News — elections

The Ocoee Massacre, which occurred in the town of Ocoee, Florida on November 2-3, 1920, was the largest election-related massacre in the 20th Century. Approximately 50 Blacks and two whites died in the violence and the entire Black community of Ocoee was forced to flee the town.

Ocoee, Florida, in Orange County, approximately 12 miles northwest of Orlando, had been politically dominated by conservative Democrats since the end of Reconstruction. They prided themselves on keeping Blacks, then mostly Republican, from the polls. In 1920, a number of Black organizations across Florida began conducting voter registration campaigns. Partly because of their efforts, a prosperous Black farmer, Mose Norman, who had been part of the voter registration drive in Orange County, decided to vote in the national election on November 2. When he attempted to do so, twice, he was turned away from the polls.

When Norman was driven away the second time, a white mob, then numbering over 100 men, decided to hunt him down. Concluding he had taken refuge in the home of another local Black resident, Julius “July” Perry, they rushed Perry’s home hoping to capture both men there. Norman escaped and was never found while Perry defended his home, killing two white men, Elmer McDaniels and Leo Borgard, who tried to enter through the back door. The mob called for reinforcements from Orlando and surrounding Orange County. Eventually they caught and killed Perry and hung his dead body from a telephone post by the highway from Ocoee to Orlando to intimidate other potential Black voters. Perry’s wife, Estelle Perry, and their daughter were wounded during the attack on the Perry home. They were sent to Tampa by local law enforcement officers.

The mob then turned on the Black community of Ocoee. They burned down homes and businesses and demanded that the Black residents leave Ocoee. In the face of this threatened violence, the entire African American population fled the town. Some African Americans speculated that the rioting may have been planned so that some whites could seize the property of the wealthiest Blacks in the town.

The NAACP investigated the massacre, sending Walter White, the organization’s executive director. White—who passed as a Caucasian during his visit—reported that some local whites were “still giddy with victory” when he arrived. He also said that locals reported 56 Blacks killed but he claimed 30 deaths in his official report. In 1921 the NAACP and other civil rights organizations called on the House Election Committee of the U.S. Congress to investigate the massacre and Black voter suppression in Florida, but it failed to act.

General elections in Ghana took place on December 7 as the West African nation held its eighth uninterrupted polls in 28 years to choose a president and lawmakers. Election officials say results may be known by the middle of the week although there was an earlier promise to declare the winner of the presidential race in 24 hours.

The electoral process was described by local and foreign observers as free and fair even though minor pockets of violence, including the gunning down of a ballot box snatcher, occurred in a few places.

In spite of Ghana reveling in the envy and praise showed to the country by others in Africa and the rest of the world, not everyone in the capital city Accra and beyond felt proud about Monday’s feat. The people of the small rural town of Bimbagu South in the region of North East were not even in the least inspired to take part in the election.

According to local reports that emerged during Monday’s polls, residents of Bimbagu South, a largely agrarian community, refused to vote after complaining that their local and national government had turned deaf ears to pleas for infrastructural development. The elections of 2020 were therefore boycotted in other to attract attention for the plight of the people.

Nationally-syndicated radio station Joy FM reported that on Monday morning, election officials were pictured sitting idly with no resident bothering to pass by to vote. Empty ballot boxes remained as they had been set up between 7 am and 5 pm local time.

The news of this boycott managed to arrest the attention of a considerable number of Ghanaians in bigger and better-developed cities. This was in spite of the omnipresence of information about key legislative races in more vibrant parts of Ghana.

Bimbagu South’s rebellion was praised by many including an Accra-based social activist who tweeted: “Yes, a vote strike. One of the boldest political statements in the last decade. They are expanding our political imagination. Now watch out for the bourgeois condescension that’s going to emanate from Accra.”

Ghana runs a mixed presidential and parliamentary system of government where elections are held every four years. Members of Parliament (MPs), who represent what Ghanaians call constituencies, are not legally responsible for infrastructural development although they have to lobby the executive for this.

However, the promise and expectation of such infrastructural development on the part of MPs, have come to be part of the country’s political culture. The people of Bimbagu South would have cried over the last several years to the MP who represents that electoral area to attend to the bad roads and the lack of potable water and the lack of infrastructure for education and healthcare.

According to Joy FM, the residents of the area made their intentions to boycott December’s elections known in October. But this was largely dismissed as Ghana’s politicians have become used to what they see as attempts at blackmailing them into providing for their constituents.

On the analyses of how Bimbagu South was able to maintain strictly zero turnouts, it was revealed that the northern town holds barely 2,000 people with only a little more than 400 registered to vote. In the scheme of the overall constituency, this was not much, however, that did not seem to bother the principled poor folks.

