presidential candidate - The African Mirror

Feb

2023

Bola Tinubu: Nigeria’s kingmaker who wants to be king

BOLA Ahmed Tinubu, presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Nigeria, holds two traditional titles: Asiwaju of Lagos and Jagaban of the Borgu kingdom in Niger State, north-central Nigeria. The titles have similar meanings: leader and leader of warriors. Though he has held these titles for some years, they now bear more significance in the life of Tinubu, a former two-term governor of Lagos State, as he runs for president. Author OLAYINKA OYEGBILE, Journalist and Communications scholar, Trinity University, Lagos Widely believed to be the political kingmaker responsible for the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, Tinubu…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Nigeria presidential election to test dominant parties

NEWS

TIM COCKS NIGERIANS will vote in what could be their most credible and close electoral contest since military rule ended nearly a quarter of a century ago - and the first in which a presidential candidate who isn't from one of the two main parties stands a chance. Former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) faces Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi, a wild-card candidate who defected from the PDP to the smaller Labour Party and now leads in at least five opinion polls. Obi, 61, has used…

Oct

2022

By The African Mirror

Nigeria’s Tinubu pledges to remove fuel subsidy, deregulate gas prices

NEWS

MACDONALD DZIRUTWE NIGERIA'S presidential frontrunner Bola Tinubu promised to remove a fuel subsidy if elected next February, adding that his government would ramp up oil production and deregulate midstream gas prices within six months. Nigerians will elect a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, who steps down next year after serving the two presidential terms mandated by the constitution. The 70-year-old Tinubu, from Buhari's ruling All Progressives Congress, is a former state governor and senator of Lagos, the country's commercial capital. He launched his presidential manifesto in Abuja where he promised to create a Special Enforcement and Monitoring Unit to protect…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

Paris suburb feels little love for either presidential candidate

WORLD

LAYLI FOROUDI and LEA GUEDJ BOXING coach Kab Thiam has voted in a French election twice: in 2002 to block the far right's Jean-Marie Le Pen from power and again last Sunday for the hard left's presidential candidate. Now, though, with his favourite Jean-Luc Melenchon out, the 39-year-old does not plan to vote in the April 24 runoff. He finds both aspirants, incumbent President Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie, distasteful. "Macron and Le Pen share the same ideas," Thiam said, between sparring with a young boxer at the Mohamed Ali gym in Bobigny, an ethnically-diverse northern…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Congo presidential candidate dies

NEWS

HEREWARD HOLLAND THE main opposition candidate in Congo Republic's presidential election, Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, has died while being evacuated for medical treatment, aides said yesterday, as early results from Sunday's vote showed the incumbent in the lead. Kolelas's election campaign had said on Sunday that the 61-year-old former minister was in hospital with COVID-19, which prevented him from casting his own vote. Kolelas had been seen as President Denis Sassou Nguesso's strongest challenger, although diplomats and analysts said there was little doubt the incumbent would win and extend his 36-year rule. Full results are not expected until later this…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisia sets bail for media mogul at $3.7 million

NEWS

Nabil Karoui Karoui, the owner of Nessma television channel and head of the Heart of Tunisia political party, the second largest in parliament, was detained in December for a second time for alleged money laundering and tax fraud. In 2019, Karoui beat most candidates to reach a run-off for the presidency despite spending most of the campaign behind bars. He ultimately lost in a landslide to President Kais Saied. His Heart of Tunisia party, which came second only to the moderate Islamist Ennahda in a parliamentary election the same year, has joined with it in giving narrow majority support to…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Uganda opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine arrested, police fire teargas at protesters

NEWS

UGANDA opposition presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, and his campaign team were arrested in Kalangala in the country's central region, he said in a post on Twitter. The arrests spurred protests at a field in Kalangala Island in Lake Victoria where a helicopter was parked and which Wine's supporters said they believed would be used to fly him back to the capital Kampala. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd who were protesting, a witness, who did not want to give his name for security reasons, told Reuters. No further details of the arrests were…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Music producer for presidential candidate Wine hurt in clashes in Uganda

NEWS

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA A music producer for Ugandan pop star and presidential candidate Bobi Wine has been wounded in the mouth by a rubber bullet during clashes between security personnel and Wine's supporters, a spokesman for his party and police said on Tuesday. The incident is the latest in escalating violence in the East African country as authorities crackdown on supporters of Wine, who is seeking to end the long rule of President Yoweri Museveni, 76, in an election scheduled for January 14. Joel Senyonyi, spokesman for Wine's party National Unity Platform (NUP), said Daniel Oyerwot was hit by the rubber…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Guinea’s Condé accepts nomination to seek third term

NEWS

GUINEA President Alpha Condé has accepted his party’s nomination to run in October’s election, the party said on Monday, taking advantage of a new constitution to seek a third term that his opponents say is unconstitutional. Condé, who was first elected in 2010, pushed through a change to the constitution that was approved by a referendum in March that was boycotted by the opposition. Talk of a potential third term sparked widespread protests that have killed at least 30 people over the past year. Condé’s supporters say the constitutional change acts as a reset button on the two-term limit. The…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

With record wins, LGBT+ candidates celebrate ‘rainbow wave’ in U.S. election

LGBT+

MATTHEW LAVIETES AS the U.S. Democratic National Convention drew to a close, Pete Buttigieg, the party's first openly gay presidential candidate, took to the virtual stage to note the historic significance of his campaign. "The day I was born, close to where I'm standing here in South Bend, the idea of an 'out' candidate seeking any federal office at all was laughable," said Buttigieg, who came out in 2015 after being elected mayor of South Bend, Indiana, in 2012. "Yet earlier this year I campaigned for the presidency, often with my husband at my side, winning delegates to this very…