Liberia’s Opposition Leader will not Accept Run-off Results

Monrovia--Liberia’s main opposition candidate who boycotted Tuesday’s presidential run-off citing alleged fraud has said he will challenge the expected victory of incumbent leader and Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Winston Tubman of Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) party said Wednesday that he would seek a legal challenge of the second round poll run-off in which United Party’s Sirleaf was the only contender.

“I think that is a possibility, and could be the most comprehensive way of addressing this conflict. We will not accept the result. We told them we were not voting and they went ahead and placed our photos on the ballot papers. Not only [opposition] CDC people boycotted but many Liberians were listening to us,” Tubman, told Reuters news agency.

Voter turn out in Tuesday’s election hit a low record of about 25-35 percent, compared to 71 percent in the first round, as many Liberians stayed at home either in fear of poll violence or were seen to heed the opposition call for boycott.

Tubman, who was a top aide to former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, earlier pulled out of the first round of voting in October 11, citing allegations of fraud that prompted head of the elections commission to step down.

His second boycott last Friday has attracted criticism from regional bodies and international communities following his demands for amendments in counting procedures and delay of the polls for two to four weeks.There was sense of unease in the capital, Monrovia, on Wednesday as vote counting continued, though business seemed normal. The National Election Commission said it would begin releasing results of the second round late on Thursday.

This is Liberia’s first locally-organised vote since end of 14 years of conflict in 2003 that saw nearly 300,000 people die. A previous one in 2005 was run by the UN in which Sirleaf, beat former football star George Weah, now Tubman’s running mate to become Africa’s first democratically elected female president.

Cape Town, South Africa

Report: Africa’s Mobile Market, Fastest Growing

Africa has been said to be the fastest growing mobile market in the world and second largest market from Asia, following report by a global mobile operator group. A report on Africa released Wednesday by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA) said that the continent’s number of subscribers has grown by almost 20 percent each year for the past five years, reaching 649 million connections this year’s fourth quarter.

The robust growth in the continent is expected to hit 735 million subscribers by the end of 2012 in what analysts have related the high mobile phone usage to bad and expensive landline connections in Africa.

“The mobile industry in Africa is booming and a catalyst for immense growth, but there is scope for far greater development,” said Peter Lyons, Director of Spectrum Policy, Africa and Middle East, GSMA.

Lyons said African countries need to allocate more spectrum for mobile service provision as well as introduce tax cuts for the industry to increase consumption of the services.

GSMA reported that 96 per cent of the subscriptions are pre-paid with voice services dominating the market although uptake of data services is steadily growing.

According to the report, Nigeria has the highest number of mobile phone subscriptions in Africa standing at 93 million, 16 per cent of the continent’s total subscriptions. South Africa, with a more developed infrastructure has the highest broadband penetration at 6 per cent, followed by Morocco with 2.8 percent, it says.

Kenya ranks highest in the mobile money transfers, with 8.5 million users, says the report. An abolition of the 16 percent general sales tax on mobile handsets by the Kenyan government in 2009 has resulted in handset purchases increasing by 200 percent, it says.

The association which represents mobile operators and related businesses in more than 220 countries blamed allocation of far less spectrum to mobile services by African countries as compared to other continents which has inhibited connectivity to many, mainly in rural areas.

The organisation called for investments in sufficient infrastructure in the mobile services to access the 36 per cent of Africans who still do not have access, a “huge untapped potential.”