KHARTOUM, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters on Tuesday marked the first anniversary of a coup that halted the country’s transition towards democracy in the largest demonstrations since mass marches in January.
The protesters faced heavy tear gas and stun grenades as they marched towards the presidential palace in Khartoum and in Omdurman across the Nile, Reuters reporters said.
They dispersed before sundown, reaching around 1 km from the palace, following a similar pattern to the series of anti-coup protests over the past 12 months. Internet services were blocked until after 6 p.m., monitoring group Netblocks said.
One person was killed in Omdurman when they were run over by a truck belonging to security forces, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, aligned with the protest movement, said, becoming the 119th person to be killed in the demonstrations.
The military takeover halted Sudan’s transition to democracy following the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir in 2019, and plunged an economy already in crisis further into turmoil. Foreign donors quickly suspended funding and the currency tumbled, and the government hiked taxes spurring numerous strikes.
A year on, Sudan’s military leaders have not appointed a prime minister, while Islamists loyal to Bashir who were purged from the civil service have returned. Bashir remains in jail pending trial on charges he denies related to the coup that brought him to power in 1989 and the early 2000s war in Darfur.
Tribal violence has broken out across the country, including in Blue Nile state over the past week, where up to 250 were killed, according to the United Nations.
The generals, who say they will give up power when a government is in place, are engaged in negotiations with the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition that had been sharing power before the coup. Many protesters reject the talks.
On Tuesday, they burnt tyres on main roads, chanting “power belongs to the people, the military belongs in the barracks”, Reuters reporters said.
There was no immediate response to requests for comment on the protests from government officials. Sudanese police said they had fired tear gas and water cannon at people they said were “armed, trained forces in military formations” and requested special dispensation to deal with them.
“Even though they blocked the internet and closed the bridges, we will keep putting pressure on the military until they step aside,” said Salah Abdallah, a 21-year-old university student, who said he was against the deal.
Footage circulated on social media from other protests in cities including Bahri, Atbara, El Fasher, Port Sudan and Madani. Reuters could not immediately verify the images.
NEGOTIATIONS
The resistance committees that have sustained the anti-military movement with regular protests have mostly rejected negotiations with the military, criticising them as dealings of the elite, and demand that its leaders be brought to justice over the killings of protesters and other violations.
The FFC last week presented its vision for a civilian-led authority to lead a transition to an election.
A leader of the group told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, the negotiations were going well. He said differences that remained, on issues of transitional justice and security sector reform, “could be overcome”.
“The biggest roadblock is the Islamists who are trying to create crises and an atmosphere that is not conductive to finding a solution,” he said, particularly those who remain a significant presence in the military and security services.
Islamist leaders loyal to Bashir, who are not involved in the negotiations, have rejected the possibility of a deal with the FFC as exclusionary and say it does not represent the majority of the country.
In a statement, the United States, Britain, European Union and other Western countries said they “stand ready to help Sudan unlock its economic potential after a return to a credible civilian transition”.
A man wearing a blanket cast his vote at a poling station in Maseru, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. Voters across Lesotho are heading to the polls Friday to elect a leader to find solutions to high unemployment and crime. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
MASERU, Lesotho (AP) — Vote counting has begun in southern Africa’s tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho following a day when thousands of citizens in urban and rural areas voted to elect the country’s 120 legislators.
Soon after the polls closed, electoral officials were seen verifying voters’ rolls at various polling stations.
The Independent Electoral Commission will announce the official results, which some expect will come by Tuesday.
No major disruptive incidents in the voting have been reported, although some accounts from voters and polling officials indicated that some people whose names were not on the voters’ roll were turned away.
At one station in Thaba Tseka district in the rural part of the country, the expected turnout was almost half of the number of registered voters expected.
The elections are a tight race between the top three parties out of a field of more than 60 registered political parties.
Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Mathibeli Mokhothu of the Democratic Congress party is running against his current coalition partner Nkaku Kabi of the All Basotho Convention and businessman-turned-politician Sam Matekane of the Revolution for Prosperity.
Friday was a public holiday to encourage voting by the country’s 2.1 million people. Lesotho is entirely surrounded by South Africa.
Lesotho’s King Letsie III presides over a constitutional monarchy but has virtually no political power. Whichever party wins enough representatives in the National Assembly to form a government will select the new prime minister. With so many parties contesting the election, a coalition is very likely, say experts.
