On the sidelines, anti-government protesters have clashed with security forces, resulting in widespread chaos throughout the Iranian capital city.

Geneive Abdo, who runs the insideIRAN project for The Century Foundation, discusses the day’s events in Tehran with Daljit Dhaliwal.

Al Jazeera English reports on the protests from Tehran.

Commentators continue to debate whether the Karzai administration was complicit in the fraud and whether Hamid Karzai could ever be considered the legitimate Afghan leader. Some are even contemplating the prospect of a power-sharing arrangement between Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah.

Jamie Metzl, the executive vice president of the Asia Society and project director for its Afghanistan-Pakistan task force, speaks with Daljit Dhaliwal.

Sunday’s vote for members of the lower house of parliament gave Merkel a comfortable center-right majority, thanks to a strong performance by the pro-business Free Democrats, who will become the key partner in Merkel’s alliance. As she prepares for a second four-year term, she made it clear that she will continue to seek consensus as Germany weathers the economic crisis.

Nikolaus Piper, a senior correspondent in New York for the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the major issues of the German election and Merkel’s victory.

The event featured a panel discussion moderated by Garrick Utley, Chairman of the American Council on Germany, and featured panelists Klaus Peter Siegloch, bureau chief of ZDF German Television, Nikolaus Piper, Senior Correspondent for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and Cathleen Fisher, PhD, of George Washington University.

Though the election results were expected, observers said the record low turnout suggests dissatisfaction with the current options in German politics.

The country votes for members of its lower house of parliament, who in turn choose the head of the government.

Barnaby Phillips of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English reports from Hamburg, a port city hit hard by the global recession.

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai defended the integrity of the country’s presidential election on Thursday. He also admitted for the first time that there was fraud by government officials who support him, but said there was fraud as well by those supporting his main opponent.

The final but uncertified count gives Karzai more than 54 percent, but European election observers say about one-third of the votes were suspicious and should be examined for fraud. Karzai called on them to respect the votes of the Afghan people.

Should the U.S. demand a recount or accept the results?

Tell what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

With public support of the war in Afghanistan decreasing as the conflict intensifies, more than half of Americans in a poll by the Washington Post and ABC News now say it’s not worth fighting.

Should the United States commit even more troops to the war, as some in the military are now suggesting? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Eric Bjornlund, the co-founder of Democracy International, recently returned from monitoring the vote in Afghanistan. He joins Martin Savidge to discuss reports of fraud, the potential for a runoff and the status of women in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Taro Aso.

Japan is set to head to the polls for parliamentary elections on August 30, and polling suggests Prime Minister Taro Aso’s conservative party will lose power after ruling for most of the past 54 years.

Some analysts suggest that this election may herald an era of a two-party political system.

Yoichi Funabashi is the editor-in-chief of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. He writes at the “East Asia Forum” about changes ahead for the Japanese political landscape.

Halfway through the 2004 U.S. presidential primaries, a taxi driver engaged me in conversation as he drove me from a hotel in Qingdao, in the eastern part of China’s Shandong province, to the airport.

‘In the United States, the Republicans and the Democrats appeal to the public by highlighting the differences in their policies. That is why there is dynamism in their politics,’ he said. ‘In China, with the Kuomintang in Taiwan becoming more realistic, what would happen if a two-party system was set up with the Communist Party and the Kuomintang and have the two alternate in government? By the way, what is the situation in Japan? Are there two major parties in Japan like in the United States? Are they competing with each other? What are the choices presented to the people?’

Reflexively, I responded: ‘Of course they are competing,’ I said. ‘In Japan, it comes down to a battle between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. Like the United States, Japan has free elections.’

However, I soon caught myself pondering the issue more deeply as I began to realize that it was not entirely obvious what it is that the LDP and the DPJ are competing over.

What, in fact, are the choices that are being presented to the Japanese public?

There are other questions facing Japan right now. Will it have a two-party system like the United States? Is such a system even desirable? Will the Lower House election on August 30 be a choice between promoting that trend or not?

Five years down the road, has the time finally come when I can proudly respond to that taxi driver’s question?

[...] Scrutinizing the policies presented in the campaign manifestoes of the LDP and the DPJ, there is a blurring of the differences because the LDP appears to have come up with measures that simulate those of the DPJ in areas such as child-rearing support and education policy.

