Former Turkish minister launches party to challenge Erdogan

Former Turkish minister launches party to challenge Erdogan

By Ercan Gurses

ANKARA (Reuters) – A prominent Turkish nationalist politician and former minister announced on Wednesday she was forming a new party which could pose a significant challenge to President Tayyip Erdogan in elections due within two years.

Former interior minister Meral Aksener, who unsuccessfully opposed Erdogan’s drive for greater presidential powers in a referendum last April, said Turkey needed change after nearly 15 years of rule by his AK Party.

Her Iyi Parti (Good Party) is seen by many in Turkey as potentially one of the strongest challengers to Erdogan in presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2019, but it starts out with only a fraction of the AK Party’s support.

Just five members of the 550-seat parliament have joined the new party, although pollsters say it could win over supporters of several parties including the conservative and Islamic-rooted AK Party as well as secular or nationalist groups.

“Turkey and its people are tired, the state is worn down, and public order is unraveling. There is no way other than the changing of the political atmosphere,” Aksener said at a ceremony in Ankara to mark the launch of her party.

“We are that way out, you are that way out. That road is the 80 million strong Turkish nation” she said, standing in front of the logo of her party – a yellow sun shining in a blue sky. “Our people are clearly saying they want … a new government.”

Aksener was expelled last year from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the smallest of three opposition parties in parliament, after launching a failed bid to unseat party leader Devlet Bahceli, whose support helped Erdogan to a narrow victory in a referendum that expanded his authority.

Since her expulsion, the 61-year old Aksener has become one of the most prominent voices in the country, frequently criticizing Erdogan and the government.

“BIG CHANGES”

The Iyi Party could take more than a tenth of the AK Party support, which stands at over 40 percent, said Hakan Bayrakci of SONAR pollsters. It could also erode the support base of nationalist MHP and the secularist CHP parties, he said.

“Meral Aksener’s party will lead to big changes in Turkey’s political atmosphere,” Bayrakci told Reuters. “This may not be immediate, but in three to five months, I believe this shift will be visible.”

Erdogan’s AK Party won just under 50 percent of votes in the last parliamentary election, in November 2015, and he has told supporters it is aiming for more than half the votes in 2019.

Mehmet Ali Kulat from polling company Mak Danismanlik, which is seen as close to the AK Party, said the Iyi Party currently had the support of around 5 percent of voters.

“It looks like Aksener’s party can get votes from angry voters,” Kulat said. “Their real strength will come out in the long term.”

Aksener said many members of her party wanted her to stand as its presidential candidate in the 2019 election, and criticized what she described as an erosion of rights in Turkey.

“Democracy is under threat and the government’s justice is above all else. It is evident that society is at a political standstill,” Aksener said.

Since a failed military coup last year, in which more than 240 people were killed, Turkish authorities have detained more than 50,000 people and suspended 150,000 people including teachers, soldiers, journalists and lawyers.

Aksener said her party aimed to raise the average length of education in Turkey from seven years to 11 years, and promised to bring Turkey into the world’s top 20 countries for education. It currently lies around 50th in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

In previous weeks, several members from the MHP and the secular main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have quit their parties to join Aksener, who has said her party’s doors were open to anyone “willing to walk with their cause”.

“We have hopes and dreams. We want a rich Turkey, we have power. We want a just Turkey and we have that power. We want a free Turkey and we have our rights,” she said.

(Additional reporting and writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans and Robin Pomeroy)

Venezuelan opposition disarray heaps pain on protesters

Venezuelan opposition disarray heaps pain on protesters

By Andreina Aponte and Anggy Polanco

CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (Reuters) – With some nursing wounds, others jailed and many heading abroad, Venezuela’s young opposition supporters are demoralized by the ruling socialists’ shock election win this month, after prolonged protests failed to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

Having for months led rallies and battles against Maduro’s security forces in which scores died, youth demonstrators reluctantly abandoned the streets as the opposition turned its attention to the Oct. 15 gubernatorial vote.

Though the opposition looked set to win comfortably due to public anger over food and medicine shortages, plus soaring inflation, the government took 18 of 23 governorships.

That left thousands of young protesters furious and disillusioned with opposition leadership. Many had vigorously opposed participating in the election because it would legitimize what they see as a dictatorship.

