Africa

June 10, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudan's state-owned television, the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC), has resume broadcast after it went off air for two days.

The government media for news coverage and programs went off air Monday as oficials gave conflicting reasons, including a technical fault and lack of funds to buy devices.

“We apologize for any inconvenience caused by lack of news and programs for the last two days,” a news anchor at SSBC announced on Wednesday evening.

(ST)

Meeting today with Faustin Archange Touadéra, President of the Central African Republic (CAR), United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that the country had turned a corner following the holding of democratic elections, and welcomed the leader&#39s resolve to fully address the root causes of the country&#39s crisis in an inclusive spirit.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned yesterday&#39s attack on Ethiopian troops at an base of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in Halgan, Somalia.

New pieces of debris, one resembling a seat part, are found in Madagascar by a man searching for parts of missing flight MH370.

June 9, 2016 (YAMBIO) - Ten youth who were kidnaped on Tuesday by armed youth in Rii-rangu who claimed to be under the SPLA-IO forces have been released after negotiations between the local authority and the armed youth.

Speaking to Sudan Tribune, Joseph Lagu, one of those kidnaped said he was carrying a man with a boda boda [motor bike] outside a town when the passenger snatched the bike from him. He said he then called his colleagues of boda-boda riders to pursue the robber to Rii-rangu area, but were captured by the armed youth in the area.

Lagu explained that six youth members from Yambio town and four others in Soura area including the alleged thief were detained but later released without charge. He added that the leader of the armed youth said the youth should not be tortured after they were beaten at the time they were detained.

The commissioner of Yambio county, Grace Appolo, confirmed their release, saying she engaged the armed youth in communication in Rii-rangu, explaining to them the importance of releasing them.

Rii-rangu payam in Yambio county has been under the control of the armed group claimed to be under the leadership of the SPLA-IO and no government officials have access to the area.

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June 9, 2016 (WASHINGTON) - The lack of international action against President Omer al-Bashir emboldened him to defy the international Justice and to travel around the world, said International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda Thursday.

Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), briefs the Security Council at its meeting on the situation in Darfur, Sudan. (UN Photo/Loey Felipe)

President al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed during a counterinsurgency campaign carried out by the army and government militias in Darfur region after the outbreak of rebellion in 2003.

Presenting her twenty-third report to the Council on the situation in Darfur, Bensouda said this inaction by the Security Council "has emboldened Mr Al Bashir to continue travelling across international borders despite the fact that two arrest warrants have been issued against him by the Court".

She further said that Council's failure to act has "equally emboldened states, both parties as well as certain non-parties to the Rome Statute, not only to facilitate Mr Al Bashir's travels to their territories but to invite and host him".

She emphasized that such an evolving trend risked setting an “ominous precedent,” which, unless redirected, will not bode well for similar genuine efforts aimed at bringing those responsible for mass atrocities to justice.

“Above all, such nonfeasance has emboldened some States to publicly express pride in disregarding the Council's authority,” she said, which should be a matter of great concern to all.

Sudanese president was recently in Djibouti and Uganda, the two states are member to the Rome Statute, to attend the inaugurations of President Ismail Omar Guelleh and President Yoweri Museveni.

Bensouda further said that her work on Darfur was complicated by the lack of access to Sudanese territory, resource constraints and non-execution of the long-outstanding arrest warrants against Sudanese officials, which have all contributed to the slow progress in investigations.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for the Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, his former Interior Minister Abdel Rahim Hussein, the former deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Haroun, and a former militia leader Ali Kushayb.

African countries members of the UN Security Council including Angola, Egypt and Senegal showed their commitment to the African Union's position on the ICC and called to suspend criminal proceedings against President Bashir.

Chinese and Russian envoys also expressed their support to the AU's position. The Japanese representative expressed his support to the ICC and called to bringing those responsible for Darfur crimes to justice.

The Sudanese Ambassador Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed said his country had no connection whatsoever with the ICC pointing that article 13 (b) of the Rome Statute did not indicate its applicability to non-signatory States.

He added that the decision to refer the Darfur situation had been unfounded, and it was unfortunate that countries of the Northern hemisphere had exempted themselves, while African countries suffered discriminatory treatment.

