Elections
PARIS (AP) — Two French politicians kicked off their presidential campaigns Sunday, seeking to become France’s first female leader in next year’s spring election.
The far-right National Rally party’s Marine Le Pen and Paris’ Socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, both launched their presidential platforms in widely expected moves.
They join a burgeoning list of challengers to centrist President Emmanuel Macron. This includes battles among multiple potential candidates on the right — including another female politician Valerie Pecresse — and among the Greens.
Hidalgo, 62, mayor of the French capital since 2014, is the favorite to win the Socialist Party nomination. She launched her candidacy in the northwestern city of Rouen.
“I want all children in France to have the same opportunities I had,” she said, invoking her roots. Hidalgo is the daughter of Spanish immigrants who fled their country in search of freedom amid dictator Francisco Franco’s rule.
Le Pen, the 53-year-old leader of France’s far-right party, started her campaign in the southern city of Frejus with a pledge to defend French “liberty.” In keeping with a hard-right message that critics say has vilified Muslim communities, Le Pen promised to be tough on “parts of France that have been Talibanized.”
Click here to read the full article published by The Associated Press on 12 September 2021.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo threw her hat in the ring for France's 2022 presidential election on Sunday in Rouen. Her announcement brought an end to months of speculation that she would seek the Socialist nomination – and to years of assurances from Hidalgo herself that Paris City Hall wouldn't serve as a springboard for the country's top job.
The 62-year-old Hidalgo, who won re-election to a second term as Paris mayor last year, has been both applauded and vilified for her eco-minded administration of the French capital, pushing the envelope as she has pushed motorists out of the city centre in favour of cycling lanes and green spaces.
In the global public eye as Paris mayor, Hidalgo's tenure has spanned a period of exceptional challenges for the city: a devastating series of terror attacks in 2015, fiery anti-government Yellow Vest protests, the disastrous 2019 inferno at Notre-Dame Cathedral, a Covid-19 pandemic all the more fearsome to a world tourism capital. There have also been glittering triumphs: the COP 21 summit that spawned the Paris Climate Accords in 2015 and the city's successful bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. Hidalgo most recently took the world stage in Japan, where she accepted the Olympic and Paralympic flags at Tokyo 2020's closing ceremonies.
Click here to read the full article published by France 24 on 12 September 2021.
The Court of Appeal ruled on Friday that the Faatuatua ile Atua Samoa ua Tasi (F.A.S.T.) party is the new Government of Samoa's bringing an end to three months of a national political stalemate.
The court, the highest in the country, found that a Government swearing-in ceremony conducted by the party itself on the lawns of Parliament on 24 May was in fact legally binding. That conclusion had the effect of immediately installing F.A.S.T as the nation's new Government and declaring that it had been so for nearly two months, with the Human Rights Protection Party (H.R.P.P.) of unlawfully occupying the office of the naton's "caretaker Government".
The decision apparently brings to an end the 22 year reign of Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi as the nation's Prime Minister.
Under the court's order he will be succeeded by Samoa's first female Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mataafa.
In their conclusion, the Court of Appeal said for the avoidance of doubt Samoa has had a lawful Government since 24 May, namely that led by the F.A.S.T. party.
Click here to read the full article published by the Samoa Observer on 23 July 2021.
Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley placed second and third in the Democratic mayoral primary. Many New Yorkers hoped the glass ceiling would finally be broken.
It was a constant refrain for the two leading female candidates running for mayor of New York City: The city has had 109 mayors, and all of them were men. It was finally time for a woman.
The two candidates, Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley, had experience in government. They had major endorsements from unions, elected officials and newspaper editorial boards. They raised millions of dollars and gained momentum in the final weeks of the campaign.
But Ms. Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, and Ms. Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, still fell short, placing second and third in the Democratic primary behind Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president.
New York is one of a handful of major cities where voters have yet to elect a woman as mayor, along with Los Angeles, Detroit and Philadelphia. Boston recently got its first female mayor, and women currently run more than 30 of the nation’s 100 largest cities.
Click here to read the full article published by the New York Times on 8 July 2021.
Somalia is halving the registration fees for women candidates to encourage more participation in the upcoming elections.
Last week, the National Consultative Council, an organ created with representation from the Prime Minister and five federal states, finally fixed a definite timeline for elections that will culminate in presidential polls on October 10.
Prime Minister Hussein Roble has said women aspirants at all levels will pay half the official registration fees.
"The Council, in considering a request from women, has reduced the fee for [female] candidates for member of parliament by 50 percent," Mr Roble said.
It means that female parliamentary candidates will pay $20,000, as opposed to the $40,000 required by the National Electoral Commission for Senate hopefuls, or $15,000 for the Lower House as opposed to $30,000. The fee itself has been a bone of contention and leaders had asked it to be lowered for all candidates. Presidential contenders will be required to pay $50,000.
This offer adds to an earlier agreement by leaders to reserve at least 30 percent of seats for women, although the officials have not explained exactly how that will happen.
Click here to read the full article published by All Africa on 5 July 2021.
Threats against politicians have sharply risen ahead of September's general elections. The leading candidate to replace Angela Merkel has rapidly become the prime target for misogyny, vitriol, and fake news.
It's been barely three weeks since Annalena Baerbock was nominated as the Green party's chancellor candidate. But it took only a matter of hours after her nomination on April 19 for disinformation and hate about her to begin spreading like wildfire online.
Green party election campaign leader Michael Kellner says the hate and fake reports have taken on a "completely new dimension."
Experts warn that the wave of targeted hate and disinformation that has spread about Baerbock is only the tip of the iceberg ahead of September's general election.
"It wasn't the increase in fake content and hate that surprised us. It was the sheer speed and extent," says Josephine Ballon, head of legal at HateAid, Germany's only advice center that only supports people affected by digital violence. "What's unfolding is gender-specific hate," she told DW. "This kind of hate seeks to discredit and silence the target."
Click here to read the full article published by DW on 10 May 2021.