India allows foreign diplomats to observe first elections in Kashmir in 10 years

A security personnel stands guard as voters queue up to cast their ballots at a polling station during the second phase of voting for local assembly elections, in Ganderbal on September 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 25 September 2024
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India allows foreign diplomats to observe first elections in Kashmir in 10 years

  • India stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its partial autonomy five years ago, angering Islamabad
  • Visitors include diplomats from US, Mexico, Singapore, Spain and South Korea, among others

SRINAGAR: Foreign diplomats from 15 countries were allowed to observe local elections in India’s Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, as New Delhi highlighted the first vote in the disputed Himalayan territory in a decade.

It was the first time India has invited foreign diplomats to witness voting in the region, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped of its partial autonomy five years ago, though Delhi has hosted similar trips on other occasions and a G20 meeting on tourism there last year.

More than 9 million voters are eligible to choose members for the region’s 90-seat legislature in the three-phase election, the second phase of which was underway on Wednesday. The vote is the first in the region since 2014.

The visitors included diplomats from embassies of the United States, Mexico, Singapore, Spain and South Korea, among others, officials in Srinagar and New Delhi said. They visited polling stations across the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley.

“It is a rare opportunity to come to Kashmir and see the electoral process in action and see democracy. It looks very smooth, everything is very professional,” said Jorgan K Andrews, deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy.

Jammu and Kashmir is India’s only Muslim-majority territory and has been at the center of a dispute with neighboring Pakistan since 1947. India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part, after having fought two of their three wars over the region.

It has also been roiled by an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands since it began in 1989, although violence has largely abated in recent years.

Until 2019, Jammu and Kashmir had a special semi-autonomous status that was revoked by Modi’s government.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) government has said that the move has helped restore normalcy in the area and boosted development.

But Modi’s opponents said the visit by diplomats was not necessary.

“When foreign governments comment (on Kashmir), the government of India says this is an internal matter for India, and now suddenly they want foreign observers to come and look at our elections,” said Omar Abdullah, leader of the local National Conference party.

“Jammu and Kashmir elections are an internal matter for us and we do not need their certificate,” he said, after casting his vote.

In the past, pro-independence militants have targeted elections in Kashmir, and voter turnout has been largely weak. The territory, however, recorded its highest turnout in 35 years in national elections held in April and May, with a 58.46 percent participation rate.


Trump’s top team: who’s who?

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Trump’s top team: who’s who?

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump is building his administration team ahead of retaking the White House in January, handing top roles to his closest allies.
While many of his cabinet nominations require approval by the Senate, Trump is trying to bypass that oversight by forcing through so-called recess appointments.
Here are the key people nominated by Trump for positions in his incoming administration:

Billionaire Elon Musk has been named to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” targeting $2 trillion in cuts from the federal government’s $7 trillion budget, according to the businessman — although no one has explained how such drastic cuts would be made.
The world’s richest man has pledged to bring his “hardcore” management style to Washington while promising “fair and humane” transitions for sacked federal workers.
Trump said that another wealthy ally, Vivek Ramaswamy, would co-lead the new department.

Fox News host and US Army veteran Pete Hegseth was nominated to be the next defense secretary, tasked with leading the world’s most powerful military.
Hegseth joined Fox News in 2014 and is a host on Fox and Friends Weekend and Fox Nation. He has also authored several books.
Trump has said that “with Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice.”

Longtime Trump loyalist and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was selected to head the Department of Homeland Security, a key role in any Trump plan to restrict immigration or deport undocumented migrants en masse as he has promised.
In her memoir, Noem recounted having shot dead an “untrainable” pet dog after a hunting excursion gone awry. The 52-year-old has said her action showed she was able to make tough choices.

New York congresswoman Elize Stefanik, a fierce Trump ally and pro-Israel stalwart, was Trump’s pick for US ambassador to the United Nations.
Stefanik will represent the administration at the UN as the world body grapples with the war in Ukraine as well as Israel’s bombardments of Gaza and Lebanon.

Congressman and former special forces officer Mike Waltz has been named by Trump to be his national security adviser, tasked with handling foreign policy challenges including the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon.
Waltz is critical of both China, which he has said is an “existential” threat to the United States, and of Russia — while arguing that Washington should cease supporting Ukraine’s war effort in favor of Trump’s so-far vague promise of a negotiated settlement.

