SINGAPORE: Singaporeans voted on Friday in the most hotly contested election in the country’s history after massive turnouts at opposition rallies boosted chances that a two-party system will emerge from half a century of domination by the ruling party.
The People’s Action Party (PAP), co-founded by the late independence leader Lee Kuan Yew and now led by his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, is widely expected to retain a clear majority in the 89-seat Parliament.
But the percentage of votes the party garners will be closely watched as a barometer of its popularity during tough economic times.
Analysts however say an emboldened opposition, buoyed by turnouts of up to 30,000 at its campaign rallies in contrast to weak attendance at PAP gatherings, could make further inroads after gains in the 2011 polls.
Riding on a wave of public dissatisfaction the opposition hopes to increase its strength in Parliament from the meagre seven seats it currently holds, all by the Workers’ Party.
During the campaign they emphasized the growing income disparity, restrictions on free speech, overcrowding caused by immigration and rising cost of living — Singapore is the world’s most expensive city according to an international survey.
“Every election is different. We always watch carefully. We have done our best,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said after casting his vote.
“This is a major turning point for Singapore.” The PAP, which steered the former British colony to prosperity while using an iron fist to suppress dissent, was stunned in 2011 when its share of votes plunged to 60 percent, its lowest ever.
Government control of mainstream media was undermined in the recent campaign by independent portals and the opposition’s aggressive use of social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube.
Polls closed at 1200GMT after staying open for 12 hours and voting was orderly.
But the PAP also hopes to capitalize on a sympathy wave following the death of Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, in March. Lee, a PAP stalwart, became the country’s first prime minister at independence in 1965, and remained in office until 1990.
Opposition seeks end to one-party dominance as Singapore votes
Opposition seeks end to one-party dominance as Singapore votes
Violence-hit Pakistan locks down the capital for an Asian security meeting
Some doctors asked police to remove barricades so they could go to hospitals but were instead asked to take longer routes
ISLAMABAD: Shaken by multiple militant attacks, Pakistani authorities have locked down the capital in a major security move as senior officials from several nations arrive for an Asian security group meeting.
A three-day holiday started Monday in normally bustling Islamabad and the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi. The government deployed troops and blocked key roads, making it difficult even for ambulances to pass through. Some doctors asked police to remove barricades so they could go to hospitals but were instead asked to take longer routes.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Tuesday with leaders and officials attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting.
The main event of the meeting is on Wednesday, when leaders and officials discuss how to boost security cooperation and economic ties. The group was founded in 2001 by China and Russia to counter Western alliances. Other members include Iran, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Militants in recent weeks have killed dozens of people in multiple attacks in restive northwestern and southwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. Security experts say militants have limited capacity to strike in Islamabad.
Pakistan often blames the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, who have sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan, for the violence. Afghanistan’s Taliban government says it does not allow anyone to use its soil for attacks against any country.
Two Chinese engineers were killed on Oct. 6 in a suicide bombing outside the airport in Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province. A separatist group claimed responsibility for the attack.
In the past, Pakistanis used to line up along the main roads to welcome any dignitaries visiting the country, but authorities said they had to take harsh security measures this time because of fears of militant attacks. Only state media are allowed to cover the meetings.
Among those attending are Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref and the prime ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia.
Although Jaishankar is visiting the country for the first time in more than a decade, he is not expected to hold separate bilateral meetings with Pakistani officials.
The two South Asian neighbors have a history of bitter relations, and former Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also did not hold any bilateral meetings with Indian officials when he visited New Delhi last year to attend an SCO summit.
Chinese Premier Li met with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday, according to a government statement. It said they reaffirmed their commitment to deepening cooperation in areas such as the economy, investment and regional connectivity, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a Chinese infrastructure project under construction in Pakistan.
Zardari offered his condolences over the killing of the two Chinese engineers. He said the enemies of Pakistan-China friendship were trying to undermine bilateral relations by targeting Chinese citizens and attempting to disrupt CPEC projects, the statement said.
