Magufuli moves to ease fears over election the

DAR ES SALAAM - Tanzanian President John Magufuli has promised this year’s general election will be “free and fair” and invited international monitors to observe proceedings amid concerns of a democratic crackdown in the nation.

Magufuli’s long-ruling CCM party won 99 percent of seats in local government polls in November that the US and Britain said lacked credibility and transparency.

The strongman president, who is expected to run for a second term this year, has been accused of targeting the press and his political opponents in Tanzania, once viewed as a stable democracy in the region.

Speaking before an audience including foreign diplomats and senior UN officials, Magufuli sought to assuage fears about

election, which is due to be held sometime this year although no date has yet been set.

“We will ensure the general election, which is important in a democratic country, is peaceful, free and fair,” the president said late on Tuesday at an annual dinner for dignitaries in Dar es Salaam.

“We will also invite international observers, to witness how Tanzania is matured in democracy.”

Magufuli came to power in 2015 as a corruption-fighting “man of the people” but has since been criticised for his authoritarian leadership style.

Nicknamed “The Bulldozer,” his administration has shut down newspapers, switched off live broadcasts of parliament and used far-reaching cybercrime laws to jail critics.

Reporters Without Borders, a watchdog, last year labelled Magufuli a “press freedom predator” and dropped Tanzania 25 places on its annual press freedom index.

Tanzania’s main opposition party boycotted November’s local polls, citing intimidation and harassment, paving the way for a clean sweep by Magufuli’s CCM.

International observers said the disqualification of opposition candidates, coupled with Tanzania’s refusal to provide accreditation to respected election monitors, eroded confidence in the outcome.

LONDON - Angola is seeking other countries’ help to recover state funds lost because of corruption, Minister of State for Economic Coordination Manuel Jose Nunes Junior said on Tuesday.

Angolan President Joao Lourenco said on taking office in 2017 that he would crack down on graft and reform the economy.

“We are activating all the legal, judicial and diplomatic measures to ensure the repatriation of those resources,” Nunes Junior said at Chatham House think tank in London.

He declined to say which countries the government had contacted. “We are requesting international cooperation to support this process, to help us look into the cases of corruption we already identified or the ones we have not found yet,” he said.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest economy is ranked as one of the world’s most corrupt nations, in 165th place on a list of 180 countries, according to anti-corruption group Transparency International.

Scrutiny of Angola has increased since the authorities seized the domestic assets of former first daughter Isabel dos Santos, accusing the billionaire and her husband of steering payments of more than

$1 billion from state oil company Sonangol and official diamond trading group Sodiam to companies where they held stakes.

Dos Santos and her husband have denied wrongdoing. Dos Santos has told Reuters the allegations against her are “completely unfounded” and accused the authorities of a “witch hunt.”

On Monday, Portuguese authorities said they had started investigating leaked documents concerning dos Santos’s business empire, and Portuguese bank Eurobic said it had decided to end commercial relationships with entities she controls.

Asked about dos Santos, Nunes Junior said the law was being applied in her case and Angola must be seen as a place that respects the rule of law.

Angola’s minister of mineral resources and petroleum, Diamantino Azevedo, added that his country had enlisted the help of international accounting group Deloitte to list 30 percent of Sonangol in the next two years after slashing its non-core businesses, which he called an “octopus.”

We are requesting international cooperation to support this process, to help us look into the cases of corruption we already identified or the ones we have not found yet.

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