“We have been betrayed,” said graphic designer Manuel Melo, 21, who lost a kidney when hit by a water cannon jet.

“The political opposition does not represent us,” he added, in his small bedroom in a poor neighborhood of the teeming capital Caracas. A stylized picture of a heart emblazoned one wall of the room, while a gas mask, used to protect him from tear gas during the unrest, adorned the other.

Melo and many others now see the protests, which left 125 people dead and thousands wounded or in jail, as a waste of time.

They have little stomach to return to the fight and view the leaders of the opposition Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition as traitors for abandoning the streets in favor of a ballot they believe was rigged by the pro-Maduro election board.

Their disillusionment heightened this week when four of the five winning opposition governors with the Democratic Action party broke ranks with the coalition to swear themselves in before an all-powerful legislative superbody that Maduro’s foes had vowed never to recognize.

That set off a round of unseemly in-fighting and recriminations within the opposition, with heavyweight leader Henrique Capriles saying he would abandon the coalition while Democratic Action leader Henry Ramos remained a member.

“I’m totally dejected because after all these protests, the election, nothing has changed,” said student Javier Lara, 18, who watched a fellow protester die in unrest in the volatile city of San Cristobal on the border with Colombia.

Like many young Venezuelans, Lara now plans to head abroad as soon as possible – to Peru in his case.

“We’ve been sold out by the opposition,” he said.

“ALL OVER THE PLACE”

The Democratic Unity coalition finds itself in crisis.

Its strategy of contesting the gubernatorial elections backfired spectacularly.

In the wake of defeat, stunned opposition leaders could not even agree whether to pursue fraud allegations, with some refusing to accept the election results and others publicly admitting defeat.

A breakup, or reformulation of the coalition, now looks inevitable, with a new strategy and possibly fresh blood needed for the 2018 presidential election.

Though polls routinely showed the opposition had majority support, many Venezuelans view their leaders as an elitist group out-of-touch with their problems.

“The MUD is all over the place,” said Antonio Ledezma, a veteran politician and former opposition mayor who is under house arrest. “The international community deserves an explanation of our behavior.”

Some young opposition supporters are seeking inspiration away from traditional leaders. They voice admiration for Lorenzo Mendoza, a billionaire businessman who has shied away from politics, and Juan Carlos Caguaripano, a former National Guard captain who led an August attack on a military base.

Heaping humiliation on the opposition, Maduro says daily in speeches that “peace” has won and a U.S.-backed plot to oust him has been defeated.

To stoke his foes’ disarray, Maduro has urged Democratic Action leader Ramos – a hate figure for some younger opposition supporters – to stand in the next presidential vote.

“Get ready for 2018, I’m waiting for you!” Maduro said this week, exulting in the opposition’s “chaos”, “back-stabbing” and “divisionism”.

(Additional reporting by Girish Gupta and Deisy Buitrago; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Tom Brown and Andrew Hay)

Leaders of Venezuela’s bruised opposition to travel abroad to denounce ‘voting fraud’

Leaders of Venezuela's bruised opposition to travel abroad to denounce 'voting fraud'

By Alexandra Ulmer and Corina Pons

CARACAS (Reuters) – Key members of Venezuela’s opposition, divided and dispirited after losing gubernatorial elections over the weekend, will travel abroad to denounce what it says is a “fraudulent” voting system under leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

Congress president Julio Borges said in a press conference on Thursday that the opposition coalition will try to stir up international support, which could result in further sanctions against Maduro’s administration.

His unpopular government unexpectedly swept to victory in Sunday’s regional vote, pocketing 18 of 23 states in the midst of a debilitating economic crisis that has millions skipping meals as soaring inflation destroys salaries.

Polls had forecast the opposition easily beating the ruling socialists. Maduro’s rivals say a mix of dirty tricks, like moving hundreds of voting centers in opposition areas at the last minute and including the names of opposition politicians who lost in primaries on ballots, worked against them.

“We made a huge effort, we aimed to overcome all the obstacles, and what the government did was upgrade its fraud and its cheating,” said Borges, adding that politicians were due to travel to fellow Latin American countries and other supportive nations shortly.

“We have the full records of this electoral process and we’re going to submit them to various international bodies, so that … they can be audited,” added Borges, who did not provide further details on the trips.

