The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • Disputed poll batters America’s global image

    Disputed poll batters America’s global image

    Agency Reporter

    The world awoke on Thurs to another day of uncertainty over the result of the U.S. presidential election, with no clear winner to have emerged from a drawn out vote count overshadowed by President Donald Trump’s premature victory claim, unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and the threat of legal challenges. The indecision continued to meet with deep unease around the globe, over what lies ahead for the U.S. political process — and more than a little glee from America’s traditional adversaries.

    Amid the slow count, America’s global image as a model for other democracies to emulate has taken yet another battering, especially among its allies around the globe.

    In Japan, America’s closest ally in Asia and a country whose postwar constitution was largely written by Americans, U.S. election updates dominated television news. The Mainichi newspaper said the events even called into question “the intrinsic value of democracy,” adding that “responsibility for fanning the divide and amplifying the confusion lies with Mr. Trump.”

    The National, one of the United Arab Emirates’ state-owned English-language dailies, lamented the divisions in the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic, economic crisis and now the elections. “At a time when the nation should be pulling together with what the British would call Blitz spirit, the streets of many cities have been the setting for what appear to be the beginnings of civil strife,” it wrote in an editorial.

    After Trump falsely declared victory before the votes were counted on election night, he spent much of Wednesday leveling allegations of electoral fraud without evidence. His campaign has since announced legal challenges to determine which votes will count. Days of court battles and political uncertainty lie ahead. Many fear violence.

    Lawmakers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who had observed the U.S. election had criticized Trump’s comments, calling them “baseless” and warning that they “harm public trust in democratic institutions.”

    Fears for democracy

    U.S. leaders’ preaching about global human rights and democracy — when the country’s political system is so affected by moneyed influence and apparent electoral problems, and its foreign policy record so marked by support for dictators and its own economic interests — has always carried more than a whiff of hypocrisy for many observers abroad. But the idea of U.S. democracy, albeit imperfect, still has the power to inspire.

    “America has represented optimism, looking forward and ideas,” said Tatsuhiko Yoshizaki, chief economist at the Sojitz Research Institute in Tokyo. “And yet, over the past four years, we have come to see the dark side in the United States.”

    The same sentiment was echoed in Europe yesterday, where Germany’s left-leaning Der Spiegel newsweekly compared Trump to a “late Roman emperor” who has “set a historic standard for voter contempt.” One of the paper’s conservative competitors, Die Welt, chose a similar comparison.

    France, though, offered a hopeful assessment yesterday, saying the United States’ strong democratic values would ensure the correct results. “I have faith in U.S. institutions validating the results of the election,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio.

    In Britain, some commentators responded with fury — with the left-leaning Daily Mirror calling Trump “a liar and a cheat until the bitter end” — while other papers turned to humour, especially over the slow pace of counting votes. The front page of the Metro newspaper read: “Make America Wait Again.”

    Without weighing in directly, some world leaders appeared to react to Biden’s emerging lead in electoral votes. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar privately told lawmakers Wednesday that a Biden presidency would allow the European Union to secure a better trade agreement with Britain, “because the Democrats watched our backs on Brexit,” the Irish Times reported. He also told lawmakers that Biden was a “genuine friend of Ireland.”

    Mick Mulvaney, U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland and former White House chief of staff under Trump, tried to calm nerves when he appeared at an online panel run by the Dublin-based Institute of International and European Affairs. “American elections can be a sloppy, ugly thing,” Mulvaney said, according to an Irish reporter watching the panel. “We describe it like making sausages, no one wants to see it happen but you enjoy the final product.”

    Some U.S. officials did not attempt to shy away from partisan efforts to project reassurance. “Pres Trump had done an awesome job,” U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter, a Trump appointee, wrote on twitter. “The only ones to be shamed are those to break the law and cast illegal votes.”

    Asia aghast

    Governments across Asia have largely refrained from meaningful comment, preferring to wait until one candidate has conceded defeat.

    But newspapers and analysts were not so circumspect.

    Trump’s speech prematurely declaring victory as ballots were still being counted sparked alarm in India, the world’s most populous democracy.

