanbul mayoral vote won by the opposition will only strengthen democracy, while critics called the decision an "outrageous" move to eliminate dissent against his government.

Ruling in favor of Erdogan's governing party, Turkey's top electoral body on Monday annulled the results of the March 31 vote in Istanbul, which opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu narrowly won, and scheduled a re-run for June 23.

The loss of Istanbul — and the capital of Ankara — in Turkey's local elections were sharp blows to Erdogan and his conservative, Islamic-based Justice and Development Party, or AKP. AKP had challenged the results of the vote, claiming it was marred by irregularities. Critics accuse the AKP of clinging to power in the city of 15 million people that is Turkey's cultural and commercial hub and of exerting heavy pressure on the country's electoral body to cancel the outcome.

The controversial decision has increased concerns over democracy and the rule of law in Turkey, a NATO member that that is still formally a candidate to join the European Union and a key Western ally in the fight against terrorism and stemming of the flow of refugees to Europe.

"The will of the people has been trampled on," said Meral Aksener, leader of a nationalist party in Turkey that had backed Imamoglu. The move is raising questions about whether Erdogan, who has consolidated power throughout his 16 years in power and is increasingly accused of authoritarianism, would ever accept any electoral defeat or relinquish power.

The redo of the vote also threatens to further de-stabilize the Turkish economy, which has entered a recession. The Turkish lira crashed spectacularly last summer over investor concerns about Erdogan's policies, shaking the economy. It has been sliding again in recent weeks and on Tuesday it hit its lowest level since October, due to the prolonged political uncertainty.

"This outrageous decision highlights how Erdogan's Turkey is drifting toward a dictatorship," Guy Verhofstadt, a European Parliament lawmaker and the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, said on Twitter. "Under such leadership, accession talks are impossible."

Europe's top human rights and democracy watchdog expressed concerns about reports of pressure exerted by Erdogan's government on the electoral body. "We face the repeat elections in Istanbul with great concern and urge Turkish authorities to do their utmost to restore the safeguards of the electoral process," said Anders Knape, the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

Delivering a speech in Parliament on Tuesday, Erdogan reiterated that the vote was sullied by "irregularities we could not ignore." "We see this decision as an important step in strengthening our democracy, which will enable the removal of the shadow cast over the Istanbul election," he said.

He rejected opposition accusations that his party was trying to win back a key election that it had lost. But opposition newspaper Birgun, however, branded the decision a "coup" and argued that justice in Turkey had "been suspended."

Imamoglu arrived in Ankara on Tuesday for emergency talks with senior members of the opposition Republican Peoples' Party, or CHP. Media reports had said the party was considering boycotting the repeated vote in Istanbul, but CHP signaled that Imamoglu would run again.

"We extend our hand to all our citizens," the party said at the end of the meeting. "We wholeheartedly believe that this extended hand will be held strong on 23 June, that it will strengthen our democratic struggle and that we will achieve a greater victory than on March 31."

Istanbul mayoral candidate asks to be confirmed as winner

April 03, 2019

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — An opposition mayoral candidate in Istanbul urged Turkey's election council Wednesday to confirm him as the winner and asked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to "cooperate" to stop the election results from "dragging" Turkey into instability.

In a major setback for Erdogan, his party won the most votes nationwide but lost its decades-old stronghold of Ankara in Sunday's local elections and ended up in a tight race in Istanbul, where the president once served as mayor.

Erdogan's conservative and Islam-based Justice and Development Party, or AKP, filed appeals Tuesday to contest the results from all of Istanbul's 39 districts, alleging irregularities that needed to be corrected and demanding a recount of votes deemed invalid.

Ali Ihsan Yavuz, an AKP deputy chairman, called the election "one of the most stained in our democratic history." That contrasts with statements from government officials, who insisted Turkey's electoral system is fair.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said recounts were underway Wednesday in 18 districts in Istanbul, a city of 15 million residents that is Turkey's financial and cultural center. Votes were also being recounted in 11 districts in Ankara, Anadolu reported.

Preliminary results showed opposition Istanbul mayoral candidate Ekrem Imamoglu narrowly beating his ruling party rival, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, by some 25,000 votes. At a news conference at his campaign headquarters, Imamoglu called on Erdogan and his nationalist supporters to "contribute to the process to prevent the results in Istanbul, which are being watched by whole world, from dragging (Turkey) into worrisome atmospheres."

Imamoglu held up a photograph from 1994, when Erdogan was elected Istanbul's mayor. The photo showed the opposition's rival candidate at a celebration of Erdogan's win. Imamoglu asked the president to reciprocate now.

"We are asking for justice," he said. Referencing the conflicting remarks of the ruling party's deputy chairman and the government, Imamoglu added: "What has happened that the elections are now all of a sudden the most stained in history?"

The ruling party quickly responded, reproaching Imamoglu for allegedly not respecting the election appeal process. "We have to accept the confirmed results," Yavuz said.

AK Party triumph in Turkey for the 15th election running

Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been declared victors of Sunday’s local elections, with former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim declaring victory in Istanbul.

Despite challenges, smear campaigns and economic harassment by world powers, the AK Party will control 56% of all Turkish municipalities as it triumphs in Turkey’s elections for the 15th time running.

The victory presents yet another astounding success for the AKP and their leader, the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has led the party to electoral success for 17 years consecutively, transforming the Muslim nation into a world power on economic, military and diplomatic fronts.

With 99.89% of the ballots counted, the AK Party along with their partners, the MHP in the People’s Alliance, have garnered 51.63% of the local mayoral and provincial vote, while the CHP and IYI Party of the Nation Alliance have taken only 37.55%.

