South Africa: Flags Lowered For Anti-Apartheid Legislator

Cape Town — South Africa’s President Kgalema Motlanthe has announced that the national flag will be flown at half-mast on Sunday to celebrate the life of Helen Suzman, an old opponent of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).Suzman, who won international renown for her lone stand against apartheid in the apartheid parliament but who opposed the ANC’s armed struggle and advocacy of economic sanctions, died on New Year’s Day at the age of 91.

Ghana: Voting Begins in Key Area Despite Boycott

Voters in the rural Tain constituency of western central Ghana were trickling into polling stations Friday in an election that could decide who becomes the country’s next president.The African Elections Project (AEP) reported from Accra that the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP), which lost the recent parliamentary election in the constituency, was boycotting Friday’s vote.Tain is the last of Ghana’s 230 constituencies to vote in a presidential run-off election. After polling in the other 229 constituencies last Sunday, John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had a lead of 23,055 votes over the NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo.

Guinea: Hopes for Reform Dashed Again

Guinea’s political elite has once more been rendered powerless by an army whose leaders owe their survival to a political system built upon confusion and fear.Though many political actors had long hoped for a coup to end Lansana Conté’s regime and the political impasse it generated, it is highly unlikely that the military junta which seized power last week will relinquish control and lead Guinea into a stable democratic era.