    The move marked a “distinctly authoritarian turn” that overshadowed a “relatively peaceful election exercise in the world’s oldest democracy,” wrote the Hindu newspaper in an editorial. Trump’s statement amounted to a demand that legally cast ballots not be counted, which would imply an “unprecedented attempt at mass voter suppression,” it wrote.

    To some in Asia, the U.S. divisions served as a warning. In Indonesia, social media was abuzz with Trump’s false declaration of early victory, a move reminiscent of an Indonesian presidential hopeful, Prabowo Subianto, who lost last year’s election but continued to claim victory and encouraged his supporters to protest. The retired army general is now the defense minister.

    And in South Korea, a U.S. ally, the division on display in the United States held up a painful mirror to its own democracy, which has also become extremely polarised.

    “The chaos in the so-called advanced democracy of the United States sparks concerns that we are not much different,” the Seoul Shinmun newspaper wrote in an editorial, calling on South Koreans to keep their own leaders accountable.

    There was less appetite to draw similar parallels in some other countries. In New Zealand, where progressive leader Jacinda Ardern just secured a second term after effectively stamping out the coronavirus in the country, commentators were baffled by the narrow race.

    In China, a number of publications used the election to crow about the shortcomings of the American system.

    American-style democracy is now a “joke” with clear “double standards,” said an editorial in the Ta Kung Pao newspaper in Hong Kong.

    Lawsuits Trump has filed

    President Donald Trump’s campaign has turned to the courts in multiple states to stop vote counting and invalidate ballots yet to be counted. The Trump campaign is also requesting a recount in Wisconsin, while the U.S. Postal Service is embroiled in its own legal battle.

    Pennsylvania

    In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the Trump campaign asked a judge to halt ballot counting in Pennsylvania, claiming that Republicans had been unlawfully denied access to observe the process. No fraudulent or illegal activity has been reported in the state.

    Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday called the suit “wrong” and promised all votes will be counted. Election officials said they will segregate properly postmarked ballots that arrived after Election Day.

    Republicans have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision from the state’s highest court that allowed election officials to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrived through Friday. Trump’s campaign filed a motion to intervene in the case Wednesday.

    The Supreme Court’s conservative justices said last week there was not enough time to decide the merits of the case before Election Day but indicated they might revisit it afterwards.

    Republican officials on Tuesday sued election officials in Montgomery County, which borders Philadelphia, accusing them of illegally counting mail-in ballots early and giving voters who submitted defective ballots a chance to re-vote.

    As of Wednesday night and with 89 per cent of the vote counted, Trump is leading Biden in the state by three points with 50.9 per cent of counted ballots, according to the Associated Press.

    Michigan

    Trump’s campaign said on Wednesday it had filed a lawsuit in Michigan to stop state officials from counting ballots.

    The campaign said the case in the Michigan Court of Claims seeks to halt counting until it has an election inspector at each absentee voter counting board. The campaign also wanted to review ballots which were opened and counted before an inspector from its campaign was present.

    The lawsuit accuses Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, of undermining the “constitutional right of all Michigan voters … to participate in fair and lawful elections.”

    Benson called the lawsuit “frivolous” Wednesday afternoon, adding that all valid ballots cast in the state had been tabulated ahead of schedule in an “efficient, transparent, secure and methodical” way.

    “Anyone who tells you otherwise is unhappy about the result,” she said.

    Michigan was declared for Biden Wednesday evening by the Associated Press, which has him leading at 50.3 per cent compared to Trump’s 48.14 per cent. Only one per cent of ballots have yet to be counted, according to state officials.

    Georgia

    The Trump campaign on Wednesday evening filed a lawsuit in state court in Chatham County, Georgia.

    Unlike the Pennsylvania and Michigan actions, that lawsuit it not asking a judge to halt ballot counting. Instead, the campaign said it received information that late-arriving ballots were improperly mingled with valid ballots, and asked a judge to enter an order making sure late-arriving ballots were separated so they would not be counted.

    Campaign officials said they were considering peppering a dozen other counties around the state with similar claims around absentee ballots.

    The Associated Press says Trump is leading in Georgia by less than one percentage point, with 98 per cent of all ballots counted.

    Wisconsin

    The Trump campaign says it will request a recount of all ballots in the state of Wisconsin after Biden was declared the winner of the state earlier Wednesday.