OPPOSITION FRAYING

While the opposition first cried fraud, without providing proof, it later scaled back its accusations and is now focusing on the minerals-rich state of Bolivar where it says its losing candidate was robbed of decisive votes.

Maduro blasted his opponents as sore losers who cry fraud when convenient. On Thursday, he inaugurated Hector Rodriguez, a rising star in the Socialist Party, as governor of Miranda state in a ceremony filled with song and dance.

Opposition politicians have acknowledged that demoralization in their own ranks hurt turnout. Many opposition supporters are exhausted after four months of protests earlier this year and were loath to participate in what some saw as a rigged vote that would legitimize Maduro as a dictator.

They were even more downbeat after the vote, however, as it casts doubt on whether they can remove the ruling Socialist Party in next year’s presidential election.

“The government’s handling of (Sunday’s) vote suggests that it is not even willing to entertain anything close to free and fair presidential elections in 2018, even if it prompts growing international isolation, renewed unrest, and increased outward migration,” consultancy Eurasia wrote in a note to clients this week.

(Additional reporting by Anggy Polanco in San Cristobal; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Venezuela opposition refuses swearing in, small protest breaks out

General view of a session of the National Constituent Assembly during swearing in ceremony for newly elected governors at Palacio Federal Legislativo, in Caracas, Venezuela October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello

By Girish Gupta and Maria Ramirez

CARACAS/PUERTO ORDAZ, Venezuela (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition refused on Wednesday to swear in newly-elected governors before a pro-government legislative superbody it deems unconstitutional, as a small protest broke out in southern Bolivar state over fraud allegations.

The pro-government electoral council announced in the middle of the night that the ruling socialists had won the Bolivar governorship, meaning President Nicolas Maduro’s government took 18 of 23 states in Sunday’s vote.

Polls had put the opposition far ahead, and anti-Maduro politicians have alleged a litany of dirty tricks including switching electoral centers to dangerous areas at the eleventh hour and gross abuse of state resources.

However, they have failed to give evidence of ballot-tampering, and some opposition candidates have conceded they lost due to high abstention in their demoralized ranks.

Still, the disparate opposition coalition said its five winning candidates would not be sworn in by the controversial legislative superbody known as the Constituent Assembly.

“The governors-elect will only be sworn in as established in the constitution and the laws of the Republic,” the Democratic Unity coalition said in a statement on Wednesday.

Leftist Maduro has previously said that governors not sworn in by the pro-government legislative body will not be allowed to take their posts in a country reeling from widespread food and medicine shortages, a collapsing currency and soaring inflation.

He described Venezuela’s electoral system as the world’s most secure and slammed U.S. President Donald Trump and other foreign leaders who questioned the veracity of the vote.

BOLIVAR FLASHPOINT

Bolivar became a flashpoint after the electoral council briefly showed the opposition winning on its web site Sunday night before proclaiming the Socialist Party candidate as winner in the early hours of Wednesday.

Opposition candidate Andres Velasquez accused the electoral council of invalidating some ballots cast for him.

Pockets of his supporters protested outside the electoral board’s offices in state capital Ciudad Bolivar, with some clashes breaking out on Monday and Tuesday. Some 50 people rallied on Wednesday, though the protest quickly fizzled.

“I am going to demonstrate to the world that this electoral process is fraudulent,” Velasquez told local radio in Bolivar, home to many of Venezuela’s gold and diamond mines.

However, nationwide protest like those that rocked Venezuela for four months earlier this year are not expected, given fatigue and disappointment among demonstrators.

The perennially divided opposition is in disarray after Sunday’s election, with some leaders calling fraud and others conceding defeat, often in uncoordinated press statements.

Sunday’s election has left the socialists more confident of winning a presidential vote expected in late 2018.

(Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Marguerita Choy)

Venezuela’s Maduro defends disputed vote, opposition divided

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro talks to the media during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Alexandra Ulmer and Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro defended Venezuela’s “secure” election system on Tuesday as opponents struggled to present a united front over allegations of fraud in a nationwide vote surprisingly won by the ruling socialists.

Despite widespread anger over economic hardship, the Socialist Party confounded opinion polls to take 17 of 23 governorships in Sunday’s election.

Stunned by the defeat that undermines their aim to win the presidency in 2018, the opposition Democratic Unity coalition refused to acknowledge the results and called the election rigged, as did the United States.