Trump has called on former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to be US ambassador to Israel, where he has traveled several times over the years.
Trump has said the Christian pastor-turned-politician “loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him.”
In 2017, Huckabee was present in Maale Adumim for the expansion of one of Israel’s largest settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“There’s no such thing as a settlement; they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation,” he told CNN at the time.

Lee Zeldin has been selected to head the Environmental Protection Agency, with a mandate to slash climate and pollution regulations.
Veteran immigration official Tom Homan will be the country’s “border czar,” with Trump saying Homan would be in charge of “all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin.”
Susie Wiles, Trump’s election campaign chief, has been named as his chief of staff.
Trump also announced he was choosing his former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.


Multiple US media have said Trump is expected to tap Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state, setting the stage for an existential battle against China.
Rubio has said China “doesn’t just seek to be the most powerful nation in the world, they seek to reorient the world.”
He is also a fervent supporter of Israel and a longtime critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, a key donor and adviser, is viewed as the top candidate for treasury secretary, in charge of pushing through Trump’s agenda of low taxes, less regulation and high tariffs.

Heated debate on Amsterdam violence in Dutch parliament

Updated 10 min 21 sec ago
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Heated debate on Amsterdam violence in Dutch parliament

  • The Netherlands is still dealing with the political fallout from last week’s violence in Amsterdam
  • Far-right MP Geert Wilders said the perpetrators of the violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were “all Muslims” and “for the most part Moroccans“

THE HAGUE: Dutch parliamentarians clashed Wednesday in a heated debate to discuss the attacks on Israeli fans after a football match last week, with some lawmakers pointing fingers and others urging unity.
The Netherlands is still dealing with the political fallout from last week’s violence in Amsterdam, when fans of Tel Aviv Maccabi were assaulted by men on scooters in several parts of the capital.
Five Macabi fans were briefly hospitalized after being beaten up following a match with the local Ajax team last Thursday, in what Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof termed an incident of “unadulterated anti-Semitism.”
After the match, groups of men on scooters engaged in “hit-and-run” attacks on Maccabi fans in areas of the city.
Police said the attackers were mobilized by calls on social media to target Jewish people.
Far-right MP Geert Wilders, leader of the biggest party in the coalition government, said the perpetrators of the violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were “all Muslims” and “for the most part Moroccans.”
The anti-Islam Wilders called for the attackers to be prosecuted “for terrorism.”
“For the first time since the Second World War there was a hunt on Jews,” Wilders said, adding “I am sick of being criticized when I tell the truth.”
But the firebrand MP drew the ire of opposition parties, who accused him of “adding fuel to fire.”
While unanimously condemning the violence, left-wing parties have called for dialogue with the Muslim community instead of “dividing the country.”
“I share the condemnation of the violence in Amsterdam and yes, there was indeed anti-Semitic violence,” left-wing opposition leader Frans Timmermans said.
“You are simply stoking the fires while this country has a need for politicians to unite people and find solutions,” Timmermans told Wilders.
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema on Tuesday called the attacks a “poisonous cocktail” of anti-Semitism and hooliganism.
Events ahead of the match heightened tensions, including anti-Arab chants by Maccabi fans, who also set fire to a Palestinian flag on the city’s central square and vandalising a taxi.
After the match, which passed off peacefully, reports emerged of social media calls to attack Jews, Amsterdam police said.
The violence took place against the backdrop of an increasingly polarized Europe, with heightened tensions following a rise in antisemitic, anti-Israeli and Islamophobic attacks since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The Dutch PM indicated that the government would present concrete steps to tackle antisemitism on Friday.
Eight people remained in custody over the violence.


Italy’s president sharply rebukes Elon Musk over comments on X about migration court rulings

Updated 31 min 44 sec ago
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Italy’s president sharply rebukes Elon Musk over comments on X about migration court rulings

  • Musk wrote: “This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?”
  • Italy’s head of state demanded respect for the country’s sovereignty, especially from other soon-to-be public officials

ROME: Italian President Sergio Mattarella sharply rebuked Elon Musk on Wednesday for weighing in on Italian court rulings that have stymied the government’s plans to process some asylum-seekers in Albania.
Musk, who is expected to have a top advisory role in Donald Trump’s new administration, wrote Tuesday on X that “these judges need to go.” He was referring to the latest Italian court ruling against right-wing Premier Giorgia Meloni’s Albania immigration deal.
In a subsequent post on Wednesday, Musk wrote: “This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?”
The posts concerned a Rome court’s refusal to rule on a formal request to detain seven migrants rescued at sea and transferred to Albania for processing.