At a polling station in Thetsane, an industrial area of the capital Maseru, a mix of elderly, women and young people waited in line as voting got off to a slow start after polls opened at 7 a.m.
Many voters told The Associated Press that they hoped the election of new leaders would bring change as the country is facing high levels of unemployment, increasing crime and political instability.
Tseliso Seutlwadi, 32, who is unemployed was among the first to vote.
“We need a change and it will only be brought by us through our votes. Basically unemployment is too high in this country. We have university degrees but we know that only 10% of people get hired. What happens to the rest?” asked Seutlwadi.
He said that many people had lost jobs at the factories during the COVID-19 pandemic and some had turned to crime and prostitution to make a living.
“As young people we want to have an impact on the future of this country. We can see factories closing down, rape against women is on the rise, we have to stand up as young people and influence what happens in this country,” said 37-year-old Ntsoaki Lenea.
The garment-making industry is Lesotho’s largest employer after the government and had more than 45,500 textile workers at the beginning of 2020, but about 25% of those jobs were lost during the pandemic, according to official statistics.
About 320,000 people in Lesotho are currently experiencing a severe food “crisis” and are in urgent need of aid “to save lives, reduce food gaps, protect and restore livelihoods and prevent acute malnutrition,” according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
Election observers from the European Union, the Commonwealth, the African Union and the Southern African Development Community are in Lesotho to assess the electoral process.
O estado brasileiro foi condenado nesta terça-feira pela Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos e considerado como responsável pela violação dos direitos à verdade, à proteção e integridade da família de um defensor de direitos humanos. O processo marca uma resposta a 40 anos de impunidade.
Segundo a sentença, o que se registrou foi uma “grave falência” do Estado nas investigações sobre a morte violenta de Gabriel Sales Pimenta, “e pela situação de absoluta impunidade em que se encontra o homicídio na atualidade”.
A Corte em San José concluiu que o Brasil “não cumpriu sua obrigação de atuar com a devida diligência reforçada na investigação do homicídio”. Para especialistas, a sentença é histórica, ao tratar de um caso de assassinato de um ativista de direitos humanos e o papel do estado em sua proteção.
Gabriel Sales Pimenta era um jovem de 27 anos no momento de sua morte. Em 1980, ele passou a atuar como advogado do Sindicato de Trabalhadores Rurais de Marabá (“STR”) e foi representante da Comissão Pastoral da Terra. Como advogado, ele atuou na defesa dos direitos dos trabalhadores rurais.
“Em 18 de julho de 1982, como consequência de seu trabalho como defensor de direitos humanos, Gabriel Sales Pimenta recebeu três disparos de arma de fogo quando saía de um bar com amigos na cidade de Marabá, no sul do Pará, e morreu instantaneamente”, apontou a Corte.
Três homens foram identificados como os supostos autores do homicídio. “Em agosto de 1983, o Ministério Público ofereceu a denúncia penal contra as pessoas anteriormente indicadas como autores do delito de homicídio qualificado. Em novembro de 1999, o Ministério Público solicitou a extinção da responsabilidade penal de um dos acusados, em virtude de sua morte, a qual foi decretada pelo juiz em exercício, em agosto de 2000, juntamente com a improcedência da denúncia contra outro suspeito, por falta de provas”.
Com um único réu, um julgamento foi marcado para 2002. Mas ele jamais ocorreu, já que o suspeito não havia sido localizado.
Foi só em 2006 que a Polícia Federal conseguiu cumprir a ordem de prisão preventiva. Mas, em 10 de abril de 2006, os advogados do acusado impetraram um habeas corpus perante o Tribunal de Justiça do Pará, com o intuito de solicitar que se decretasse a prisão domiciliária ou a extinção da responsabilidade penal com base na prescrição. O Ministério Público também se manifestou a favor de que fosse decretada a prescrição, o que foi atendido pelas Câmaras Criminais Reunidas do Tribunal de Justiça do Pará.
Novo processo
Mas a família da vítima não cedeu. Em 2007, Rafael Sales Pimenta, irmão de Gabriel Sales Pimenta, apresentou uma reclamação por excesso de prazo no processo penal, perante o Conselho Nacional de Justiça, alegando a morosidade em sua tramitação. Mas sua reclamação foi arquivada.
Uma outra tentativa foi feita no Estado do Pará por danos morais resultantes da demora na tramitação do processo penal e a conseguinte impunidade do homicídio. Mas o recurso foi negado.
