A Maldives national flag flutters as pigeons fly past during the morning in Male February 8, 2012. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/file photo Acquire Licensing Rights
More than a quarter of a million people vote on Saturday for the next leader of the tropical Maldives in a closely contested election seen as a battle for influence in the high-end tourist destination between India and China.
President Ibrahim Solih, who is seeking a second five-year term in the Indian Ocean archipelago, has championed an “India-first” policy during his time in power. He appears to be slightly ahead in the polls.
The coalition backing his main rival, Mohamed Muizzu, has a record of being close to China and has launched an “India out” campaign, promising to remove a small Indian military presence of several surveillance aircraft and some 75 personnel.
Muizzu entered the fray after former President Abdulla Yameen was banned from contesting the election by the Supreme Court in August following a conviction for corruption and money laundering.
A poll of 384 people published last month by the Baani Center think tank found that 21% of respondents favoured Solih compared with 14% supporting Muizzu.
“August’s poll reveals a majority of voters, 53%, remain undecided just three weeks before the first round vote on 9 September. This month’s poll has seen the most ‘undecideds’ since Baani began its monthly poll in April,” the organisation said in a statement.
The counting of votes for seven assembly seats in six states, contested on September 5, will be held on Friday, marking a significant test for the INDIA bloc against the BJP-led NDA ahead of upcoming state elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Results for 7 assembly bypolls today (Credits: PTI)
The counting of votes for seven assembly seats across six states that went to bypolls on Tuesday (September 5), will be taken up at centres set up in the respective states on Friday.
The bypoll results are seen as a test for the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA ahead of the five state assembly elections scheduled later this year and the crucial Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
The seven seats include Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Puthuppally in Kerala, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Dumri in Jharkhand, and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura.
THE VOTER TURNOUT
While the Bageshwar, Dhupguri and Dhanpur seats were held by the BJP, the Ghosi seat was held by the Samajwadi Party, Boxanagar by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Dumri by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Puthuppally by the Congress.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Ghosi Assembly constituency, only 49.42 per cent of electorates cast their votes for the by-election on Tuesday.
Jharkhand’s Dumri recorded a 64.84 per cent turnout while Bageshwar in Uttarakhand registered 55.35 per cent voting.
On the other hand, Tripura’s Boxanagar and Dhanpur recorded 86.34 per cent and 81.88 per cent voter turnout respectively, while Bengal’s Dhupguri recorded 74.35 per cent.
CANDIDATES FIELDED
The bypoll in Ghosi was necessitated after Dara Singh Chauhan, who had won the seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, came back to the BJP after resigning from the Samajwadi Party.
Chauhan was selected by the BJP to contest the bypoll.
On the other hand, the Samajwadi Party had fielded Sudhakar Singh to contest against Chauhan.
In Tripura’s Dhanpur, the bye-election was necessitated after the BJP’s Pratima Bhoumik resigned to retain her Lok Sabha seat, leaving the assembly vacant.
Bhoumik’s brother Bindu Debnath fought for the BJP against Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) candidate Kaushik Chanda in Dhanpur for the bypolls.
In Tripura’s Boxanagar, the BJP and CPI (M) contested against each other as the seat fell vacant after the death of CPI (MK) MLA Samsul Haque.
In Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar seat, the battle was between the Samajwadi Party, Congress, and the BJP. A bye-election in Bageshwar was prompted by the death of BJP MLA Chandan Ram Dass.
BJP’s Nabendu Bhattacharya says the Opposition party is making baseless allegations after sensing its ‘imminent defeat’.
Tripura’s Opposition CPM, which has demanded countermanding of Tuesday’s bypolls in two Assembly constituencies over allegations of poll violence. (File)
Tripura’s Opposition CPM, which has demanded countermanding of Tuesday’s bypolls in two Assembly constituencies over allegations of poll violence, on Wednesday defended its Boxanagar candidate, Md Mijan Hossain, who was not seen in public for most of the poll hours.