In addition, the record-level economic stimulation measures taken to address the global economic crisis have led to a confrontation between ‘big government’ and ‘big government.’

[...] If an age of two-party politics is to emerge in Japan, it should be one that pits a conservative force against a liberal one.

However, it remains to be seen if a two-party system in which both parties are capable of handling government will actually emerge.

The range of alternatives before the public will only expand if opposition parties present counterproposals to policies presented by the ruling party, and if the ruling camp subsequently presents even more counterproposals.

There can be no choice without alternatives. Alternatives must involve decisions on what should be changed as well as what should not be changed.

One reason for the current confusion in Japan is its failure as a nation to respond to questions such as whether it wants to continue to depend on exports or move toward a domestic demand-based economy, whether the environment and the economy are mutually exclusive, whether it seeks to become a multiethnic society and whether it will push reform or return to square one.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user World Economic Forum under a Creative Commons license.

James Bays of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English takes a look at what some Afghans faced.

A woman at a polling centre in Kandahar City.

Afghanistan is heading to the polls for national elections — but out of 41 presidential candidates, only two are women. Progress has been slow since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

Perhaps to appease conservatives ahead of the election, President Hamid Karzai recently enacted a law allowing men to deny their wives food if the women refuse to comply with sexual demands.

Masha Hamilton is a novelist who founded the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, aimed at allowing Afghan women to have a direct voice. She describes women’s concerns as Afghanistan’s future takes shape.

One autumn morning not long after dawn, Shaista Hakim stood outside on her Kabul balcony, her head bare, sleep still in her eyes as she hung laundry. She quietly hummed to herself. Her husband and two young children lay peacefully asleep inside. Suddenly, on the street below, a gray car shrieked to a halt. The driver, wearing a turban, glared up at her with an expression so venomous it frightened her back inside.

Peeking through the window, she watched him push himself from his car. A moment later, she heard him pounding at her door. “I took off my glasses, put on a scarf and opened the door,” she recalled. “I was very scared.”

“Don’t ever go outside again without a burqa, or you will be arrested,” the man warned, his voice shaking with anger. He turned on heel and strode away.

The date: September 27, 1996, nearly thirteen years ago. Overnight, the Taliban had taken charge of Kabul, and the shift in the capital city was dramatic. To Mrs. Hakim, it felt as abrupt — and within a week, she and her young family abandoned their jobs and their apartment, fleeing the Taliban shadow and heading to Pakistan.

Mrs. Hakim returned to Kabul only after the post-9/11 fall of the Taliban, and I met her during a visit to Afghanistan last November. She now works as the director of a center that treats female drug addicts. Her job is not easy, nor is it often cheerful — she and her team brave Kabul’s most desperate and crime-ridden neighborhoods daily to reach out to women hooked on opium or heroin. Nevertheless, she considers it a gift that, for the moment at least, her government permits her to do the work she loves.

But Mrs. Hakim has become wary as Afghanistan goes again to the polls and calls have intensified in the last few months — from the U.S. to Europe to Afghanistan itself –- for the Afghan government to engage in dialogue with once-shunned moderate Taliban factions. She fears the change to a more conservative regime could happen overnight again –- that one morning on her balcony, she might look around to find her world unrecognizable.

President Hamid Karzai, long considered to hold geographically limited power (more like the “mayor of Kabul” than head of the country) has at times in recent months appeared to lose control even of Kabul. Observers, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have suggested his government’s survival may depend on opening talks with the Taliban.

Kathleen Rafiq, an American who began visiting Kabul after the fall of the Taliban and has lived there for the last four years doing humanitarian work, agrees. The Karzai government has repeatedly faced charges of ineffectiveness and corruption, and additionally, the Taliban has effectively taken control of much of the south of the country. “There is no way to solve the current political problems without bringing in the Taliban somehow,” Ms. Rafiq says, echoing a view widely held in Afghanistan itself.

Afghan women register to vote before an election in 2004.

But many Afghan women fear even the most moderate Taliban representatives will find it difficult to agree to a partnership with the Afghan government unless they win agreement for the country to follow a conservative interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law. This will by definition lead to renewed repression of women. Political expediency, these women say, may cost them their tenuous rights to walk outside without a burqa and male accompaniment, to attend school, to hold a job, even to hum as they hang laundry at dawn.

