Africa

The Commonwealth’s team of observers began their assessment of the electoral process in Zimbabwe, leading up to general elections on Jul. 30. Courtesy: The Commonwealth/CC By 2.0

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Jul 31 2018 (IPS)

Counting is underway today across Zimbabwe as the country voted in an historic election on Jul. 30, which many expect will bring political and economic transformation. It is a long-awaited change for many after autocratic leader, Robert Mugabe, was ousted in a soft coup in November 2017 after 37 years in power.

A post-Mugabe future has provided a kindling of hope among citizens that a new Zimbabwe, which can offer a better life for all is still possible.

The country has survived a myriad of crises that have traumatised its citizens, scared investors and left this resource-rich country isolated internationally. It was an election pregnant with expectations for change and transformation. Economic restoration, jobs, unity, peace and prosperity have been key election expectations. “A non-violent election is a big step but of course at the end of the day the real crisis is still here, the economic crisis." -- David Moore, researcher and political economist.

On election morning in the Bulawayo suburb of Famona, the lines where short and it took most people less then 10 minutes to cast their votes. But people were trickling in. And soon most of the 10,000 polling stations across the country had long queues.

No reports of violence have been reported so far. Though the Zimbabwe Republic Police told a local radio station yesterday that a few voters had been nabbed for sloganeering outside voting stations in direct violation of election rules.

Political analysts told IPS that while Zimbabwe has all the potential to turn around its fortunes, it is a tall ask that this election needs to deliver on. The voter turnout yesterday was high as more than 75 percent of the five million Zimbabweans registered to vote went to the polls to choose a president, members of parliament and local government councillors. There were 23 presidential candidates and more than 100 political parties with registered candidates to contest the 210 seats in the House Assembly.

The presidential contest – the most important of all – appears a largely two horse race pitting current Zimbabwean president, Emmerson Mngangwa (75) of the ruling Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) against president of the Movement for Democratic Alliance (MDC), Nelson Chamisa (40).

Mnangagwa is a lawyer and was Mugabe’s point man for many years, having served in government since independence where he held the portfolios of minister of state security and minister of justice. He was the vice president until he was fired by Mugabe in 2017.

Chamisa, also a lawyer and firebrand activist, is a founding member of the MDC under the late Morgan Tsvangirai. He succeeded Tsvangirai in March 2018 in a controversial manner that split the party and which saw Thokozani Khupe lead a breakaway faction. Khupe is one of four female candidates vying for the presidency.

Calling the presidential race a “male” race, pitting men from the privileged classes against each other, Professor Rudo Gaidzanwa, a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and social commentator, told IPS this contest excluded even elite men who are perceived to be competent but “alien” because they do not exhibit the earthy, violent and killer characteristics that can win a party the election and appeal to the grassroots.

“Men of violence and force are admired and accepted because they are perceived as being able to fight for their constituents and followers. This is a legacy of Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence that extolled the virtues and legitimacy of violence as a means of achieving political ends. That legacy continues to haunt us,” said Gaidzanwa.

He said that Zimbabwe needed to transcend the values and politics of the past that focused “on colonists as the enemy and accept that even the elites amongst the former oppressed people are not angels.”

“They have shown us what they are capable of doing to their own people! If you look at Zimbabwe’s political and nationalist elites that pillaged diamonds, agricultural and land you will realise that in Africa, we are yet to embark on a class war that attempts to restore to the working people the wealth of their countries.

“The nationalists continue to use nationalism to justify their pillaging of national resources and they use nationalism to dupe the peasants and workers to think that it is ok for their clansmen, tribesmen to loot “on their behalf” when in fact the clansmen and some women get crumbs.”

A vote for change

Zimbabwe has a harsh history of violence, dating back to before this southern Africa nation became independent in 1980. The price of that violent past has been dear—deep divisions and polarisation along ethnic, and political lines, economic ruin and palpable corruption. These are some of the legacies blamed on Mugabe who led Zimbabwe for 37 years before a coup forced him into permanent retirement.

“Zimbabweans have to break with the violent past, because that will be a real symbol of something that is new no matter who wins,” David Moore, researcher and political economist at the University of Johannesburg, told IPS. “A non-violent election is a big step but of course at the end of the day the real crisis is still here, the economic crisis. What took Zimbabwe out of the 2008 crisis was the Americanisation of the crisis you cannot do that now. How long does it take for a dream of floods of billions of dollars in investment that remains to be seen?”

In 2008 Zimbabwe’s economy had been on the brink of collapse, experiencing hyperinflation of unprecedented levels. The country was forced to abandon its currency, the Zimbabwean dollar, and replaced it with the United States dollar, to stabilise the economy.

Moore said the 2018 elections were different for many reasons. There was no Mugabe—at least on the ballot paper—and neither was there his erstwhile political foe, Tsvangirai.

Former president Mugabe, in an election eve press conference at his home in the capital Harare, on Jul. 29, said he would not be voting for the Zanu PF because it still harboured his tormentors and the reason he was out of power.

“Neighbours have been fooled into believing this was not a coup d’état. Nonsense, it was a coup d’état.. ….I cannot vote for a party and those in power who have caused me to be in this situation.”

Legitimacy and credibility are at stake for political contenders

Chamisa is seeking legitimacy. He is a young contender for the highest political office in the country and has made his own blunders along the way. But he is seeking to prove he can lead and change the future for Zimbabwe. For Mnangagwa, who has been at the helm for seven months, the key is to legitimise his rule and to cement international relations. ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’, has been his campaign mantra.

“Usually processes like an election after a coup are not that successful because a coup has its characteristics of using force and not wanting to give up but when you look at the effort of the coup makers to legitimise this coup by having free and fair elections you have a certain amount of pressure from the donors and the investors,” Moore told IPS.

“It is actually been a pretty peaceful election given Zimbabwe’s history, the Gukurahundi, the 1980s election has a lot of violence and the British were debating whether to let it go. In 2008, there is intimidation but its minor. I think there is a real appetite and hope for serious change. There could be a turning point whoever wins if the elections are seen as credible and the people accept them as credible. It could perhaps be the most important election since 1980.”