AKP has raised issues surrounding electoral irregularities in the Istanbul Mayoral ballot boxes, where AKP’s candidate Binali Yildrim is contesting.

On the other hand, in reference to the preliminary electoral results in Ankara, the General Secretary of AK Party, Fatih Sahin, told reporters that AK Party has ‘striking findings’ to object the results.

Turkish citizens headed to the polls to take part in the first local elections since the country adopted the presidential system of governance in a 2017 constitutional referendum. Voting started at 7am and continued through to 5pm local time.

Millions of Turkish voters cast their ballots to choose their mayors, councillors, and neighbourhood officials (Mukhtar). The elections have been considered a crucial test for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), following the recent economic downturn and the devaluation of the Lira.

Financial speculation and international interventions, seeking—according to the President of Turkey—to destabilise the economy ahead of the elections were trying times for the AK Party, and a gift to its largely divided political rival coalition, comprising the secularist Republican People’s Party, the CHP.

The local election took place in all of Turkey’s 81 provinces, electing more than 2,500 mayors and 20,500 municipal councillors amongst thousands of others contesting.[5] This election had more than one million candidates, across all positions and parties. In total six of Turkey’s political parties contested in the local elections, including the ruling AK Party, which has been continually successful off the back of its transformative accomplishments for the republic since coming to power in 2002. The Kemalist CHP, the nationalist MHP, the Kurdish HDP, the secularist IYI Party and the Islamic Felicity Party also contested the vote.

The AK Party ran alongside the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in an alliance known as the People’s Alliance, and the CHP and IYI Party in the Nation Alliance. The remaining parties ran without an official alliance.

Turkey holds local elections every five years. In the previous election in 2014, the AK Party were victorious, taking control of both Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, and Ankara, the Turkish capital. Istanbul is not only the country’s most populous city, but also the nation’s financial hub, spanning both the Asian and European continents. The mayoral position in Istanbul is likewise symbolic, ever since the much-admired sitting president became mayor of the metropolis in 1994 for four years, before becoming the Prime Minister in 2003 and President in 2014.

The 2019 local elections follow two landmark elections and a referendum. In 2017, 51% of Turks voted in favour to change the political system, from a Parliamentary Republic to that of a Presidential Republic, with President Erdogan elected the head of government and state. 2018 marked the first presidential elections following Turkey’s transition to an Executive Presidency. President Erdogan was re-elected with 52% of the vote and his party, the AK Party, in an alliance with the MHP, were able to regain their majority in the Grand National Assembly.

Islam21c expects to publish further pieces on this actively developing situation.

Source: Islam21c.
Link: https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/ak-party-triumph-in-turkey-for-the-15th-election-running/.

Erdogan faces serious setbacks in Turkish local elections

April 01, 2019

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's opposition looked poised to win control of the country's two biggest cities Monday as it dealt President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's conservative party one of its most serious electoral setbacks in years. The opposition won Ankara, a ruling party stronghold for decades, and was leading a tight race for mayor in Istanbul, according to unofficial figures Monday.

The leader who has dominated Turkish politics for 16 years declared victory despite the opposition gains. Sunday's local elections were widely seen as a gauge of support for Erdogan as the nation of 81 million faces a daunting economic recession. They were also a first test for Erdogan — who has been accused of increasingly authoritarian tendencies — since he got widely expanded presidential powers last year.

If confirmed, the swings in Ankara and Istanbul could be excruciating for the politician who campaigned hard to retain hold of them. The opposition also retained its hold over Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city.

Although Erdogan was not running for office Sunday, he became the face of the campaign, rallying tirelessly for months across Turkey, using hostile rhetoric against opposition parties and portraying the vote as a matter of national survival.

The decline in urban support for his conservative, religious-based party came despite the fact that Erdogan wields tight control over the media, which hardly covered the opposition candidates' campaigns.

Behlul Ozkan, an associate professor at Marmara University, said Erdogan's loss of ground in Ankara and Istanbul indicated that his socially conservative and construction-driven policies no longer resonated in Turkey's cities.

"Political Islam's quarter-century old hegemony in Turkey's two largest cities is over," he said. "The basic problem is that Erdogan is not able to get votes from middle-income earners, who believe that the economy, education and urban administration are not run well."

More than 57 million voters were eligible to choose leaders for 30 major cities, 51 provincial capitals and 922 districts in Turkey, as well as thousands of local positions. The election was marred by sporadic violence, with five dead and scores injured across Turkey.

Erdogan's party and its nationalist allies garnered some 52% of the vote overall but the opposition made momentous inroads. A strategic decision by a pro-Kurdish party to sit out critical races in major cities contributed to the opposition's gains. The opposition also increased its support along the Mediterranean, taking the city of Adana from the nationalists and the resort destination of Antalya from the ruling party.

Erdogan acknowledged setbacks in a speech to his supporters, saying his party would work to understand what had gone wrong and fix the problem. Unofficial results reported by the state-run Anadolu news agency after all votes were counted showed a razor-thin win for the opposition in the race for mayor of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city and commercial hub. The opposition vote was at 48.8% support to the ruling party's 48.5% support.

Ekrem Imamoglu, the opposition candidate in an alliance led by the secular Republican People's Party, or CHP, declared that he won Istanbul but his rival, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim of the ruling party, said it was still too early to call.

Yildirim accepted that his rival was leading but said his party would file an objection, suggesting a recount of the 319,500 votes declared void in Istanbul.  Both Ankara and Istanbul have been held by Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, the AKP, and its Islamic-oriented predecessor for 25 years. Erdogan's own ascent to power began as Istanbul mayor in 1994.