The party said that a CPM leader from Boxanagar was attacked in Sonamura by BJP-backed goons in the presence of the ruling party’s candidate a day before the vote. “This incident showed that a reign of terror was let loose at Boxanagar at the behest of the BJP candidate himself. Considering this, the party instructed the candidate not to go to Boxanagar (on the poll day),” CPM Sonamura subdivisional committee secretary Ratan Saha said in a statement.
The statement said that Hossain had requested the Sepahijala district superintendent of police to grant him a police escort in addition to the two personal guards provided for his security at his house. Saha also said that the Kalamchowra police had assured him of additional security on the voting day if personnel were available at the police station.
The prime minister is committed to “making any deal with the Saudis possible, even at the price of toppling his own government,” HaModia reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday denied ultra-Orthodox reports he was preparing for the collapse of his government in return for a US-backed normalization deal with Saudi Arabia.
According to a report published in the Agudat Yisrael-affiliated haredi paper HaModia on Friday morning, Netanyahu had resigned to the fact that “his political career is nearing an end.”
Netanyahu, in accordance with White House officials, will receive the long-awaited Saudi normalization deal and plea bargain for his criminal trials for his resignation, with the understanding being that he “does not have the capacity to manage the country in Israel’s current political state,” as per the report.
The former property mogul was confirmed by parliamentary vote on Tuesday, just hours after Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand from 15 years of exile and was immediately jailed on old graft cases.
Pheu Thai’s Srettha Thavisin gestures at the party’s headquarters in Bangkok on Aug 23, 2023, before a royal endorsement ceremony after Thailand’s parliament voted in favour of his prime ministerial candidacy. (Photo: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha)
Thailand’s new prime minister took office on Wednesday (Aug 23) with the endorsement of the king, heading a controversial coalition including pro-military parties linked to former coup-makers.
The appointment of former property mogul Srettha Thavisin – of the Pheu Thai Party long associated with billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra – ends months of political deadlock following May’s general election.
He was confirmed by parliamentary vote on Tuesday, just hours after Thaksin returned to the kingdom from 15 years of exile and was immediately jailed on old graft cases.
Srettha received King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s written command to form a government in a ceremony at Pheu Thai headquarters at 6pm local time (11am GMT), and is likely to announce his Cabinet in the coming days.
In a national televised address after his endorsement, Srettha pledged to bring unity to the country and promote policies that would solve crises and move the country forward.
He also pledged to promote inclusiveness and govern for the benefit of all Thais, promising a new era of change.
New Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin pays his respects in front of a portrait of King Maha Vajiralongkorn as he receives the royal endorsement appointing him as the new prime minister in Bangkok, Thailand on Aug 23, 2023. (Photo: AP/Government Spokesman Office)Members of the media watch new Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin deliver a speech, after paying respects to the portrait of King Maha Vajiralongkorn on Aug 23, 2023. (Photo: AP/Sakchai Lalit)
Outgoing prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha – a former army chief who overthrew the last Pheu Thai government in a coup – congratulated Srettha and wished him luck.
Prayut suffered a heavy defeat in May’s polls as the upstart progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) rode a wave of youth and urban discontent with nearly a decade of military-backed rule to win the most seats.
But MFP’s push to reform royal insult laws and take on powerful vested business interests spooked the kingdom’s elite and saw leader Pita Limjaroenrat blocked from becoming prime minister.
This opened the way for election runners-up Pheu Thai to build a coalition that includes Prayut’s party and another linked to the generals who ousted Thaksin in 2006 and his sister Yingluck in 2014.
DEAL RUMOURS
The last two decades of Thai politics have been coloured by the bitter tussle between pro-Thaksin parties and the kingdom’s powerful pro-military and royalist establishment.
Thaksin was jailed for eight years on Tuesday, but the timing of his return, combined with Pheu Thai’s decision to share power with pro-military parties, has led many to speculate that a backroom deal has been struck to grant him leniency – though the party denies it.
The former Manchester City owner, 74, was moved from a prison quarantine facility to a police hospital on Wednesday.
Thai media reported that he had been installed in a private VIP suite on the 14th floor of the Police General Hospital, which overlooks an exclusive private members’ golf course in downtown Bangkok.
Officials said that he was suffering from multiple health problems, including heart trouble, and needed monitoring in hospital.