Though the coalition has complained of an unfair playing field – from abuse of state resources to last-minute moving of vote centers away from opposition strongholds – it has not given detailed evidence of ballot-tampering.

Some opposition figures have acknowledged abstention by their supporters – disillusioned by the failure of street protests to dislodge Maduro earlier this year – was a big factor.

Two losing opposition candidates, Henri Falcon in Lara state and Alejandro Feo La Cruz in Carabobo, have conceded defeat, breaking with the official coalition position.

Both criticized “irregularities” in the vote but also lamented many demoralized opposition supporters stayed at home.

“We need courage to recognize truth in adversity,” said Falcon.

The strongest criticism of Sunday’s vote came from Washington, which slammed Maduro’s “dictatorship.” Several European nations also expressed concern, while 12 countries in the Americas from the so-called Lima Group condemned “obstacles, intimidation, manipulation and irregularities”.

Washington is considering further sanctions on Venezuela, after various measures against top officials and the economy earlier this year, while the European Union is mulling the same.

Government leaders have smarted at fraud accusations.

“Venezuela’s election system is the most secure and audited in the world,” Maduro said on Tuesday. “President Donald Trump, I am not a dictator; I am a humble worker … I have a moustache and look like Stalin, but I’m not him.”

The Venezuelan leader invited EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to visit or receive him in Brussels to “open their eyes,” and told “stupid” Canada to stop meddling.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza later said on Twitter that Maduro had recalled Venezuela’s ambassador to Canada for talks.

‘WE WILL NOT KNEEL’

Heaping further humiliation on Venezuela’s opposition, the governors were due to be sworn in on Tuesday by a new legislative superbody elected controversially in July.

The opposition boycotted that vote and has refused to recognize the entirely pro-government Constituent Assembly, which supersedes all institutions including the opposition-controlled congress.

The opposition’s five governors-elect planned to boycott the swearing-in ceremony, defying Maduro’s threat to bar them from office for failing to accept the assembly as a higher authority.

“We will not kneel to anyone,” said Juan Pablo Guanipa, who won the oil-rich western Zulia state.

Despite food shortages, runaway inflation and a tanking currency, Venezuela’s government retains significant bastions of support, especially in poorer, rural parts of the country.

In his news conference, Maduro said the socialists also won Bolivar state, which would take its total to 18 governorships versus five for the opposition.

The government won a total of 54 percent of the votes overall, he added. The election board has not confirmed the Bolivar result or the overall vote figures.

With the opposition coalition’s dozens of parties arguing over whether there was fraud, what went wrong, and where to go next, it will need to regroup and map strategy quickly heading into the 2018 presidential campaign.

Its very future may even be in doubt, since many young activists who took to the streets for four straight months of protests and pitched battles with security forces earlier this year feel betrayed by their leaders.

The unrest killed at least 125 people.

Maduro has long accused opposition leaders of being behind violence, and on Tuesday called the new opposition governor of Zulia state a “fascist” while accusing his counterpart in Tachira of links to Colombian “paramilitaries.”

The election aftermath appears to have sunk a government-opposition mediation effort that began last month in the Dominican Republic. Even though Maduro wants to resuscitate the talks, the opposition coalition has ruled that out.

“We are the majority, the dictatorship is more-and-more illegitimate, popular and global condemnation grows daily against this regime,” it said in a communique late on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore and Deisy Buitrago in Caracas, Tibisay Romero in Valencia and Helen Murphy in Bogota; Editing by Tom Brown)

After bloodshed, Venezuelan government and foes battle for votes

After bloodshed, Venezuelan government and foes battle for votes

By Andrew Cawthorne and Francisco Aguilar

BARINAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – Tirelessly traversing the lethargic plains of Venezuela, a brother of former leader Hugo Chavez and an ally of a famous opposition detainee vie for votes.

The governorship race in Barinas state – the Chavez family’s stronghold – is the most emblematic of state elections taking place nationwide on Sunday just weeks after opposition-led protests that shook Venezuela and claimed at least 125 lives.

“At every rally, Hugo Chavez is out front, showing us the way,” enthuses Argenis Chavez, 59, an electrical engineer and incumbent governor, jumping on a bike and evoking his late elder brother at every campaign stop.