Unofficial results showed Mansur Yavas, the candidate of the CHP-led alliance, winning the top post in Ankara with 50.9% support. The AKP still holds a majority of Ankara's 25 districts. The government had accused Yavas of forgery and tax evasion, which he called slanderous.

The AKP's candidate for Ankara mayor, Mehmet Ozhaseki, won 47.1% support and his party said it would challenge the results. Sunday's election was a significant victory for the opposition, which displayed good strategies and promising candidates, said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, the Ankara director of the German Marshall Fund.

"This will certainly lead to an emerging new political landscape in Turkey," he said. He argued, however, that a pause in elections until 2023 would benefit Erdogan. "This gives the governing party and President Erdogan a window of opportunity to undertake economic reforms, political reforms if they wish, fix Turkey's relations with foreign countries," he said.

Andrew Dawson, head of the Council of Europe's election observation mission, said Monday his monitors were "not fully convinced that Turkey currently has the free and fair electoral environment which is necessary for genuinely democratic elections."

In predominantly Kurdish provinces, the Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, won back some seats from government-appointed trustees, including the symbolic capital of Diyarbakir, but lost several former strongholds to the ruling party.

The government has replaced 95 elected officials since 2016 for alleged links to outlawed Kurdish militants. Dawson urged the Turkish government to respect the election results. Political parties have three days to submit objections and official results are expected in the coming days.

Fraser reported from Ankara. Mehmet Guzel contributed from Istanbul.

Turkey's ruling party leads local elections but loses Ankara

April 01, 2019

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party led Sunday's mayoral elections but suffered setbacks as the opposition regained hold of the capital Ankara and made significant inroads in other parts of Turkey. The elections, which the Turkish strongman had depicted as a fight for the country's survival, were largely seen as a test of his support amid a sharp economic downturn.

Both the ruling party and the opposition claimed victory in the neck to neck race in Istanbul. Erdogan's conservative, Islamic-based Justice and Development Party, or AKP, took 44 percent of the votes in the elections after 99 percent of the more than 194,000 ballot boxes were counted, according to the official Anadolu Agency. The secular, main opposition party, the Republican People's Party, or CHP had 30 percent.

The CHP's mayoral candidate for Ankara, Mansur Yavas, however, won control of Ankara after 25 years of rule by the AKP and a predecessor party. The 63-year-old lawyer received nearly 51 percent of the votes, according to Anadolu. The CHP and its allies also posted gains elsewhere, increasing the number of city mayoral seats from 14 in the previous local elections in 2014 to 20, according to the preliminary results.

"History is being written in Ankara," said deputy CHP leader Haluk Koc, while thousands of supporters celebrated outside the party's headquarters in Ankara. Former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, the ruling party's candidate for mayor of Istanbul declared victory even though the race in Turkey's largest city and commercial hub was too close to call. Yildirim garnered 48.70 percent of the votes against the opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu's 48.65 percent, according to Anadolu, which drew criticism for failing to update results in Istanbul after Yildirim's declaration.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu rebuked Yildirim for declaring victory in Istanbul "in haste" and claimed his party had now control of Turkey three largest city: Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Imamoglu said he had won Istanbul by more than 29,000 votes, according to results tallied by his party.

Erdogan attaches great importance to Istanbul where he began his rise to power as its mayor in 1994. He has said at campaign rallies that "whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey." He refrained from declaring victory in the city of 15 million people.

Ankara was considered the main battleground of the race, where a former government environment minister, Mehmet Ozhaseki, ran for mayor under the banner of Erdogan and his nationalist allies. The ruling party accused his opponent Yavas of forgery and tax evasion. Yavas said he is the victim of a smear campaign.

"Ozhaseki and his dirty politics have lost," Yavas said in a victory speech. Sunday's elections were a first test for Erdogan since he won re-election under a new system of government that gave the presidency expanded powers. Erdogan campaigned tirelessly for AKP's candidates, framing the municipal elections as a matter of "national survival." He also portrayed the country's economic woes as attacks by enemies at home and abroad.

"Those who have tried to bring our country on its knees by damaging our people's unity and togetherness, have once again been dealt a blow," Erdogan said, noting that the party had emerged as the winner nationwide by a large margin.

The voting was marred by scattered election violence that killed at least four people and injured dozens of others across Turkey. Years of economic prosperity provided Erdogan and his party with previous election victories. But the race for 30 large cities, 51 provincial capitals and hundreds of districts were held as Turkey grapples with a weakened currency, a double-digit inflation rate and soaring food prices.

The high stakes of the local contests were brought into stark display with the deaths of two members of the Islamic-oriented Felicity Party, a small rival of the president's Justice and Development Party. Felicity's leader, Temel Karamollaoglu, alleged a polling station volunteer and a party observer were shot by a relative of a ruling party candidate.

The killings weren't caused by "simple animosity," but happened when the volunteers tried to enforce the law requiring ballots to be marked in private voting booths instead of out in the open, Karamollaoglu tweeted.

Two other people were killed in fighting in the southern city of Gaziantep. Fights related to local elections in several provinces also produced dozens of injuries, Anadolu reported. Election campaigning was highly polarized, with Erdogan and other officials using hostile rhetoric toward opposition candidates.

Erdogan's ruling party had renewed an alliance with the country's nationalist party to increase votes. Opposition parties also coordinated strategies and put forward candidates under alliances in an effort to maximize the chances of unseating members of the AKP.