It is these fears that led me to develop an idea that had been percolating in the back of my mind for some time –- some kind of online link to Afghan women so that their voices would not be silenced, as they were during the previous Taliban rule. So that they would not again become invisible. So that we could hear directly from them, without having their words filtered through the voices of their men or the media.

From this sprang the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, an organization that has drawn generous volunteers from across the U.S. to reach out to women in Afghanistan. The project pairs Afghan women with authors and teachers here on a rotating basis and presents their work on a blog. And because it has become uncomfortable if not impossible for women to go into Internet cafes –- particularly in the south of the country but even in Kabul -– the AWWP is fundraising to open Afghanistan’s first-ever women’s-only Internet café.

Roya, one of the AWWP writers, wrote in a poem entitled Afghan Woman: “Who asks about my identity? I am lost on the pages of history books.” As the U.S. encourages the Afghan government to negotiate with the Taliban, we must make sure Afghan women do not become overlooked again.

- Masha Hamilton

For more on women in Afghanistan, view PBS Wide Angle’s “A Woman Among Warlords.”

Photo courtesy of Flickr users The Advocacy Project under a Creative Commons license.

On Monday, seven weeks after Iran’s disputed presidential election, the country’s supreme leader endorsed the declared victor.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave his blessing to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, clearing the way for Ahmadinejad to be sworn in on Wednesday for a second term.

Watch a video of the ceremony from an Iranian television channel:

But later, there were reports of new clashes in Tehran between security forces and protesters who oppose Ahmadinejad.

One Twitter user purporting to be in Iran wrote of his discontent:

Ahmadinejad is not my president Ahmadinejad is not our president Ahmadinejad is not Iran’s president.. never.. never… never

In black monday: coup government was appointed. where is my vote? where is Iraniran’s vote?

Watch a video claiming to show Monday’s protests from YouTube user IranYouth:

A large trial began this weekend for those arrested in the violence and protests that followed the election. They included many prominent politicians and religious figures.

Lines to vote in Argentina, with masks to protect against H1N1.

I once asked a doctor how to avoid catching a cold. He said to wash my hands and keep three feet away from everyone. Problem is — that’s no fun. Matters of politics, human relations and cultural mores operate at closer quarters.

Argentina is in the grip of what seems to be a full-blown swine flu epidemic, call it what you will — H1N1 or influenza A. The country’s health minister has announced 44 deaths as a result of the epidemic.

All the heightened awareness has been publicized in the week after President Cristina Kirchner and her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner, saw their governing Peronist Party lose badly in national elections, deemed a referendum on the Kirchners’ hold to power.

Some people wondered whether the elections should have been delayed as the flu epidemic started taking hold. The Buenos Aires newspaper, La Nacion, reports that the government cited 1,587 flu cases days before the Sunday elections, and may have been undercounting.

Suddenly, this week the count of infections is running much higher — perhaps as many as 100,000 cases so far. All along, one theory was that the Kirchners, facing low polling numbers, were trying to rush the election no matter what before their popularity got even worse.

Just after the election results, the health minister resigned. Her replacement, Dr. Juan Manzur, announced a series of measures to keep down the number of flu infections.

School trips were delayed, federal and state courts sessions were in recess, and sports and cultural events are postponed around Buenos Aires and the provinces. People have taken to wearing masks, pregnant women and the infirm can take time off from work and people with symptoms are encouraged to stay out of crowds. And officials say the national drink, yerba mate, may be a healthy choice — but avoid sharing and passing it around as is usually done, in ornate gourds with silver straws.

The economic fallout has been significant. Newspapers report fewer shoppers on the streets, restaurants are less crowded and tourists, particularly those from Brazil, are staying away.

The only good word about the worldwide flu epidemic is that pharmaceutical manufacturers are preparing supplies of vaccines that should be ready in two months. Until then, vote by absentee ballot and stay three feet away from everyone — or, at least, postpone any thoughts of visiting your soulmate in Argentina until the disease runs its course a bit.

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user blmurch under a Creative Commons license.

The demonstrations by supporters of pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi were described as the largest since the results were announced, and they were largely peaceful. The election dispute gained another dimension after Iran’s supreme leader ordered an investigation of Mousavi’s claims that the election had been stolen.