Donald Trump has said he will surrender himself to authorities in Georgia on Thursday, as he awaits trial on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the US state.
“Can you believe it? I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED,” the former US president wrote on his social media network Truth Social on Monday, hours after his bond was set at $200,000 (£157,000).
Trump was ordered not to send threatening social media messages to co-defendants, witnesses or victims, according to the bond agreement signed by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, Trump’s defence lawyers and the judge. It explicitly includes “posts on social media or reposts of posts” made by others.
He was also prohibited from communicating in any way about the facts of the case with any co-defendant or witness, except through lawyers.
Pic: AP
Trump was indicted in the Georgia case last week along with 18 co-defendants, the fourth set of charges against him since April, when he became the first former president in US history to face indictment.
His appearances in New York, Florida and Washington DC have been box office media events. The former president has denied any wrongdoing.
Trump has repeatedly used social media to attack those involved in the criminal cases against him as he campaigns to reclaim the White House in 2024.
He has railed against Ms Willis since before he was indicted, and singled out Florida’s governor, Brian Kemp – a Republican who rebuffed his efforts to overturn the election – by name in a social media post on Monday morning.
Ms Willis set a deadline of noon on Friday for Trump and his 18 co-defendants to turn themselves in at the Fulton County Jail to be booked or face arrest.
Trial could take place during presidential nominating season
The prosecutor has proposed arraignments for the defendants during the week of 5 September and has said she wants to try the defendants collectively and bring the case to trial in March, which would put it during the presidential nominating season.
Prosecutors have proposed the trial start on 4 March 2024, while Trump’s lawyers have asked for it to take place in 2026.
Mr Trump’s appearance in Georgia will come a day after the first Republican primary debate, which he has decided to skip.
He is expected to turn himself in at Fulton County Jail, where the Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into conditions last month, citing filthy cells, violence and the death last year of a man whose body was found covered in insects in the main jail’s psychiatric wing. Three people have died in Fulton County custody in the past month.
Thailand’s fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra made a historic homecoming on Tuesday and was escorted to jail after years in exile, on a day when an ally and fellow tycoon was elected prime minister after winning a parliamentary vote.
The 74-year-old Thaksin, the billionaire founder of the electoral juggernaut Pheu Thai, finally made good on promises to go back to Thailand after a run of 15 years in self-exile, stealing the limelight from real estate mogul Srettha Thavisin as he prevailed for their party in parliament.
The return of Thailand’s most famous politician was met with hysteria. Thaksin was given a rapturous welcome after arriving in Bangkok on his private jet before being escorted by police to the Supreme Court, then to a prison to serve eight years for abuse of power and conflicts of interest.
Srettha’s victory paves the way for the populist Pheu Thai to form a new coalition government, ending weeks of uncertainty and stalemate in parliament after an election 100 days ago that threatened to weaken the political clout of the Southeast Asian country’s powerful military.
Srettha, 60, a political neophyte and former president of luxury property developer Sansiri (SIRI.BK), was thrust into the spotlight just a few months ago and won the backing of two-thirds of parliament, an outcome that had been far from certain given the military’s influence among hundreds of lawmakers.
“I will perform my duties to the best of my ability. I will work tirelessly to improve the livelihood of all Thais,” the 6-foot-3-inch (1.92-metre) Srettha told reporters at Pheu Thai’s headquarters, his voice drowned out by supporters chanting “Srettha, Srettha”.
Thailand gets a new PM
Srettha will be tasked with forming and holding together a potentially fragile coalition that includes parties created by the ultra-royalist army, which overthrew Pheu Thai governments in coups in 2006 and 2014.
Among those ousted was Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon and owner of Premier League football club Manchester City, who was accused by the military of corruption, cronyism and disloyalty to the monarchy.
He fled abroad and was sentenced to jail in absentia in 2008. His sister Yingluck Shinawatra suffered an almost identical fate as prime minister a few years later. Both say the allegations against them were politically motivated.
POLITICAL DEAL?