Greek official accuses EU of policy failure on migration as war and climate change fuel displacement
Greek official accuses EU of policy failure on migration as war and climate change fuel displacement
- Sofia Voultepsi, a deputy minister for migration, said that a landmark European Union migration pact agreed upon earlier this year remained lacking in practical terms
- “We got the (agreement), but the basic piece is still missing: Returns”
ATHENS: A Greek official on Tuesday criticized the outgoing European Commission for failing to forge a common policy to deport migrants, and she warned that war and climate change were increasing global displacement.
Sofia Voultepsi, a deputy minister for migration, said that a landmark European Union migration pact agreed upon earlier this year remained lacking in practical terms.
“We got the (agreement), but the basic piece is still missing: Returns,” Voultepsi told a conference near Athens. “We must have a common system for asylum, a common system for returns, and a common system for integration.”
Wars in the Middle East and Africa, combined with the effects of climate change, she said, would put Europe under continuous long-term pressure.
The new EU migration pact is due to take effect in mid-2026 following a new round of negotiations with the bloc’s 27 member states that are expected to last about a year.
Voultepsi expressed alarm at the growing number of refugees in Lebanon because of ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeting the militant group Hezbollah, and added: “Countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Sudan ... are affected by both war and climate change, creating an ever-growing flow of migrants toward Europe.”
Greece is a major entry point for migrants into the European Union, with most crossing from Turkiye and Libya in unsafe boats.
The coast guard on Tuesday said that 81 migrants were rescued from a stranded vessel traveling from Turkiye to Italy.
The incident occurred on Sunday, and the rescue was carried out with the assistance of two merchant vessels. The rescued migrants, who were taken late Monday to the southern Greek port of Kalamata, told Greek authorities they had paid $8,500 each for the trip. Four of the passengers were arrested on smuggling charges.
Elsewhere in Europe, an Italian navy ship was expected to dock at an Albanian port with a first group of 16 migrants who were intercepted in international waters. Their asylum applications will be processed in Albania instead of in Italy, under a five-year agreement between the two countries.
In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk plans to temporarily suspend the right to asylum. The new migration policy was presented at Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. If adopted, it would require approval from the parliament, where Tusk’s coalition government has a majority, and from conservative President Andrzej Duda.
Ahead of US election, Americans sue to ensure their votes count
- Democrats and their allies sue to make it easier to cast a ballot, which the Republicans claim can open the door to fraudulent votes
- Republicans sue to assert what they call election integrity, which critics call voter suppression
DELAWARE, USA: For Erika Worobec of Cecil, Pennsylvania, mail-in voting is a family ritual. For a primary election in April, she researched the candidates and issues with her young son before making her selections.
“My son gets really excited when that envelope comes,” said Worobec, 45, who is in technical product marketing.
Two months after that election, she learned she had inadvertently marked her ballot with an incomplete date and that hers was among the 259 mail-in ballots in her county that were not recorded because of a ballot error.
“I felt it was un-American,” said Worobec, who votes by mail because she suffers from an autoimmune disease and doesn’t want to risk a trip to a crowded polling place. “How could primary results be accurate if so many ballots were not cast?“
In July, Worobec, who declined to say which presidential candidate she supported, joined a growing number of voters going to court to ensure that they have access to the polls and their ballots are counted in the Nov. 5 US presidential election.
There are roughly 95 election-related lawsuits filed in the seven battleground states that will decide the 2024 election, according to Democracy Docket, a website founded by Democratic lawyer Marc Elias that tracks election cases.
Those states are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In general, Democrats and their allies sue to make it easier to cast a ballot, which the Republicans claim can open the door to fraudulent votes. Republicans sue to assert what they call election integrity, which critics call voter suppression.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, her Republican challenger, locked in a tight race with both parties fighting for every vote.
As a result, voters, advocacy groups and the two main political parties have filed lawsuits over everything from the location of polling places to voter registration procedures.
Worobec, after being approached by the state’s branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, agreed to join six other voters from Washington County, near Pittsburgh, who sued their election board. The Republican Party intervened to defend the case and in August a judge ruled that voters must be notified if a mail-in or absentee ballot has an error so voters can mount a challenge or cast a provisional ballot at their polling place.
