Blue Lines
In terms of its economic impact and geo-political weight, the Congress of China's Communist Party this week matters more for Africa than a presidential election in the United States. Already regarded as the most powerful Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping...
Patrick Smith
This week, the breaking news comes from Kenya with opposition leader Raila Odinga's withdrawal from planned fresh elections. The constitutional mess there contrasts tellingly with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's elegant exit from power in Liberia as com...
Blue Lines
Presidential and parliamentary elections in Liberia on 10 October raise again the matter of presidential term limits.After a crowded career in commercial and development banking as well as director of the United Nations Development Programme in Africa, Pr...
Patrick Smith
The election countdown is on in Liberia with the field still wide open. Across in Kenya, the main parties argue over how to reform the electoral commission before the presidential election of August can be re-run. In neighbouring Uganda, veteran President...
Patrick Smith
This week we follow on from developments at the United Nations General Assembly, which opened in New York last week and was attended by most African heads of state. Ghana's President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo had most to celebrate. Others were left bewildered ...
Blue Lines
Some African leaders in the United Nations General Assembly on 19 September listening to United States President Donald Trump's planned remedies for rogue states seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at his lack of interest in their continent. The following ...
Patrick Smith
This week, Kenya's election saga rolls on with the opening of parliament in Nairobi and conflicting claims about the electoral commission. In South Africa, more companies and state officials could become targets of the 'Gupta effect'. Tanzanian President ...
Blue Lines
Some rethinking by election observers and we, the journalists who cover them, is needed in the wake of the 1 September decision of Kenya's Supreme Court to annul last month's presidential election. In a rare example of editorial remorse, the New York Time...
Patrick Smith
We start in Kenya this week where the shock of the Supreme Court's decision to annul the presidential election is still being felt. Opposition movements and election petitioners across Africa have been heartened by the ruling. Some of the international an...
Patrick Smith
We start this week with a couple of election disputes – in Angola and Kenya. In both cases, opposition candidates allege fraud by the national electoral commission, but few expect either result to be overturned. Congo-Kinshasa is back on the radar, with t...
