Though voter fraud rare, US election offices feature safeguards to catch it

NEW YORK — You’ve heard the hor­ror sto­ries: Some­one cast­ing mul­ti­ple bal­lots, peo­ple vot­ing in the name of dead rel­a­tives, mail-in bal­lots being inter­cept­ed.  Vot­er fraud does hap­pen occa­sion­al­ly. When it does, we tend to hear a lot about it. It also gets caught and pros­e­cut­ed.  The nation’s mul­ti­lay­ered elec­tion process­es pro­vide many safe­guards that keep…

Kenyan lawmakers impeach deputy president for abuse of office

Nairo­bi — Kenya’s Nation­al Assem­bly has impeached the coun­try’s deputy pres­i­dent over accu­sa­tions of cor­rup­tion and abuse of office. Law­mak­ers vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly to remove Rigathi Gach­agua from office in the vote Tues­day night. The fate of the deputy pres­i­dent now rests in the hands of the Sen­ate.  The process to con­sid­er removal of Kenya’s deputy president…

Analysts welcome Nigeria’s security pact with Niger

abu­ja, nige­ria — Nige­ria and neigh­bor­ing Niger have signed an agree­ment to boost their secu­ri­ty coop­er­a­tion, despite ten­sions fol­low­ing a coup in Niger more than a year ago. The Niger­ian army announced the secu­ri­ty coop­er­a­tion pact on Tues­day in a com­mu­nique. The coun­tries’ defense chiefs signed the accord this week in Niamey, Niger’s cap­i­tal. It’s the first military…

Ghana’s ruling party launches manifesto ahead of elections

Sekon­­di-Tako­ra­­di, Ghana — Ghana’s rul­ing New Patri­ot­ic Par­ty (NPP) launched its man­i­festo Sun­day in a vibrant event in Tako­ra­di, as the par­ty gears up for a fierce bat­tle in Decem­ber’s polit­i­cal­ly charged elec­tions. The par­ty’s pres­i­den­tial can­di­date, Vice Pres­i­dent Mahamudu Bawu­mia, unveiled the doc­u­ment, which places a strong empha­sis on job cre­ation and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment. “Our…

Analysts weigh in on US advisory council visit to Nigeria

Abu­ja — A U.S. advi­so­ry coun­cil on African dias­po­ra engage­ment is in Nige­ria on a mis­sion to dis­cuss dias­po­ra-led invest­ments across sec­tors includ­ing edu­ca­tion, health, tech­nol­o­gy and the cre­ative indus­tries. Ana­lysts weigh in on the pur­pose of the vis­it. Del­e­gates to the 12-mem­ber President’s Advi­so­ry Coun­cil on African Dias­po­ra Engage­ment were in Nige­ri­a’s eco­nom­ic cen­ter, Lagos, Monday…

US military completes major exercise in Africa, works on partnerships

TAN TAN, Moroc­co — High-rank­ing mil­i­tary offi­cials from the U.S. and its top African allies watched intent­ly as dust and flames shot up from pieces of the Sahara Desert hit by tank and artillery fire. They looked up as pilots flew F‑16s into for­ma­tion. And they lis­tened intent­ly as Moroc­can and Amer­i­can per­son­nel explained how they…