“In Barinas, defeating the government means defeating the Chavez family who have wielded power at whim for 18 years,” counters opposition rival Freddy Superlano, 41, wearing a shirt with the image of his arrested party leader Leopoldo Lopez.

This year’s prolonged protests failed to bring down the government of President Nicolas Maduro, but they hardened global opinion against the ruling socialists and led to U.S. sanctions.

Now, opposition leaders want their demoralized supporters to turn out en masse at the gubernatorial polls to overturn Maduro’s majority in 20 of Venezuela’s 23 states.

The government, in turn, wants to minimize seemingly inevitable losses, and trumpet the election as proof against accusations of autocracy in Venezuela.

“Look at our ‘dictatorship’ then: an election where most candidates are from the opposition!” Chavez ironically told Reuters, as red-shirted supporters danced around him at a rally.

With voters angry over a crushing economic crisis, polls show the opposition coalition would win handily in normal circumstances. One recent survey gave the coalition, which aspires to win 18 governorships, 44.7 percent of voter intentions versus 21.1 percent for the government.

SKEWED PLAYING FIELD?

Circumstances are far from normal in Venezuela, however, and the government has threatened to ban any candidates linked to violence in protests.

Furthermore, as in past elections during the ruling “Chavismo” movement’s 18-year grip on Venezuela, state resources are being mobilized heavily for official candidates.

Distribution of subsidized food at government rallies is commonplace, state-run companies lend transport for the events, and state media give Maduro’s candidates unfettered air-time. One opposition candidate’s brother has been arrested for alleged car theft in what the coalition says is an attempt to intimidate its ranks.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage for the opposition is the electronic ballot sheet itself.

Despite primaries to choose a single opposition candidate per state from the plethora of parties within the Democratic Unity coalition, the pro-Maduro election board is declining to modify the ballot list to narrow it down to one name.

All initial candidates from before the primaries are listed on the ballot instead, something that could confuse opposition supporters and dilute their vote, benefiting the ruling Socialist Party’s candidates.

Further stoking opposition supporters’ skepticism, the election board is using a new vote machine provider after long-term partner Smartmatic accused it of inflating numbers in July’s controversial election of a Constituent Assembly super-body.

“OPPOSITION WANTS WAR”

On a walkabout in an unpaved shantytown on the outskirts of Barinas city, Superlano told Reuters government candidates were using helicopters to campaign while he and other opposition aspirants spent hours on the road to reach remote communities.

The government was also exploiting Venezuelans’ hunger, during a period of unprecedented scarcity, by handing out food bags in return for promises of votes, he said.

“It’s a macabre plan,” said Superlano, a lawmaker from Lopez’s Popular Will party who won the opposition primary in Barinas. “Even with all that, they are losing!”

Having dealt a hugely symbolic blow to “Chavismo” by winning five of six congress seats for Barinas in 2015 elections, the opposition now wants to end 18 years of nearly unbroken control of the governorship by Chavez family members.

While there is widespread discontent over food shortages, idle land and rising malnutrition in a fertile region that should be Venezuela’s bread basket, the government is running a rigorous campaign and painting Superlano as “the candidate of the violence” in reference to this year’s protests.

Maduro supporters say the opposition, backed by Venezuela’s elite and the U.S. government, is intent on taking power by force to seize control of the nation’s oil riches.

“They want war for Venezuela. We want peace,” said 65-year-old retiree Ramon Alvarran, proudly wearing a red T-shirt depicting the eyes of Hugo Chavez at a rally for his brother.

Elsewhere though, resentment against Maduro is palpable.

“My kids don’t have a crumb in their stomachs yet today,” said Daris Gonzalez, 36, whose three children had not eaten by lunchtime. Like many in her poor and once staunchly “Chavista” neighborhood, Gonzalez is now leaning toward the opposition.

“There has to be change. We cannot go on like this.”

Offsetting such sentiment, many young grassroots opposition supporters feel their leaders have sold out – and betrayed the memory of slain protesters – by entering an election on an unfair playing field. Abstentions could hurt their numbers.

Should the opposition triumph on Sunday, the government can limit the impact by restricting funding and taking authority away from the governors’ offices, as it has done in the past when offices have fallen to opponents.