With a little less than three weeks until Ghanaians vote in another presidential and presidential elections, the country’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, has been put under pressure by the resignation of a Special Prosecutor he appointed in 2018 as part of the government’s anti-corruption agenda.

Martin Amidu, a popular anti-graft campaigner, submitted his resignation letter to the Jubilee House, Ghana’s seat of government, on Monday evening. He cited among other things that he felt he was “not intended to exercise any independence as the Special Prosecutor” after publicizing his corruption risk analyses of a deal involving an offshore company with ties to members of the ruling party.

Amidu’s letter also hinted that he had received threats on his life after his conclusions on the deal were published a few weeks ago. However, sources say in a meeting with President Akufo-Addo on November 12, Amidu was asked to shelve his reservations on the deal for a while.

“The events of 12th November 2020 removed the only protection I had from the threats and plans directed at me for undertaking the Agyapa Royalties Limited Transactions anti-corruption assessment report and dictates that I resign as the Special Prosecutor immediately,” the letter said.

The said transactions involve a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) set up by the Ghanaian government in order to raise money against collateralized gold proceeds. The SPV, known as Agyapa Royalties Limited, was set up as an offshore limited liability on the island of Jersey with a subsidiary, ARG Royalties, in Ghana.

Per the agreement on the process, Ghana is expected to sell 49% of its shares in Agyapa to raise around $500 million on the London Stock Exchange. But critics have slammed what they call the “secrecy” and rushed manner in which the bill was put together and passed in parliament.

Questions have also been raised by sections of the Ghanaian public with regards to some of the names pushing to make the deal possible. The interim boss of Agyapa, Kofi Osafo-Maafo, is a son of Ghana’s Senior Minister, a portfolio likened to a Prime Minister.

One of the three law firms too which acted as transaction advisers for the Agyapa deal belongs to Gabby Otchere-Darko, a cousin of President Akufo-Addo.

Meanwhile, the presidency has denied any wrongdoing as implied in the resignation letter offered by Amidu. A statement on Tuesday, signed by the secretary to the president, said it was “regrettable” that the former Special Prosecutor believed the government stood in his way of fighting corruption.

President Akufo-Addo won the presidential race on his third attempt against then-President John Mahama in 2016, on the promise of fighting corruption and accelerating industrialization in Ghana. The two men are the frontrunners for this year’s elections on December 7.

However, unlike four years ago, the issue of corruption is not expected to drive Ghanaians to the polls in 2020, according to a survey by the country’s Center for Democratic Development.

Ethiopia’s upcoming general election will be free and fair, the country’s president, Sahle-Work Zewde, assured lawmakers in the country on Monday.

Zewde made the vow in a speech she gave to a joint session of both houses of parliament, which have gone past their five-year term under a state of emergency due to the outbreak.

Ethiopia had postponed the 6th general elections that were scheduled to take place on August 29, 2020 mainly due to COVID-19. The horn of Africa nation is now set to hold the polls before September 2021.

The president told the parliamentarians that some reforms had been done on the electoral commission to ensure its independence.

“We managed to restructure the country’s electoral board in a way it can function independently,” Sahle-Work said.

Last year in her opening speech to the joint session of the Houses of Peoples’ Representatives and Federation, President Zewde had also expressed the government strong commitments towards a fair, free and credible election.

Indicating the importance of accommodating more diverse views in the parliament, she said the government and pertinent bodies are working around the clock to realize this core value of democracy.

Meanwhile, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) announced that it has prepared 90 percent of election materials required for the 6th round national general elections scheduled to take place in 2021.

In a media tour on October 3rd, the Board announced that more than 50 million voters are expected to participate in close to 51 thousand polling stations.

NEBE Board Chairperson, Birtukan Mideksa, told journalists that the necessary preparations are going well ahead as over 90 per cent of the materials required for the election are already at hand.

According to Birtukan, the Board has been working to hold credible and reliable elections using modern and standard materials, unlike the previous elections, and preparations are going smoothly in this regard.

NEBE Communications Advisor, Soliana Shemelis on her part said that all necessary preparations are going well as the Board has prepared ballot boxes, voters’ registration forms in five local languages and packaging materials to transport polling materials.

According to Soliana, a box containing 29 different items will be sent to each polling station. She added that a total of 644 small generators and more than 2,500 laptops and tablets would also be distributed to various constituencies.

In addition, Soliana said that 152, 700 people would be trained to conduct voters’ registrations while 254, 500 others that participate in managing the vote casting process receive training.

The board announced that its preparation is to make the election credible by using modern materials that meet international standards. NEBE on its social media page announced that it has completed all purchases except voters ID card.