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June 9, 2016 (JUBA) - Human and civil rights activists acting in solidarity with family members of victims of the civil war in South Sudan have expressed disappointments at president Salva Kiir for soliciting international support for reconciliation at the expense of justice.

Displaced people who fled from violence in Jonglei state capital Bor queue outside a clinic run by MSF in Lakes state's Awerial town on 2 January 2014 (Photo: AP/Ben Curtis)

President Kiir's press secretary, Ateny Wek Ateny, on Wednesday confirmed that the president had knowledge about an article which was published by The New York Times, proposing to drop justice and accountability clauses from the 2015 peace agreement.

But First Vice President, Riek Machar's press secretary, James Gatdet Dak, distanced their office from the document, saying Machar was not part of the alleged proposal to drop justice for war crimes.

The proposal from President Kiir's office attracted criticisms from the war-ravaged nation who demanded accountability for the war crimes.

Wol Deng Wol Monychol, a native of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, said he was shocked to learn the leaders have decided to shelf hybrid court at which perpetrators would be tried for their role in the 21 months of conflict during which heinous atrocities were committed by the parties to the conflict at the height of the war.

“There are some indications, and it's really not just speculations but a clear indication that perpetrators will not accept the establishment of the court and hand themselves for trials, but this does not mean South Sudan belongs to them and this does not mean they are above the law to escape or defer accountability. Those who have issues to answer must be held to account,” said Monychol.

Gatwech Tut Joak, a native of Akobo but now living at the United Nations camp in Juba said he was outraged upon learning that the two leaders have allegedly asked for the court to be established because those who may have played a role in the conflict may reject and choose to go to the bush instead of handing themselves over to the court to be tried.

He said he was outraged after confirmation by President Kiir's press secretary that his boss indeed asked for dropping of justice and accountability for the criminals who committed the crimes during the war.

“I was shocked and outraged by what I read and confirmed by presidential spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny. I thought it was just a media report when I saw it. But if this is now true as Ateny Wek said it, then what messages does this convey to the victims of war? So they must kill and walk away without being held accountability. What precedent will this set,” asked a visibly angered Joak on Thursday.

Joak said the trials of the perpetrators will restore hope and build confidence. He asked who would be held accountable for the killings of innocent people if there are not going to be trials for atrocities committed during the war and what precedent it will set if people commit crimes not and punished.

Sebit Anthony, a South Sudanese based in Nairobi, Kenya, said he was not surprised the leaders were now pushing for indefinite deferral of the establishment of a hybrid court because of the role they themselves have played in the conflict.

“Obviously, nobody should be surprised about this article. There is nowhere a perpetrator would accept to investigate himself or herself and go to the court for a crime the person has committed. I am aware that even if the court is established, they will not allow the Hybrid court to carry out its mandate. But what I know is that they will have to face the court one day, even if after they are gone from power,” said Anthony.

The activist said the only alternative for the people is to unite and vote them out of power in order to allow a new president to make the perpetrators pay for the crimes they committed during war.

The outcry comes after a New York Times published an article purporting to have been written by President Salva Kiir and the first vice president Riek Machar, as co-authors, asking the international community to help them work for reconciliation instead of pursuing the formation of hybrid court.

The two leaders, according to the report, alleged in an opinion article that time for the court was not right to establish it for trials.

However, the office of Machar said the article was prepared by someone without his knowledge.

His spokesperson, Dak, said Machar is committed to the implementation of justice and accountability mechanism to pursue the trial of perpetrators of crimes as well as pursue reconciliation and healing concurrently without compromising the importance of each of the two processes.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, beginning with the massacre of thousands of civilian members of the ethnic Nuer community in Juba. The war then spread to other states, leading to more crimes committed by the parties to the conflict.

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June 9, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudan said it loses millions of money in revenues to taxes exemptions at the customs points along the borders in the country. United Nations and other humanitarian agencies have been “exploiting the generosity.”

A Mongolian troop with the UN's mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) smiles for the camera with a local boy in Bentiu, Unity State. 2 October 2012 (UNMISS Photo)

Akok Noon Akok, the Director General of South Sudan Customs Services, said government officials also secure exemptions to import personal effects and dodge taxes.

