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TechnoratiAfrican press review 22 June 2012
When will Egyptians get their presidential election results? When will they finish their revolution? Is the US helping or hindering the Nigerian state's fight with Boko Haram? And what's the going rate for bombing a church?
In Egypt there are continuing reactions in the papers about the postponement of the announcement of results of last week’s presidential runoff between Islamist candidate Mohamed Mursi and ex-prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.
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The Middle East News Agency quotes an official of the Supreme Presidential Elections Commission saying that the results will be announced next Saturday or Sunday.
The agency says that official Tarek Shebl explained the commission’s decision not to publish any results until some 400 appeals filed by the candidates especially those requiring the review of data about ballot boxes are fully reviewed.
Egypt Independent reports that the ex-army general Shafiq claimed victory at a press conference in Cairo on Thursday despite expressing his willingness to wait for the official declaration. This after a coalition of self-proclaimedly independent Egyptian judges declared Mursi winner on Wednesday.
The results of the run-off election ought to have been announced three days after the vote and Daily News Egypt reports that legal experts say that the delay violates the constitution.
Ahramonline wonders what the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces really wants after last Sunday’s insertion of an addendum in the constitution, strengthening the powers of the military as the country waits for a newly elected president.
Daily News Egypt comments about deepening public frustration about what now looks like a “part-time revolution”, as the ruling generals acted to retain sweeping powers over the nation. The bigger worry for many exhausted Egyptians is that a new political crisis raises the prospect of fresh turmoil on their streets, according to the paper.
There are reactions in Nigeria to the US government’s classification of Boko Haram leaders as global terrorists.
"US tags Boko Haram leaders Abubakar Shekau, Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi as global terrorists" shouts The Tribune. The paper reports that the designations demonstrated the US resolve to diminish the capacity of Boko Haram to execute violent attacks.
The Tribune reports that Nigeria’s ambassador to the US voiced Abuja’s opposition to the declaration of Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organisation, arguing that it could enhance the image and prestige of the group among other terrorist organisations thus encouraging them to strengthen the sect for more impact.
The Nation runs a profile of Boko Haram leader Shekarau explaining that he is said to be a fearless loner, a complex, paradoxical man - part intellectual, part gangster.
The paper found out that this native of Shekau village in Yobe state, aged between 35 and 43 and once thought to have been killed in 2009, is still alive and has become Nigeria’s most wanted man. While he has not been seen in public since, Shekau only appears in videos posted on the internet by the group’s faceless “public enlightenment department”, according to the paper.
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The Punch headlines on the capture of Boko Haram operative Habeeb Boma by the joint military task force after a fierce gun battle at his hideout in Yobe state on Thursday.
Boma is considered as the mastermind of the Boko Haram bombings at the Nigerian police headquarters, the UN compound in Abuja and a Catholic church in Niger state.
And The Sun reports that seven suspected Boko Haram men arrested after the attack on a church in Borno state which left at least three Christians dead say they were paid approximately 34 euros each to carry out the attack.