A compromise of sorts like a semi-government of national unity could be in the office, Moore believes.

“If Mnangagwa wins, he could bring in a few people inside, people who can interface with capital and people with money. But it’s a volatile situation too and Zanu PF will have to work very hard to make it acceptable to the main opposition,” said Moore. “The MDC has really fired up a lot of people especially young people, who are really hoping for something and if they feel this election has not been credible one could possible expect some pretty tense situations. If it is a victory for the MDC, there will have to be a lot of bridge building and lot of horse trading as well.”

The jury is out still about the choice Zimbabweans made at the ballot this week, and whether that choice will take the country out of its conundrum and raise it to a new level.

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• Zimbabweans Wary of Another Stolen Election
• Zimbabwe’s Elections

The post Zimbabwe’s Election of Great Expectations appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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Credit: IOM 2018/Sibylle Desjardins

By International Organization for Migration
Mauritania, Jul 30 2018 (IOM)

Since 2015 IOM, the UN Migration Agency, has been assisting victims of human trafficking in Mauritania. Sahel populations have always been very mobile, but in recent years a complex economic situation and the difficulty of finding jobs has pushed more and more people to seek jobs abroad. Unscrupulous traffickers seize on this desperation by promising men and women well-paid stable jobs away from home. Instead, these migrants wind up working under inhumane conditions for families who cannot protect their interests and do not care about their well-being. Deprivation, humiliation, hardship, restricted movement and limited communication with their families become the new norm for those who excitedly embarked on an adventure, with hopes of a brighter future.

Mouna* is a mother in her thirties. She relocated to one of the Gulf nations with help from a hiring agency that had promised her a secretary position at the ministry of foreign affairs and a monthly salary of four hundred dollars. Once she had reached her destination, she was forced to work as a maid and babysitter for a family. One day, Mouna fell ill; in order to avoid paying the hospital bills, her employer abandoned her on the streets and claimed that she had run away.

“I never planned to migrate, I never wanted to leave my children [behind], but it was my destiny,” she later said of her ordeal “Everything is written!”

Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident; too many optimistic economic migrants around the world experience ordeals similar to Mouna’s every year. Misled by false promises, countless individuals find themselves trapped in critical and precarious vulnerable situations.

Credit: IOM 2018/Sibylle Desjardins

Tate, a 29 year-old mother of three, was also trapped by the promise of work. A so-called hiring agent, like many others, took advantage of economic migration inflows to develop a network. “I was sold out, exploited,” Tate recalled. “The same hiring agent asked me to help him recruit new girls. I rejected his request! Those were the darkest days of my life, and I do not wish that on anyone else.”

Rama*, 29, once met a handsome, charming man called Ali. He was a so-called hiring agent for a recruitment agency; these groups are often instrumental in convincing migrants to travel abroad for work and they charge for their job placement services. “He made me believe in Eldorado, a world that does not exist,” she said of her encounter with the man who would lead her down a dangerous path. “I found nothing but pain and illusions.”

Sometimes these journeys end well for the migrants that undertake them, so news of economic opportunities abroad often spreads via word of mouth, but there are often many rumours and uninformed claims involved. But equally often, the idea of migrating to a foreign country comes from loved ones. CTDC data show that more female victims of trafficking are recruited by their intimate partners, family, relatives, or friends than male victims. Investing in someone who will help provide for the family is a custom in many communities where trafficking is prevalent.

Nasra, a 34-year-old mother of six, never wanted to migrate, but she bowed to pressure from people around her. “I was strongly encouraged to leave,” she said. “I was homesick, and suffered racial discrimination and unfair treatment in an environment that I thought would be free of bias, free of injustice and full of opportunity.”

“Migrating was never part of my life plan, my family’s advice and my husband’s death influenced my decision,” she continued. “I had to find a way to survive and provide for my children.”

Credit: IOM 2018/Sibylle Desjardins

Unfortunately, when journeys like Nasra’s are unsuccessful and the migrants return home empty-handed — if they return at all — many of them are left helpless and abandoned by the same family members that pushed them to leave. The resulting to rejection and judgment of an unsuccessful migration attempt can make the reintegration process an uneasy or indeed impossible experience.

Most migrants spend all of their savings to leave home, and many are left without resources on their return. IOM put a reintegration programme in place to support vulnerable migrants like these. Upon their arrival in Mauritania, Mouna, Tate, Rama and Nasry were able to take part in this programme, along with 95 other women. They were given psychosocial and medical assistance through IOM’s programme, and received financial support to start income-generating activities.

Today, Rama runs a small business. She designs and creates women’s accessories and beauty products, which she supplies to wholesalers and exhibits during traditional wedding ceremonies. Her family was also a great source of support to help her regain her standing within the community. “Together with my brothers and sisters, we were able to renovate our two houses and purchase a third one,” she explained” My brother is a fisherman; with his help we are able to meet our day-to-day needs with dignity.

Credit: IOM 2018/Sibylle Desjardins

After going through difficult plights, the women are independent and can meet their family’s needs. They were able to rediscover their sense of belonging, regain respect within their societies and start supporting their own livelihoods.

Mouna runs a ladies’ shop with expanding clients and growing demand for her products. “I never thought I would be able to start-up a business on my own,” she said. “IOM helped me rebuild my confidence and I am grateful, from the depth of my heart.”

For these women, sharing their stories empowers them and helps raise awareness of human trafficking while providing resilience strategies for those who have already fallen victim to this horrible crime.

This story was written by Sibylle Desjardins, who has been at IOM Mauritania since 2017 working on communications and content creation for the mission. She also runs awareness-raising campaigns under the EU-IOM Joint Initiative.

The post “I never planned to migrate, but it was my destiny.” Victims of Trafficking Start Over in Mauritania appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By International Organization for Migration
GENEVA, Jul 30 2018 (IOM)

On the occasion of World Day against Trafficking in Persons (30/07), new data released by IOM, the UN Migration Agency, show that in the last ten years, almost 80 per cent of journeys undertaken by victims trafficked internationally cross through official border points, such as airports and land border control points.