“I can say 99% [ of exemptions] are going to UN, NGOs and Humanitarian agencies. So you can say whatever we collect monthly can be [half] by what goes on exemption,” said Akok, speaking at a reception organized in Juba on Wednesday for new Interior Minister, General Alfred Lado Gore.

He said the remaining “one percent of exemption goes to government agencies.”

South Sudan relies on oil revenues for up to 98% to fund its budget. But the 21 months of war and lowering oil prices has pushed the country to the verge of economic collapse and demands collecting taxes from non-oil sources. Customs duties are one such source.

Minister Gore said tax exemption should be narrowed to ensure that it is not exploited.

“All over the world, there are exemptions but we are too generous and people tend to abuse this generosity,” he said, speaking to senior customs officials in Juba.

He said anyone applying for customs exemptions should be scrutinized to ascertain the significance of the item being imported in order to minimize misuse of exemptions.

“They [people seeking exemption] bring all sorts of things, asked for exemption and the money just goes to the [UN] agencies, not the country of [origin],” said Gen. Gore, the minister without mentioning any UN agency by name.

There was no immediate response from UN and Humanitarian agencies. Some junior customs officials told Sudan Tribune that UN officials misused letters of exemption to import beverages and tobacco – items that taxed highly and not for humanitarian purposes.

Other agencies extend the exemption letters to companies importing fuel to South Sudan and therefore dodge taxes at the borders despite those companies being owned by businessmen.

One positive note, he said, is the likely reopening of South Sudan – Sudan border.

"They (Sudanese) have accepted the corridor; so this is where you people will now move to establish your offices because those are very important areas for trade, and within the next two weeks the four agreements will now be finalized so that we collect revenues from traders who will now move from there and here and this will add to your revenue collection,” he said.

CORRUPT OFFICIALS

But Minister Gore has another shortcoming – corruption. Nimule and Kaya – the two busiest crossing points from Uganda to South Sudan are not remitting taxes to Juba, Minister Gore said.

“I have just received a report that Nimule checkpoint has collapsed. The money there is going to individuals because they are connected with big people! Very big people who are untouchables,” said Gore, without giving names of the suspected “big people.”

He alleges that insignificant amount is remitted to government accounts and the officers take chunk of the revenues.

He said his ministry, which deploys senior customs officials to border points, will review promotion process to remove corrupt individuals.

(ST)

June 9, 2016 (JUBA) – President Salva Kiir's office has finally revealed that it was responsible for the controversial article which found itself to The New York Times, proposing to scrap from the peace agreement justice and accountability clauses over crimes committed during the war.

South Sudan's presidential spokesperson, Ateny Wek Ateny (AFP)

They also insisted that the article, published by The New York Times on Tuesday and later on by some other media outlets, was written in the office of the President with the agreement of the First Vice President, Riek Machar.

Ateny Wek Ateny, on Thursday revealed that the article originated from the President's office and called on the people and the media to take only his statement as the overall spokesman in the Presidency.

“The opinion article was from the President and the First Vice President about the issue of transitional justice and truth and reconciliation,” Ateny told the media.

“After the signing of the peace agreement and formation of the transitional government of national unity, the spokesperson for the whole presidency is me," further claimed. "And it was written from my office."

The three-man presidency includes President Kiir, his first deputy, Machar and second deputy, James Wani. However, Machar and Wani also have their respective press secretaries.

Also, an ambassador, Gordon Buay, who is allied to President Kiir and works in the South Sudan's embassy in Washington DC, issued a separate statement on Thursday, confirming that the article was sent to The New York Times by Ateny Wek Ateny and sent another copy to him [Buay].

Buay revealed that he helped in contacting The New York Times and convinced the US-based news organization to publish the article as an Op-ed.

He criticized the office of the First Vice President, Machar, for disowning the article, adding that what President Kiir's press secretary, Ateny Wek Ateny, confirmed about the alleged agreement between the two top leaders to write the article was the truth.

He also criticized any other press secretary including Machar's spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, for refuting the claim over the article, echoing that only Ateny Wek is now the spokesman for the whole Presidency after formation of the transitional government of national unity (TGoNU).

“Ateny Wek Ateny, who is the official spokesman of the entire Presidency, came out and said that both the President and the FVP [First Vice President] wrote the article published by The New York Times,” Buay said in a statement he circulated on social media.