Erdogan's supporters expressed dismay at losing the capital. "We did not think that we would lose Ankara in this election," said Mehmet Akcam, 18. "Ankara will see the consequences of what it did." The pro-Kurdish, People's Democratic Party appeared to have regained seats in several districts in Turkey's mostly-Kurdish southeast region where Erdogan's government had replaced elected mayors with government-appointed trustees, alleging that the ousted officials had links to outlawed Kurdish militants.

However, the party lost control of two key cities in the region. The pro-Kurdish party had sat out critical mayoral races in major cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, with the aim of sending votes to a rival secular opposition party to help challenge Erdogan's party.

Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara.

Erdogan party leads in local elections seen as test for him

March 31, 2019

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party is leading in Sunday's municipal elections that he has depicted as a fight for Turkey's survival, and which are seen as a crucial test of the strongman's own support amid a sharp economic downturn.

State broadcaster TRT says Erdogan's conservative Islamic-based party has garnered nearly 47.5 percent of the votes with about 35 percent of the more than 194,000 ballot boxes counted. According to the early results, the main opposition party has 31 percent of the vote.

The voting was marred by scattered election violence that killed at least two people and injured dozens of others across Turkey. Unofficial final results were expected late Sunday. Economic prosperity provided Erdogan and his party with previous election victories. But the party could lose key posts in the mayoral elections taking place in 30 large cities, 51 provincial capitals and hundreds of districts as Turkey copes with a weakened currency, a double-digit inflation rate and soaring food prices.

The high stakes of the local contests were brought into stark display with the deaths of two members of the Islamic-oriented Felicity Party, a small rival of the president's Justice and Development Party. Felicity's leader, Temel Karamollaoglu, alleged a polling station volunteer and a party observer were shot by a relative of a ruling party candidate.

The killings weren't caused by "simple animosity," but happened when the volunteers tried to enforce the law requiring ballots to be marked in private voting booths instead of out in the open, Karamollaoglu tweeted.

Speaking to reporters after he voted, Erdogan said he was sad about the deaths and didn't want them to become a cause for "a questioning or a judgment between political parties." Fights related to local elections in several provinces also produced dozens of injuries, Turkey's official Anadolu news agency reported. At least 21 people were injured in southeastern Diyarbakir province from brawls over the election of neighborhood administrators, Anadolu said.

The exact causes of the fights remained unclear. Election campaigning was highly polarized, with Erdogan and other officials using hostile rhetoric toward opposition candidates. Sunday's elections were a first test for Erdogan since he won re-election under a new system of government that gave the presidency expanded powers.

Erdogan's ruling party has renewed an alliance with the country's nationalist party to increase votes. Opposition parties also coordinated strategies and put forward candidates under alliances in an effort to maximize the chances of unseating members of the Justice and Development Party, known in Turkish by the acronym AKP.

A main battleground appears to be the capital, Ankara. Opinion polls suggested the candidate of the opposition alliance, Mansur Yavas, could end the 25-year rule of AKP and its predecessor. A former government environment minister, Mehmet Ozhaseki, ran for mayor under the banner of Erdogan and his nationalist allies. The ruling party accused his opponent Yavas of forgery and tax evasion. Yavas says he is the victim of a smear campaign.

Another closely watched mayoral election is in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city. Erdogan began his rise to power as its mayor in 1994 and said at campaign rallies that "whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey."

Erdogan named former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to run against opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu in the Istanbul mayor's race. Before the elections, Erdogan campaigned tirelessly for AKP's candidates, framing the municipal elections taking place across Turkey as matters of "national survival." He also portrayed the country's economic woes as attacks by enemies at home and abroad.

Gonul Ay, 38, said she voted for the ruling party and Yildirim in Istanbul because of his experience. "I voted for the AKP for continuity and so that their services continue," the homemaker said. "God willing, this crisis and chaos will be fixed and we'll see healthier, happier days."

Volkan Duzgun, 32, said he voted for opposition candidate Imamoglu. "All elections have turned into a race against the one-man regime, and people we call the opposition is trying to carve out some breathing space," Duzgun said.

Erdogan's party has threatened to not accept election results in southeast Turkey if pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party candidates with alleged terror links win. Since 2016, Erdogan's government has replaced elected mayors from the pro-Kurdish party in nearly 100 municipalities, installing in their place government-appointed trustees and alleging the ousted officials had links to outlawed Kurdish militants.

The pro-Kurdish party is seeking to win back the offices. However, it strategically sat out critical mayoral races in major cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, with the aim of sending votes to a rival secular opposition party to help challenge Erdogan's party.

Since the previous local elections in 2014, Turkish citizens have gone to the polls in five different elections. In last year's presidential and parliamentary elections, Erdogan garnered 52.6 percent of the votes and his party and its nationalist ally won 53.7 percent of the parliamentary vote.

Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara.

Turkish voters go to polls in critical municipal elections

March 31, 2019

ISTANBUL (AP) — Voters in Turkey began casting ballots in Sunday's municipal elections, which are seen as a barometer of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's popularity amid a sharp economic downturn in the nation that straddles Europe and Asia.

More than 57 million eligible voters are making choices in 200,000 polling stations across the country to elect the mayors for 30 large metropolitan cities, 51 provincial capitals and 922 districts. They are also voting to elect local assembly representatives as well as tens of thousands of neighborhood or village administrators.

Erdogan's past electoral successes have been based on economic prosperity, but with a weakening currency, inflation at double-digit figures and food prices soaring, his conservative, Islamic-based ruling party could lose control of key mayoral seats.

The municipal elections are also a first test for Erdogan since he won elections last year that ushered in a new system that gave him wide powers. Opposition parties are mostly coordinating strategies and running under alliances in an effort to maximize the chances to unseat ruling party officials.