Para a Corte Interamericana, portanto, os estados têm um dever reforçado de devida diligência quanto à investigação do ocorrido.
“A Corte Interamericana, ao analisar os fatos do caso, estabeleceu que há falências graves que refletem uma absoluta falta de devida diligência do Brasil em processar e sancionar os responsáveis pelo homicídio de Gabriel Sales Pimenta e esclarecer as circunstâncias deste, apesar da identificação de três suspeitos e da existência de duas testemunhas oculares e de outros meios de prova que se encontravam à disposição das autoridades estatais desde o início”, disse.
Além disso, a Corte concluiu que o caso está inserido em um contexto de “impunidade estrutural relacionado a ameaças, homicídios e outras violações de direitos humanos contra os trabalhadores rurais e seus defensores no Estado do Pará”.
Segundo a sentença, a negligência dos operadores judiciais na tramitação do processo penal, que permitiu a ocorrência da prescrição, foi o “fator determinante para que o caso permanecesse em uma situação de absoluta impunidade”.
Condenação e medidas
Diante dessas conclusões, a Corte ordenou diversas medidas de reparação:
(i) criar um grupo de trabalho com a finalidade de identificar as causas e circunstâncias geradoras da impunidade e elaborar linhas de ação que permitam superá-las;
(ii) (publicar o resumo oficial da Sentença no Diário Oficial da União, no Diário Oficial do Estado do Pará e em um jornal de grande circulação nacional, assim como a Sentença, na íntegra, no sítio web do Governo Federal, do Ministério Público e do Poder Judiciário do Estado do Pará;
(iii) realizar um ato público de reconhecimento de responsabilidade internacional em relação com os fatos do presente caso;
(iv) criar um espaço público de memória na cidade de Belo Horizonte, no qual seja valorizado, protegido e resguardado o ativismo das pessoas defensoras de direitos humanos no Brasil, entre eles o de Gabriel Sales Pimenta;
(v) criar e implementar um protocolo para a investigação dos delitos cometidos contra pessoas defensoras de direitos humanos;
(vi) revisar e adequar seus mecanismos existentes, em particular o Programa de Proteção aos Defensores de Direitos Humanos, Comunicadores e Ambientalistas, nos âmbitos federal e estadual, para que seja previsto e regulamentado através de uma lei ordinária e tenha em consideração os riscos inerentes à atividade de defesa dos direitos humanos; e
(vii) pagar as quantias fixadas na Sentença a título de dano material, imaterial, custas e gastos.
Mensagem de apoio à democracia
Segundo a sentença, porém, a mensagem da decisão e do caso vai muito além da família da vítima. Na decisão, a Corte destacou que o trabalho das defensoras e defensores de direitos humanos é “fundamental para o fortalecimento da democracia e do Estado de Direito”.
O documento ainda fala na necessidade de erradicar a impunidade relacionada a atos de violência cometidos contra pessoas defensoras de direitos humanos, “pois resulta um elemento fundamental para garantir que possam realizar livremente o seu trabalho em um ambiente seguro”.
Na avaliação da Corte, a violência contra ativistas tem um “efeito amedrontador, especialmente quando os crimes permanecem impunes”.
A esse respeito, a sentença reiterou que as ameaças e os atentados à integridade e à vida dos defensores de direitos humanos e a impunidade dos responsáveis por estes fatos são “particularmente graves porque têm um efeito não apenas individual, mas também coletivo, na medida em que a sociedade se vê impedida de conhecer a verdade sobre a situação de respeito ou de violação dos direitos das pessoas sob a jurisdição de um determinado Estado”.
Decisão “histórica”
Helena Rocha, codiretora do programa para o Brasil e Cone Sul do CEJIL, organização que levou o caso à Corte, afirmou que “a sentença confirma o que vários órgãos internacionais têm afirmando sobre o grave cenário de violência sistemática contra pessoas defensoras de direitos humanos no Brasil e atribui ao Estado uma responsabilidade agravada de protegê-las e de investigar qualquer ato ou ameaça que venha a ser sofrido por elas”. “Para isso é fundamental desenvolver instrumentos de enfrentamento à impunidade estrutural de esses casos e promover políticas públicas efetivas para sua proteção”, disse.
