27 Oct 2014 - NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy

Articles

Tunisians vote in first parliamentary election under new constitution
By The Guardian, 26 Oct 2014

Tunisians voted on Sunday in the first parliamentary elections under a new constitution enacted after the uprising almost four years ago that forced out the country’s authoritarian ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.Up to 80,000 troops and police were deployed to avert extremist attacks, and turnout was estimated to be about 51% an hour before the polls closed. More than 100 political parties were competing for seats in the legislative assembly.The prime minister, Mehdi Jomaa, hailed the vote as “historic”. “The spotlight is on us and the success of this is a guarantee for the future … a glimmer of hope for this region’s young people,” he told local radio as he voted.Tunisia is seen as a relative success story, compared with countries such as Egypt, Syria and Libya, where similar uprisings followed the mass protests that overthrew Ben Ali.Five million Tunisians were registered to vote. Many participating in the election exited polling stations with their index fingers dyed in ink – a measure designed to prevent people casting multiple ballots – held up in celebration.

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Kurds 'repulse ISIL push' in Syria's Kobane
By Al Jazeera, 26 Oct 2014

Kurdish forces have reportedly thwarted a new attempt by ISIL fighters to cut off the Syrian town of Kobane from the border with Turkey before Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements arrive.Sunday's pre-dawn assault marked the fourth straight day ISIL had attacked the Syrian side of the border crossing as the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters prepared to head for Kobane, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.Kurdish forces, backed by US-led air strikes, have been holding out for weeks against an ISIL offensive around Kobane, which has become a high-profile symbol of efforts to stop the fighters' advance.The US military said in its latest update that American warplanes carried out five air strikes near Kobane on Saturday and Sunday, destroying seven ISIL vehicles and an IS-held building.

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Bahrain: Free Activists Facing Free-Speech Charges
By Human Rights Watch, 26 Oct 2014

(Beirut) – Bahrain authorities should drop all criminal charges against two prominent human rights activists, and immediately release them, Human Rights Watch and the Gulf Center for Human Rights said today. The charges clearly violate their right to free expression. Bahrain should also immediately revoke all laws that violate freedom of speech, including those that criminalize insulting or defaming state institutions or the monarch.Nabeel Rajab, one of Bahrain’s most prominent human rights defenders, is due in court on October 29, 2014, to face charges that he offended national institutions, and a possible three-year jail sentence. Zainab al-Khawaja, another leading human rights campaigner, could receive an even heavier sentence of up to seven years when she stands trial on October 30 on charges that she insulted the king of Bahrain.

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Israeli president warns on Arab-Jewish relations
By The Guardian, 26 Oct 2014

Israel’s president has delivered a sharp warning on declining Arab-Jewish relations on a visit to the scene of a massacre by Israeli police of 47 Arab villagers in 1956.Reuven Rivlin – the first sitting Israeli president to visit Kafr Qasim on the day of town’s annual commemoration of the killings – acknowledged the massacre as a “terrible crime” and “murder of the innocents” for which the state of Israel had apologised.Defying calls from rightwing supporters not to speak at the event, Rivlin – who a week ago called Israel a “sick society in need of treatment” - used the occasion to warn against those on both sides “who wish to sweep us into a maelstrom of destruction and pain”.

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