Ervand Abrahamian, a distinguished professor of history at the City University of New York, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the election results, allegations of fraud and how this complicates U.S. President Barack Obama’s desire to start a dialogue with Iran.

Iranian police have cracked down on foreign media covering the protests,and some protesters even shooed away secret police from foreign reporters. But as governments try to curtail the flow of information, citizen journalists have used new Internet technology to bypass restrictions.

Blogger Sanaz Arjomand observes the situation from northern Iran:

The rest of my family lament the “democracy” in Iran and get angry about the obvious taqqalob, or cheating. What I’ve heard most often is that the Rahbar (Supreme Leader) hand-picked Ahmadinejad anyway, that it was obvious that they would cheat and that they themselves would have to suffer for four more years.

In the teeny little town of Maragheh, in northeastern Iran, Ahmadinejad supporters are out in the street. But in Tehran and other bigger towns, it’s chaos. BBC Persia was showing beatings in the street and huge protests (like a river, my cousin said, they kept flowing). What I found interesting is that unlike the campaigning I wanted to post about earlier, these protests are taking place on foot. People are not hiding behind their steering wheels or zooming around on motorcycles. Instead of the “Ahmadi bye-bye!” chants (and many, many more clever ones that I’ll remember to post soon), the young crowd was shouting: Moussavi, Moussavi, ray-e ma ra pass bedee! (Moussavi, Moussavi, return our votes!)

Mousavi postponed rally plans, and the government continues its crackdown. A young Iranian student reports:

A friend of mine emailed me these lines from the University of Tehran campus where there have been wide protests: “We are in the campus my friend, tear gas is being thrown at us like a heavy snow fall, the entire building I am in right now is filled with gas. Two of my friends were wounded thirty minutes ago. There is fire everywhere. I thought I came here to study but there is nothing here but war. I can only tell you this so you’d share it on Facebook. I tried using a proxy to access Facebook but its still not possible. Thanks so much. And by the way, please don’t mention my name because there have been wide arrests everywhere.

[...] I have been numb, speechless and in tears for the past few days. These kids are Iran’s brightest students. I went to school with them. We ate lunch together and shared our sandwiches. What is happening to them?

Gary Sick, a former member of the National Security Council, writes on his Tumblr blog:

If the reports coming out of Tehran about an electoral coup are sustained, then Iran has entered an entirely new phase of its post-revolution history. One characteristic that has always distinguished Iran from the crude dictators in much of the rest of the Middle East was its respect for the voice of the people, even when that voice was saying things that much of the leadership did not want to hear…The current election appears to repudiate both of those rules. The authorities were faced with a credible challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who had the potential to challenge the existing power structure on certain key issues. He ran a surprisingly effective campaign, and his “green wave” began to be seen as more than a wave. In fact, many began calling it a Green Revolution. For a regime that has been terrified about the possibility of a “velvet revolution,” this may have been too much.

Allahpundit wonders if Obama’s administration might just “accept” the Iranian election results:

What if Obama did walk away, though? There’s actually another possibility here: Western leaders protest the result by ending negotiations and refusing to recognize Ahmadinejad as president, which in turn encourages protesters to keep up their agitation for several more months. Paralyzed and afraid of being overthrown, the regime becomes so desperate that it agrees to give up the nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of all sanctions and renewed diplomatic ties with the U.S. in hopes that the economic turnaround produced by the influx of foreign capital will placate the people. The dilemma for The One here is that he campaigned on the moronic assumption that Iran might conceivably be willing to make a deal on nukes if we just talked nice to them or sweetened our offer a bit. Now comes the moment of truth: Does he really believe that? Does he honestly believe, after years of stonewalling, with the country maybe a year away from being able to build a bomb, that they’re going to throw in the towel now? If not, then walk away. There’s no downside and potentially a tremendous upside if the regime falls or a grateful Mousavi ends up being installed as president. And needless to say, from a moral standpoint, he’d be on the side of the angels. Conflict with the regime is inevitable; if the Iranian public’s willing to fight our battle for us, let’s support them with all we’ve got.

Ahmadinejad appeared in a debate on Monday with another conservative candidate who is a former commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard, while supporters of both men held rallies on the streets of Tehran.