The county election board did not respond to a request for comment.
CHALLENGES FACE MIXED SUCCESS
Other voters have had less success.
Tyler Engel, 35, a research project manager in Madison, Wisconsin, has a form of muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair that makes it difficult to access his polling place. To cast an absentee ballot, he would need assistance because he can’t mark a ballot with his hands.
“I have to have someone do it for me, which is kind of unnerving that people know how I vote,” he said.
Engel, who declined to say which presidential candidate he supports, said the advocacy group Disability Rights Wisconsin learned he was researching polling place accessibility and asked him to join a lawsuit that sought to allow voters like him to mark ballots electronically without assistance. The group is funding a pilot project for his research.
A lower court judge ruled that voters who are unable to see or mark a paper ballot should be emailed an electronic version, but the ruling is on hold and will not be resolved before the election.
In Michigan, the Republican National Committee and its allies sued after the governor designated Veterans Administration and Small Business Administration offices as official voter registration agencies.
Vet Voice Foundation, a nonpartisan group which advocates for US military veterans, sought to intervene.
“Oftentimes the first place a veteran is touching down is at the VA health care center, because they need to get their medications,” said Brian Stone, a 37-year-old US Navy veteran who volunteers with the group and said he supports Harris. “But more importantly, there’s a lot of veterans who unfortunately are homeless and do struggle with voter registration.”
A judge denied Vet Voice’s request and the case remains unresolved.
“These agencies should be 100 percent focused on supporting our veterans and small businesses, not spending our tax dollars to influence the election in Michigan,” said spokesperson Claire Zunk of the RNC, who called the case an overt attempt by the governor and Harris to keep the Democrats in power.
Michigan’s secretary of state did not respond to a request for comment.
A DISTANT POLLING PLACE
In Montana, a state which traditionally votes Republican and which could determine control of the US Senate, some members of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes live more than 20 miles (32 km) from the nearest election office.
Some tribal members sued election officials on Sept. 30. They asked for registration and early voting satellite offices near where they live to be open daily in the six-week run-up to the election. Settlement talks are under way.
Dylan Jensen, a Valley County attorney said the county lacked resources but as in past years would provide a satellite office for up to two days which had been used by as few as four voters. A Roosevelt County lawyer said discussions were under way.
“We have tiny towns out in the middle of nowhere, you know? Does it mean that we can’t be heard?” said Joseph Dolezilek, 38, one of the plaintiffs in the suit.
Italian PM hails ‘courageous’ Albania migrant deal
- “It is a new, courageous, unprecedented path, but one that perfectly reflects the European spirit,” Meloni said
- The scheme comes ahead of a European Union summit in Brussels this week, where migration is on the table
ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday brushed aside criticism of a controversial deal to send migrants for processing in Albania, a European first which other European leaders are watching closely.
Italy on Monday began transferring the first migrants to the centers — 16 men from Egypt and Bangladesh — who are due to arrive Wednesday.
“It is a new, courageous, unprecedented path, but one that perfectly reflects the European spirit and has everything it takes to be followed also with other non-EU nations,” Meloni said.
The scheme comes ahead of a European Union summit in Brussels this week, where migration is on the table.
In a letter to member states ahead of the talks, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would “be able to draw lessons from this (Albania) experience in practice.”
Italy’s two processing centers in Albania will be operated under Italian law, with Italian security and staff, and judges hearing cases by video from Rome.
But human rights groups question whether there will be enough protection for asylum seekers.
“The first people to arrive in Italy’s new detention centers deserve better than to be subject to this dangerous political experiment,” said Susanna Zanfrini, Italy director for the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organization.
“Even as the doors open on these new facilities, some huge questions remain unanswered about how Italy will ensure that people’s rights are safeguarded outside of the EU’s jurisdiction.”
Italy’s Mediterranean coast has long been a target for migrants hoping to reach Europe.
Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party promised to halt the arrivals during 2022 national elections.
She agreed with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in November 2023 to open the asylum centers.