José Batista, advogado da CPT em Marabá, considerou que a sentença tem um “peso histórico e um valor simbólico muito grande para os camponeses e sus lideranças, que fazem a luta pelo acesso e premência na terra no Brasil”.
Para eles, após mais de 40 anos de impunidade, a justiça por Gabriel Pimenta começou a ser feita. “Contudo, ainda há muito caminho a percorrer, pois a proteção a pessoas defensoras de direitos humanos só pode ser efetivada com o fortalecimento de políticas públicas adequadas como as que foram ordenadas pela Corte no caso concreto. A luta de Gabriel Pimenta é constante e de todas e todos nós”, afirmam.
O irmão do Gabriel, Rafael Pimenta, concluiu que a condenação “foi um marco muito importante na luta pela defesa dos defensores de direitos humanos”. “Gabriel era um advogado de direitos humanos, um advogado dos trabalhadores sem terra e da população desassistida pelo Estado brasileiro. É uma vitória do Gabriel, é uma vitória dos direitos humanos e é uma vitória do povo brasileiro”, completou.
Acting Prime Minister of Mali Abdoulaye Maiga addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Mali’s prime minister lashed out Saturday at former colonizer France, the U.N. secretary-general and many people in between, saying that the tumultuous country had been “stabbed in the back” by the French military withdrawal. In the same remarks, Abdoulaye Maiga praised the “exemplary and fruitful cooperation between Mali and Russia.”
Maiga was directly criticizing U.N. Secretary-General Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by the fourth sentence of his speech to the General Assembly. And he slammed what he called France’s “unilateral decision” to relocate its remaining troops to neighboring Niger amid deteriorating relations with Mali’s two-time coup leader, Col. Assimi Goita.
While it was Goita and his allies who overthrew a democratically elected president by military force two years ago, Mali’s prime minister repeatedly referred to a “French junta” throughout his speech Saturday.
“Move on from the colonial past and hear the anger, the frustration, the rejection that is coming up from the African cities and countryside, and understand that this movement is inexorable,” Maiga said. “Your intimidations and subversive actions have only swelled the ranks of Africans concerned with preserving their dignity.”
France intervened militarily in 2013, leading an effort to oust Islamic extremists from control of the northern Malian towns they had overtaken. Over the past nine years, France had continued its presence in a bid to stabilize the country amid repeated attacks by insurgents. The French departure has raised new concerns about whether those militants will again regain territory with security responsibilities now falling to the Malian military and U.N. peacekeepers.
Maiga insisted Saturday that “terrorist groups have been severely weakened” since the August 2020 coup d’etat even though militants over the summer attacked the country’s largest military base, just 15 kilometers (9 miles) outside the capital, Bamako.
In a more than 30-minute speech, he referenced everything from Victor Hugo to the Rwandan genocide. Maiga repeated unfounded claims that France colluded with Islamic extremists and spoke of nefarious elements with “hidden agendas.”
At one point he even called into question the nationality of Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum, whom he called a “foreigner who claims to be from Niger.”
“We know that the people of Niger, brothers of Mali, are distinguished by very rich societal, cultural and religious values,” Maiga said. “Bazoum is not a Nigerien.”
The Malian prime minister offered a grim assessment of the U.N. peacekeeping mission known as MINUSMA, while openly praising the influence of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group who have been accused of carrying out human rights abuses.
“We must recognize that nearly 10 years after its establishment, the objectives for which MINUSMA was deployed in Mali have not been achieved,” Maiga said. “This is despite numerous Security Council resolutions.”
The Malian prime minister had particularly sharp words as well for Guterres, criticizing his recent comments on the standoff between Mali and Ivory Coast over 46 detained Ivorian soldiers.
Maiga reiterated claims before the U.N. General Assembly Saturday that the soldiers were sent to Mali as mercenaries, which the Ivorian government has vigorously denied. Ivory Coast says the soldiers were to provide security for a company contracted by the United Nations, but Maiga maintained that there is “no link between the 46 and the United Nations.”
On Saturday, he said that soldiers had arrived in Bamako with weapons, indicating on their paperwork that they were painters and masons. Instead, he said, they came “with the evil intention of destabilizing the country.”
Three female Ivorian soldiers already have been released as a “humanitarian gesture,” but there have been no updates about the others.
“Since friendship is based on sincerity, I would like to express my deep disagreement with your recent media appearance, in which you took a position and expressed yourself on the case of the 46 Ivorian mercenaries,” he said in comments aimed at Guterres.
