POLITICS-UGANDA: “Things Already Don’t Look Good”

Ugandans will go to the polls Thursday for their first multi-party elections in about 25 years, this after a campaign marred by violence.

POLITICS-TANZANIA: Tensions Ahead of Zanzibari Poll

"It's more than politics - it's chaos. Most of these international observers are really terrified by what is going to be the situation in Zanzibar," says rights worker Deus Kabamba of the upcoming general election in Tanzania's semi-independent archipelago.

POLITICS-LIBERIA: Better Some Right to Vote Than None?

Liberians go to the polls next week for their country's first general elections since civil war was brought to a halt in the West African state in 2003.

POLITICS-DRC: Making Order Out of Chaos for the 2006 Election

Over recent days, thousands of people have queued at voter registration centres in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to ensure they can participate in a landmark poll scheduled to take place by Jun. 30 next year.

MIGRATION-AFRICA: In Johannesburg, a Little Maputo

Music pounds from a ghetto blaster underneath the makeshift stall where Mozambican national Simiao Chichava* earns his living fixing radios and selling music cassettes.

POLITICS-KENYA: Countdown to the Constitutional Referendum

Civil society groups in Kenya have set their sights on an upcoming referendum in a bid to prevent government from pushing through an altered version of the country's draft constitution.

RIGHTS-TOGO: Plus Ca Change…

The human rights group Amnesty International has issued a report alleging serious human rights violations in Togo during the West African country's recent elections.

POLITICS-DRC: Bullets, Not Ballots

The 45th anniversary of Congo-Kinshasa's independence from Belgium, Thursday, was supposed to have been the day the country held its first democratic election in over four decades. However, it was teargas and ammunition rather than ballot boxes which many citizens were confronted with.

RIGHTS-IVORY COAST: Abuses Across the Board

Talks to end years of rebellion in the Ivory Coast resumed this week in the South African capital. But although government and rebel representatives in Pretoria may be speaking of peace, the areas they control are marked by persistent human rights abuses.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: “I’m Ready to Stand in Front of the Gun and be Shot”

A coalition of more than 200 African and international civic groups has called on the United Nations and African Union to press for an end to evictions and demolitions that have left people across Zimbabwe homeless.

POLITICS: Burundi’s Peace Process Comes to the Crunch

With a local election under its belt, and legislative and presidential polls scheduled for the next two months, Burundi is entering the final stretch of a lengthy and difficult peace process.

POLITICS-ETHIOPIA: Concern Over Election Violence Begins to Bite

International condemnation of the violence that followed the May 15 parliamentary election in Ethiopia took on new force this week, with news that Britain had suspended 36 million dollars in aid to the East African country.

POLITICS-ETHIOPIA: Opposition Digs in its Heels Over Election Results

Ethiopia’s national elections were heading to a stormy conclusion this week as the country’s two largest opposition groupings refused to accept provisional results showing that the ruling party had held on to power.

POLITICS-TOGO: A Meeting of Rivals

Newly-elected Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe and various opposition leaders were in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, Thursday for talks on resolving tensions in their West African country.

POLITICS-TUNISIA: Little Room for Taking Government to Task

The plight of Tunisian attorney Mohamed Abbou has been in the spotlight for several weeks now, with U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher being quoted earlier this month as saying Washington was "very concerned" about Abbou’s imprisonment.

POLITICS-ETHIOPIA: Third Time Lucky for the Opposition?

Ethiopia was caught up in election fever this week as crowds of up to 300,000 people took to the streets of Addis Ababa to back the country's ruling coalition and a range of newly invigorated opposition parties.

POLITICS-ETHIOPIA: Upcoming Poll a “Hollow Exercise” – Rights Group

With just days to go before parliamentary elections in Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch has alleged widespread repression in the country's central Oromia region. This area is populated by members of the Oromo ethnic group, which accounts for about a third of the population.

POLITICS-TOGO: A Homecoming Marked by Political Uncertainty

A number of refugees who fled Togo because of violence sparked by the country's Apr. 24 presidential election have reportedly started going home.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY-ZIMBABWE: Less Press, Little Freedom

Last year, Zimbabwe earned itself a place on a list of the ‘World’s Worst Places to Be a Journalist’, published by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Twelve months on, little has changed.

POLITICS-TOGO: Opposition Defies Official Poll Results

Emmanuel Akitani-Bob, an opposition candidate in the presidential election held Sunday in Togo, declared himself winner of the poll Wednesday. This came a day after the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) announced that Faure Gnassingbe, son of deceased head of state Gnassingbe Eyadema, was the provisional winner.

DEVELOPMENT-MALAWI: Bad Policies, Not Drought, Leave Millions Hungry

Around two million Malawians need food aid this year, the sixth year in a row that food shortages have hit the country, due to a prolonged drought affecting the greater part of Southern Africa.