Below, view a slideshow of Iran’s election fever:

A blogger at “Tehran Post” describes how the debates have invigorated the country:

As you might know private television channels are forbidden by the law in Iran. In general, power-holders are really touchy about any media that could challenge their authority.

However, presidential elections in Iran are a chance for people to find out about diverse, mostly dissident political views in the state-run TV and get relieved from the official political propaganda that could not be cornier. Candidates are allotted equal time to talk about their plans with the citizens.

Campaign season in Iran.

[…]When 2 A.M. in the morning Tajrish Square in north of Tehran becomes the scene of gathering of Ahmadinejad and Musavi’s supporters, both celebrating their candidate’s victory, clear it becomes that the debate has been one with a deep impact, one that Iranians remember for a long time. [...] I wish [we] had a presidential election everyday in Iran! The sense of freedom is really great!

An Iranian blogger at “Sidewalk Lyrics” talks about why the election has mobilized Iran’s youth:

I wish I was in Tehran right now. Not because I like a particular candidate. Not because I believe in change or hope or even elections.

But because some election seasons, that dark, haunted city is sprinkled with life and color. Like a flower that blooms to life every few years, only to fall back into a deep, incurable coma for which you are never certain there will be an awakening.

I contemplate what could have been, what should have been but what never is, while it dances vividly all around me and I know that its death, like its birth, I will soon see.

And every time, I can’t help but wonder: maybe, this time around, the ending will be different.

People around the world find it fascinating, pathetic or strange that we Iranian youth have flown into the streets the way we have. We have done so out of desperation, fatigue, hope and curiosity.

Mousavi became prime minister two years before I was born. One year after the war. Two years after a revolution. In the midst of chaos and bloodshed of unimaginable proportions. Times were not easy, for anyone. And there we were, dropped into this world amidst all of that.

I will be a 25 year old tomorrow when I go out to vote. Second chances don’t come easy Mr. President. Whoever you may turn out to be.

Watch a video of Ahmadinejad’s supporters celebrating following one debate from YouTube user kelashinkof:

Blogger “Kamran,” an Iranian expatriate, explains why he plans to vote despite a lack of faith in the candidates:

A short telephone conversation to a couple of friends in Iran yesterday turned into an afternoon-long debate about the upcoming election.

My simple question about the latest campaign news produced brand new jokes about the candidates. They tell me that they have heard all these promises before and remind me that it wasn’t long ago that the president was Khatami.

[…]I will take a 45 minute train trip to go to Iranian embassy in The Hague to vote.  I don’t believe in these people and do not think any of the candidates can solve the enormous challenges we face, but I am still voting. During the past thirty years, our rights as Iranian citizens have been constantly under attack. This has been true despite many promises of protection and invitations to engage in the building of our society.

I am voting with the hope that not only the hardline government will change, but that we will build a more democratic society where women’s rights, a free press, free speech, and human rights are not a dream. Last 4 years proved our right can be in more danger than we could even imagine.

Being part of this initiative was unthinkable for me just four years ago. Four years of right-wing Ahmadinejad has put Iran on a downward path. I believe that Iranian expats should play a more constructive role and not keep waiting for some magical transformation of power.

Photos courtesy of Flickr users under a Creative Commons license.

A memorial for former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in 2005. Recently, Der Spiegel came out with a report linking Hezbollah to the assassination.

Lebanon will head to the polls on June 7 in an election that could alter the political fabric of the country, with Hezbollah and its allies poised to make significant gains.

Hezbollah is pitted against the current anti-Syria majority. For more on the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanese politics, watch the Worldfocus signature story: Hezbollah heads into mainstream Lebanese life and politics.

On a visit to Lebanon last week, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden — the highest-level U.S. official to visit Lebanon in over two decades — warned that U.S. aid would be dependent on the outcome of the elections.

For more, listen to our online radio show on Lebanon’s election.

Hezbollah is backed by Iran and Syria, while the U.S. and its allies support the current parliamentary majority. Thomas Strouse writes at the “Informed Comment” blog to break down these two competing groups:

The two major alliances currently in Lebanon, “March 8” and “March 14,” are relatively informal blocs which formed along with events which took place in 2005. Allies and sworn enemies have been known to make dramatic shifts in Lebanese politics over the years. If an opportunity presents itself for one part of the alliance to gain politically, the current alliance framework could easily shift, especially following the June elections.