Monday’s ruling, which resulted in the men being brought to Italy for processing, was the second judicial setback for Meloni’s much-touted plan to outsource to Albania the processing of some male asylum-seekers.
Mattarella didn’t cite Musk by name but — in an unusually piqued statement — made clear on Wednesday that he was referring to him. Italy’s head of state demanded respect for the country’s sovereignty, especially from other soon-to-be public officials.
“Italy is a great democratic country and … knows how to take care of itself while respecting its Constitution,” Mattarella said in a statement issued by his spokesman.
“Anyone, particularly if as announced is about to assume an important role of government in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot attribute to himself the task of imparting prescriptions,” the statement said.
Trump announced Tuesday that Musk, one of the most influential people around the US president-elect, would help lead a Department of Government Efficiency, essentially an independent advisory panel to eliminate waste and fraud.
Musk is a supporter of Meloni and has met with her in Rome on a few occasions, and in September joined her at an awards ceremony on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Photos of them together made such news that Musk seemingly felt the need to tamp down speculation by posting “We are not dating.”
Musk has a history of making provocative statements and sparring with leaders on X. Earlier this year, he posted messages insulting UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and saying the United Kingdom was headed for civil war. He has also clashed with a Brazilian supreme court justice over free speech, far-right accounts and purported misinformation on X, and also accused Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, of “major election fraud” after that country’s disputed election.
The courts’ rulings have raised the ire of Meloni’s far-right-led government, which has been seeking strategies to ease the strain on Italy of the arrival of migrants seeking a better life in Europe. The government had held up the opening of the Albanian centers as a centerpiece of its immigration crackdown, also as a means of deterrence, and said they could be a model for Europe.
In both cases, Italian courts referred the cases to the EU court of justice in Luxembourg to rule if the countries of origin for the migrants are considered safe for repatriation. There is no word on when the European court might rule.
But as a result of the Rome court decisions, no migrant has yet been processed in the Albanian centers, which are budgeted to cost Italy 670 million euros ($730 million) over five years to build and operate.
Italy’s opposition says the money could be much better spent on reinforcing Italian-operated migrant processing centers, while human rights groups say the outsourcing of asylum processing contravenes international law.
The centers opened in October after a months-long delay, because crumbling soil at one of the facilities needed to be repaired. They are run by Italy and are under the country’s jurisdiction, while Albanian guards provide external security.


Sri Lankans set for parliamentary polls, seeking change and new faces

Polling officials and police officers carry election materials after collecting them from a distribution center, a day before th
Updated 46 min 46 sec ago
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Sri Lankans set for parliamentary polls, seeking change and new faces

  • New president Anura Kumara Dissanayake hopes for parliamentary majority to push through promised reforms
  • Many veteran politicians, including from the Rajapaksa family, are staying away from the polls

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is set to choose a new parliament on Thursday in a vote expected to bring new faces to the political stage amid widespread dissatisfaction with established political parties following the island nation’s worst-ever economic crisis.

The election was announced in late September, days after the country’s new leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, won the presidential vote and appointed his three-member government.

Sri Lankan ministers are appointed from among members of parliament, in which Dissanayake’s left-leaning National People’s Power coalition had only three seats, limiting his ability to realize his campaign promises.

To boost the NPP’s representation, the president dissolved the parliament and cleared the way for the polls a year ahead of schedule.

 

During a campaign rally on Sunday, he expressed optimism that the 42 percent of the vote he received in the presidential election showed the NPP was “a winning party” which would also translate to a parliamentary victory.

To push through his promised reforms to address corruption, maladministration and the fragile economic situation, Dissanayake needs a two-thirds parliamentary majority. While the 55-year-old leader’s party has never won more than 4 percent, success this time seems likely.

“I would expect at least a simple majority which would be a working majority,” Lakshman Gunasekara, a political analyst in Colombo, told Arab News. “One thing many analysts are arguing is that it is better for the NPP not to have an absolute majority and to be compelled to rely on other parties as well, in order to ensure greater political consensus in governance.”

Dissanayake took over Sri Lanka’s top job as the nation continued to reel from the 2022 economic crisis. The austerity measures imposed by his predecessor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, part of a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund, led to price hikes in food and fuel and caused hardship to millions of Sri Lankans.