The nature of the offenses in the case “does not fall within the remit of the secretary-general of the United Nations,” he added.
Maiga, a government spokesman, was dispatched to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly instead of Goita. The coup leader instead attended celebrations Friday in Bamako marking Mali’s independence from France in 1960.
Also in attendance at that event was the junta leader who seized power in Guinea a little over a year after Mali’s coup d’etat. A third West African country, Burkina Faso, underwent a military coup in January, deepening fears that democracy is backsliding in the region amid mounting violence from Islamic extremists.
NAIROBI, Aug 29 (Reuters) – Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is contesting his loss in this month’s presidential election in the Supreme Court, said he will respect the court’s ruling – but still believes he won.
This is Odinga’s fifth run at the presidency, blaming previous losses on rigging, claims that have twice sparked deadly protests in East Africa’s wealthiest and most stable nation.
A week ago, Odinga’s legal team lodged a case alleging that a team working for Deputy President William Ruto hacked into the election system and replaced genuine pictures of polling station result forms with fake ones, thus increasing Ruto’s share of the Aug. 9 vote.
Ruto, who was declared president-elect, denied the allegations. The election commission has split and filed competing responses – four commissioners disowned the result, and the chairman and two others supported it.
The Supreme Court must rule by Sept. 5.
The dispute has raised fears of violence similar to that which followed disputed polls in 2007 when more than 1,200 people were killed and again in 2017 when more than 100 people died.
Odinga said he had proof that he had won the election, which requires a candidate to receive 50% of the vote plus one. He wants a recount.
Kenya’s opposition leader and presidential candidate Raila Odinga, of the Azimio La Umoja (Declaration of Unity) One Kenya Alliance, speaks during a Reuters interview in Nairobi, Kenya August 29, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
“We should be announced as the winners,” Odinga told Reuters. However, he added: “if the courts decide otherwise, we will basically respect the ruling of the courts.”
When asked if there were any circumstances under which he would not accept the ruling, he said:
“I don’t really want to appear as if I’m trying to blackmail the Supreme Court. I want the Supreme Court to hear this case impartially …I don’t want to speculate.”
Any unrest in Kenya ripples out to the wider region. Kenya is a key transport hub, the regional headquarters for many multinationals, and has often hosted talks for more volatile neighbours like South Sudan and Somalia.
Odinga’s petition also alleged that the result was invalid because it was announced by the chairman instead of the whole commission. Odinga said he wanted the chairman replaced.
He said Kenya had been captured by “corrupt cartels” and that he would dedicate his future political life – whether in the government or opposition – to fighting corruption by demanding lifestyle audits for officials and examining procurement contracts.
Ruto’s legal response accused Odinga’s suit of being “full of sound and fury” and “much ado about nothing”. He accused Odinga of falsifying computer logs to create a constitutional crisis and force a power-sharing agreement.
The chairman of the election commission has said that the elections were “free, fair and credible” in his court response. The dissident commissioners have filed a response raising concerns over the tallying process and the conduct of the chairman.
SYDNEY, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s secret appointments to ministries during the COVID-19 pandemic “fundamentally undermined” responsible government despite being legally valid, according to advice from the solicitor general.
The advice from the country’s second-highest law officer was a “very clear criticism” of the implications for Australia’s parliamentary democracy, current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on Tuesday.
Morrison, who stepped down as leader of the Liberal Party after losing a general election in May, has faced a barrage of criticism from the Labor government and his own party, after it was revealed he was secretly sworn in to five ministries without telling parliament or his cabinet. read more
Albanese said his cabinet had agreed “there will be a need for a further inquiry” into the matter, to answer questions on how the unprecedented assumption of power occurred and the need for reform.
“Scott Morrison owes the Australian people an apology for undermining our parliamentary democracy system of government that we have – something that can’t be taken for granted,” Albanese said.
In the written advice, the solicitor general was critical that Morrison’s appointments to the ministries were not made public, saying it was inconsistent with the system of responsible government prescribed by the Constitution.
“That is because it is impossible for Parliament and the public to hold Ministers accountable for the proper administration of particular departments if the identity of the Ministers who have been appointed to administer those departments is not publicised,” it said.
Morrison said he had acted in good faith to “protect Australia in the face of multiple crises”.