    Campaign manager Bill Stepien cited “irregularities in several Wisconsin counties,” without providing specifics.

    Under state law, a candidate is allowed to request a recount anytime the margin between two candidates is less than one percent if the campaign agrees to pay all fees.

    According to the Associated Press, Biden won Wisconsin by 0.6 per cent with nearly all ballots counted.

    Nevada

    The Nevada Supreme Court has given the Trump campaign and state Republicans until Monday to complete written filings in a case that attempted to stop mail-in ballot counting in Las Vegas.

    The state’s high court is being asked to strike down a lower court’s rejection of the GOP’s effort to stop the counting in Clark County, where around  400,000 absentee ballots have been returned and accepted as valid, according to state election data.

    The county, which includes Las Vegas, is a Democratic stronghold in an otherwise GOP-leaning state.

    Trump campaign officials say they want transparency, while state Democrats say Republicans are trying to undermine the election.

    Biden is leading in Nevada by less than one per cent, according to the Associated Press, with 75 per cent of all ballots counted. State election officials say they will release more results Thursday morning.

    U.S. Postal Service litigation

    A U.S. judge on Wednesday said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy must answer questions about why the U.S. Postal Service failed to complete a court-ordered sweep for undelivered ballots in about a dozen states before a Tuesday afternoon deadline.

    U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan is overseeing a lawsuit by Vote Forward, the NAACP, and Latino community advocates who have been demanding the postal service deliver mail-in ballots in time to be counted in the election.

    The USPS on Wednesday disclosed it had found just 13 undelivered ballots in Pennsylvania after it completed required sweeps of mail processing facilities late Tuesday in about a dozen states.

    In a court filing Wednesday, the Postal Service said “the lack of a destination or finalisation scan does not mean that the ballots were not delivered.”

    What the Biden camp is saying

    Biden said Wednesday the count should continue in all states, adding, “No one’s going to take our democracy away from us — not now, not ever.”

    His running mate Kamala Harris has echoed Biden’s comments and called for all ballots to be counted before a winner is declared.

    Campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said legal challenges were not the behaviour of a winning campaign.

    “What makes these charades especially pathetic is that while Trump is demanding recounts in places he has already lost, he’s simultaneously engaged in fruitless attempts to halt the counting of votes in other states in which he’s on the road to defeat,” Bates said in a statement.

    At least 103 million people voted early, either by mail or in-person, representing 74 per cent of the total votes cast in the 2016 presidential election.

    Every election, results reported on election night are unofficial and the counting of ballots extends past Election Day. Mail ballots normally take more time to verify and count. This year, because of the large numbers of mail ballots and a close race, results were expected to take longer.

  • Nigerian wins Minnesota Reps seat

    Nigerian wins Minnesota Reps seat

    Agency Reporter

    Nigerian, Ms Esther Agbaje, has been elected  into the Minnesota House of Representatives in Tuesday’s U.S. general elections.

    She will represent District 59B in the 134-member House on the platform of the Democratic-Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of U.S. Democratic Party.

    Esther, 35, won by a landslide, polling 17,396 votes or 74.7 per cent of the total ballots cast.

    Her closest rival, Alan Shilepsky of the Republican Party, secured 4,128 votes, representing 17.7 per cent of the total.

    Elections to the lower chamber of the state legislature hold every two years, and there are no term limits for the lawmakers.

    Read Also: Meet two Nigerian-Americans who won US legislative seats

    The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Agbaje was born in St. Paul, the state capital of Minnesota.

    Her father, Rev. John, an Episcopal Church priest, met her mother, Bunmi, a librarian, at the University of Minnesota where they were studying.

    She graduated from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., with a degree in political science.

    Esther holds a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, and also a law degree from Harvard University.

    She currently works as an attorney in Minneapolis with focus on general civil litigation and medical malpractice.

    She once served at the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Affairs Officer, charged with managing rule of law projects in the Middle East.

    Her priorities as a lawmaker include affordable housing, environmental justice, police reform, public safety and racial equality.

    (NAN)

  • Trump Vs Biden: If it gets to the Supreme Court

    Trump Vs Biden: If it gets to the Supreme Court

    Agency Reporter

    President Donald Trump has left no one in doubt that he is willing to fight to the finish, including going to the Supreme Court.

