The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Czech cabinet in crisis after police sweep government offices
- Iran begins vote to choose Ahmadinejad's successor
- Iranians start voting to select successor to Ahmadinejad
| Czech cabinet in crisis after police sweep government offices Posted: 13 Jun 2013 08:51 PM PDT PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech Republic's main opposition party demanded on Thursday that Prime Minister Petr Necas step down after police raided government offices, seized documents and detained a woman who for years has been one of his closest aides.
Necas said he would not consider resigning after the raids, but the investigation is a severe blow to his government, which does not have a stable majority in parliament and has already come close to collapsing several times. Hundreds of officers from the organised crime unit, some armed and wearing balaclavas, conducted sweeps of the government headquarters and the Defence Ministry. They also searched safe deposit boxes in a bank, seized documents at the capital's city hall, and raided private homes. One anti-graft campaigner said it was the biggest operation in the past 20 years to tackle corruption in the Czech Republic, a European Union member of 10.5 million people. Among those detained was Jana Nagyova, the head of the prime minister's office who has been, in effect, his long-standing personal assistant. Police refused to give details of their investigation or disclose the names of the people they had detained. Necas himself, in a statement to the media, revealed that Nagyova was among people from his office who had been detained. The police operation triggered a political crisis, with parliament interrupting its session, the crown currency dropping slightly, and the president scheduling a meeting with Necas and the head of the national police for Friday. Bohuslav Sobotka, head of the centre-left opposition Social Democrats said the country should hold an early election and his party would start consultations with political partners and the president to secure that aim. The opposition party needs allies, as it alone does not have enough votes to dismiss the cabinet. "The Social Democrats demand an immediate resignation of the prime minister," Sobotka told reporters. The Czech Republic became a beacon of liberty in 1989 when former dissident Vaclav Havel led the "Velvet Revolution" against communist rule. But since then, successive governments have been dogged by accusations and rumours of corruption - though none has ever led to a high-profile conviction. In a statement to the media, Necas said: "I am personally convinced that I did not do anything dishonest and that my colleagues have not done anything dishonest either. Therefore I do not have any reason to consider a resignation and, thus, the fall of the government." "GATEKEEPER" Referring to his aide's detention, Necas said: "I can only comment that my confidence in her has not declined and I have no reason to believe that she committed anything illegal." Interior Minister Jan Kubice said that Necas himself had been visited late on Wednesday by the head of the organised crime unit and two state attorneys. But he gave no further details and it was unclear what the visit was about. Petr Honzejk, a commentator at the daily Hospodarske Noviny newspaper, said the raids were the most serious blow yet to the centre-right government led by Necas. "I think Petr Necas cannot survive this," he said. "Everyone knows how close she (Nagyova) is to him." A senior government official told Reuters that Nagyova was personally close to Necas for years, and acted as a gatekeeper for people who wanted to see the prime minister. The government switchboard directed calls for Nagyova to the press department, which refused to comment. It was Necas who tried to break with the pattern of corruption being swept under the carpet by appointing prosecutors with a free hand to pursue sleaze cases. "This is clearly the biggest police operation concerning corruption ... in the past 20 years," said Radim Bures of anti-graft group Transparency International. "For the past year and a half police and the state attorney's office have shown they are not scared." Necas said that people from his office were detained apparently in relation to a case last year when three former deputies from his party quit parliament after abandoning a rebellion that could have toppled the government. Two of them were later given top positions at state firms. Czech media said police also searched the premises of politically-connected businessmen. There was no indication from police or prosecutors of what corrupt activities they suspect in the case, but Czech media and politicians have long talked about the country being plagued by sleazy practices. These have included overpriced IT, legal, services and equipment procurement contracts at various levels of state administration, often won by companies with anonymous owners in off-shore tax havens. (Additional reporting by Jana Mlcochova and Jan Korselt; Editing by Pravin Char) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Iran begins vote to choose Ahmadinejad's successor Posted: 13 Jun 2013 08:45 PM PDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranians began voting on Friday in a presidential election unlikely to result in seismic shifts in its troubled relations with the West and Gulf Arab neighbours, but which could bring a softening of the confrontational style personified by outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
World powers embroiled in talks with Iran over its nuclear programme are looking for signs of a recalibration of its negotiating position after eight years of intransigence under fiery populist Ahmadinejad. Iran's Gulf Arab neighbours are also wary of Iran's influence in Iraq next door and its backing for President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese allies Hezbollah in the Syrian civil war. The Sunni Arab kingdoms are backing the rebels in Syria. Of five hardline candidates professing unwavering obedience to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, three are thought to stand any chance of winning the vote, or making it through to a second round run-off in a week's time. Of those three main conservative hopefuls only one, current chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, advocates maintaining Iran's robust, ideologically-driven foreign policy. The other two, Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, have pledged never to back away from pursuing Iran's nuclear programme but have strongly criticised Jalili's inflexible negotiating stance. They face a single moderate candidate, the only cleric in the race, Hassan Rohani. Though very much an establishment figure, suspicious of the West, Rohani is more likely to pursue a conciliatory foreign policy. 2009 CRACKDOWN With no independent, reliable opinion polls in Iran, it is hard to gauge the public mood, let alone the extent to which Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards will exert their powerful influence over the ballot. State media reported that polling began on schedule at 0330 GMT. Voting lasts for 10 hours, though this can be extended if need be. There are more than 50 million Iranians eligible to vote, 1.6 million of them first-time voters. But security has been tight and campaigns subdued compared to the euphoric rallies that preceded the last presidential election in 2009, when reformist supporters thought they scented victory and the prospect of change in Iran. Those hopes were dashed when Ahmadinejad was returned to office by results the reformists said were rigged. The large street protests that broke out were met with a tough crackdown in which several people were killed and hundreds arrested. The reformist candidates who lost in 2009 are now under house arrest and have little contact with the outside world. Human rights groups have criticised Iran for further arrests and curbs on activists and journalists ahead of Friday's poll and the disqualification of 678 people registered as candidates, including Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the founders of the Islamic Republic. Iranian officials dispute accusations of human rights abuses and call the charges politically motivated. They also say elections in Iran are free, fair and democratic. (Writing by Jon Hemming, Additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian, Editing by Andrew Roche and William Maclean) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Iranians start voting to select successor to Ahmadinejad Posted: 13 Jun 2013 08:41 PM PDT
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranians began voting on Friday to choose a successor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, state television reported. The election, in which voters have a choice of six candidates, is the first for a head of government since a disputed 2009 ballot touched off months of political unrest in the Islamic Republic. (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Zahra Hosseinian, Editing by William Maclean) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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