Buay warned that the "government" will sue media houses who will continue to refer to comments as from the spokesperson from the office of the First Vice President.

But Machar's spokesperson, James Gatdet Dak, dismissed the claims by the officials from the president's office, saying there was no need to dictate people into accepting the “falsified article.”

“Well, what I know is that we work as partners in the transitional government. No one party should author an opinion and insert the name of the other partner as co-author. This is illegal and cheating,” Dak said.

“And this is particularly a serious matter when the other partner attempts to violate the peace agreement by trying to scrap the vital clauses on justice and accountability,” he added.

Dak also said the Presidency is composed of different offices which have separate press secretaries, dismissing the claims that the “entire” Presidency had one press secretary or spokesperson.

He also said the Presidency derived from a coalition government is united by the August 2015 peace agreement, which he said, was like a contractual agreement that no one partner should temper with.

“I suspect that there is desire by others to control the flow of information to the public or to the media no matter how incorrect the information is. However, their desire is wrong. And they should be corrected whenever they are in the wrong,” he said.

He added that there is nothing called press secretary for the entire Presidency of the coalition government composed of different partners, offices and parties, saying it is not even practical.

"There can be one information minister or government's official spokesperson, even in a coalition government, but not one press secretary or spokesperson for different institutions or top executive offices," he said.

The peace agreement signed between the parties provided for mechanisms through which to pursue justice and accountability for the crimes committed.

The attempt to dodge accountability attracted fierce criticisms from the public who called for justice to be served by bringing to book through a hybrid court the criminals.

(ST)

June 06, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese university professors and lecturers have demanded that the country's higher education minister, Peter Adwok Nyaba withdraws instructions demanding that striking staffs to resume teaching or "face consequences."

Peter Adwok Nyaba (The Niles/Pascal Ladu)

Speaking at a meeting in Juba, lecturers from five public universities accused Adwok of intimidation and being insensitive to the plight of the teaching staff.

"We demanded the minister of higher education to withdraw his threatening letter [that we resume work] or resign," said Philip Finish, a lecturer from the University of Juba.

Finish was speaking during a meeting organised in response to a letter from the education minister addressed to lecturers, who are in a third week of a sit down strike.

Adwok, who had acknowledged as a basics right the lecturers' decision to strike over a three month delayed salary payments, had asked the teaching staff to resume teaching.

He also warned against the continued strike, saying the staff would be punished if the was not ended. When contacted on Monday, Adwok said lecturers were not exceptional.

"The country is in an economic crisis and the lecturers will be paid once we get money," he said.

But members of the university staffs dismissed the minister's explanation as insufficient.

"We teach while standing for three hours in one class and if you have not eaten for days, you may even collapse in front of the students," said a lecturer who preferred anonymity.

"We have not paid rents for three months and our children are suffering. We can't continue to work without pay indefinitely," he added.

The university lecturers have not been paid salaries for March, April and May as well as housing and transport allowances for 10 months. They also accuse the government of failing to honor similar pledges to pay lecturers in the past should the strike be called off.

A lecturer in a public university in South Sudan earns between $250 to $450 monthly.

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June 9, 2016 (JUBA) - The governor of Lol, one of South Sudan's newly created state, Rizik Zachariah Hassan has appointed 11 county commissioners in fulfilment of a republican order breaking up the three counties into several administrative units.

Rizik Zachariah Hassan, Governor of Lol state (UN photo)

Hassan, who returned to Raja, the administrative headquarters of the new state last weekend after spending more than a month in Juba, issued the order on Thursday.

He named Anei Anei and Anei Wal Achien as the new county commissioners for Korok North and East counties, respectively.

The former Aweil West County, Peter Dut Akot was named the new county commissioner for Gumjuer East. Several officials were also appointed.

This comes after President Salva Kiir in april approved the creation of more counties in Lol state. The presidential order approving new counties broke up Aweil North County into four counties and Aweil West into another four and Raja into three. The counties forming Aweil West include Gomjuer West with its administrative headquarters at Nyamellel, Gomjuer East at Wedwil, Marialbai at Marialbai, Majakbai at Majakbai.

Aweil North comprises of Malual North with administrative headquarters at Gok Machar, Malual Centre at Maper Dut Wieu, Korok East at Maper Dut Thou and Korok West at Jach.

