Guinea elections delayed again:

Africa

Local elections in Guinea, expected since 2005, will not take place before the end of the year, an opposition party spokesman said Monday, a month after demonstrations calling for polls.

Opposition spokesman Aboubacar Sylla said the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) had announced the delay at a meeting called to resolve the issue.

The CENI’s timetable “provides for a 120day deadline from a date to be determined (...) which brings us to 2018,” he added.

Local elections should have been held in February under an agreement reached in October 2016 between the government, opposition, civil society and international partners in Guinea.

But since then, despite opposition demonstrations demanding President Alpha Condé respect the agreement, the election timetable has slipped.

The opposition spokesman also highlighted “uncertainties linked to the financing” of the vote, which has been constantly postponed, since CENI has only a third of the necessary budget to organise it. (AFP)

Chad urged to hold polls:

France on Monday urged Chadian authorities to press ahead with parliamentary elections after securing

Africa-Israel summit postponed:

Togo on Monday cancelled an upcoming AfricaIsrael summit, citing lack of time to prepare, after days of anti-government protests targeting President Faure Gnassingbe.

The summit was due to have been held in the capital, Lome, late next month and was billed as a chance for closer cooperation in trade, security and diplomacy.

“The summit has indeed been postponed,” a source at Togo’s foreign ministry told AFP, confirming an earlier statement from his counterparts in Israel.

“No new date has been agreed yet,” he added, without elaborating. (AFP)