This is music to my ears. If only our opposition leaders can followsuit.
Friday, 26 October, 2001, 08:59 GMT 09:59 UK
Mauritania polls go to second round
Mauritania is holding a second round of parliamentary and local elections
today Friday, which should decide control of the major cities.
The governing Democratic and Social Republican Party PRDS was in the lead
after the first round on 19 October, but the four main opposition parties
have formed an electoral alliance in the second round.
The PRDS won 56 of the 81 national assembly seats in the first round.
Thirteen more are being contested on Friday, and about a-seventh of the
3,500 local council seats are so far undecided.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Thursday, 25 October, 2001, 15:12 GMT 16:12 UK
Plan to halt Guinea referendum
Opposition leaders in Guinea say they will use all means to prevent a
referendum designed to change the country's constitution to enable President
Lansana Conte to run for a third term.
Guinea's constitution allows for only two presidential terms, which would
force the president to stand down in 2003.
But earlier this month, he said he wanted to stand again, and a date for a
referendum on the issue was fixed for 11 November.
The veteran opposition leader, Mamadou Ba - representing the Movement
Against the Referendum and for Democratic Change - accused the president of
attempting a constitutional coup d'etat.
He told a news conference in Conakry that this was the last chance for the
opposition to stop a dictatorship imposing a president for life on the
people.
President Conte seized power in a military coup in 1984, then became a
civilian and won presidential elections in 1993 and 1998.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Circumcision arrests in Senegal
hard to stop
By Alpha Jallow in Dakar
Authorities in Senegal have arrested eight women and five old men in
southern Kolda district for circumcising more than 20 young girls.
According to village sources, the women were picked up on Tuesday after a
village elder who opposes the practice tipped off local police.
The sources said the young girls, aged between two and five, had been hidden
among a group of young boys due for circumcision.
A local government officer said those arrested will soon be arraigned before
a district tribunal.
Banned
Female genital mutilation has become a controversial issue in Senegal
following a government ban three years ago.
Despite the ban, the practice has become increasingly prevalent, especially
among the Fulani, Mandingo and Fula tribes of southern Casamance province.
Locals have vowed not to stop circumcising their young girls, a practice
which they say is deeply rooted in their society.
Efforts to discourage the practice in Senegal through a widespread media
campaign have proved almost futile.
A number of local and international non-governmental groups have tried to
encourage traditional doctors to discontinue circumcisions by providing
small loans to compensate them for lost business.
But to no avail.
It appears that no matter what form of assistance is given, it is extremely
difficult, if not impossible, to stamp out the centuries-old practice.
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