262 candidates in 2nd round of legislative elections

President of the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE), Farouk Bouasker, said at a press conference held Sunday at the Convention Center in Tunis, that 131 constituencies are involved in the second round of legislative elections scheduled for January 29.

The number of candidates is 262 including 34 women. Most of them are adults (49.2% aged between 46-60 years). The percentage of young people aged between 30-45 years is 38.9%.

The total number of registered voters in the second round is 7 million 853 thousand 447 voters, including 5 million 827 thousand 949 registered voluntarily and two million 25 498 registered automatically.

The ISIE has mobilised 632 officers to monitor the campaign, including 524 field officers and 108 administrative officers, in addition to continuing the work of six monitoring cells composed of 71 officers.

The authority has set up 4222 voting centers and 10 thousand 012 polling stations for the second round. The total number of officers mobilised will amount to 40 thousand 594 people.

ISIE President had announced at a press conference held Sunday morning that the second round of parliamentary elections will be held on January 29. He said that the election campaign for the second round will start Monday, January 16 at midnight and will end on January 27 at midnight.

The period of electoral silence will begin on Saturday, January 28 at midnight and will end on Sunday, January 29 with the closing of the last polling station. The announcement of the preliminary results of the second round will take place, at the latest, on February 1, 2023. The Electoral Authority will announce the final results of the legislative elections after the end of the appeal period, no later than March 4, 2023.

Source: Tap News Agency

EP Resolution on Journalists in Morocco, Interference in Ongoing Judicial Process, Contradiction with Human Rights (Official)

In a letter addressed to MEPs, on behalf of the Moroccan members of this Committee, Haddad recalled that “several parties have sought to have people believe, in the name of human rights, that this person (Omar Radi) has been unjustly and arbitrarily imprisoned for his opinions, when in reality he is a detainee by virtue of common law as he is accused of rape”.

Noting that Morocco has “since 2016 purged the press code (the law on the rights of journalists) of prison sentences for journalists”, Haddad said that the conditions of fair trial were upheld, that the arrest procedures were in accordance with the law and of criminal procedure provisions, and that the defense requests were granted by the Judges.

Similarly, he added, a reasonable time was observed before the trial was held, adding that the accused was informed of the charges brought against him; he had access to a lawyer of his own choice and was able to have the time necessary for the preparation of his defense.

“As with any other trial case noted by human rights NGOs, the conditions for a fair trial and judgment were present,” he pointed out, noting that the reform of the Moroccan justice initiated a few years ago guarantees free and fair access to justice for everyone.

In this letter, Haddad, moreover, said that the complainant who is herself a journalist was also heard by the General Prosecutor after filing her complaint.

“Aware of what this case of sexual violence represents, like similar ones that preceded it, for litigants, the court decision was rendered on the sole basis of the impartial application of the law,” he explained.

Haddad also “strongly condemn the campaign of defamation, fake news, harassment and denigration, relentless and unprecedented in its scale, to which the complainant was subject; we call out the slander, attacks and repeated threats, detrimental to her dignity and jeopardizing her safety, health and well-being”.

He noted that “no person can be subject, as underlined by the Preamble of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Morocco and article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil Rights, to discrimination or persecution because of their sex, identity, social origin, opinion for the sole purpose of intimidation or to force them to silence”.

“The profession, the notoriety, the relations, and the opinions of the persons concerned, can never constitute, on their own, elements for or against crimesand/or offences; as they can in no way impact in any way the principle of equality of citizens before the law as guaranteed by article 6 of the Moroccan Constitution,” said Haddad, who invited his European colleagues as well as other stakeholders to work with their colleagues in Morocco and elsewhere to ensure that the international provisions inthis area prevail, knowing that the case of Omar Radi is still in trial before a higher court.

“We reiterate our recommendation that all stakeholders adhere to the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms as enshrined in national and international law, and to act in accordance with the law, international standards, the rules of ethics and the need for a strong and independent justice,” he stressed.

