The Taliban have launched a concerted attack on the city of Lashkar Gah the capital of the province of Helmand in Afghanistan. Taliban have surrounded the city for weeks. The Afghan government has deployed 300 elite commandos to the city to stop the Taliban advance. Spokesperson for the province ,Omar Zwak, said the commandos were sent from Kabul and neighbouring provinces to begin a “clearance operation” in Lashkar Gah: “Soon the security forces will clear the whole city from Taliban." Officials in the city were less optimistic. Thousands of people have already fled the city but thousands more who fled to the city to escape the city now find themselves trapped. Lashkar Gah is a city of about 200,000 people. The Taliban have seized parts of the city. They are said to be within two kilometers of the governor's compound. The airport has been closed. Across the city on Monday, Taliban attacked checkpoints. A suicide attack killed 14 people including 10 police officers. Provincial council chief Karim Atal said: "If we don't receive help from the central government, the province will collapse soon." Last October, the Taliban briefly held the northern city of Kunduz but were eventually driven out. However, Kunduz too has recently been under attack again. A third city, Tarin Kowt, the capital of Oruzgan province is also under attack. The attacks are happening as divisions are appearing within the Afghan government. Davood Moradian of the Afghan Institute of Strategic Studies said:“The national unity government has stagnated, and that stagnation has created a vacuum. The political basis of the government is shrinking on a daily basis, and I don’t see any chance of that being reversed. There are two forces that can fill that vacuum — one is the Taliban, and the other is President Karzai.”The attacks also follow upon a recent meeting in Brussels at which 70 nations pledged almost $20 billion (US) in aid to keep Afghanistan afloat until 2020. The fighting in the countryside has sent at least 10,000 internally displaced Afghans to Kabul the capital and other places. BBC South Asia correspondent, Jill McGivering said if the city falls it will be a symbolic disaster:"For the past fifteen years, Lashkar Gah has been held up by the west as a safe, protected seat of government - a focus for international development, a weapon in the battle for hearts and minds. In terms of its propaganda value too, the government and its backers simply can't afford to lose it."
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Morocco just finished elections for its 10th parliament since independence in 1956. The Islamic Justice and Development Party (PJD), the ruling party, won 125 seats. The PJD has been running a coalition government since 2011. The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) came second with 102 seats. Coming third was the Independence Party with 46 seats and then the National Rally of Independent (RNI) with 37 seats.The results show continued strong support for the PJD despite criticism from opponents that the party had not achieved any tangible results since coming to power. Out-going PJD PM, Abdelilah Benkirane, said: "This is a day of joy and a victory for democracy. The Moroccan people have rewarded PJD for the work we did in our previous term."PAM spokesperson Khaled Adnoun said he was pleased with the outcome even though they expected to win more seats. He ruled out any cooperation with the PJD. Critics claim that the PAM is too close to the king. There are 395 seats in the House of Representatives. The voting system is set up in such a way that no party can win a majority. The PJD will need to form a coalition again with other parties to form a government. The PJD may need to reach out to as many as three other parties to form a majority coalition. According to the constitution, the PM is selected from the party which received the most votes in the election. King Mohammed VI is likely to ask the PJD to form a new coalition government. This will be the first time that a party will have been able to rule for two consecutive terms. The king devolved some powers onto the parliament five years ago to relieve pressure for democratic change.Morocco is a constitutional monarchy and the power of the king is predominant. The king appoints the PM, can remove the PM from office, and can dissolve parliament. The lack of power of the parliament and the inability of the government to solve some of the country's problems is perhaps responsible for the low turnout of just over 43 percent. The average overall in municipal, regional, and national polls has been roughly 50 percent. A senior bank officer told Al Jazeera: "We need employment, decent accommodation, a good health system and better education. Corruption in the country, which remains widespread in both the public and business spheres, has to end as well." However, many expect the new government to help alleviate the situation in healthcare and education. The unemployment situation is particularly severe with more than 20 percent of young people without a job .In the past, the PJD leader, Benkirane has tried to reduce the deficit and reduce subsidies. The party has also campaigned against corruption. While there has been strong reaction against Islamist parties after the Arab Spring especially in countries such as Egypt, the PJD has survived and even flourished in Morocco. The PJD did well even though there were accusations that the royal establishment was unfairly backing PAM in the organization of the poll. Officials denied the accusation. Many organizations boycott the elections because the king retains a great deal of political power. This includes the main Islamist opposiition group Justice and Spirituality and several left-wing organizations. Pedro Sanchez leader of the Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) in Spain refused to allow Mariano