Trafficking in persons is often seen as an underground activity, linked to irregular migration, and hidden from the authorities and the general public. IOM case data depict a different story, indicating that most trafficking is in fact happening through official border points. This highlights the crucial role that border agencies and service providers at border points can play to identify potential victims and refer them for protection and assistance.

Women are more likely to be trafficked through an official border point than men (84 per cent of cases, versus 73 per cent for men). Adults are also more likely to be trafficked across official border points than children (80 per cent of cases, versus 56 per cent for children).

Victims are exploited at some point during their journey in two thirds of cases, meaning that they are likely to cross official borders having already experienced some form of exploitation, while one third may still be unaware that they are being trafficked and may believe they are taking up new opportunities abroad that have been promised to them.

Khadija, a fourteen-year-old girl, was trafficked through an official border point between Uganda and Kenya in 2015. Without her knowledge, her father had arranged to marry her off in Kenya, and sent her to Kenya with a man she didn’t know. When Khadija and the man reached the border between Uganda and Kenya, he took her passport and told her he would help her clear immigration. He hid her under the seat of the car until they were on their way to the Kenyan capital. Khadija was transferred to members of her family who were arranging the marriage. Luckily, Khadija was able to contact her embassy, who helped her with IOM support.

Some victims trafficked through official border points carry forged travel documents (9 per cent of cases), while others do not have their own travel documents (23 per cent of cases).

The figures presented here are based on data from victims IOM assisted during the last ten years, involving about 10,500 journey legs undertaken by nearly 8,000 victims. The data are hosted on the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC), which is the world’s first data portal to include human trafficking case data contributed by multiple agencies. Launched in 2017, the CTDC currently includes case records of over 80,000 trafficked persons from 171 countries who were exploited in 170 countries.

The final draft of the Global Compact on Migration for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, adopted by UN Member States on the 13 July 2018, calls for whole-of-government approaches to enhancing border management cooperation on proper identification, timely and efficient referral, as well as assistance and appropriate protection of migrants in situations of vulnerability at or near international borders, in compliance with international human rights law. It highlights the need for improving screening measures and individual assessments at borders and places of first arrival, by applying standardized operating procedures developed in coordination with local authorities, National Human Rights Institutions, international organizations and civil society.

IOM’s new data echo this need and show that national governments should devise and operate robust border management procedures that are sensitive to migrants’ vulnerabilities and protection needs, coupled with well-established systems to ensure that migrants having suffered from violence, exploitation, and abuse are identified and referred to relevant service providers in a timely manner.

Front-line actors, including border management officials at air, sea and land border-crossing points, can play an important role in facilitating the timely identification of victims and potential victims of trafficking, as well as of traffickers. There is a need to continue developing the capacity of these actors to identify and refer victims of trafficking at an early stage upon arrival, and to strengthen cooperation mechanisms at border points so that victims who are identified upon arrival can be referred to service providers for their protection and assistance.

It is also important to continue providing training and awareness raising to service providers at border points in departure and destination countries such as airport staff, airline personnel, and railway personnel, and to develop procedures for communication and reporting to local authorities. Leveraging technology at border points could also contribute to improving data collection which, in turn, can help with risk analysis and smarter identification in real-time.

IOM’s programming provides a unique source of primary data on human trafficking. The organization maintains the largest database of victim case data in the world, which contains case records for over 50,000 trafficked persons whom it has assisted. This victim case data is used to inform policy and programming, including for estimating prevalence and measuring the impact of anti-trafficking interventions.

Regularly updating policies and interventions based on new evidence is key to improving counter-trafficking initiatives at border points. The new information highlights the importance of leveraging operational data from direct assistance activities to inform counter-trafficking policies and programmes.

More information about IOM’s Counter-Trafficking initiatives can be found here.

For more information please contact Harry Cook at IOM HQ, Tel: +41227179111, Email: hcook@iom.int

The post IOM: Most Victims Trafficked Internationally Cross Official Border Points appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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A young boy from the Philippines with leprosy. The chronic disease is curable, and if treated in time disabilities related to the disease can be averted. Courtesy: moyerphotos/CC By 2.0

By Elisio Muchanga
MAPUTO, Jul 30 2018 (IPS)

In the first six months of this year, the southern African nation of Mozambique has already registered 300 more cases of leprosy, some 951 cases, than it registered for the whole of 2017.

The country, which had previously eliminated the chronic disease in 2008, is receiving funding from the Nippon Foundation—a non-profit philanthropic organisation from Japan that is active in many countries across the globe in eliminating leprosy—to provide free multi-drug therapy (MDT) to leprosy sufferers. Leprosy is curable, and if treated early enough disabilities related to the disease can be averted. But treatment can take between six to 12 months.

The chairman of the Nippon Foundation and the World Health Organisation (WHO) goodwill ambassador for leprosy elimination, Yohei Sasakawa, recently visited the country to assess Mozambique’s progress in identifying and treating leprosy.

He told IPS that the increased attention by health authorities on relatively new endemic diseases such as Malaria, HIV and Tuberculosis (TB) may have contributed to the increase of new leprosy cases in the world.  This is despite the fact that treatment for the disease remains free. The WHO has provided MDT for free since 1995 thanks to initial funding from the Nippon Foundation.

Sasakawa said that while the WHO has indicated that a prevalence rate of one leprosy case per 10,000 inhabitants indicates elimination of the disease, “this indicator is simply a milestone. Eradication has not yet been achieved, so we must continue to work towards eradication and elimination.”

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Inter Press Service (IPS): There has been a massive decline in the prevalence of leprosy following the global implementation of MDT in the 1980s by the WHO. However, there are still over 200,000 new leprosy cases recorded every year. And we have seen the emergence of multi-drug resistant leprosy in recent years. How has this affected the prevalence rate?

Yohei Sasakawa (YS): Both in the past and now, MDT is supplied by our foundation and distributed free of charge. Although the medication continues to be distributed free of charge, there are many patients with HIV, Malaria and TB, and these diseases get more attention from ministries of health than leprosy. This fact increases new cases of leprosy. There was a complication caused by multi-drug resistant leprosy, which also contributes to the increase in the number of patients, but it is a very small number, a much lower percentage.