The presidential order also divided Raja into Kuru with its administrative headquarter at Uyu-kuku, Ringi with the administrative headquarter at Bor and Ere at Ere.

The Lol state governor, members of his cabinet and the county commissioners have welcomed the decision, describing it a wise decision taken in line with South Sudan's ruling party (SPLM) vision of taking towns closer to the people.

In October last year, the South Sudanese leader dissolved the nation's 10 regional states and created 28 new ones, in a move which was the armed opposition faction said undermine a peace deal to end over the two-years of civil war in the young nation.

(ST)

By Manipadma Jena
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 9 2016 (IPS)

Water scarcity, conflict and refugee exodus is the strongest megatrend in West Asia, indicating the status of current trends and how these factors may shape the future, according to UN Environment Programme’s sixth Global Environment Outlook – GEO-6 Regional Assessment for West Asia released May 2016.

Families travel in search of water. Credit: Irfan Ahmed/IPS

Only 4 out of 12 countries in West Asia remain above the water scarcity limit of 1,000 cubic metres per person per year, the minimum limit viable for human population, the assessment warns.

“Water shortage potentially could have more impact on sovereign credit ratings than natural catastrophes as water scarcity conditions are slow onset impacting larger societies,” Moritz Kraemer, Managing Director of S&P Global Ratings told IPS adding, “water scarcity, migration and conflict has yet not been factored into the Environmental Risk Integration in Sovereign Credit Analysis (ERISC) but certainly we need to.”

The ERISC aims to help financial institutions to integrate environmental risks in their overall risk assessments and investment decisions by identifying and quantifying how they can affect countries’ economic performance and thereby their cost of credit in the sovereign debt market.

The analysis premise is that sovereign credit risk can be materially affected by environmental risks such as climate change, water scarcity, ecosystem degradation and deforestation.

“So far we do not have sufficient liquid data on the potential economic implications of water shortage or change in rainfall patterns to be able to simulate numerically what the outcome would be, but we know countries with big water problems will have repercussions well beyond their boundaries, triggering migratory movements to start with. Europe is an example,” Kraemer said.

West Asia has a significant geopolitical location linking three continents Asia, Europe and Africa.

“Jordan in 2013 was the world’s fourth most water-scarce country but within just two years by 2015, it’s status deteriorated to second place, when hundreds of thousands Syrian and Yemen refugees migrated into Jordan,” Carl Bruch, legal expert on armed conflict and the environment, climate change, and water rights at Washington DC-based Environmental Law Institute (ELI) told IPS, illustrating impacts of migration on a natural resources and economy.

“Many of the economies with water problems that we have rated such as Jordan and Morocco have low credit ratings already, so part of their vulnerability has already been baked in like, though not explicitly. Still more research needs to be done,” Kraemer told IPS on the sidelines of the second UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi where world’s environment ministers gathered to take action on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development last week of May.

Political, social coupling with environmental issues trigger migration and conflict

“There is a tight coupling between political and social issues around displacement, but why people ultimately decide to move is often due to environmental problems, increasingly now due to water scarcity recurring very much in West Asia,” Jacqueline McGlade, UNEP’s chief scientist and Director of early warning and assessment division, told IPS.

Land degradation, desertification and scarcity of renewable water resources are currently Western Asia region’s most critical challenges as rolling conflicts damage environment and human health denting the region’s ability to produce enough food to meet the growing population’s needs especially in the Mashriq sub-region ( includes Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories , Syria; and Yemen of West Asia), according to GEO-6 which offers a policy vision and good governance outlook over the next 25 years.

Increasing water demand resulting in diminishing per-person availability, West Asia now faces deteriorating water quality because of groundwater overexploitation, seawater intrusion, depletion and salinization of aquifers, and rising pumping costs. The region has already surpassed its natural capacity to meet its own food and water demand.

Water, land resource degradation and conflict in a vicious cycle

While peace, security and environment are the region’s topmost priority, the vicious cycle of land degradation leading to, and resulting from conflict, can prevent people from returning home and normalizing life (and economy), Daria Mokhnacheva , migration, environment and climate change specialist at International Organisation for Migration (IOM) told IPS.

“The majority of refugees from conflicts in Iraq will not be able to return home to normalize life even if they want to, without clearance of mines and unexploded ordnance planted in what used to be their farms. Clearing of mines and can take decades,” Mokhnacheva said.