Australian incumbent Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during the second leaders’ debate of the 2022 federal election campaign at the Nine studio in Sydney, Australia May 8, 2022. Alex Ellinghausen/Pool via REUTERS
The solicitor general had said his ministerial appointments were valid and there was “no consistent practice” to gazette such appointments, he said in a statement on Facebook on Tuesday.
The solicitor general’s advice would “help guide any changes in these areas”, Morrison added, in a lengthy defence of his actions.
GAS PROJECT BLOCKED
Three ministers were unaware Morrison shared power over their ministries of home affairs, treasury and finance until last week. Morrison said he only intervened in one ministry, resources, to block an offshore gas project. The decision is now being challenged in court by the resources company.
The solicitor general’s advice was Morrison’s appointment to the resources ministry was legally valid.
It also found the Governor-General “has no discretion to refuse to accept the Prime Minister’s advice in relation to such an appointment”.
The Governor-General as largely ceremonial head of state had approved Morrison’s appointment to the ministries, on Morrison’s advice, but there was no public swearing-in ceremony.
Australia has a cabinet-based system that relies on a group of ministers governing, and not a presidential system.
The popularity of Albanese’s government has soared since the May election win, with a Resolve Strategic opinion poll published by Nine newspapers showing Labor on a primary vote of 42%, up from 33% at the election, ahead of the Coalition’s 28%.
Scott Morrison famously defied opinion polling to win in 2019
Australians have just learned their election will be held on 21 May. At a crucial time for the country, Nick Bryant sees a contest that will be defined, to a large part, by what it lacks.
There has long been something Biblical about the prime ministership of Scott Morrison, a Pentecostal Christian who declared on the night of his bolt from the blue victory in the 2019 election: “I’ve always believed in miracles”.
Since then, much of his term in office has read like chapters from the Old Testament. There have been fires, floods and the pestilence of a global pandemic. Even his defiant stance towards China has a Manichean frame: a good versus evil struggle between freedom and authoritarianism – the “great polarisation”, he calls it.
Recently, he sought to imprint his faith-based politics on Australian law, by pushing unsuccessfully for a Religious Discrimination Act offering legal protections to people of faith who made “statements of belief” – a charter, claimed its opponents, for the homophobic and transphobic.
It was the Liberal Party giant John Howard who rated his chances of ever becoming prime minister as “Lazarus with a triple bypass”, after losing the 1987 federal election from the opposition benches and being deposed as party leader two years later.
Morrison, who stands at the head of one of the world’s most formidable election-winning machines, isn’t yet Lazarus, whom the Bible says Jesus raised from the dead. Still, there would be certainly be a water-into-wine feel to a second Morrison victory.
More so than a modern-day Lazarus, my sense is that Morrison has come to resemble a Midas-like figure from Greek mythology. Yet rather than gold, many things he touches end up being tarnished.
Morrison’s many staged photo-ops have drawn criticism
His staged photo opportunities, a hallmark of his tenure, are a case in point. After posing for the cameras mopping up an indoor basketball court during a visit to the flood zone in Brisbane, he came in for an acid shower of criticism because the press availability looked contrived and choreographed rather than part of a meaningful clean-up.
On a visit to a hair salon in Victoria, he washed a female customer’s hair, which instantly brought to mind his controversial statement during the 2019-2020 bushfire season that he “doesn’t hold a hose”.
A soft focus profile on the Channel Nine news programme, 60 Minutes, also became the stuff of mocking memes, when he picked up a ukulele and serenaded his family with the Dragon classic, April Sun in Cuba. The interview, which was intended to rehabilitate his battered image, ended up inflicting even more self-harm.
The former marketing man’s problems have not merely been presentational. His government has been hit by the high-profile resignations of the Education Minister Alan Tudge and Attorney General Christian Porter. His close friend, Brian Houston, the founding pastor of the Hillsong megachurch, had to resign after an internal investigation revealed he had engaged in inappropriate conduct towards two women.
In parliament, the prime minister has struggled to advance his legislative agenda. Even the unveiling of the new budget, a pre-election cash splash for voters, was overshadowed. On budget night, the outgoing Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, in a valedictory speech brutal even by Australian standards, called him an “autocrat” and “a bully with no moral compass”.