IPS: How can Zero Leprosy be achieved?

YS: It starts from talking about the disease by using a social approach, because leprosy is a social problem. So the leaders of a country, teachers in schools etc, must work to spread the knowledge that leprosy is a curable disease. It is possible to cure with the correct treatment, which starts with the diagnosis of the skin. (Initial symptoms are patches of skin that are paler than normal.) If this message is spread exhaustively, for sure leprosy will be zeroed.

IPS: Do you find it difficult to reach the level of Zero Leprosy?

YS: Achieving Zero Leprosy is not such a difficult process. As I have said, we just need an exhaustive dissemination of the message that it is possible to treat the disease and that the medication is free at health centres. This is the only way that Zero Leprosy will be reached because this disease is not so difficult to diagnose, it is easy to identify.

IPS: Treatment of leprosy costs nothing. But we are seeing a shift towards complacency about the disease among government policy makers, and hence an increase in the prevalence of the disease in some areas. This is unfortunate. Why is this the case? And how do we address this?

YS: Leprosy is not a medical disease it is a social problem. This disease has no symptoms like pain, and this fact alone makes some people chose not to go to hospital when they come across spots on their skin etc. But with time, deformation takes place and then the person feels ashamed to go to hospital because of discrimination… For a long time, history has shown that people with leprosy were highly discriminated against.

And this discrimination still exists quite strongly amongst almost every population…I had the opportunity to see in Nampula (northern Mozambique) that those recovered from leprosy work as volunteers in the search for other people with leprosy in need of treatment. I think this is very good and would be even better if it were spread throughout the country.

The chairman of the Nippon Foundation and the World Health Organisation (WHO) goodwill ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, Yohei Sasakawa, recently visited the country to assess Mozambique’s progress in identifying and treating leprosy. Credit: Elisio Muchanga

IPS: What concrete actions is your foundation carrying out, especially in Africa, to eliminate leprosy.

YS: Over the last 40 years the foundation has been working to provide the necessary assistance to people with leprosy through the WHO, and we will continue providing this assistance.

In Africa, specifically in countries with cases of leprosy, I try to talk to the top leader, the president. I explain the situation to them in order for them to take action. I think in talking to presidents it makes it easier for a ministry of health to get a bigger budget and carry out its activities.

The number of people with leprosy is much lower than those with HIV, Malaria and TB. So it is very difficult for the government to allocate a larger amount to the ministry of health to tackle this disease, and this is not prioritised. So I go to these countries and ask the government to increase funding to the ministry of health to combat the disease.

IPS: Your foundation has given support to many countries towards eliminating leprosy. What is the feedback from these countries and what can be taken as model or case for success?

YS: The feedback is very positive. We are experiencing a significant reduction in cases of leprosy with countries declaring themselves free from leprosy, although there are new cases. India is a great example, the country has the greatest number of leprosy sufferers in the world—about 70 percent of the world’s cases of leprosy are in India—and the work that has been developed there is positive.

However, one concrete case of success was in Indonesia where I met a girl who developed the disease at 18 and was cut off from her family. I had the opportunity to have a meal with this girl, and that gesture demystified that leprosy was a cursed disease.

IPS: As part of efforts to sustain the quality of leprosy services and reduce the burden of leprosy in the world, the WHO has recognised the important contribution that people affected by leprosy can make. What have some of the contributions that you have seen that have positively affected leprosy services?

YS:  Well, India, you know that this country has a massive number of people with leprosy, and many of those who have been treated and recovered from leprosy have nothing to live on and end up begging on the streets.

I spoke to Dalai Lama to see what we can do for these people. He wrote a book, sold it and donated the money from the sale of the book to our foundation. Later we created an association to support people affected by leprosy by giving them a small pension. We also provide microfinance and teach people how to make their own living.

We also offer university scholarships to the children of people who have recovered from leprosy, but this type of support, unfortunately, only happens in Ethiopia and India.

IPS: Why only in these countries?

YS: I don’t know. What a pity (it is limited). We also wanted to do the same in Indonesia. Now here in Mozambique, from what I understand, there is no a colony where only people with leprosy live. But if people get together and form an association, maybe we can offer support. I understand that those recovering from leprosy want to work but do not have the opportunity. We can help create this opportunity.

IPS: Your foundation managed to lobby the United Nations to pass a resolution for the “elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family.” How do you measure the result of this lobbying today with regards to the commitment and actions from member states?

YS: It is true that we have been able to mobilise countries and pass this resolution, but what happens is that this rule contains its principle and guideline but has no penalty. Some countries have included this rule in their policies but unfortunately there are only a few countries that have done that.

Recently, a leading rapporteur was elected by the Directorate of Human Rights (in the U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner), and will have to visit countries and see why they are not complying with the U.N. recommendation of 2010.

IPS: There still remains significant stigma attached to the disease. And the stigma placed upon people with leprosy has been considered one of the greatest social injustices. In some parts of Africa people with leprosy are still separated from society, when research and science proves there is no need to. How do we overcome this?

YS: In fact there is discrimination against leprosy sufferers and this is difficult to remove from people. Stigma and discrimination are ancient and deeply rooted. So it is not only with my efforts that we are going to end this stigma, we need to have the participation of all of us working together to change this situation.

Related Articles

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The post Q&A: Leprosy Increases as World Gives Attention to Newer Endemic Diseases appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

IPS correspondent Elisio Muchanga spoke to the World Health Organisation goodwill ambassador for leprosy elimination, Yohei Sasakawa, during a recent visit to Mozambique to evaluate the country’s progress in treating leprosy patients.

The post Q&A: Leprosy Increases as World Gives Attention to Newer Endemic Diseases appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY & KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 30 2018 (IPS)

Ten years ago, deteriorating confidence in the value of US sub-prime mortgages threatened a liquidity crisis. The US Federal Reserve injected considerable capital into the market, but could not prevent the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC).