The main battleground appears to be for Ankara, the capital, where opinion polls have suggested that Mansur Yavas, an opposition alliance candidate, could upset a quarter of a century rule by Erdogan's Justice and Development Party and its predecessor. Mehmet Ozhaseki, former minister of environment and urban planning, who is running on the ticket for Erdogan and his nationalist allies.

In Istanbul, Erdogan named former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, who also served previously as transport minister, to run against Ekrem Imamoglu from the opposition. "Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey," Erdogan has said in election rallies. His rise to power began as Istanbul mayor in 1994.

Erdogan has campaigned tirelessly for his party's candidates, portraying the country's economic woes as an attack by enemies at home and abroad, and has framed the race a matter of "national survival." On Saturday, he spoke at six rallies in Istanbul, which Turkish television stations broadcast live.

Erdogan has been using fiercely polarizing rhetoric against opposition candidates. The ruling party has accused Ankara mayoral candidate Yavas of forgery and tax evasion while also threatening to depose mayors from a pro-Kurdish party —the second largest opposition in parliament— if they win seats in the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Since 2016, Erdogan's government has replaced elected mayors in about 100 municipalities held by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, replacing them with government-appointed trustees and claiming the ousted officials had alleged links to outlawed Kurdish militants.

The pro-Kurdish party aims to win back those seats. It is also strategically sitting out critical races in Turkey's major cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, with the aim of sending votes to their secular opposition rival to help challenge Erdogan's party.

Since the previous local elections in 2014, Turkish citizens have gone to the polls in five different elections. In last year's presidential and parliamentary elections, Erdogan garnered 52.6 percent of the votes and his party and its nationalist ally won 53.7 percent of the parliamentary vote.

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

For Erdogan, local elections are matter of national survival

March 29, 2019

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — For Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Sunday's local elections are not just a vote to decide who should collect the garbage and maintain roads — they are about Turkey's future national "survival."

After 17 years in office, the Turkish leader has a tight grip on power, but he is campaigning hard for a strong mandate that he says he needs to protect Turkey against threats from domestic and foreign enemies and to press ahead with military operations against Kurdish militants inside Turkey as well as in Syria and Iraq.

Analysts say the rhetoric is aimed at diverting attention away from rising inflation, a sharp increase in food prices and high unemployment that has hit his traditional low-income voter base particularly hard.

Erdogan picks ex-prime minister to run for Istanbul mayor

December 29, 2018

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's president has nominated a former prime minister to run for mayor of Istanbul next year. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Binali Yildirim would be the ruling Justice and Development Party's candidate to lead Turkey's biggest city.

Erdogan served as Istanbul's mayor for four years before founding the party in 2001. Yildirim currently is speaker of Turkey's parliament. He served as prime minister during 2016-2018 and before that as Erdogan's transport minister.

A 2017 constitutional referendum abolished the office of prime minister and approved an executive system of government that expanded Erdogan's authority. Yildirim's main opponent in the March 31 mayoral election will be Ekrem Imamoglu from the secular Republican People's Party.

Tunisia sees 26 candidates for lively presidential election

September 13, 2019

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia is holding a presidential election this weekend and among the 26 contenders are a jailed media tycoon, two prime ministers and a little-known Islamist with a big voter base.

The first-round election Sunday is seen as key to securing the North African nation's young democracy as it struggles with economic troubles and Islamic extremism. Accusations of smear campaigns and corruption have been tossed around ahead of the election, which is being held to replace Tunisia's democratically elected leader, who died in office in July.

With so many candidates, there's no clear front-runner, although Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, jailed media magnate Nabil Karoui and Abdelfattah Mourou of the moderate Islamist party Ennahdha are getting attention.

It's only the second democratic presidential election that Tunisia has held since its "jasmine revolution" in 2011 unleashed the Arab Spring protests.

Tunisia prepares for president's funeral, new elections

July 26, 2019

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia is inviting world leaders to attend the funeral for its president who died in office and preparing a new election to replace him. The next election was originally set for Nov. 17, but is being rescheduled after President Beji Caid Essebsi died in office Thursday at 92.

Tunisia's first democratically elected leader, Essebsi won the presidency after Tunisia's 2011 Arab Spring uprising. The electoral commission proposed holding the first round of a presidential vote Sept. 15, and is meeting Friday to confirm the date.

A national funeral ceremony for Essebsi is being held Saturday, and Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said several foreign leaders are expected to attend, without listing them. The White House expressed condolences for Essebsi, as did the U.N. and countries around the world.

Duterte's allies dominate Senate race, shut out opposition

May 22, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president's allies won a majority of the 12 Senate seats at stake in the midterm elections, official results showed Wednesday, while the opposition's shutout heralds a stronger grip on power by a leader accused of massive human rights violations.

Elections officials proclaimed the winners after finishing the official count of the May 13 elections overnight. The tally had been delayed by glitches in automated counting machines. President Rodrigo Duterte backed eight winning aspirants to half of the seats in the 24-member Senate, including his former national police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, who enforced the president's crackdown on illegal drugs in a campaign that left thousands of suspects dead and drew international condemnation.

Last week's vote has been seen as a gauge of public support for Duterte, who is midway through the single six-year term Philippine presidents are allowed under the constitution. His anti-drug crackdown, unorthodox leadership style, combative and sexist joke-laden outbursts, and contentious embrace of China have been the hallmarks of his presidency.

"Do I look like a rubberstamp?" Senator-elect Bong Go, a longtime Duterte aide, replied when reporters asked him about concerns that the new Senate would be beholden to Duterte. But he stressed he would back the president's war against criminality, corruption and illegal drugs and would support a bill to reimpose the death penalty for heinous crimes and drug trafficking. Go said Duterte has not given any illegal orders to him or anyone he supervised.