Any overt dirty tricks, however, risk bringing more international sanctions or torpedoing an already fragile, foreign-led mediation with the opposition that Maduro needs to improve his international image.

Following the gubernatorial election, the opposition wants to shift attention to demanding a date, and guarantee of free conditions, for the 2018 presidential election to advance their ultimate goal of ending socialist rule.

“People are very angry and their anger has a face: Maduro,” said Carlos Ocariz, an opposition candidate trying to hold Miranda state for the opposition against a rising star on the government side, Hector Rodriguez.

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne and Francisco Aguilar; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Tom Brown)

Venezuela opposition won’t attend scheduled talks with government

Luis Florido (C), lawmaker of the Venezuelan coalition of opposition parties (MUD) attends a news conference at the National Assembly building in Caracas, Venezuela, September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

By Diego Oré and Andreina Aponte

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition said on Tuesday it will not join scheduled talks with President Nicolas Maduro’s government, undercutting a dialogue effort that has been viewed with suspicion by many adversaries of the ruling Socialist Party.

The government has eagerly promoted the talks amid global criticism that Maduro is turning the country into a dictatorship, while the opposition has always insisted the talks should not distract from the country’s economic crisis.

The two sides held separate exploratory conversations with the president of the Dominican Republic earlier this month. But the opposition said the government has not made enough progress on issues such as human rights to warrant full bilateral talks.

“Negotiation is not to go and waste time, to look at someone’s face, but rather so that Venezuelans can have immediate solutions,” opposition leader Henrique Capriles told reporters.

“We cannot have a repeat of last year’s failure,” he said, referring to Vatican-brokered talks in 2016 that fell apart after the opposition said the government was simply using them as a stalling tactic.

The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The opposition wants a date for the next presidential election, due by the end of 2018, with guarantees it will be free and fair. It is also calling for freedom for hundreds of jailed activists, a foreign humanitarian aid corridor and respect for the opposition-led congress.

With Spain pushing for the European Union to adopt restrictive measures against members of the Venezuelan government, Maduro may be hoping to dodge further sanctions.

The United States has issued several rounds of sanctions against Venezuela, primarily in response to the creation of an all-powerful super body called the Constituent Assembly that was elected in a July vote the opposition labeled fraudulent.

Many countries have refused to recognize the assembly, which Maduro insists has brought peace to the country of 30 million. He says opposition leaders are coup-plotters seeking to sabotage socialism in oil-rich Venezuela under the guise of peaceful protests.

Amid a fourth straight year of recession, millions of Venezuelans are suffering food shortages and rampant inflation, which the government blames on an “economic war” led by the opposition and fueled by recent sanctions.

(Reporting by Diego Ore and Andreina Aponte, Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; editing by Diane Craft and Dan Grebler)

Saudis urged to report on each other’s social media activity

A Saudi man explores a website on his laptop in Riyadh February 11, 2014. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser

(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia is urging people to report subversive social media activity via a phone app, part of an apparent crackdown on potential government critics before demonstrations called for by exiled opposition figures.

A message sent on a Twitter account run by the interior ministry late on Tuesday called on citizens and residents to monitor each other for what it called “information crimes”.

“When you notice any account on social networks publishing terrorist or extremist ideas, please report it immediately via the application #We’re_all_security”, it said, referring to a mobile phone app launched last year to enable civilians to report traffic violations and burglaries.

Hours later, the public prosecutor tweeted a section of the kingdom’s terrorism law which states: “Endangering national unity, obstructing the Basic Law of governance or some of its articles, and harming the state’s reputation or status are terrorist crimes.”

Exiled Saudi critics have called for demonstrations on Friday to galvanize opposition to the royal family and at least a dozen prominent clerics, intellectuals and activists, including prominent Islamist cleric Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, have been detained this week, activists say.

Protests are banned in Saudi Arabia as are political parties. Unions are illegal, the press is controlled and criticism of the royal family can lead to prison.

Riyadh says it does not have political prisoners, while top officials have said monitoring activists is needed to maintain social stability.

The detentions reported by activists follow widespread speculation, denied by officials, that King Salman intends to abdicate to his son, Crown Prince Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who dominates economic, diplomatic and domestic policy.

It also coincides with growing tensions with Qatar over its alleged support of Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood which is listed by Riyadh as a terrorist organization.

