PHOTO: Bullit Marquez/AP. 12 senators have been elected through the mid-term elections held on May 13.
Philippine President Duterte’s allies won a majority of the 12 Senate seats at a stake in the midterm elections, official results showed Wednesday.
Election officials proclaimed the winners after finishing the official count overnight following a delay by glitches in automated counting machines.
With nine Duterte supporters and three nominally unaligned politicians in the 24-member Senate, only four opposition members remain. Duterte’s former national police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, who enforced the president’s crackdown on illegal drugs in a campaign that left thousands of suspects dead, is among the elected senators. Imee Marcos, the daughter of Dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is also among the winning Senate candidates who were endorsed by Duterte.
When reporters raised concerns that the new Senate would be beholden to Duterte, Senate-elect Bong Go, a longtime Duterte aide, said “do I look like a rubber stamp?” But he stressed he would back the president's war against criminality, corruption and illegal drugs and would support a bill to re-impose the death penalty for heinous crimes and drug trafficking. Go said Duterte has not given any illegal orders to him or anyone he supervised.
The president has aimed for stronger leverage in the traditionally more independent senate to bolster his legislative agenda. That includes the return of the death penalty, lowering the age for criminal liability below the current 15, and revising the 1987 constitution primarily to allow a shift to a federal form of government, a proposal some critics fear may be a cover to remove term limits.
Duterte's three children also won races for mayor, vice mayor and a congressional seat representing their southern home region of Davao city. Voters also decided congressional, gubernatorial, mayoral and city and township races. Nearly 75 percent of more than 63 million registered Filipinos cast their votes in a strong turnout. This mid-term election is widely seen as a gauge of public support for Duterte and his anti-drug crackdown, unorthodox leadership style, combative outbursts, and warm embrace of China.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/philippines-president-duterte-allies-dominate-senate-race-190522061325987.html
Korea Herald Newspaper, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48277482
PHOTO: EPA/Doru Dumitru. The President of Moldova, Igor Dodon, in parliament in March 2019.
President Igor Dodon warned he could dissolve parliament and call for new elections because MPs have not been able to reach a consensus on forming a governing majority since polls in February. On May 22, 2019, He told MPs that they have two weeks to establish a governing majority and get parliament functioning again or he will call for early elections.
According to the Moldovan constitution, the president has the right to dissolve parliament in two circumstances – if it does not adopt any legislative act for 90 days, or after two attempts to confirm a prime minister have failed. “It is a first in the modern history of Moldova when, almost three months after the parliamentary elections, we have no speaker, no majority and no functional government,” said Dodon.
The parliamentary elections were held in Moldova on February 24 and MP’s mandates were validated on March 9. A constitutive session of the new parliament took place in Chisinau on March 21.
But the main three parties in Moldova – the Democrat Party, which led the outgoing government, Dodon’s Socialist Party, and the pro-European bloc ACUM – have not been able to find consensus on forming a governing majority, mainly due to differences about tackling corruption.
Dodon urged MPs to sort the situation out and get on with parliamentary business. “I condemn the political egotism and the exaggerated ambitions of some MPs and parliamentary groups. People are expecting results, waiting for the creation of a parliamentary majority to get deputies to work,” he said.
Dodon has already filed a request to the Constitutional Court to ask exactly when he can dissolve parliament.
https://balkaninsight.com/2019/05/22/moldovan-president-threatens-to-dissolve-deadlocked-parliament/
PHOTO: Esa Alexander. Thandi Modise (left) was elected as new Speaker of National Assembly on May 22, 2019.
South Africa’s parliament on May 22, 2019 confirmed the ANC’s Cyril Ramaphosa as the duly elected president of the country, after his nomination was uncontested by other political parties. He will be inaugurated on Saturday.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) nominee for the position of parliament speaker, Thandi Modise was also confirmed in the position after she garnered 250 out of 400 votes against the opposition Democratic Alliance’s nominee, Richard Majola.
After the election, Modise replaced Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and took charge of proceedings, promising MPs she would be fair and unbiased while executing her duties.
"I understand fully the struggle to move South Africa forward, to recognise all her people, to recognise all languages, all cultures and traditions of South Africa. As elected representatives, we are both the products and custodians of the values enshrined in our Constitution. These values set the tone for how we conduct ourselves, and how we manage the affairs of our people for the common good."
Speaker Modise said her role was to enable debate and protect the rights of the public and public representatives. She appealed to MPs to be respectful of each other.
"The decorum of the House and image of Parliament must be maintained. We do not represent ourselves, honorable members, we represent the people of our country. At the start of this term, let us represent those who sent us to Parliament well. Let us respect those who entrust to us the running of our country."
Modise then presided over the election of her deputy. Lechesa Tsenoli will return to his previous position after he was elected unopposed.
The ANC easily won South Africa’s May 8 general election but its share of the vote fell, reflecting anger at corruption scandals and racial inequalities that remain entrenched a generation after the party took power.
https://www.africanews.com/2019/05/22/south-africa-ramaphosa-sworn-in-as-mp-his-deputy-mabuza-requests-postponement/
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-05/22/c_138081032.htm
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