The March 8 alliance dates back to March 8, 2005 when various pro-Syrian factions held a massive demonstration in downtown Beirut, standing in support of Syria and accusing the U.S. and Israel of meddling in Lebanon’s domestic affairs. The March 14 alliance dates back to March 14, 2005, the one-month anniversary of the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, when another major demonstration was held in downtown Beirut, demanding an end to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.

In the 2005 parliamentary elections, which were held on four consecutive Sunday’s beginning on May 29, the March 14 alliance capitalized on the anger over the assassination of Hariri and the momentum that they were provided with after successfully pressuring for Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon on April 26 of that year.

The elections in five weeks will demonstrate how much support the March 14 alliance has been able to sustain over the past four years.

Frida Ghitis at “World Politics Review” explores the potential effect of a Hezbollah victory:

In the short term, a victory at the polls by Hezbollah’s coalition would not make a big difference inside Lebanon. But that could change quickly. A sharp drop in aid and a return of open Syrian and Iranian involvement in the country’s domestic affairs would raise tensions and could ultimately tip Lebanon into violence. If Hezbollah were to find itself under pressure, it could conceivably divert attention by sparking a confrontation with Israel.

A number of flashpoints could easily trigger a new war, not least of which are the anti-aircraft missiles Hezbollah has been acquiring from Iran. With Israeli surveillance flights regularly crossing Lebanese airspace, the opportunity to use the missiles would present itself directly overhead.

Deen Sharp, a journalist based in Lebanon, wrote about Biden’s visit, concluding that it was for show:

Vice-President Biden is in town and among the tabouleh surrounding his visit he has said nothing new. The policy that US will tie aid to votes was reiterated and the standard we support no one expecpt for the people that we support…

Thus, the same dance between America and Iran is being played out in Lebanon. However, all we be pleased that the tempo is slower and although there is no love music the death metal has at last been put away.

The blogosphere also lit up when Der Spiegel came out with a report linking Hezbollah to the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister. Many regarded the report with skepticism, including blogger Michael Totten:

Der Spiegel might be wrong, and, if not, UN investigators themselves might be wrong. I’m no fan of Hezbollah, but I need more evidence before I’m willing to say “Hezbollah did it.”

Even so, this could be an enormous bombshell in Lebanon where voters go to the polls in a few weeks.

The Der Spiegel story isn’t sourced, so it could be bogus. But NOW Lebanon reports that the UN spokesperson for the tribunal has “no comment.” I’d expect the spokesperson to deny the story if it were false. At this point, I’m willing to assume the UN really does think Hezbollah did it.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Travel Aficionado under a Creative Commons license.

Geneive Abdo, a former journalist based in Iran and now an analyst with the Century Foundation in Washington, joins Martin Savidge to discuss Khatami’s decision, how his victory would theoretically transform Iran-U.S. relations and Vice President Joe Biden’s statement that the United States is willing to talk to Iran.

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected by the Somali parliament as the new president. Photo: IRIN

Moderate Islamist cleric Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed became president of Somalia after a parliamentary vote on Saturday, bringing hope to some in a country where no functioning central government has existed since 1991.

Ethiopian troops recently withdrew from the country after a two-year occupation and handed security duties over to a joint force of Somali government officials and Islamic militiamen.

Though Ethiopia drove Ahmed out of power when its army ousted the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) only a few years ago, the two countries have now agreed to work together.

Listen to the Worldfocus radio show and read the Q&A on the background of Somalia’s political and social instability and Ethiopia’s role in the country.

Rob Crilly is a freelance journalist based in Nairobi who has written for The Times, The Irish Times, The Daily Mail, The Scotsman and The Christian Science Monitor. Crilly’s blog “African Safari” appears on the blog network “From the Frontline,” where he discusses Somalia’s new president.

Somalia’s best chance of peace

Funny how things work out. Two years ago Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was on the run from an Ethiopian assault that had snatched Mogadishu from the Islamists who ran the city peacefully for six months. America had given its tacit support to the strike, fearing that Somalia was about to become a haven for al Qaeda. Sheikh Sharif was a wanted man.

Now he is president of Somalia, or at least that part of Somalia controlled by an alliance of the old discredited Transitional Federal Government and Sheikh Sharif’s moderate wing of the Islamist Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia.