Duterte's three children also won races for mayor, vice mayor and a congressional seat representing their southern home region of Davao city. Voters also decided congressional, gubernatorial, mayoral and city and township races. Nearly 75 percent of more than 63 million registered Filipinos cast their votes in a strong turnout.

Analysts say many Filipinos seem more open to authoritarianism due to failures of past liberal leaders. Such a mindset has helped the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos make a political comeback, the latest example being his daughter, Imee Marcos, one of the winning Senate candidates who was endorsed by Duterte.

The president has aimed for stronger leverage in the traditionally more independent Senate to bolster his legislative agenda. That includes the return of the death penalty, lowering the age for criminal liability below the current 15, and revising the 1987 constitution primarily to allow a shift to a federal form of government, a proposal some critics fear may be a cover to remove term limits.

During the campaign, Go said he felt Filipinos were not ready yet to support a shift to a federal form of government partly because of a lack of adequate information campaign about its benefits. "It's a longshot and it'll be difficult for us to work for the approval of federalism at this time," Go said.

"My no. 1 agenda is the reimposition of the death penalty for drug trafficking," dela Rosa said in a separate news conference, adding the drug menace remains troubling despite Duterte's crackdown. The handful of opposition senators whose seats were not up for election and the independents who won office last week could potentially offset the strong majority Duterte's allies hold in the new upper chamber. At least seven senators are needed to block amendments to the constitution, which was passed with safeguards against dictatorship in 1987, a year after Marcos was ousted by an army-backed "people power" revolt.

Opposition aspirants, who were set back by a lack of funding and other campaign issues, considered the Senate the last bastion of checks and balances in the Philippine national government given the solid dominance of Duterte's loyalists in the lower House of Representatives.

Unofficial tally shows Duterte allies winning big in polls

May 14, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Rodrigo Duterte's allies appeared to have overwhelming leads in elections for the Philippine Senate, one of the opposition's last bulwarks against a brash populist leader accused of massive human rights violations.

Preliminary results comprising 94 percent of returns from Monday's midterm elections showed at least eight candidates endorsed by Duterte were leading the races for 12 seats in the 24-member Senate. Official Commission on Election results are expected to be declared in about a week.

Those leading include Duterte's former national police chief Ronald dela Rosa, who enforced the president's crackdown on illegal drugs, a campaign that's left thousands of suspects dead and drawn international condemnation.

Monday's vote is seen as a gauge of public support for Duterte, who is midway through the single six-year term Philippine presidents are allowed under the constitution. His deadly anti-drug crackdown, unorthodox leadership style, combative and sexist joke-laden outbursts, and contentious embrace of China have been the hallmarks of his presidency.

Duterte's three children were also expected to win the races for mayor, vice mayor and a congressional seat representing their southern home region of Davao city. The 74-year-old maverick leader first carved a reputation as an extra-tough mayor, who hunted drug addicts and criminals on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and carried the nickname, Duterte Harry, after the gunslinging Clint Eastwood film character.

"Undoubtedly, the Duterte magic spelled the difference," presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a news conference. "The overwhelming majority of the electorate have responded to the call of the president to support those whom he said would help pass laws supportive of his goal to uplift the masses of our people and give them comfortable lives."

Manila-based analyst Ronald Holmes, however, said that except for dela Rosa and Duterte's longtime aide, Bong Go, who entered politics for the first time without their own established bases of support, other leading administration senatorial contenders earned votes based on their own political track records.

The flipside of Duterte's perceived endorsment strength was the weakness of the opposition ticket and its campaign, said Holmes, who heads Pulse Asia, an independent pollster that predicted the dominance of Duterte's senatorial bets.

Another analyst, Richard Heydarian, said many Filipinos seem more open to authoritarianism due to failures of past liberal leaders from long-established political clans. Such a mindset has helped the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos make a political comeback, the latest through the senatorial bid of one of his daughters, Imee Marcos, who was endorsed by Duterte and whose vote tally in the unofficial results indicated a victory.

Duterte, who has shown little tolerance for critics specially those who question his anti-drug campaign, aimed for stronger leverage in the traditionally more independent Senate to bolster his legislative agenda.

That includes the return of the death penalty, lowering the age for criminal liability below the current 15 years old, and revising the country's 1987 constitution primarily to allow a shift to a federal form of government, a proposal some critics fear may be a cover to remove term limits.

Last year, opposition senators moved to block proposed bills they feared would undermine civil liberties. The handful of incumbent opposition senators whose seats were not up for election could potentially get backing from leading independent aspirants to veto Duterte's emerging majority in the upper chamber. At least seven senators are needed to block any proposal by Duterte's camp to revise the country's constitution, which was passed with anti-dictatorial safeguards in 1987, a year after Marcos was ousted by an army-backed "people power" revolt.

"While we expect dissent to continue, we hope that that same be demonstrated with fairness and within the bounds of the law, as well as with deference to the leaders duly chosen by the electorate," Panelo said.

Aside from the drug killings, Duterte's gutter language and what nationalists say is a policy of appeasement toward China that may undermine Philippine territorial claims in the South China Sea have also been the cause of protests and criticism.

Opposition aspirants consider the Senate the last bastion of checks and balances given the solid dominance of Duterte's loyalists in the lower House of Representatives. Voters in Monday's elections made their choices for 18,000 congressional and local posts, including 81 governors, 1,634 mayors and more than 13,500 city and town councilors in 81 provinces. The elections were relatively untroubled, despite pockets of violence in southern Mindanao region, which is under martial law as government forces hunt down Islamic State group-linked militants and communist insurgents.