Pheu Thai’s prime ministerial candidate, Srettha Thavisin who is the sole candidate nominated for a parliamentary vote, reacts while speaking to media at the party headquarters, in Bangkok, Thailand, August 22, 2023. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa Acquire Licensing Rights
Thaksin’s return and Srettha’s surprisingly smooth ascent to the top job will add to speculation that the influential Thaksin had struck a deal with his foes in the military and political establishment for his safe return and, possibly, an early release from jail.
Thaksin and Pheu Thai have rejected such notions.
Tuesday’s events were the latest twist in a nearly two-decade power struggle between the Shinawatra family and its business allies on one side, and a nexus of royalists, generals and old money families that have long wielded influence over Thai governments and institutions.
As he emerged from the airport wearing a black suit, red tie and yellow lapel pin bearing the royal insignia, Thaksin clasped his hands in a traditional “wai” greeting to the crowd before kneeling and bowing in respect in front of a portrait of the king and queen.
Thaksin is still loved and loathed in equal measure in Thailand and hashtags about his return trended top on social media, with the country gripped by blow-by-blow coverage of his celebrated arrival and his prompt imprisonment.
Hundreds of red-shirted supporters carrying banners gathered at the airport, the court and outside the prison to greet him, many chanting “PM Thaksin”.
Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has returned to Thailand after 15 years in exile, hours ahead of a vote that determines who will be the country’s next leader.
Thailand’s most successful elected leader has long been feared by conservative royalists, who have backed military coups and contentious court cases to weaken him.
But now the brash, politically-ambitious telecoms tycoon is back, presumably after striking a quiet deal with the same men who unseated his party in a 2014 coup to keep him out of prison. He has sentences of up to 10 years outstanding from criminal cases he says were politically motivated.
He landed in the capital Bangkok at 09:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on a private jet from Dubai via Singapore. There were cheers, speeches and songs from hundreds of his ecstatic supporters as Mr Thaksin finally made good on the many promises he has made to return. Many had travelled overnight from his party’s stronghold in north-eastern Thailand to witness this moment.
But Mr Thaksin was unable to greet them. Flanked by his two daughters and son, he emerged briefly from the airport terminal and paid his respects to a portrait of the king and queen.
He was immediately taken to the Supreme Court where he was handed an eight year prison sentence, and then to Bangkok Remand Prison. No-one expects him to stay in custody long.
Outside the Don Mueang Airport, 63-year-old Samniang Kongpolparn had been waiting since Monday evening to see Mr Thaksin. She, like many of the other supporters who had gathered there, had travelled from Surin province in the northeast, the stronghold of Mr Thaksin’s party in past decades.
“He’s the best prime minister we’ve ever had. Even though I won’t get to see him today, I still wanted to come to show him support,” she said. “I’m ok with them reconciling with the pro-military government, or else we’re stuck with the senators. We don’t want that.”
Mr Thaksin greets supporters after arriving in Bangkok
Mr Thaksin’s Pheu Thai party is expected later today to join a coalition government – a byzantine process which in three months has taken Thailand full circle.
It began with the heady hopes of a new dawn led by the radical young Move Forward party, which won the most seats in the May election.
Move Forward initially formed a partnership with Pheu Thai but it’s now certain that the coalition will include almost everyone but the reformers, including two parties led by former coup-makers – a deal with its sworn enemies that Pheu Thai vowed it would not do.
Pheu Thai insists the two developments are unconnected. Few people believe that.
It is true that Pheu Thai’s hands have been tied by the unelected senate, a 250-seat constitutional landmine planted in Thailand’s political landscape by the military junta which ruled for five years after a 2014 coup.
And Pheu Thai’s bargaining position was weakened by its poorer-then-expected performance in the election, when it lost a lot of support to Move Forward and for the first time was relegated to second place.
The senators, all appointed under the junta, are allowed to join the 500 elected MPs in voting for the new prime minister. Their thinly-disguised remit is to block any party which might threaten the status quo – the nexus of monarchy, military and big business which has dominated decision-making in Thailand for decades.
Unsurprisingly they refused to back the Move Forward-led coalition with Pheu Thai, despite its commanding majority in the lower house. When it was Pheu Thai’s turn to negotiate a new coalition, its need for senate support meant it had to take in some of its former opponents.