He was chosen by the country’s MPs meeting in Djibouti, a result that will be something of an embarrassment for the West. British diplomats in particular were lobbying hard for his rival Nur Adde. Yet for anyone who wants peace in Somalia it has to be the right result.

Nur Adde may be the better politician, with his years of experience as an aid official. But Sheikh Sharif is the man who can unite the country. The new president faces an Islamist insurgency that has wrested control of large chunks of the country. If he can survive the initial onslaught that is sure to come from extreme opposition movements, and start to show momentum, bringing in donor cash and showing that his is the only game in town, he stands a chance of bringing his old allies in the Union of Islamic Courts on board.

The man I met two and a half years ago in a battle-scarred city struck me as a man prepared to talk. He wanted to tell the world that he was not a terrorist or an extremist but a man who wanted to make Somalia a better place. He and the Islamic Courts brought peace and security to a city that had experienced nothing but anarchy for a decade and a half.

He was anything but a cartoon Islamist. With his checked shirt, cargo pants and headscarf he looked more like Islamist by Gap.

His problem was that extremists within his movement went too far. Some of the Sharia courts within the union banned music in their areas of the city, cinemas were shut down and - the biggest mistake of all - stopped the trade in qat, the mild stimulant so beloved of Somali men. With popularity at home ebbing and little support from the international community Sheikh Sharif was unable to sideline the hardliners like Sheikh Aweys and the project was ultimately doomed.

This time around he faces the opposite challenge, bringing al Shabaab - designated a terrorist outfit by the State Department and which controls big chunks of Somalia - and Sheikh Aweys on board. It will be tough but he stands a better chance than Nur Adde, a former prime minister of the hated TFG, which is seen as a stooge of Ethiopia and western powers.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Somalia in four years of reporting (aside from the fact that anyone who tells you they know what they are talking about is a fool) is that nothing will work unless it comes from Somalia itself.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

A representative from the electoral commission supervises a Ghanian voter.

Ghanians are awaiting the results of Sunday’s national election. Current President John Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party is stepping down after two terms in office.

Tallies have shown both the ruling and opposition parties leading at varying points throughout the day, as the race is tight.

For more, see the election blog of “Think Ghana,” featuring ongoing updates and citizen reports.

Bright Simons is an executive at the African nonprofit IMANI Center for Policy and Education. He writes at citizen journalism portal OhMyNews about the election and the experience on the ground.

Ghana votes: Who wins, who loses?

Ghanaians are voting as I write.

They are at the polls to elect the sixth democratically chosen President and legislature in the country’s 51 year post-colonial history. Of the 11 regimes that have ruled the former British colony in that period, five have been military insurrectionists.

Most of the streets are deserted, but not from any fear of violence. This is a majority Christian country, and Sundays are normally observed as a Sabbath by many of the 70 percent of the population who profess adherence to the Christian faith. Moreover, the tail-end of this year’s election season has been amazingly calm due to loud clarion calls for peace by the Clergy, eminent members of Ghana’s large Diaspora, and most of the country’s political heavyweights.

As I walked through a peri-urban suburb of the capital, I was struck by the wide observance of the much-emphasized proscription against the overt display of partisan affiliation near any of the 21,000 polling stations across this West African nation of 22 million.

While most of the pre-election polls have seemed to favour the ruling NPP of sitting President John Agyekum Kuffuor and its flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, scion of a ruling dynasty that stretches back before the time of his father, Ghana’s second democratically elected Head of State, many pundits still say the contest is too close to call.

The opposition NDC has campaigned on a platform of change, though the tone has been angrier and grittier than the genial flavour that coloured the Obama revolution of recent times. That has however not stopped the NDC from insisting, sometimes even brashly, that their mission resonates with that of their Democratic counterparts across the Atlantic.

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Beyond the political implications of Barack Obama’s victory, the symbolism inherent in his victory has reverberated throughout the world.

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible,” said Obama to a crowd in Chicago after winning the presidential election, “tonight is your answer.”

Gideon Rose, managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, speaks with Martin Savidge about the world’s sense that America has lived up to its reputation of possibility. He adds that Obama’s combination of style and substance will “reboot” American foreign policy.

Rose also speaks with Martin Savidge about how the world sees Barack Obama and the changed image of America abroad.