Some Twitter users expressed support for the government’s approach, using the “We’re all Security” hashtag.

“No flattery, no silence whether for a relative or friend in securing the homeland,” said one. “Defend your security. Chaos starts with calls for freedom and reform. Do not believe them.”

IDEOLOGICAL THREAT

The government has not clearly acknowledged this week’s detentions or responded to requests for comment.

But state news agency SPA said on Tuesday authorities had uncovered “intelligence activities for the benefit of foreign parties” by a group of people it did not identify.

A Saudi security source told Reuters the suspects were accused of “espionage activities and having contacts with external entities including the Muslim Brotherhood”, which Riyadh has classified as a terrorist organization.

The government toughened its stance on dissent following the Arab Spring in 2011 after it averted unrest by offering billions of dollars in handouts and state spending.

But the Brotherhood, which represents an ideological threat to Riyadh’s dynastic system of rule, has gained power elsewhere in the region.

Since the kingdom’s founding, the ruling Al Saud family has enjoyed a close alliance with clerics of the ultra-conservative Wahhabi school of Islam. In return, the clerics have espoused a political philosophy that demands obedience to the ruler.

By contrast the Muslim Brotherhood advances an active political doctrine urging revolutionary action, which flies in the face of Wahhabi teaching.

The Brotherhood-inspired Sahwa movement in the 1990s agitated to bring democracy to Saudi Arabia and criticized the ruling family for corruption, social liberalization and working with the West, including allowing U.S. troops into the kingdom during the 1991 Iraq war.

The Sahwa were largely undermined by a mixture of repression and co-optation but remain active.

The al-Saud family has always regarded Islamist groups as the biggest internal threat to its rule over a country in which appeals to religious sentiment cannot be lightly dismissed and an al Qaeda campaign a decade ago killed hundreds.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport links with Qatar in June over its alleged support for Islamist militants, a charge that Doha denies.

(Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Opposition stays away as Kenyatta warns against ‘destructive division’

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta walks to inspect the honour guard before the opening of the 12th Parliament outside the National Assembly Chamber in Nairobi, Kenya September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

By Katharine Houreld

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta opened parliament on Tuesday by warning against divisive and destructive politics, while opposition lawmakers boycotted the legislature and rallied to demand the resignation of election officials.

Kenya held parliamentary, presidential and local elections on Aug. 8, but the Supreme Court nullified the presidential results three weeks later, citing irregularities in the tallying process. New elections are scheduled for Oct. 17.

While calling for unity and respect for the constitution, Kenyatta delivered a thinly veiled warning to the opposition lawmakers who had chosen to stay away from parliament.

“My government will not tolerate anyone intent on disrupting our hard-won peace and stability. Under no circumstances must Kenyans ever allow our free competitive processes to become a threat to the peace and security of our nation,” he said, to foot-stamping and cheering from ruling party legislators.

“We shall continue to encourage vibrant democratic competition, we shall not allow destructive division.”

As he spoke, opposition leaders held a rally in Kibera, the capital’s largest slum, rejecting the Oct. 17 date unless officials on the election board, whom they blame for mishandling the polls, resign.

“Now we are putting it squarely to you that the Supreme Court of this country has found you incompetent,” said Kalonzo Musyoka, running mate of Kenyatta’s presidential rival Raila Odinga.

The surprise election annulment initially raised fears of short-term political turmoil in Kenya, the region’s richest nation and a staunch Western ally in a region roiled by conflict.

But it also raised hopes among frustrated opposition supporters, who believe the last three elections have been stolen from them, that the east African nation’s tarnished courts could deliver them justice.

That hope helped tamp down protests that threatened to spark the kind of violence that followed disputed 2007 elections, when around 1,200 people were killed in ethnic bloodletting.

In a separate development, a ruling party lawmaker and a former opposition senator appeared in a Nairobi court, charged with incitement to violence over speeches they had made in the past week. Both were freed on a 300,000 Kenya shilling ($3,000) bond.

A government body monitoring hate speech says that it has seen a spike since the Supreme Court ruling. More than three times as many incidents were reported in the week following the ruling than during the whole 10-week election campaign, it said.