During his presidential campaign, Dissanayake said he planned to renegotiate the targets set in the IMF deal, as it placed too much burden on the ordinary people.

“That is the number one motivator in this current election. The economic difficulties ... The elite don’t feel it so much but the masses, nearly one-third of people, are known to be losing at least one meal a day,” Gunasekara said.

“And the next issue is ... the injection of fresh people into the governance system — in parliament and also in the presidency.”

Many veteran politicians, including Wickremesinghe, are staying away from the polls. No contenders will be seen from the powerful Rajapaksa family, including former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was ousted in 2022 and largely blamed for the crisis, or his brother, Gotabaya.

Dissanayake is an outsider to the political dynasties that have dominated Sri Lankan politics for decades.

“We have already a completely new person as the president, coming from a social class never before represented in the presidency level — the rural poor,” Gunasekara said.

“The people want new people in parliament as well ... I think two-thirds of the previous parliamentarians are not contesting.”

Prof. Prathiba Mahanamahewa, lawyer and rector of the University of Colombo, said Sri Lankans — 17 million of whom are expected to vote on Thursday — were “frustrated with the old faces” and this would be reflected in their voting preferences.

The injection of new ones, however, is likely to delay the parliament’s work for some time.

“We have to give one year for the new parliament to study the standing orders, to study the laws, to study the bills,” said Mahanamahewa. “I believe in all the parties, new people will come.”


German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he’ll ask for a vote of confidence in December

Updated 13 November 2024
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he’ll ask for a vote of confidence in December

  • He declared his plans during a speech in parliament, a week after his three-party coalition government collapsed
  • Germany has been governed since 2021 by a coalition led by Scholz’s left-leaning Social Democrats and which included the smaller pro-business Free Democrats and the Greens

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that he will ask for a vote of confidence on Dec. 16, paving the way for early parliamentary elections in February.
He declared his plans during a speech in parliament, a week after his three-party coalition government collapsed.
Germany has been governed since 2021 by a coalition led by Scholz’s left-leaning Social Democrats and which included the smaller pro-business Free Democrats and the Greens.
It was an uneasy and fractious alliance, and it collapsed last week when Scholz fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats in a late-night move following disagreements over how to revive the shrinking economy.
“The date at the end of February has now been set and I am very grateful for that,” Scholz said, adding that he would try to pass important legislation through parliament before that, such as financial support for children of poor families, or amendments to the country’s constitution to make the highest court more resilient to possible political interference.
He said he would submit a request for a vote of confidence on Dec. 11, so that the Bundestag can decide on this on Dec. 16. The chancellor had initially wanted to have an early election only by late March — ahead of the vote that is regularly scheduled for September 2025.
However, the center-right Christian opposition pushed for a quicker vote in the parliament to speed up the next election.
In the end, party leaders across the political spectrum agreed on Wednesday on the two dates for the vote of confidence and the new election on Feb. 23.
During his speech, Scholz as well as Friedrich Merz, the head of the main opposition party in parliament, the Christian Democrats, already shifted into campaign mode — though the heated part of campaigning usually only begins around six weeks before an election in Germany.
“There is a great sense of relief in our country. For a week now, the so-called progressive coalition (...) has been history. And that is continuing good news for Germany,” Merz said to the applause of his Christian Democrats as he spoke after Scholz in the parliament.
Four candidates are expected to make their bid for the chancellery with voters in February.
Scholz has said that he wants to run as chancellor candidate again — even though his party has not yet announced his candidacy.
Merz of the Christian Democrats, which are currently leading the polls, was officially nominated as candidate by his party in September.
For the environmentalist Greens, the country’s current economy minister and vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, will lead his party as candidate for chancellor and
The Greens are a small party that lost popularity in recent elections and whose support currently hovers around 10 percent, which means it is unlikely that he would end up as the country’s leader.
The far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has said they would nominate current party leader Alice Weidel next month as their candidate.
Merz’s Christian Democrats have been polling around 30 percent or more in the polls for a year now. Scholz’s Social Democrats, currently the strongest governing party, are on third place with around 16 percent — behind the AfD, which is at around 19 percent.
The main campaign issues are likely going to be the country’s ailing econom y which led to the collapse of the government in the first place, more efficient control of migration, and — when it comes to foreign policy issues — Russia’s war on Ukraine and the next presidency of Donald Trump.