    The scenario likely to play out was put into perspective on Wednesday by theguardian.com:

    “Given Donald Trump’s lifelong predilection for tying up opponents in the courts, and his long-stated threat to do the same with an election result that threatened to go against him, his call to have the 2020 election settled in the supreme court is not a surprise.

    “So can he do it?

    “Trump may, with this in mind, have filled the supreme court with conservative appointees, but things aren’t so straightforward. The supreme court is the final court of appeal in the US and has discretion over which cases it should hear, largely relating to challenges to cases heard in lower courts on points of federal law and the constitution.

    “So a lot of action will happen initially at state-level courts – the election has prompted a spate of new cases in the hotly contested battleground state of Pennsylvania, including two due to be heard later on Wednesday.

    Read Also: Meet two Nigerian-Americans who won US legislative seats

    “What has made the current election landscape more of a minefield is the fact the coronavirus pandemic has led states to look for ways to make voting safer, including expanding absentee ballots, which has opened states up to challenges in the courts over issues such as proposed extensions to the period in which late mail-in votes are counted.

    “It is important to remember that election challenges in state courts are nothing new, sometimes without merit, and often have little impact in the end. However, one important exception to that was the 2000 election where a series of legal challenges over faulty voting procedures in Florida handed the election to George W Bush.

    “What’s the thrust of Trump’s tactic?

    “With more than 40 pre-election cases by Republicans, Trump’s strategy is to argue that any measure to make voting easier and safer in the midst of a pandemic is unconstitutional and open to fraud, a framing aimed at the supreme court.

    “A second argument that has been deployed several times is that many of the measures to ensure voting is easy have been made by state officials – like governors – rather than state legislatures, opening a path, say conservatives, for a constitutional challenge.

    “How could this work?

    “The most common scenario is for lawyers to challenge the way an election was conducted locally and seek to have votes discarded. In the key state of Pennsylvania, conservative groups have already ramped up cases to ensure late mail-in ballots are not counted, with two cases due to be heard on Wednesday.

    “However, Pennsylvania requires an unusually high burden of proof for challenging elections, including written affidavits detailing wrongdoing.

    “Pennsylvania is already on the supreme court’s radar in this respect. Republicans in the state have already appealed against a Pennsylvania supreme court decision ordering state election officials to accept mail-in ballots that arrive up to three days after the election, relying on an interpretation of the state’s own constitution.

    “The US supreme court deferred hearing this case before the election but in a case that it did rule on, the court sided with a Republican challenge saying the state could not count late mail in ballots in Wisconsin. The supreme court chief justice John Roberts made clear, however, that “different bodies of law and different precedents” meant the court did not consider the situation in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as the same.

    “Isn’t that good news for Democrats?

    “It’s difficult to know. The Wisconsin decision was delivered before Trump’s third pick for the supreme court, Amy Coney Barrett, formally joined the bench last week, giving conservatives a 6-3 majority.

    “Trump’s hope, as he has made very clear, is that this would help in the event he challenged the election result, but it is also unclear how Barrett would respond given Trump’s comments. And she could recuse herself from hearing any election-related cases because of a perceived conflict.

    “Where else could we see challenges?

    “Michigan, if it is close, is an outlier in that it has no formally laid-out system for a challenge, although any recount is automatically triggered by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.

    “North Carolina, for instance, also has a challenge to a late voting extension before the courts. It all becomes something of moot point should Biden secure enough of a lead in the electoral college.

    “What’s the worst-case scenario?

    “The closer the outcome in the electoral college, the more messy things become, with the memory of Florida in 2000 looming above everything. The closest of results led to 35 messy days of legal challenges and laborious hand recounts, which gave the election to George W Bush after the state was originally called by news organisations for the Democratic challenger Al Gore.

    “Bush took 271 of the 538 electoral votes, winning Florida by fewer than 600 votes, after a recount was halted by the supreme court, making Bush the first Republican president since 1888 to win despite losing the popular vote.”

  • UK enters second national lockdown

    UK enters second national lockdown

    Agency Reporter

    The new lockdown in England has comes into force on Thursday.

    It has been temporarily imposed, replacing the new three-tier system introduced last month, in a drastic bid to bring the coronavirus R value below 1.