 

(Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri and Humphrey Malalo; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

 

Venezuelan opposition pins hopes on elections as protests falter

FILE PHOTO: Opposition supporters clash with riot security forces while rallying against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, May 10, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello/FIle Photo

By Brian Ellsworth

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition is shifting its focus to forthcoming state elections as protests aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro have subsided following the installation of an all-powerful, pro-government legislative body.

Four months of violent demonstrations in which at least 125 people were killed have all but stopped due to fatigue among protesters and disillusionment at seeing the ruling Socialist Party cement vast powers despite the concerted opposition push.

Most opposition leaders say October’s elections for governors in all the country’s 23 states now represent the best means to keep pressuring Maduro, providing a chance to win some of the governorships at stake and an opportunity for a protest vote to demonstrate the president’s unpopularity.

The opposition, which boycotted the elections for the Constituent Assembly, accused electoral authorities of inflating turn-out figures for the July 30 vote.

There are few options available for adversaries of Maduro, who maintains control over the OPEC nation despite widespread public anger about triple-digit inflation and chronic shortages of basic goods.

“Venezuelans are fighting against a continued rupture of the constitutional order,” said opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who is governor of Miranda state but who is not running in next month’s election and who is barred from holding public office once his term expires.

Nevertheless he urged Venezuelans to vote in the elections.

“If you abstain, then it’s more difficult to bring about the political change that all Venezuelans want,” Capriles told reporters. Capriles has called his own barring from office – because of alleged irregularities in managing public funds – a Socialist Party move to sideline him.

Governorships provide little in the way of a platform to directly challenge Maduro. But they are coveted by politicians because they offer launching pads for political careers and the possibility to channel state resources toward political allies.

The opposition’s participation in next month’s poll ensures it will have witnesses at voting stations and at the election council headquarters. Opposition coalition leaders say that should allow them to quickly identify any attempt to alter results.

However, some who spent months on the streets with the encouragement of opposition leaders, especially young members of a self-styled “Resistance” movement, feel betrayed.

They say turning attention so quickly to the election legitimizes what they view as Maduro’s authoritarianism and insults the memory of slain protesters. They also see a contradiction with the opposition’s decision to boycott July’s vote for the Constituent Assembly.

Maduro pushed for the creation of the assembly, which is meant to rewrite the constitution but which has no formal check on its powers, saying it would restore stability to a country in turmoil over the widespread anti-government protests.

It has broadly supplanted the Congress, which the opposition won control of in a 2015 landslide vote.

Small opposition party Vente Venezuela and its founder Maria Corina Machado, who has a high profile in the media but limited influence, broke with the opposition’s Democratic Unity coalition over its decision to join next month’s vote.

CANDIDATES TO BE BARRED?

The main opposition parties have nominated candidates and opinion polls show that in a free and fair vote they would likely take a majority, compared to just three governorships they won in 2012.

But the Socialist Party-controlled Constituent Assembly may bar some of them from running or from holding office if they win.

Last week, the assembly said it would seek the prosecution of opposition leaders for treason for attempting to block international financing for Maduro’s government and for allegedly seeking a military intervention against him.

Government leaders say the end of the protests is evidence the Constituent Assembly has brought peace to the country. They add that the opposition’s decision to register candidates is a sign they believe in the electoral system despite their complaints of fraud.

“The Constituent Assembly has calmed the country,” said assembly president Delcy Rodriguez. “As soon as it was inaugurated, Venezuela returned to tranquility.”

Maduro says the country is a victim of an “economic war” by the opposition, and insists the assembly is a symbol of Venezuela’s vibrant democracy.

The opposition took to the streets in late March to protest a Supreme Court ruling that briefly allowed it to assume the powers of Congress, and maintained near daily rallies until the end of July.

By then, street mobilizations were in decline and what had initially been massive marches steadily gave way to violent clashes between security forces and small groups of hooded demonstrators throwing rocks and at times vandalizing property.

Recent opposition rallies have attracted only a few hundred people.

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on top ruling Socialist Party officials, in some cases for their participation in the Constituent Assembly, while the European Union and most Latin American nations condemned the body.

Maduro has acquired the reputation as a dictator around the world, said opposition leader Freddy Guevara in an interview in August broadcast on the Internet, adding that street protests were crucial in shifting public opinion.

“I’m convinced that we have to confront the dictatorship in any situation that we can,” said Guevara.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Frances Kerry)