The 2008 meltdown exposed the extent of finance-led international economic integration, with countries more vulnerable to financial contagion and related policy ‘spillovers’ exacerbating real economic volatility. It also revealed some vulnerabilities of the post-Second World War (WW2) US-centred international financial ‘architecture’ – the Bretton Woods system – modified after its breakdown in the early 1970s.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Robert Triffin, the leading international monetary economist of his generation, had long expressed concerns about the use of a national currency as the major reserve currency. International liquidity provision using the greenback required the US to run balance-of-payments deficits, ensuring US monetary policy spillovers to the world economy while eroding confidence in the greenback.

The Bretton Woods system was under increasing strain from the late 1960s, as US President Johnson funded the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War by issuing debt, rather than through higher taxes. The system finally broke down when the Nixon administration unilaterally cancelled the US commitment to dollar (gold) convertibility in August 1971.

What emerged was a ‘non-system’ for Triffin. Since then, the US dollar, issued by fiat, has relied on the greenback’s own credibility and legitimacy to continue as de facto world currency.

Current ‘non-system’
In 1985, Triffin identified three systemic problems of the international financial ‘non-system’. First, “its fantastic inflationary proclivities, leading to world reserve increases eight times as large over a brief span of fifteen years” since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system.

Second, “skewed investment pattern of world reserves, making the poorer and less capitalized countries of the Third World the main reserve lenders, and the richer and more capitalized industrial countries the main reserve borrowers of the system”.

Anis Chowdhury

Third, “crisis-prone propensities reflected in the amplitude” and frequency of financial crises such as the 1980s’ debt crisis causing developing countries’ ‘lost decades’. Other critics have identified further flaws.

First is the ‘recessionary bias’, due to the asymmetric burden of adjustment to payments imbalances. While deficit countries are under great pressure to adjust, especially when financing dries out during crises, surplus countries do not face corresponding pressures to correct their own imbalances.

Second is the cost of the perceived need of emerging and developing countries to ‘self-insure’ against the strong boom-bust cycles of global finance by building up large foreign exchange reserves and fiscal resources, especially after the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

Such precautionary measures enabled emerging market economies to undertake strong counter-cyclical measures during the GFC. But they have huge opportunity costs as such reserves are generally held as presumably safe, liquid, low-yielding assets, such as US Treasury bonds.

Hence, Triffin complained that “the richest, most developed, and most heavily capitalized country in the world should not import, but export, capital, in order to increase productive investment in poorer, less developed, and less capitalized countries… [The] international monetary system is at the root of this absurdity.”

Reform appeals
There were renewed calls for reform of global economic governance in the wake of the GFC, especially by the 2009 UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development.

Governance reform of the IMF and World Bank should ensure fairer, more equitable representation of developing countries. This should improve the accountability and credibility of the Bretton Woods institutions, enabling them to better address current financial and economic challenges in the world.

The UN also called for a “multilateral legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring”. Without a fair, legally binding, multilateral sovereign debt work-out mechanism, developing countries remain vulnerable to private creditors, including vulture funds.

There were renewed hopes for trade multilateralism and early successful completion of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), giving developing countries better access to external markets, seen as vital for balanced global recovery and development. The promise to keep international trade open echoed G20 leaders’ unfulfilled commitment to eschew protectionism.

However, only a few of the modest promised reforms have been implemented, with limited changes in international financial governance, still dominated by G7 economies. After all, every financial crisis is followed by appeals for reforms, with complacency setting in with hints of recovery.

Less coping capability
Most developed country governments are now more heavily indebted than in 2008, when they bailed out large financial institutions, but failed to sustainably revive the world economy. Major monetary authorities do not have much policy space left after long pursuing unconventional expansionary policies.

Meanwhile, developing countries have been subject to increasing international integration, e.g., through global value chains, foreign financial institutional investments and increased short-term capital flows induced by the unconventional monetary policies of the US Fed, ECB and Bank of Japan, while debt-sustainability concerns for some are growing again.

These vulnerabilities have been compounded by growing trade protectionism, and dwindling precautionary reserve holdings of many developing economies as global trade has slowed. Even before President Trump’s election, developed countries had effectively killed the Doha Development Round, not least by opting for bilateral and plurilateral, instead of multilateral free trade deals.

Trump’s more explicit rejection of multilateralism in his efforts to eliminate major US bilateral trade deficits are now expected to further set back prospects for world economic recovery. Despite pious declarations to the contrary, most national policymakers typically turn from rhetoric about international cooperation to focus on domestic issues.

It has not been different this last time. A decade after the worst economic downturn since the 1930s’ Great Depression, the world economy remains vulnerable.

Anis Chowdhury, Adjunct Professor at Western Sydney University (Australia), held senior United Nations positions in New York and Bangkok.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a former economics professor, was United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, and received the Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought in 2007.

The post Global Economy Vulnerable a Decade After appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Cameroon confirm discussions with former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, to take over as coach of the Indomitable Lions.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 30 2018 (IPS)

When Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was asked about the legality of the UN’s much-ballyhooed Global Compact for Migration, he was initially evasive in his response.

“I’m not a lawyer”, he told reporters July 12, “and I presume that this question might be better asked from a lawyer”.

Still, he pointed out that “if I remember well in my past capacity (as UN High Commissioner for Refugees), I don’t think this can be considered as customary law in the sense, like, for instance, the 1951 Convention (on Refugees), even for countries that have not signed it, is valid as customary international law.”

In the case of something that is not legally binding, (which the Global Compact is), he said: “I don’t think it can be considered directly as customary international law”.

Guterres chief Spokesman Stephen Dujarric added a note of levity when he intervened: “We’ll get a lawyer”. [Laughter]

But the growing humanitarian crises, which triggered the Global Compact for Migration, is no laughing matter.

The lingering question, however, remains: If countries such as the US, Australia, Hungary and the Gulf nations, who have signed and ratified the 1951 Convention, continue to restrict or bar political refugees, what good is the Global Compact, whose implementation is only voluntary?

At the same time there are growing political movements in countries such as UK, Italy and Germany challenging the entry of political refugees and migrants in violation of the Convention.

Asked about the shortcomings of the Compact, Charlotte Phillips, Advisor/Advocate, Refugee and Migrants’ Rights team at the London-based Amnesty International (AI) , told IPS: “As you rightly point out, the Compact is non-binding, which means there is no legal obligation for states to put the Compact into action.:

She said this is one of the key problems with the Compact. It effectively means that states can cherry pick which aspects of the Compact they want to implement.