Moreover although Iraq has the largest area of available farmland in the region, it suffers the most from soil salinity and wind erosion; 97 percent of its total area is arid, desertification affects 39 per cent of the country’s surface area with an additional 54 per cent under threat according to GEO-6.

“Traditional farmers and herders can lag in temporary camps for years and these if based in water-scarce or drought-prone areas, may drive multiple displacements. Migration to urban areas destroys their lifestyles, customs and livelihoods completely, increasing vulnerability. Camped long-term, girls and women become traffickers’ targets and girls as young as nine years of age are forced into marriage to reduce household’s pressure on food,” she said.

Early identification of water scarcity and migration hotspots critical for conflict prevention

“We have evidence from West Asia that the transition from the rural to the urban starts to sow the seeds of displacement which ultimately can lead to conflict,” McGlade said.

“So the real issue for environmental governance is can we detect early enough the conditions under which either food or water security is likely to fail, can we identify these ‘hotspots’ to take preventive action so that people do not leave the lands that already supports them,” she said.

“We are already seeing three million people from Syria and Yemen on the move towards the borders of Jordan. Could this exodus have been prevented?” she added.

“We need to integrate migration and environmental research with that of social vulnerability to identify hotspots early,” Mokhnacheva of IOM said, adding, “We also need to improve very local evidence to inform migration policies that can respond to actual need.”

Poor governance of natural resource also responsible for conflict

“Poor governance is a deep-rooted problem we have picked up throughout GEO-6 assessments. The other fundamental cues for resource conflict are lack of access and inequality. Conflict can arise from multiplicity of lack of access, whether to justice or to resources themselves,” McGlade said.

“Climate change causes stress on societies but these impacts by themselves do not necessarily indicate water wars in future. How the government institutions, civil society and international community respond to that stress and address the different interests, greatly influences whether a country will cope or whether it will degrade into tensions, disputes and ultimately into conflict,” Bruch said.

“For instance, both Lebanon and Syria experienced precipitation changes that stressed their respective economies. Why then did Syria alone plunge into conflict?” Bruch added.

“Unfortunately there is no legal framework to pin institutional responsibility for forced migration,” said Mokhnacheva.

Good governance implies that issues such as conflict resolution, food, water and energy are examined in a holistic framework,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP.

“The Gulf countries can invest around water scarcity, creating artificial, energy-intensive, expensive water but most countries including those in West Asia or the Sahel and Burkina Faso have very little resilience, economic or environmental,” Kraemer said.

Environmental governance could be the key to a nation’s access to international credit and investment in the near future, experts said.

Peru's president-elect, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, outside his home in Lima, while waiting for the vote count to be completed. Credit: Courtesy of La República

By Ángel Páez
LIMA, Jun 9 2016 (IPS)

It is finally official: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski won Peru’s presidential elections by the thinnest of leads, and Keiko Fujimori once again just barely missed becoming president – although her party holds a solid majority in Congress, which means it will have a strong influence during the next administration.

With all of the votes counted, the national election office, ONPE, reported Thursday afternoon that the 77-year-old Kuczynski was ahead with 50.121 percent, against the 41-year-old Fujimori’s 49.879 percent.

The difference was 41,438 votes, which makes the triumph of the centre-right candidate of the Peruanos por el Kambio (PPK) party irreversible, even though some ballots were sent for review.

In the 2011 elections, Fujimori, the candidate for the right-wing Fuerza Popular, was defeated by a narrow margin, when nationalist President Ollanta Humala beat her in the runoff by 51.45 percent to 48.55 percent."The mandate that the people gave us is very clear. We joined the vote for Kuczynski in the second round to block a victory by Keiko Fujimori because she represented the threat of a return to corruption, to drug trafficking's influence on politics, to anti-democratic practices to gain power at any cost." -- Indira Huilca

The near-tie in the Sunday Jun. 5 runoff election has kept the country and the candidates’ campaign teams on edge, waiting for the ONPE to announce the result when 100 percent of the ballots had been counted, although analysts had clarified that it was impossible for the daughter of, and political heir to, imprisoned former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) to overcome the slight difference.