Haddad also indicated that the Moroccan MPs consider it urgent to ensure that women victims of sexual rape and violence are protected and their safety, dignity and access to counsel are guaranteed, no matter.

“We are deeply concerned that violence against women runs counter to the achievement of equality, development, and peace, as already indicated in the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, in which a series of measures was recommended aimed at combating violence against women and any form of obstacle to the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against women,” he warned, recognizing that violence against women reflects historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have resulted in male domination and discrimination on the one hand, and the hindrance of the advancement of women.

“we strongly defend the right of the victim (herself a journalist) of this alleged act of rape perpetrated by a journalist to have recourse to justice,” he underlined, adding that “the right to a fair trial must not be guaranteed to a male journalist and denied to a female journalist”.

Haddad added that the Moroccan MPs, members of the Morocco-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee, ask all MEPs to be extremely vigilant in the face of this case which is still in trial at an Appeals Court and to vote against this resolution which promotes a male journalist accused of rape at the expense of a woman journalist claiming that the former had raped her.

“we would have liked our MEP colleagues to investigate real and proven cases of human rights violations in other countries of the European neighborhood instead of focusing on Morocco, a country that has made very notable advances in the field of human rights as confirmed by the UN Human Rights Council, the American State Department, the European human rights bodies and various other organizations,” he stressed in this letter.

In this regard, he said that Algeria is shirking its human rights obligations and commitments and persists in serious human rights violations and the continued repression of Hirak activists, journalists and voices that criticize the regime, noting that all these cases of clear violation of human rights in Algeria have been reported by the European and world media.

“MEPs keep a mysterious silence over this catastrophic situation of human rights abuse in Algeria. What is this if not a blatant example of double standards?,” he lamented

“Finally, we affirm that the protection and promotion of human rights are constant and irreversible choices for Morocco, a country that will always defend its adherence to the UN mechanisms for human rights, and women’s rights, in particular,” Haddad concluded.

Source: Agency Morocaine De Presse

Legislative elections: Three out of seven candidates dismissed in first round resume election race

President of the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) presented Sunday the final results of the first round of legislative elections. Three of the seven candidates dismissed access, thus, the second round to be held on January 29.

Following the decisions of the Administrative Court, the authority announced that the candidate Fethi Mechrgui (Bizerte south), Abdelkader Ben Zeineb (Soliman) in the governorate of Nabeul and Fethi Khemissi of the constituency of Ben Arous El Madina El Jedida to resume the election race.

The second round in the three constituencies concerned will be held between:

– Fethi Mechergui (732 votes) and Ali Jamii (729 votes) in the constituency of Bizerte South

– Abdelkader Ben Zeineb (3250 votes) and Sami Meddeb (1208 votes) in the constituency of Soliman

– Olfa Marouani (1668 votes) and Fethi Khemissi (842 votes) in the constituency of Ben Arous.

No change was made to the results in other constituencies, said ISIE President Farouk Bouasker who recalled that 23 candidates (three women and 30 men) have won the first round of legislative.

Source: Tap News Agency

Death toll in Russian missile attack on Dnipro apartment building rises to 21

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro climbed to 21 on Sunday, as rescue workers raced to dig through a huge pile of debris in search of survivors.

At least 35 people were still missing and 73 were injured, Mykola Lukashuk, head of the regional council, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“Burn in hell, Russian murderers,” he wrote.

The building in Dnipro, a city in east-central Ukraine, was partly destroyed during a series of attacks on Saturday, Russia’s largest wave of strikes in two weeks. There was no immediate comment from Moscow about the attacks.

Rescuers toiled through the night searching for survivors. On Sunday morning, they could be seen punching and kicking through heaped mounds of smashed concrete and twisted metal.

Emergency workers said they had heard people screaming for help from underneath piles of debris and were using moments of silence to help direct their efforts.

“Two rooms on the second floor remain practically intact but buried,” Oleh Kushniruk, a deputy director of the regional branch of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, told Ukrainian television.