This reflects and entrenches the current status quo whereby wealthier states can pick and choose what, if any, measures they take to share responsibility, leaving major hosting nations in developing regions to shoulder the lion’s share of refugees, she pointed out.

“Having said that, the Compact is supposed to express a consensus commitment and member states have spent months negotiating the details of the Compact, showing that states do take its content seriously.

“The real question now is whether the political will needed from governments to implement the Compact is there?,” she said.

It is also worth noting, she pointed out, that many of the states negotiating the Compact have already ratified the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which is legally binding and these obligations are still relevant and the Convention is referenced in the Compact’s guiding principles.

“Despite this, whilst negotiations have been in full swing, we have seen the rights of refugees violated by governments. For example, we have seen European governments attacking NGOs’ capacity to rescue refugees stranded at sea and adopting policies of deterrence and border control that expose refugees to abuses”.

“We have seen Australia continue to justify its cruel and torturous detention practises on Manus Island and Nauru. For the Compact to be worth the paper it is written on, we need to see the principles laid out in the Compact translated into real action to protect refugees,” she declared.

Joseph Chamie, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and an independent consulting demographer, told IPS: “The Global Migration Compact is a step in the right direction, but it will not resolve major problems, including the refugee crisis.”

Why?
Fundamentally, he argued, the Compact is non-binding and voluntary and while various factors are at play, four key elements are human rights asymmetry, global demographics, limited migration options and growing opposition.

Firstly, Human rights asymmetry: you have a right to leave your country, but you don’t have a right to enter another country. (See: “Knock, Knock …. Who’s There? Many Migrants!“).

Secondly, Global demographics: the demand for migrants in receiving countries is far less than the growing pool of potential migrants in the sending countries. (See: “Prepare for the 21st Century Exodus of Migrants“).

Thirdly, Limited migration options: the large majority of people wishing to emigrate basically have no legal means available to them other than illegal migration. (See: “Understanding Unauthorized Migration“).

Fourthly, Growing opposition: countries worldwide increasingly aim to reduce immigration levels and stem record flows of refugees by erecting fences and barriers, strengthening border controls, tightening asylum policies and restricting citizenship. (See: “Mind the Gap: Public and Government Views Diverge on Migration“).

A New York Times report on July 22 said thousands protested in cities across Australia to mark five years of a controversial government policy under which asylum seekers and migrants have been turned away and detained in Pacific Islands such as Papua New Guinea and Nauru for years –triggering criticisms from human rights groups and UN refugee agencies.

The fate of over 1,600 people remains in limbo due to this practice of “off shore processing” of asylum seekers.

The Global Compact for Migration, which is expected to be adopted at an international conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, in December, is unlikely to resolve their key problems.

The United Nations is expecting 192 countries to participate in the Morocco conference, minus the US which pulled out of the negotiations back in December, with the Trump administration hostile towards cross border migrations and with a ban on migrants from six Muslim-majority countries: Syria, Yemen, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan.

An estimated 258 million people are categorized as international migrants, and since 2000, about 60,000 people have died while crossing the seas or passing through international borders.

The European Union (EU) is taking one of its members, Hungary, to the European Court of Justice because of its anti-immigrant laws in violation of several EU treaties.

Iverna McGowan, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, was critical of Hungary’s decision to prohibit civil society organizations (CSOs) from advocating the cause of migrant and refugees.

“Hungary’s attempts to prohibit the legitimate and vital work of people and civil society organizations working to protect the rights of migrants and asylum-seekers are unacceptable.”

“By challenging a legislative package that flagrantly breached EU human rights law, the European Commission has sent a clear and unambiguous message that Hungary’s xenophobic policies will not be tolerated” she said, pointing out that European leaders who have remained largely silent over the human rights crackdown in Hungary must now follow the Commission’s lead and call for these laws to be shelved.

“With new restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly also on track for adoption by the Hungarian parliament tomorrow, it is more important than ever to challenge the Hungarian government loudly and clearly,” said McGowan.

According to Amnesty International, the new infringement procedure by the European Commission concerns a package of xenophobic measures that came into effect in Hungary on 1 July 2018.

Under these laws people providing assistance to asylum seekers and migrants, including lawyers and international and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), can have their access restricted to asylum-processing areas and may even face criminal proceedings if they facilitate claims that are unsuccessful.

The measures make it impossible for people who passed through another country before arriving in Hungary to claim asylum, said Amnesty in a statement released last week.

The European Commission found these measures to be in violation of the Union’s Asylum Procedures, Reception Conditions and Qualifications Directives and of the right to asylum. It also pointed out inconsistencies with the EU’s provisions on the free movement of Union citizens and their family members.

Hungary’s policies and practices on refugees, asylum seekers and migrants cause unnecessary human suffering, while the government has increasingly sought to silence critical voices, Amnesty warned.

Michael Clemens, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, said the Global Compact is the biggest step the world has taken to cooperatively face the defining policy challenge of our time: how to better regulate international migration in this century.

The Compact offers a clear mandate and roadmap for countries to work together to get more of what they want from migration and less of what they do not want, he noted.

Unfortunately, he warned, there is currently a political movement ascendant in the U.S., UK, Italy, and elsewhere promising to address the many problems of migration by restricting or eliminating it altogether.

This new Compact is the defining alternative to that movement. It is a treasure chest of the best ideas on how to address the many challenges of migration with hard work and a pragmatic cooperative approach, he said.

“While the Compact is now final, the real work is just beginning. As countries prepare to adopt the Global Compact for Migration in December, discussions will revolve around how to operationalize and implement the commitments agreed to in this document”.

One innovation endorsed by the Compact, he said, is the idea to create Global Skill Partnerships. Other innovations should also be piloted and tested out, as countries and their partners work to identify sustainable solutions to today’s migration challenges and opportunities.

“The road ahead will be difficult and many of the challenges and points of contention that arose during the Compact’s negotiations will not disappear with its adoption”.