    The second national lockdown comes eight months after the country first went into a lockdown due to the pandemic.

    This time, measures have been put in place to stop the situation becoming even worse than in the first peak.

    The Prime Minister on Monday warned there was “no alternative” as figures predicted that if further action wasn’t taken, there would be more Covid deaths seen this time around.

    Boris Johnson first announced the stringent measure on Saturday night, with a successful vote in favour of the lockdown by MPs on Wednesday.

    MPs voted to approve the measures by 516 votes to 38, majority 47.

    The lockdown came into effect at 0.01am on Thursday, November 5 and will end on December 2.

    Non-essential services and businesses have been forced to close, including pubs and restaurants while essential shops and educational settings remain open.

    The government has also returned to its message of ‘stay at home, to protect the NHS and save lives’, as people are only permitted to leave home for a limited number of reasons.

    Newsnow

  • Egypt releases 461 activists from detention

    Egypt releases 461 activists from detention

    Agency Reporter

    An Egyptian court has ordered the release of 461 political activists from detention after they were charged with spreading false news, a rights lawyer said on Thursday.

    The journalists and students had been detained in connection with 19 different cases over the past four years, lawyer Ramadan Mohammed said.

    Authorities have freed the majority of them in response to orders issued by the Cairo Criminal Court earlier this week, he added.

    Charges levelled against them included misusing social media to publish false news and promoting the agenda of a terrorist group, a reference to the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, according to the lawyer.

    So far, there has been no comment from authorities.

    READ ALSO: #EndSARS: Egypt to deport detained Nigerians

    The reported releases come more than a month after rare, small protests erupted in some parts of Egypt against the government of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi.

    Al-Sissi has repeatedly warned Egyptians against protests, saying that they could lead to chaos.

    In 2013, the army, then led by al-Sissi, deposed Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, a senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood and a divisive figure in the country.

    Thousands of secular and Islamist opposition figures have since been rounded up.

    Street demonstrations are heavily restricted in Egypt under a contested 2013 law that the government said was necessary to restore stability to the country.

     

    (dpa/NAN)

  • Paris bans takeaway, delivery of food and drinks after 10 p.m.

    Paris bans takeaway, delivery of food and drinks after 10 p.m.

    Agency Reporter

    Paris police on Thursday banned takeaway and delivery sale of food and drinks between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., a week into France’s second coronavirus lockdown.

    Businesses offering delivery, takeaway, and alcohol sales at night were generating trips and gatherings that had to be limited due to the health situation, the city’s chief of police Didier Lallement said in a statement published on Twitter.

    France has recorded daily coronavirus infection numbers ranging between 35,641 and 52,518 over the past week, as it faces a fierce second wave of the virus that is putting hospitals under renewed pressure.

    READ ALSO: US officially withdraws from Paris climate pact

    There have been 2,889 deaths of Covid-19 patients in the week of Wednesday, taking the national total death toll since March to 38,674.

    Paris Mayor, Anne Hidalgo earlier said she preferred to trust economic players and citizens, and not to take too bureaucratic an approach.

    But, she told BFMTV television, “When there are players who don’t play the game and put the health of the greater number, obviously, at risk, then restrictions become necessary.’’

    (dpa/NAN)

  • U.S. elects first two openly gay, black congressmen

    U.S. elects first two openly gay, black congressmen

    Agency Reporter

    Two men made history in the U.S. during the 2020 election by becoming the first openly gay, black men to be voted into Congress.

    Ritchie Torres, a 32-year-old Democratic congressional candidate from New York, defeated his Republican opponent and will head to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent the South Bronx.

    Torres identifies as both black and Latino, making him also the first openly gay Latino in the U.S. Congress.

    READ ALSO; US Election 2020: Lindsey Graham wins, returns to Senate

    Mondair Jones, a 33-year-old Democrat, was elected to represent New York’s 17th congressional district, which includes parts of New York’s Rockland and Westchester Counties.

    Both men highlighted their humble origins during their campaigns, having grown up in poor, single-parent households in New York.

    Two days after Election Day, U.S. voters still do not know who will be president for the next four years: the incumbent Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

    (dpa/NAN)

  • Saudi Arabia to use AI in industrial sector – Minister

    Saudi Arabia to use AI in industrial sector – Minister

    Agency Reporter

    Saudi Arabia is aimed at widely using artificial intelligence and fourth generation technologies in the country’s national industry over the upcoming years, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Al-Khorayef said.