Duterte allies seek to dominate Philippine midterm polls

May 12, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's name is not on the ballot, but Monday's midterm elections are seen as a crucial referendum on his rise to power with a brutal crackdown on illegal drugs, unorthodox style and contentious embrace of China.

Nearly 62 million Filipinos have registered to choose among 43,500 candidates vying for about 18,000 congressional and local posts in one of Asia's most rambunctious democracies. The most crucial race is for 12 seats in the 24-member Senate, which Duterte wants to fill with allies to bolster his legislative agenda. That includes the return of the death penalty, lowering the age for criminal liability of child offenders and revising the country's 1987 constitution primarily to allow a shift to a federal form of government, a proposal some critics fear may be a cover to remove term limits.

Opposition aspirants consider the Senate the last bastion of checks and balances given the solid dominance of Duterte's loyalists in the lower House of Representatives. Last year, opposition senators moved to block proposed bills they feared would undermine civil liberties.

Duterte's politics and key programs, including his drive against illegal drugs that has left more than 5,200 mostly urban poor suspects dead, have been scrutinized on the campaign trail and defended by close allies running for the Senate, led by his former national Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa, who first enforced the crackdown when the president took office in mid-2016.

Aside from the drug killings, Duterte's gutter language and what nationalists say is a policy of appeasement toward China that may undermine Philippine territorial claims in the South China Sea, have also been hounded by protests and criticism.

"This is very much a referendum on his three years of very disruptive yet very popular presidency," Manila-based analyst Richard Heydarian said. "Are we going to affirm or are we going to reject the 2016 elections? Was that an aberration and historical accident that we have to fix, or is this actually the beginning of the kind of new era or new normal?"

A May 3-6 survey by independent pollster Pulse Asia showed 11 of Duterte-backed senatorial candidates and four other aspirants in the winning circle, including only one from the opposition. The survey of 1,800 respondents had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

Duterte himself remains hugely popular, topping ratings surveys with about 70 percent approval. While the election survey strongly indicated a favorable outcome for Duterte, there was a probability that the result could still change given the considerable number of undecided voters and narrow leads of some candidates.

Divided, cash-strapped and without a unified leader, opposition aspirants are fighting an uphill battle to capture the few number of Senate seats they need to stymie any hostile legislation. Many Filipinos seem more open to authoritarianism due to past failures of liberal leaders, Heydarian said. Such a mindset has helped the family of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos to make a political comeback.

Among many dirt-poor Filipinos, however, the concern is day-to-day survival. "Martial law is scary but we're more afraid of dying in hunger," Arturo Veles, a jobless father of six, told The Associated Press.

Wiping away tears, Veles spoke outside his family's shanty in the humid squalor atop Smokey Mountain, a long-closed dumpsite in Manila's Tondo slum that remains a symbol of the country's appalling poverty. His asthma-stricken wife, Agnes, said that not one congressional candidate had treaded the fly-strewn and trash-littered path to their cluster of crumbling huts, probably because of the smell and filth.

Arturo Veles said the poor always suffer the most, indicating he and his wife would not vote for administration candidates. "They only see the poor, those using and selling drugs. That's the only thing they see, not the depth of our poverty."

Village guard Jose Mondejar, who lives in a Tondo community heavily festooned with elections streamers and posters, said Duterte's anti-crime campaign has reduced daytime robberies by drug addicts of passing cargo trucks by about 70 percent in his neighborhood.

"Criminals once even opened fire on our village hall because we were cracking down on them," he said. "Now you can walk around here without being pestered. Duterte's campaign has worked."

Spain repeats election as Catalan crisis boosts far right

November 08, 2019

MADRID (AP) — Spain is holding its fourth general election in as many years — and the second this year — amid voter distrust and a renewed Catalan independence bid that has bolstered the far right. The latest polls in Spanish media hint at a close finish between the blocs on the right and left, suggesting that Sunday's vote — amid increasing fragmentation and polarization — won't help dispel the country's political stalemate.

Pedro Sánchez's Socialists appeared poised to again win the most seats in Parliament but fewer even than they won in April, when the interim prime minister was unable to get the support of his left-wing rivals to keep his party in power.

Repeated elections make it even harder to win over voters, said political analyst Pablo Simón, a professor at Carlos III University. "The public opinion is angry at the electoral repeat, with record levels of discontent toward the political class and great pessimism over how the economy will perform next year," he said.

The incumbent is up against five other men for the job as prime minister. In recent days, he has tried to lure undecided and centrist voters by saying he will focus his next term on economic issues and by toughening his stand on Catalan separatists.

He has, for example, promised to bring back prison terms for those who hold banned referendums for independence, overturning a previous Socialist position. "If we want a strong government against precariousness and blockade, a progressive government against the extreme right, and a moderate government against the extremists, here is the Socialist party," Sánchez said Friday, wrapping up an eight-day campaign in Barcelona.

The Catalan capital has been hit by a wave of mass protests, at times violent, after nine leaders of the wealthy region's separatist movement were sentenced to prison for an attempt to break away from Spain two years ago.

The turbulence has fueled support in the rest of Spain for Sánchez's opposition — the conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox, whose leader ended the campaign calling for voters to support his "patriotic alternative" to oust the Socialist leader.

Even if Sánchez succeeds in rallying support from the anti-austerity United We Can and its new splinter, More Country, a Socialist cabinet likely will need either the backing of small regional parties or for the right-wing opposition to abstain.