Rather, countries will need to tackle these challenges head-on as they work toward pragmatic, evidence-based, and coordinated migration policies and practices that fulfill the objectives and commitments of the Compact, he declared.

Chamie told IPS while the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol are legally-binding, implementation remains problematic, even when countries are in violation.

The trend is clear: governments are increasingly resisting taking in refugees and those who seek asylum. Why?

Global demographics play a central role because of the sheer record-breaking levels of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons.

Claiming refugee status: further complicating the refugee situation is as many unauthorized migrants seek to improve their lives and those of their children. (See: “The Dilemma of Desperation Migration“).

Implicit message: the de facto message and understanding of men, women and children including smugglers as well as the implicit principle guiding many governments of receiving countries is: If you can get in and keep a low profile, you can stay. (See “Illegal Immigration Illogic“).

Ineffective policies: due to the complexity of the issue, limited resources, human rights concerns and heated public sentiments, government policies have been ineffective in coping with surges of unwanted migration.

In the end, although invariably contentious, deferred action, amnesty and regularization are frequently used to address large numbers of unauthorized migrants. (See: “Unwanted Migration: How Governments Cope?“).

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Migration/Pages/GlobalCompactforMigration.aspx

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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President Donald Trump poses for photos with the 2017 NCAA football national champions the Alabama Crimson Tide at the White House on April 10, 2018. PHOTO: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP

By Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
Jul 30 2018 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

A fundamental law of physics, also applicable to the social sciences, is that everything in nature is in a state of flux. The sage Heraclitus had said we never step into the same river twice. The flow of the river of life today has remarkably gained a momentum that is torrential. It gushes ahead washing away old values, norms, and the societal architecture that human mind and endeavour had conceived and created over a long period of time. As it leads us into the digital post-modern era dominated by big data, cloud-computing, and artificial intelligence, it also impacts on the politics, economics and sociology of how we organise our lives.

It is without doubt that a major factor of change in our socio-political and economic life today, President Donald Trump, the leader of the world’s most powerful nation, the United States. He is relentlessly adding kinetic energy speeding up the motion. But did not make a sudden appearance. Ex Nihilo nihil fit—nothing comes from nothing. Mr Trump, with his disturbingly erratic and seemingly irrational behaviour, is the product of decades of domestic and global developments. These are those that are both within America and in the world beyond. In the nineteenth-century America believed it had a “manifest destiny”, ordained by God. It was not only to expand its territorial dominion westward, but also spread democracy and capitalism throughout North America.

Across the Atlantic, in Europe, the present was being shaped by the past. The Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 created nation-states. The French Revolution of 1789 sparked nationalism with its positive and negative ramifications. Germany, a somewhat late entrant to European civilisation, burst upon the unfolding history with its enormous contributions in literature, mathematics and philosophy. The “Protestant Reformation” of Martin Luther, supplanted orthodox Catholicism, igniting the spirit of enquiry. It also laid the foundation sciences and a new work ethic. Eventually a scattered Germanic nation became united under Bismarck. Meantime other European nations—Spain, Portugal, Holland and England—were dividing up the world between themselves. Freshly empowered, Germany now demanded its “platzan der Sonne”—“a place in the sun”, including its own colonies.

The result was two disastrous world wars. America, the “new world”, was called out to aid the “old” Europe. Thereafter, to rebuild it on the ashes of the conflagrations. Through the Marshall Plan and the establishment of the Bretton Woods Institutions (World Bank, International Monetary Fund), the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization, it helped create “a new World Order”. It helped set the norms and standards for trade, arms control, and international relations. The “Manifest Destiny” now moved eastward. The opposing Communist ideology of the Soviet Union was confronted and ultimately vanquished. The winner was capitalism, buttressed by free trade and liberal values. America was now the “city on the shining hill”, the unparalleled “hyper-power”.

Then several things happened. First, unsurprisingly, hubris set in. Its military misadventures, in Iraq and Afghanistan, led to immeasurable damage to the respect and reputation it had acquired. Second, its strategic nuclear-weapon superiority was now deterred not just by Russia, but also China. Third, it incurred huge deficits in trade with its partners, with many now seeing commerce as a “zero-sum game”. Finally, other nations were rapidly emerging in capabilities and in particular China. Its new-found wealth and capacity, spurred on by President Xi Jinping’s “ZhungGuomeng” or China Dream, were being rapidly translated into power. The American sociologist, Andre Gunder Frank, remarked that what he feared more was not so much the rise of China, as America’s response to it.

America was now exhausted. Middle America, the redneck white working classes, distressed by the widening gulf between them and the elite, thought they were paying a heavy price , economically and militarily, for their so- called “leadership of the free world”. Enter Donald Trump. He was thrown up by this constituency, small, but consistent and powerful. He promised to tear up the rulebooks of traditional conduct, put “America First” and make it “Great” again. He pulled America out of past agreements, challenged the very institutions that America had created, and sought to renegotiate America’s engagements with the rest of the world. America was not necessarily disengaging from the world. Rather, it was re-engaging with its perceived self-interest, on new terms. It now preferred to do it bilaterally, where it was strong, rather than multilaterally, where it felt weak and constrained by rules. To America there was no longer “friends” or “foes”. Only “others”. Idealism had yielded to realism. Lord Palmerston of Britain had once, in a moment of pique vis-à-vis his continental peers, had reportedly remarked that God had made a mistake when He made foreigners. Mr Trump actually seemed to believe it.

So, is the old global order giving way to a New World Disorder? Perhaps. Some fear that there may be chaotic consequences that would be unmanageable. But chaos need not necessarily be bad. For instance, ancient Greeks perceived it positively. To them it was the dark void of space, the primeval state of existence, from which the four elements of nature—air water, earth and fire, and eventually divine and human forms emerged. Today we see disruption as providing the necessary fillip to technological innovation. Trump’s actions may be perceived as doing the same on the political matrix. Possibly in a dialectical fashion, the “disorder” that we “confront” would eventually synthesise into another order, a newer methodology for the interrelationship of peoples and nations.