Lukashuk, the regional council chief, said 38 people had been rescued as of Sunday morning, including six children.

Ukraine’s top military command said on Sunday that Russia launched three air strikes, 57 missile strikes and carried out 69 attacks from heavy weapon rocket salvo systems on Saturday. Ukrainian forces shot down 26 rockets.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command also told local television on Sunday that Russia had fired only half of the cruise missiles it had deployed to the Black Sea during Saturday’s attacks.

“This indicates that they still have certain plans,” said the spokesperson, Natalia Humeniuk. “We must understand that they can still be used.”

The strikes on Saturday also hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv and other places. Officials warned this would restrict power supply for the capital and large swathes of the country over the next few days.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine last February, has been pounding the country’s energy infrastructure with missiles and drones since October, causing sweeping blackouts and disruptions to central heating and running water.

Source: Tap News Agency

At least 40 killed in Nepal’s worst air crash in nearly five years

At least 40 people were killed on Sunday when a domestic flight crashed in Pokhara in Nepal, an aviation authority official said, in the small Himalayan country’s worst crash in nearly five years.

Hundreds of rescue workers were scouring the hillside where the Yeti Airlines flight, carrying 72 people from the capital Kathmandu, went down. The weather was clear, said Jagannath Niroula, spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority.

Local TV showed rescue workers scrambling around broken sections of the aircraft. Some of the ground near the crash site was scorched, with licks of flames visible.

“The plane is burning,” said police official Ajay K.C., adding that rescue workers were having difficulty reaching the site in a gorge between two hills near the tourist town’s airport.

The craft made contact with the airport from Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m. (0505 GMT), the aviation authority said in a statement. “Then it crashed.”

“Half of the plane is on the hillside,” said Arun Tamu, a local resident, who told Reuters he reached the site minutes after the plane went down.” “The other half has fallen into the gorge of the Seti river.”

The crash is Nepal’s deadliest since March 2018, when a US-Bangla Dash 8 turboprop flight from Dhaka crashed on landing in Kathmandu, killing 51 of the 71 people on board, according to Aviation Safety Network.

At least 309 people have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal – home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest – where the weather can change suddenly and make for hazardous conditions. The European Union has banned Nepali airlines from its airspace since 2013, citing safety concerns.

Those on the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft included two infants and four crew members, said airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula. There were five Indians, four Russians, one Irish, two South Korean, one Australian, one French and one Argentinian national onboard.

The plane was 15 years old, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

The ATR72 is a widely used twin engine turboprop plane manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, according to its website.

FlightRadar24 said the aircraft was equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data. “We are downloading high resolution data and verifying the data quality,” it said on Twitter.

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called an emergency cabinet meeting after the plane crash.

Source: Tap News Agency

1st Congress of July 25 Movement: Presentation of 80 candidates in 2nd round of legislative elections

The members of the National Movement of Tunisian Youth “July 25 Movement” stressed at their first congress held on January 15 in Tunis, on the theme “Preparations for the second round of parliamentary elections to ensure the success of the process of July 25”, their determination to achieve “impressive results” in the second round of parliamentary elections.

President of the political bureau of the July 25 movement Abderrazek Khalouli said that the movement chose to hold its first congress on January 15, because of the symbolic of this date, which follows January 14, since it is the day or the Salvation Front had threatened to cancel the movement of July 25 and demand the departure of the President of the Republic, Kais Saied.”

He added that the movement chose this date to celebrate the failure of the former regime and the National Salvation Front which claimed that it would be able to save Tunisia despite its involvement in several crimes against the country.

For her part, Deputy Secretary General of the movement of July 25, Sajiaa Badida noted that this congress which brought together several leaders and members of the movement is an opportunity to announce that the movement has won 10 seats in the first round of parliamentary elections and will present 80 candidates in the second round of these elections.

She also said that the July 25 movement “assumes responsibility, as it is the political belt protecting the process of July 25 and supporting the President of the Republic to save the country and play its role in the defense of the homeland and its protection.

Source: Tap News Agency