Rajoy of the rival People's party to form a government. This move has infuriated many within the party. An attempted coup against him resulted in a long eleven-hour long meeting of the federal executive in which Sanchez' plan of holding a leadership contest within three weeks was rejected by a vote of 132 to 107. Shortly after the vote, Sanchez resigned and a caretaker leader was appointed. The party will need to decide its next step in order to avoid a third general election in just over one year. Sanchez has adamantly refused to take any action that would support the return of Rajoy's conservative People's party to power. He claimed that the Rajoy government had done too much damage to the Spanish economy and was hopelessly entangled in corruption scandals. However, many voters in Spain are anxious for a solution to the political crisis in spite of the shortcomings of Rajoy's government. Adversaries within the PSOE hold Sanchez responsible for the poor showing of the PSOE in recent elections. Sanchez was unrepentant:“As I said yesterday and as I’m saying again today, my parents taught me that the most important thing is keeping your word. That was my word, which I gave to all the members and to the federal committee, too, when it came to the party’s position on Rajoy’s investiture process.” Opponents in the party had begged Sanchez to allow Rajoy to govern. Susana Diaz, the party leader in Andalucia, often suggested as Sanchez' successor, said that Sanchez should put the needs of the country before the needs of the party. The PSOE now has a month to decide on what to do. If there is no political solution then King Felipe could dissolve parliament and call for elections once again to be held at Christmas. While Rajoy may now be able to count on help from the PSOE, it will come at a high price for the party. Rajoy's position is now much stronger and at the same time the more radical Podemos party is sure to gain more adherents from the defeat of Sanchez and his supporters within the PSOE. Podemos could very well become the dominant voice of the left within Spain. Pablo Simon, of Carlos III University in Madrid said that the PSOE had been badly wounded by internal strife and was in no mood for any further elections as they would be sure to lose even more votes and seats:“The Socialist party is so weakened, so destroyed and so ripped apart that all it can do is limp on. If it’s going to negotiate, it can only do so with its hands up. His (Rajoy's) conditions are going to be very harsh. It seems he’s going to look for their support to make sure he has four easy years in office.”Simon said that a number of potential leaders inclluding Diaz would find their reputation damaged by the move against Sanchez. Any new leader would need to be comeone who was not part of the move to depose Sanchez he claimed. Simon thought that the wound within the PSOE would be hard to cure in the near term and he thought that there would be a long rule of rightist forces in Spain. Simon said of the PSOE: “Why is the PSOE eating itself away? There’s the crisis of international social democracy, plus memories of Zapatero’s economic management, plus the pro-independence process that has deprived it of its key store of votes in Catalonia, plus a rival party to its left that is taking its votes from under-35s and those on peripheral areas. These four simultaneous crises make it very difficult to lead the party no matter who the leader is.” Pablo Iglesias, leader of the left Podemos party, called the trouble within the PSOE "the most important crisis since the end of the civil war in the most important Spanish party of the past century." Iglesias would be happy if Podemos replaced the PSOE as the voice of the Spanish left. In recent elections in Galicia and the Basque country, the PSOE finished behind Podemos.Former leader of the PSOE Felipe Gonzalez claims that Sanchez had promised him that he would respect the wishes of those within the PSOE by dropping his objection to allowing Rajoy to form a minority government. Shortly after Gonzalez made his accusation half of the PSOE executive committee resigned. Those resigning thought that their action would force the committee to dissolve and the leader to step down with a caretaker leader put in place. Instaed it forced the meeting on the plan of Sanchez to hold a leadership convention, but as the plan was voted down, Sanchez did end up resigning. The political crisis is matched by an economic crisis as the Spanish economy falters. Unemployment is still very high :Despite a decline in 2015, the youth unemployment rate remains among the highest in the EU. Total unemployment is now 21% but still almost one out of two of active people aged between 15 and 24 remain unemployed. And long-term unemployment remains double that of 2008. The unemployment rate would be even higher except that Spaniards have left the country to look for work elsewhere in Europe (the UK and Germany) or even Latin America. The rate of net emigration has reached 250,000 a year, draining the economy of some of the most educated and productive young citizens.Regional governments are deep in debt and as a result are forced to make huge cuts in their budgets causing service to inhabitants to be cut or decline in quality. Some areas with national interests such as the Basque country are making noises about separation from Madrid. Capital investment is low as is profitability so the outlook for growth in the economy is dim. The situation will not be improved by a weak political leadership. |
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Ken Hanly
Ken is a retired philosophy professor living in the boondocks of Manitoba, Canada, with his Filipina wife. He enjoys reading the news and writing articles. Politically Ken is on the far left of the political spectrum on many issues.
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