For most countries, including those in our own region, South Asia, these developments may presage a return to the classical form of “balance of power”. Henry Kissinger has endeavoured to educate the contemporary times on it. It entails that no nation is supremely dominant. Each is left to calculate its imperatives of power, and accordingly, align itself with or oppose other nations. No one would be an a priori ally or antagonist forever.

For countries like Bangladesh, as for other smaller South Asian countries, it would mean the need for nimble diplomacy. Linkages would need to be constructed on the merits of specific issues. It is important to bear in mind, that even if America at the highest levels disengage, at operational levels, where its interests are not critical, its field functionaries like its diplomats may be landed with a greater role. This is why we see America sanction, on recommendations from its agents in the field, Myanmar generals for their alleged atrocious perpetration of inhumane violence upon the “Rohingyas” in the Rakhine State.

Nevertheless, South Asia, as well as other regions, must know that it can no longer routinely draw on external state-actors to make up the power gaps with adversarial neighbours. It is a key point to bear in mind for our leaderships in this election period in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Bangladesh and India. These countries would be well advised to renegotiate their intramural relationships. They must aim to ease tensions among themselves to be better able to confront the world with collective interests. They must be able to help themselves, as no one else will.

The global trends cited earlier will not alter substantively even after Trump leaves office. He is not the cause but the effect of the changes. The “New World Disorder” will eventually become a new normal, which will become yet another “New World Order”. For now, however, the “disorder” has come to stay. The rest of the world has no option but to recognise, readapt and respond to the changing times.

Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury is a former foreign adviser to a caretaker government of Bangladesh and is currently Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post The New World Disorder: We must learn to live with it appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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Voters in Pakistan’s general election outrightly rejected political parties with extremism records in the country’s Jul. 25, 2018 – which had the largest ever voter turnout. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Jul 30 2018 (IPS)

Voters in Pakistan’s general election outrightly rejected political parties with extremism records and candidates linked to banned terrorist groups, opting instead to back liberal forces in a support for peace.

“None of the parties related to terrorism won any of the 272 national assembly seats as the people don’t want to empower them to legislate,” analyst Muhammad Junaid told IPS.

On Saturday, Jul. 28, electoral officials announced that Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI (Move for Justice party) won 115 of the 272 contested seats in the National Assembly. The former ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), won 64 seats and Pakistan People’s Party won 43. Other seats went to smaller parties and independents, with militant parties losing badly.

Junaid, who teaches political science at the University of Peshawar, said that Pakistan has suffered a great deal because of terrorism and people had clearly rejected terrorist-linked groups in the polls.

Political party Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek supported extremist candidates allegedly linked to the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 108 people, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. Saeed is head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), one of the largest terrorist organisations in South Asia.

However, the party was rejected by voters across the country as it failed to win a single seat in the national assembly.

Saeed’s son, Talha Saeed, contested the elections from Punjab province, but lost. Saeed’s son-in-law, Khalid Waleed, faced a similar fate. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) results show that the party’s candidates received just 171,441 votes, just a drop in the ocean when compared with the more than 49 million votes that were cast.

Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), another party with a clear sectarian mindset, had fielded more than 150 candidates contesting the National Assembly seats and hundreds more who contested provincial assembly seats. The party received just over two million votes and just two of its candidates were elected to the Sindh provincial assembly, the ECP results showed. Sindh is one of Pakistan’s four provinces.

People also rejected candidates from Jamiat Ulemai Islam Sami for the party’s connection with the terrorist group Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The party’s leader, Maulana Samiul Haq, is known as the father of the Taliban and his seminary Darul Uloom Haqqania is referred to as the “University of Jihadists”.

Pakistan faced a great deal of criticism from both the international and local media, human rights groups as well as political leaders for having hundreds of individuals with clear links to extremists openly campaigning in the election.

In June, the global watchdog Financial Action Task Force placed Pakistan on its terrorism financing watchlist. The call for Pakistan to be placed on the list was led by the United States in a move to pressure the country to close financing loopholes for terrorist groups. The U.S. has previously accused Pakistan of providing a savehaven for terrorists.

The country itself, however, has not been immune to terror attacks.

On Jul. 10, Haroon Bilour, a candidate from the Awami National Party, was killed in Peshawar along with 30 others. The terrorist group TTP claimed reasonability for the attack. Two days later, a candidate from PTI was killed in a separate act.

On Jul. 13, candidate Siraj Raisani, along with 130 others, was killed in a suicide attack in Balochistan, one of the Pakistan’s four provinces. On election day the province was scene to another suicide attack, which killed 30 people.

However, the deadly attacks failed to deter people as they formed long queues at polling stations to cast their votes. Some 55 percent of Pakistan’s registered 100 million voters turned out at the polls – the highest ever turnout in Pakistan’s history.

Junaid said militants wanted to advance their own agenda and rule people through the use of force and fear and not democracy.

In Khan’s victory speech he continued to condemn terrorism and vowed to establish peace in the region. “We want a better relationship with neighbouring countries, India, Iran and Afghanistan as well as China and the U.S. to have peace in the region,” he said.

Pakistan’s army deputed 350,000 soldiers to guard polling stations on election day and publically declared their support for democracy.

“Militants want to create anarchy in our country, but the nation is united against militancy. Our military and civil leadership are on the same page and determined to continue the war against terror till its logical end,” military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said.

Analyst Khadim Hussain said that it was indicative of people’s hate for terrorism that they took part in a “high-decibel campaign” for the national polls to defeat terrorism.

“Long queues were seen outside the polling booths. People remained vibrant and upbeat, which was a signal that they wanted democracy and rejected terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” he said.

Despite incidents of terrorism, the mood was extremely upbeat, and towns and villages were adorned with party flags and banners calling on people to vote for respective candidates, he said. The message was loud and clear that people wanted democracy at any cost, Hussain said.

Foreign observers declared the election free, fair and transparent.

“A number of violent attacks, targeting political parties, party leaders, candidates and election officials, affected the campaign environment,” the European Union’s election observation mission chief Michael Gahler, told a news conference Jul. 27.

Most interlocutors acknowledged a systematic effort to undermine the former ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), through cases of corruption, contempt of court and terrorist charges against its leaders and candidates, he added.

Religious parties contesting the polls also fared poorly.

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