The eurozone's No. 4 economy has been functioning without a stable government since mid-2018, when Sánchez ousted the graft-tainted conservatives in a parliamentary confidence vote. The center-left minority government then crumbled in less than a year after losing the parliamentary support of regionalist parties.

Sánchez's Socialists went from 85 to 123 seats in the late April election. But he needed support from an absolute majority, or 176 of 350 lawmakers, and a falling out with United We Can leader Pablo Iglesias left him without enough votes.

The latest polls show both of those left-wing parties could lose ground. The Popular Party, meanwhile, is recovering after losing more than half of its parliamentary representation in April, falling to 66 seats. Polls show the conservatives could win more seats in this election. But leader Pablo Casado's chances to form government are lower than Sánchez's, given that the party's natural ally, the center-right Citizens, isn't expected to do well.

"We cannot divide efforts, we cannot fragment all the momentum of change that Spain has," Casado said before some 3,000 followers gathered for the final rally at the Madrid bullring. But the party benefiting most so far from the Catalan crisis has been Vox, with its mix of Spanish nationalism and populism.

In addition to calling for deposing Catalonia of its self-government powers and outlawing regional separatist parties, Vox has stepped up its anti-immigration rhetoric. The party has released campaign videos linking migrants with criminality, and its leaders have held rallies outside centers where authorities care for unaccompanied teenage migrants.

Vox won 24 seats in April, less than what polls had predicted but still an unprecedented victory for the far right, which had been on the fringes of the political mainstream since the end of Gen. Francisco Franco's dictatorship in 1975. This time, surveys predict Vox will win at least 40 seats in the Congress of Deputies.

The party now supports minority coalition governments of the Popular Party and Citizens in the regions of Madrid, Andalusia and Murcia, and its support was key for many other local governments, said Bonnie Field, a professor on Global Studies at Bentley University.

"If the right parties pulled out a surprise victory on Sunday, this arrangement would certainly be on the table," Field said. Turnout is expected to be low in Sunday's election, something that generally has benefited right-wing parties. But she noted that the Socialists succeeded in mobilizing voters in April by stirring the "fear of the radical right and the possibility of a right-wing government that depended on them."

"We'll have to see if that works again," she added.

Keir Starmer picked to lead UK Labor amid virus crisis

April 04, 2020

LONDON (AP) — Lawyer and lawmaker Keir Starmer was elected leader of Britain's main opposition Labor Party on Saturday by a decisive margin, after a contest thrown into turmoil by the coronavirus outbreak.

A special conference to announce the winner was scrapped when the nation went into lockdown, and the news came in a press release accompanied by a pre-recorded acceptance speech. Starmer, 57, comes from Labor's center-left wing, and his election marks a shift from the more strongly socialist course set by his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.

Starmer acknowledged that he was becoming leader of the opposition “at a moment like none other in our lifetime” and promised to “engage constructively" with the Conservative government to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The party said Starmer won on the first round of voting with 56.2% of all the votes cast, well ahead of rivals Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy. Angela Rayner was chosen as deputy leader in a vote of Labor’s half a million members.

A former U.K. chief prosecutor named after Labor Party co-founder Keir Hardie, Starmer faces the challenge of reuniting a party deeply divided over the policies and legacy of Corbyn. The outgoing leader was elected party chief in 2015 on a wave of grassroots enthusiasm, and took Labor sharply to the left, proposing the nationalization of major industries and a huge increase in public spending.

Corbyn also faced allegations that he had allowed anti-Semitism to fester in the party. He is a longtime supporter of the Palestinians and critic of Israel. Starmer said “anti-Semitism has been a stain on our party."

“On behalf of the Labor Party, I am sorry, and I will tear out this poison by its roots,” he said. Corbyn drew thousands of new activists to the party, but lost two successive elections in 2017 and 2019. In December’s election, Labor suffered its worst result since 1935, as the Conservatives won in working-class areas that had voted Labour for decades.

Labor has now been out of office for a decade that has brought the country three Conservative prime ministers — David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. Starmer said the party had “a mountain to climb” before it could return to government.

His election was welcomed by Labor moderates such as London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who said he was “delighted.” But the Corbyn-supporting grassroots group Momentum said it would hold Starmer to account. It said “his mandate is to build on Jeremy’s transformative vision.”

Starmer has been the party’s spokesman on Brexit, the issue that has consumed British politics for four years. But the country’s departure from the European Union, which became official Jan. 31, has been pushed into the background by the pandemic sweeping the globe.

Like many other countries, Britain is in effective lockdown, with schools, bars, restaurants and many businesses shut to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus. A Dec. 31 deadline set by the government to forge a new relationship with the EU on trade and a host of other issues looks increasingly hard to meet.

The rules of politics have been upended. Many policies that Conservatives dismissed as socialist follies have been introduced, if only temporarily, by Johnson’s government in an effort to keep people and businesses afloat until the pandemic is over. The government is handing out cash to small businesses and made many more people eligible for welfare benefits.

Meanwhile, Parliament is currently on an extended recess, and it is unclear when lawmakers will return. Starmer faces a delicate challenge: How to hold the government to account during a national emergency while also supporting the fight against the virus.

Johnson announced Saturday that he was inviting leaders of opposition parties to a briefing with him and the government’s top medical and scientific advisers on the fight against COVID-19. “As party leaders, we have a duty to work together at this time of national emergency,” Johnson wrote.

Starmer said he would not engage in “opposition for opposition's sake” but would criticize the government when necessary. “We will shine a torch on critical issues and where we see mistakes or faltering government or things not happening as quickly as they should we’ll challenge that and call that out," he said.