    “The industrial sector is one of the biggest for the introduction of modern technologies. It means that the kingdom is aspired to become a centre for the implementation of these technologies in the coming years.

    “We have a comprehensive plan to widely use the benefits of fourth-generation industrial technologies in various fields.

    “And also to stimulate the national industry by adopting artificial intelligence solutions to improve its efficiency, output, and automation,” Al-Khorayef said.

    READ ALSO: Oboh set for Saudi Arabia golf tournament

    Saudi Arabia’s ministry, which was established in August 2019, has started to search for ways to allow entrepreneurs and innovators to enter the industrial sector by introducing new technologies.

    Saudi will also move away from those industries that rely heavily on their labour force, Al-Khorayef added.

    With the use of emerging technologies, one job will create from five to 10 indirect workplaces in other industries, according to the minister.

    (Sputnik/NAN)

  • India-made COVID-19 vaccine to be launched February -Official

    India-made COVID-19 vaccine to be launched February -Official

    Agency Reporter

    An Indian government-backed COVID-19 vaccine could be launched as early as February -months earlier than expected – as last-stage trials begin this month, a senior government scientist said.

    The studies have so far shown it is safe and effective, a scientist added.

    Bharat Biotech, a private company that is developing COVAXIN with the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), had earlier hoped to launch it only in the second quarter of next year.

    “The vaccine has shown good efficacy,” senior ICMR scientist Rajni Kant, who is also a member of its COVID-19 task-force, said at the research body’s New Delhi headquarters on Thursday.

    “It is expected that by the beginning of next year, February or March, something would be available.”

    A launch in February would make COVAXIN the first India-made vaccine to be rolled out.

    India’s cases of coronavirus infections rose by 50,201 cases on Thursday to 8.36 million, second only to the U.S.

    Deaths rose by 704, with the total now at 124,315.

    The daily rise in infections and deaths has slowed since a peak in mid-September.

    Kant, who is the head of ICMR’s research management, policy, planning, and coordination cell, said it was up to the health ministry to decide if COVAXIN shots can be given to people even before the third-stage trials are over.

    READ ALSO: Nigeria okays air pacts with U.S., India, others

    “It has shown safety and efficacy in phase 1 and 2 trials and in the animal studies – so it is safe but you can’t be 100 percent sure unless the phase 3 trials are over,” Kant said.

    “There may be some risk, if you are ready to take the risk, you can take the vaccine. If necessary, the government can think of giving the vaccine in an emergency situation.”

    Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in September the government was considering granting an emergency authorisation for a COVID-19 vaccine, particularly for the elderly and people in high-risk workplaces.

    Several leading vaccine candidates are already in final-stage testing.

    An experimental vaccine developed by Britain’s AstraZeneca is among the most advanced ones, and Britain expects to roll it out in late December or early 2021.

    AstraZeneca has signed several supplies and manufacturing deals with companies and governments around the world, including with the Serum Institute of India.

    Other late-stage vaccines are developed by Moderna Inc, Pfizer Inc with partner BioNTech SE, and Johnson & Johnson.

    (Reuters/NAN)

  • Algerian independence war veteran dies at 87

    Algerian independence war veteran dies at 87

    Agency Reporter

    Algerian independence war veteran has died at 87, his family said on Thursday,
    around two weeks after he contracted the coronavirus.

    Bouregaa died in hospital in the capital Algiers where he was being treated, Algerian television said on Wednesday.

    He was a prominent figure of the National Liberation Army fighting against colonial power France.

    In 1963, one year after Algeria’s independence, he co-founded the Socialist Forces Front party with Hocine Ait Ahmed.

    Bouregaa was the main opposition voice against successive governments, which led to his imprisonment several times.

    READ ALSO: Algerian leader pardons prisoners

    He was vocal in his criticism of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and took part in the mass protests that forced Bouteflika to step down in April 2019.

    Two months later, Bouregaa was detained for around six months for allegedly criticising the military, but continued to express his support while detained for the months-long demonstrations demanding political reform in the North African country.

    (dpa/NAN)