On the eve of calling the election, Morrison was also haunted by a past controversy, surrounding his selection 15 years ago as the Liberal Party candidate for the seat of Cook, the scene of the 2005 anti-Muslim Cronulla riots. Morrison, it is claimed, raised concerns about his Liberal rival for pre-selection, Michael Towke, questioning whether a candidate of Lebanese heritage was viable in Cook, especially after the Cronulla riots. Morrison called the allegations “bitter and malicious slurs”.
The beleaguered prime minister has also never fully rebounded from the furore surrounding his family holiday to Hawaii in the midst of the bushfires two years ago. That was why the ukulele and his rendition of April Sun in Cuba misfired so badly. Many viewers naturally thought of his December sun in Hawaii.
Pointing to Australia’s comparatively low death rate and robust economy, Morrison will argue that he has steered the country through Covid. But state premiers, who frequently usurped the prime minister, are often credited with the early success in dealing with the pandemic. In the second year of Covid, the federal government has faced criticism for the slow rollout of vaccines – the “stroll-out”, it was dubbed – and failure to provide enough rapid antigen tests when Omicron hit last last year.
But for all the antipathy towards Scott “ScoMo” Morrison, it is hard to detect any great groundswell of enthusiasm for the Labor leader, Anthony “Albo” Albanese. A one-time tribune of the Labor left, Albanese has moved to the centre since winning the leadership in 2019, and is now offering the electorate what he calls “safe change”.
Labor put down its traumatic defeat at the last election to an unpopular leader, Bill Shorten, and unpopular policies, especially on tax reform.
This time, then, Albanese is fighting a “small target” campaign, in the hope of minimising Liberal lines of attack, neutralising the issue of issue of climate change (which at the last election hurt the party in the vital battleground state of Queensland) and trumpeting his centrism.
“Renewal not revolution” has become his mantra.
Anthony Albanese (right) is not promising radical change
Mindful that only three Labor leaders have defeated Liberal prime ministers in the post-war years, Albanese is doing everything he can not to frighten the voters.
So doubtless Labor party officials would have been delighted with the headline in the influential Rupert Murdoch tabloid, The Daily Telegraph: “I AM NOT WOKE.” In the accompanying interview, Albanese assured voters: “Labor is the party of mainstream Australia and the values of mainstream Australia.”
Along with his political shape-shifting, Albanese has a sharp new look. So much has been made of his slimline suits, designer glasses and dramatic weight loss that the phrase “Hot Albo” has entered the political lexicon.
But Albanese, a one-time backroom fixer, renowned early on in his career for his knockabout style, still needs to persuade a sizeable portion of the electorate that he is a prime minister-in-waiting. For some voters, he still has a plausibility problem.
Labor has run into other difficulties. Recently, the party was engulfed in a bullying scandal, following the death of one of its senators from a suspected heart attack. Before her death, Kimberley Kitching, who was aged just 52, had complained of bullying from senior Labor Senate colleagues.
There is also the risk of becoming too innocuous – as young voters demanding a more ambitious approach to the climate crisis will be voting for The Greens. “Safe change” is hardly an electrifying rallying cry.
A wild card in this election is the rise of independent candidates, who pose a threat to the Liberal Party in seats where Labor isn’t ordinarily viable. A former ABC foreign correspondent, Zoe Daniel, is running against the Liberal MP Tim Wilson in the seat of Goldstein. In the blue-ribbon seat of Wentworth, which takes in Bondi Beach and Sydney’s prosperous Eastern Suburbs, Allegra Spender, the daughter of a well-known fashion designer, the late Carla Zampatti, is challenging the sitting Liberal MP, Dave Sharma. In a hung parliament, independents could end up holding the balance of power.
Independent candidates Zoe Daniel (left) and Allegra Spender
Scott Morrison is actually the first prime minister since John Howard to serve a full term in office, no small achievement given the coup culture of Australian politics. But the Liberal-led coalition is defending a one-seat majority. Even though it has won seven of the past nine federal elections, it may be hard-pressed to do so again.
The campaign, rather than being a contest of ideas, already feels more like a competition of political strategies. Issues of global magnitude are pressing in on Australia, namely the climate emergency, the threat from China, cost of living pressures and how to live with Covid, but this looks like becoming a small-bore campaign.
At a time when authoritarianism poses such a threat to the liberal international order, it would come as something of an upset if the 2022 Australian federal election became a rousing advertisement for democracy.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/GQZKH2PK7RJJNB5JY7YNXRTSNQ.jpg)
Observ@tório de Relações Internacionais - UFOP 