Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast: President Laurent Gbagbo has sacked the government and electoral commission ahead of elections which were originally scheduled for 2005, when Gbagbo’s term expired, but have since been scheduled and postponed six times. The commission stands accused of adding 429,000 people to the voting roll before their identity had been checked. Opposition leaders have described the move as a ‘coup’, and stated that they no longer accept Gbagbo as the country’s leader. Ivory Coast’s last elections were held in 2000; in the intervening time, the country experienced a five-year civil war.
San Jose, Costa Rica: Laura Chinchilla has been elected President of Costa Rica, the first woman to hold the position. In elections seen as free and fair, Ms Chinchilla won 46.7 percent of the votes. She campaigned on a platform of free-market policies and social conservatism, and has been outspoken in her opposition to gay marriage, abortion and separation of church and state.
Abuja, Nigeria: Following the continued absence of President Yar’Adua, his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, has become acting president. Immediately after assuming command, he removed the Justice Minister and ordered the prosecution of people involved in ‘election offenses’ in the recent elections in the south of the country. This was seen as an attempt to reassert political authority; the President’s absence has left the country in a ‘power vacuum’, according to commentators.
Tehran, Iran: President Ahmadinejad’s government have announced plans to enrich uranium up to 20 percent purity, the maximum allowed under international law. Uranium is considered ‘weapons grade’ at levels at or above 90 percent purity, but the move has still sparked unrest among Western governments, which fear Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Celebrations held on February 11th to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution were marred by street protests against the regime, which were broken up by security forces.
Kiev, Ukraine: Former President Viktor Yanukovych has been elected president of Ukraine, in elections widely seen as free and fair. Losing incumbent Yulia Tymoshenko has refused to concede defeat, and contested the result on grounds of fraud, but these claims, and her appeal, were rejected by the Central Election Commission. She has now begun a legal challenge to the decision. Tymoshenko came to power following Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, in which President Yanukovych was removed from power following an election which was allegedly rigged, and in which the losing candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, appeared to have been poisoned.
Athens, Greece: the Greek government has revealed it is suffering from severe financial problems, with a budget deficit of 12.7 percent, four times the maximum allowed under EU rules, and a national debt greater than the size of their economy. News of the crisis raised fears over the future of the Euro, provoking the EU to promise financial support to Greece, the details of which have not, at the time of writing, been made public. In the midst of the crisis, the country faced a general strike in response to government reduction of spending and public sector salaries.
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