Addressing the Senate in Rome, Meloni said her government was setting a “good example” to other countries on how to tackle irregular migration.
She added that Italy would organize an informal meeting at the EU summit ” between the member states most interested in the migration issue.”
At talks in Luxembourg on Tuesday on Albania’s negotiations to eventually join the EU, Rama said, however, that his deal with Italy may not be easily replicated by other countries.
“We have been asked by others and we have said no,” he told reporters, pointing to the long history of close Italy-Albania ties.
The five-year deal, estimated to cost Italy 160 million euros ($175 million) annually, covers certain adult male migrants intercepted on Italian boats in international waters, but within Italy’s search and rescue area.
Those sent to Albania will be from countries deemed “safe” — a debated criterion but one that allows for a more simplified repatriation process.
Critics say the numbers that can be processed in Albania at any one time — initially put at around 3,000 by Rome, but now reported to be much lower — will have little impact on overall numbers.
“In the last three days, more than 1,600 migrants have landed in Italy. An Italian ship is transporting 16 of them to Albania,” noted Matteo Villa, a researcher at the ISPI think tank.
Almost 160,000 migrants landed on Italian shores last year, up from 105,000 the year before, according to interior ministry data.
Numbers have sharply fallen in 2024, with 54,000 arrivals recorded so far, compared to almost 140,000 in the same period in 2023.
However, the government hopes that intercepting people at sea and sending them to Albania before they reach Italy will act as a deterrent.
Rome has also moved to limit the activities of charity ships that rescue migrants in the Central Mediterranean.
Under the new scheme, migrants will first arrive at a center in the northern Albanian port of Shengjin for registration and health checks. They will then go to a center in nearby Gjader to await processing of their asylum claims.
The Gjader facility — a maze of prefabricated buildings surrounded by high walls and police guards — includes a section for migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected, as well as a small jail.
India foreign minister lands in arch-rival Pakistan for rare visit
- Jaishankar’s plane lands just before 3:30 p.m. at an air base near the capital Islamabad
- Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are bitter adversaries with longstanding political tensions
ISLAMABAD: Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday for a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, the first top Delhi diplomat to visit their arch-rival neighbor in nearly a decade.
Jaishankar’s plane landed just before 3:30 p.m. (1030 GMT) at an air base near the capital Islamabad, a foreign office official said, as state TV showed him receiving a bouquet of flowers from a host delegation that did not include any senior ministers.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are bitter adversaries with longstanding political tensions, having fought three wars and numerous smaller skirmishes since they were carved out of the subcontinent’s partition in 1947.
Relations have been particularly sour since 2019, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the limited autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir.
The Himalayan region is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed by both in full, with each accusing the other of stoking militancy there.
Modi’s 2019 move was celebrated across India but led Pakistan to suspend bilateral trade and downgrade diplomatic ties with New Delhi.
Indian government spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said this month the agenda of Jaishankar’s visit would strictly follow the SCO schedule, which is due to discuss trade, humanitarian and social issues.
“The Indian foreign minister has not requested a bilateral meeting, nor have we extended an invitation to them,” Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday.
Islamabad is keen to project an image of stability and security during the conference after a rash of civic unrest in the capital and militant attacks elsewhere across Pakistan in recent weeks.
Former Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj was the last to visit Pakistan in 2015, arriving for a summit on Afghanistan.
Modi also made a surprise visit to Pakistan that year, shortly after taking office for his first term, sparking short-lived hopes of a thaw in relations.
The SCO is a block of 10 nations established by China and Russia, which have used the alliance to deepen their ties with Central Asian states and vie for influence in the region.
However, they have recently pitched the organization as a competitor to the West.
The bloc claims to represent 40 percent of the world’s population and about 30 percent of its GDP, but its members have diverse political systems and even open disagreements with one another.
Pakistan’s former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was in Goa last year — also a rare visit — for an SCO meeting where he and Jaishankar were involved in a verbal spat.
It was the first official visit by a senior Pakistani official to their eastern neighbor since 2016, but the two foreign ministers did not hold a one-on-one meeting.
