Opposition parties are troubled by what they say is government’s strategy to keep them out of the general elections in May 2010.
"It was like writing my first exam. I was nervous and didn’t want to make a mistake. I must have checked the ballot 10 times."
The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) has again suspended the observer status of a human rights watchdog it accuses of lying about mistakes on the voter’s roll.
"Man RDP!" sighs Martha Hamukoto, sitting on the steps of a Windhoek office block. She is lamenting the breakaway faction, the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP).
Gender activists foresee a drop in female parliamentarians after Namibia’s general and presidential elections on November 27 and 28. It’s a trend that jeopardises the region’s goal of 50 percent female representation in politics by 2015.
When Kgomotso Mogami threw her name into the hat to contest the Gaborone Central parliamentary seat it was easy for many people to write her off.
The guns have gone silent – except for sporadic conflict in parts of the vast South Sudan region, such as the Eastern Equatoria State. It may not be the absolute end of the conflict in the region, but it is a reason for renewed hope.
The incumbent, President Armando Guebuza, has won the Mozambican 2009 elections in a landslide, obtaining three quarters of the votes, according to official results.
Mozambique’s incumbent president looks set to serve a second term of office as partial results of the country’s presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections are announced.
Pressure is mounting for a new constitution that is inclusive of all citizens' views as the ongoing delays by the body granted to draft it still continues.
Criticised as system of dividing and ruling people according to their ethnic groups, Ethiopia’s federalism has just become a bone of contention.
The Kenyan government has reneged on its commitments to call on independent, international tribunals to try perpetrators of 2007 post-election violence. This move is being criticised by Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York City-based organisation that advocates against human rights abuses.
Bad news for women: of the eight women running for mayor in Mozambique's municipal elections held on Nov. 19, only three won. Overall, 114 candidates ran for mayor in 43 municipalities.
She was orphaned by Angola's liberation struggle against Portugal, but through it she found a new family and a life-long inspiration.
Two deaths in a row placed Rita Muianga at the helm of Xai-Xai's municipal council. In 2003, council presidents Ernesto Mausse and Faquir Bay died suddenly and successively. Rumours of witchcraft gripped Xai-Xai, a small town 220 kilometres north of Mozambique's capital, Maputo.
If Maria Moreno is elected president of the Municipal Council in Cuamba, in Niassa Province, Mozambique's parliament will lose one of its most interesting personalities.
Something looked very different at the inauguration of Angola’s newly elected parliament, held Tuesday at the Talatona Convention Centre in Luanda, the capital - this is not a boys' club any longer.
It seems like a playground game. Every day, Angola’s main opposition party sends teams out across Luanda to hang flags, posters and pictures of their leader Isaías Samakuva.
In a highly contested election marred by violence and held under very difficult economic conditions, Zimbabwean women politicians defied the odds to participate as candidates in the March 29th elections.
A barrage of banners denouncing Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe greeted passersby in the well-manicured gardens of Johannesburg's Sandton Convention Centre, where that country's political crisis is high on the agenda of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit.
Nearly a third of candidates in Angola's upcoming parliamentary elections are female, thanks to a new quota imposed by the government. The 30 percent rule was designed to bring more women into the country's parliament, but as campaigning gets under way, women continue to stay in Angola's political shadows, barely visible at rallies and with few holding senior party positions.