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WORLD NEWS Friday 19 January 2018

Zimbabwe's leader: 1st post-Mugabe elections in May or June

The state-run Herald news- hostile due to allegations of
paper quoted Mnangag- human rights abuses and
wa on Thursday as say- electoral fraud, have insist-
ing “Zimbabwe is going ed on credible elections.
for elections in four to five In an interview with the Fi-
months’ time” while on a nancial Times published
visit to neighboring Mozam- Thursday, Mnangagwa said
bique. he would welcome missions
That would be ahead of from the United Nations,
the timeframe stipulated in European Union and the
the constitution, which says Commonwealth to monitor
elections should be be- the upcoming elections.
tween July 23 and Aug. 21. Mugabe had scorned
Mnangagwa had hinted such observers, preferring
they could be held earlier. ones from African nations
According to Veritas, a and organizations. Mnan-
legal think tank, the presi- gagwa in the interview
dent can circumvent the also said Zimbabwe was
constitutionally stipulated interested in rejoining the
timeline only if Parliament Commonwealth, the group
dissolves itself, necessitat- of Britain’s former colo-
ing early polls. nies. The EU and the United
The ruling ZANU-PF party States, which still has sanc-
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia, right, walk in the capital Ha- has the majority in Parlia- tions against Mnangagwa
rare, Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa says elections will be in May or June 2018, as he faces pressure at ment. for his past activities as a
home and abroad to deliver a credible vote to cement his legitimacy. Western countries, whose top Mugabe aide, are Zim-
(AP Photo/Ben Curtis) relations with Mugabe were babwe’s biggest donors. q

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — deliver a vote to cement his military’s help in Novem-
Zimbabwe’s president says legitimacy. President Em- ber, and this will be the first
elections will be in May or merson Mnangagwa took election without Mugabe
June, as he faces pressure power from longtime ruler since Zimbabwe gained its
at home and abroad to Robert Mugabe with the independence in 1980.

Uganda's leader to sign death warrants

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Kampala. tigate crimes extensively,"
Uganda's president said Museveni last signed death Ssewanyana said. "It is un-
Thursday he will sign the first warrants in 1999, when 28 derfunded and the judi-
death warrants in nearly people were executed. ciary is also underfunded.
two decades to create Uganda Prisons Service As a result, you find serious
fear among criminals in the data says 278 prisoners failures in the systems."
East African country, vow- were on death row as of In a report last year, Am-
ing to "hang a few." December. nesty International said sub-
President Yoweri Museveni The executive director of Saharan Africa had "stood
said he had not ordered the local Foundation for out as a beacon of hope
executions in 19 years but Human Rights Initiative, and positive progress on
was changing his mind be- Livingstone Ssewanyana, the abolition of the death
cause people were taking disagreed with Museveni's penalty" in recent years,
advantage of the "lenien- approach, saying that "ex- though it said two coun-
cy." ecuting prisoners won't end tries in 2016 had resumed
"I am going to revise this crime." executions: Botswana and
and hang a few," he said. He instead blamed a re- Nigeria.
"We must hang some of cent series of high-profile The human rights orga-
these people because if killings in Uganda, including nization as of the end of
you see how they kill peo- the murders of 23 women in 2016 listed several African
ple, they deserve to be the city of Entebbe, on the nations that retained the
killed." country's "failed" criminal death penalty including
He was speaking at a grad- justice system. Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia,
uation ceremony for prison "The police are very weak South Sudan and Zimba-
wardens in the capital, with no capacity to inves- bwe. q