Issue 13
- Venstre (Norway) rising in the polls
- Kenya Raila Odinga leads the no-camp constitutional referendum
- Singapore crackdown on movie about Dr Chee Soon Juan
Venstre (Norway) rising in the polls
Venstre is gaining in the polls in the run up to the parliamentary elections 12 September 2005.
Venstre, currently part of the minority centre-right government with three ministers and two members of parliament, obtained 2.1% in the previous elections. The polls are predicting a result between 3.6% and 4.3%.
Under the Norwegian electoral system a result over 4% is very important as it increases the number of parliamentarians significantly and in the case of Venstre perhaps with up to eight MPs.
The Norwegian election system, which is based on the principle of direct election and proportional representation, includes a mechanism to even out discrepancies that favour bigger parties. This means that there are additional seats reserved in all the 19 polling districts and parties that obtain the set 4% threshold of all votes cast are entitled to a certain number of these seats. Whether Venstre obtains this threshold or not will be crucial in forming the next government.
Polls predict: The Social Democrats (31.2%), Progressive Party (rightwing populist) (19.2%), Conservative Party (15,9%), Socialist Left (13.2%), Christian Democrats (8.8%), Centre Party (agrarian)(5.3%).
Kenya Raila Odinga leads the no-camp constitutional referendum
Kenya will hold its first-ever nationwide referendum vote on new draft constitution on 21 November 2005, paving the way for the controversial text that retains Mwai Kibaki's strong presidential powers.
While in opposition to Moi, Kibaki's National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) and Raila Odinga's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) formed the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) and pushed for the creation of a more influential Prime Minister to curb presidential authority. Kibaki would run as Presidential candidate and Raila Odinga as prospective Prime Minister in the 2002 election.
The NARC coalition won the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2002. However the office of Prime Minister has not been created and it still remains vacant. Kibaki said that there could not be two centers of power.
Two parties, the opposition Kenya African National Union (KANU) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by Raila Odinga, are campaigning for the draft's rejection. They demand for a new constitution that should provide a Prime Minister to replace the President as head of government.
Singapore crackdown on movie about Dr Chee Soon Juan
Singapore director, under investigation for making a documentary about a leading opposition figure, handed over to authorities all remaining copies of the short movie and cameras used in filming. Martyn See's 26-minute film 'Singapore Rebel' is about politician Chee Soon Juan, an outspoken critic of the government.
Dr Chee, leader of CALD member the Singapore Democratic Party, faces bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay defamation-related damages to Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, and his successor, Goh Chok Tong.
Police have said See may have broken the law by knowingly showing or distributing a 'party political film.' He could be imprisoned up to two years or fined up to 100,000 Singapore dollars (US$60,000) if convicted.
See said authorities had requested all equipment and copies, as well as the receipts used to ship it for screening at the New Zealand Human Rights Film Festival and the Amnesty International Film Festival in Hollywood earlier this year. The Singapore government has called politically motivated films 'an undesirable medium' to debate issues. See said he made the film independently to see how the opposition works in Singapore and that he has no political affiliation.
Strict government controls In Singapore on civil society organizations and the press continue to curb freedom of expression and are an obstacle to the independent monitoring of human rights. The threat of potentially ruinous civil defamation suits against opponents of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) continue to inhibit political life and engender a climate of self-censorship