Among the last ballots to be counted were the ones coming in from Peruvian voters in Germany, where Fujimori took aaround 18 percent of the vote and Kuczynski reached 51 percent, in the first round of the elections, on Apr. 10.

The last ballots from within Peru, meanwhile, came from remote villages in the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro rivers valley (VRAEM), a broad area in central and southern Peru.

In the VRAEM districts – which are mainly communities from the Andean highlands regions of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Apurímac and Junín, and to a lesser extent jungle areas in Cuzco – the left-wing candidate of the Broad Front, Verónica Mendoza, won more votes than Fujimori in April.

On Jun. 2, Mendoza, who came in third in the first round, urged her voters to cast their ballots for Kuczynski, to block the return of Fujimorismo to the country.

Fujimori’s father is serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and crimes against humanity.

These votes from rural Peru were Fujimori’s last hope, and all the way up to the release of the official ONPE bulletin, she maintained that they could turn the results around.

Political scientist and university professor Fernando Tuesta told IPS that actually, the results from the first round of voting had made it clear that the votes from abroad and from isolated communities would not significantly modify the general tendencies.

Fujimori’s stronghold: Congress

But while voters once again kept Fujimori from reaching the presidential palace, her party will be able to influence the direction taken by the country, from the single-chamber legislature, when the new government takes office on Jul. 28.

On Apr. 10, Fuerza Popular won a strong majority in Congress: 73 out of 130 seats, followed by Mendoza’s Broad Front (20), and Kuczynski’s PPK (18).

The Fujimorista bloc in Congress is known for blocking investigations of cases of corruption involving their representatives, and for pressuring their adversaries.

The big challenge facing the other two parties is keeping Fujimorismo from using its majority to control the government from Congress, and from pushing through measures in favour of its interests.

“The authoritarian temptation is part of the DNA of Fujimorismo,” Broad Front congressswoman-elect Indira Huilca told IPS. “We will never allow Fuerza Popular to use Congress to promote its impunity, to block the fight against corruption, or to cover up for and protect its supporters.”

“We haven’t come to Congress to be witnesses to the eventual destruction of democracy through authoritarian actions,” she said.

But, she warned, “it doesn’t mean that we will give carte blanche to Kuczynski.”

“The mandate that the people gave us is very clear,” said Huilca. “We joined the vote for Kuczynski in the second round to block a victory by Keiko Fujimori because she represented the threat of a return to corruption, to drug trafficking’s influence on politics, to anti-democratic practices to gain power at any cost.”

She is all too familiar with these practices: her father, Pedro Huilca, the long-time leader of Peru’s Confederación General de Trabajadores central trade union, was assassinated eight months after Alberto Fujimori’s self-coup in 1992.

The recent elections were characterised by a lack of transparency and irregularities.

The national election board, the JNE, implemented electoral reforms approved at the last minute by Congress, which gave rise to confusion and the questioning of authority, and undermined the legitimacy of the election board’s decisions.

Two important presidential candidates, Julio Guzmán and César Acuña, both of whom were doing well in the polls, were eliminated by the JNE amidst a climate of suspicion regarding the board’s independence.

What the elections made clear, analysts say, was that Peru needs better electoral laws.

“The anomalies seen in the elections were basically due to the modifications to the election law, and also to the positions taken by the JNE,” a former secretary general of the board, Juan Falconí, told IPS.

“There was a point where people did not know who the presidential candidates would be due to the confusing implementation of the new rules,” he said.

As a result, he said, there were “incidents that cast a shadow over the elections, and people no longer trust the electoral authorities.”

“The JNE has lost legitimacy in the view of voters because it has been clear that it failed to act in a decisive manner and that it lacked credibility and managed things poorly,” he said.

During the debate of the electoral reform proposed by the JNE, Fujimorismo opposed oversight of private campaign funding, and also rejected mandatory supervision by the electoral authorities of internal party elections to select their candidates.

Now that Fujimorismo will be a majority in Congress, a new reform to correct errors and make elections more transparent is unlikely.

“Without Fujimorismo, no electoral reform will be possible. And I don’t think it’s a priority for them,” said Professor Tuesta.

He said that while anti-Fujimorismo defeated the Fuerza Popular candidate, the president-elect will not be able to govern without negotiating with that bloc, which will influence the administration from the legislature.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

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