Cape Town, May 20 (IANS/DPA) South Africa’s highest court ruled on Monday that former President Jacob Zuma cannot stand as a candidate in next week’s general elections because a 2021 conviction for contempt of court has disqualified him.

The Constitutional Court ruled that Zuma’s sentence of more than 12 months in prison had made him ineligible to stand.

His former party, the ruling African National Congress (ANC), suspended Zuma, 82, in January. He has since founded a new party, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and intended to stand as chairman of the party in the May 29 elections.

The Constitutional Court ruling reverses an earlier ruling by a lower court allowing Zuma to stand in the elections.

The elections are seen as the most significant since freedom fighter and later President Nelson Mandela led the country to democracy in 1994. Polls indicate that the ANC could for the first time lose its absolute majority and be forced to seek a coalition partner.

Under the constitution, the President is appointed by parliament and not directly elected.

President from 2009 to 2018, Zuma was forced from office on grounds of corruption. In 2021 he was handed a 15-month prison term after refusing to give evidence to a committee investigating nepotism and corruption during his period in office.

His arrest provoked riots in which some 350 people were killed and hundreds of businesses were looted and firebombed.

Zuma served less than eight weeks in prison before being released on grounds of poor health.

–IANS/DPA

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Tehran, May 20 (IANS/DPA) Memorial ceremonies for President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian are planned in Iran for Tuesday after they were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that a ceremony is planned in the provincial capital of Tabriz on Tuesday morning, followed by a ceremony in the religious stronghold and pilgrimage city of Qom.

The date for the funerals of the two statesmen has not yet been announced. Raisi is to be buried in his hometown of Mashhad.

Raisi and Amirabdollahian were killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash with seven other people. The chopper crashed in dense fog in the mountains over East Azerbaijan Province while travelling back after a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.

–IANS/DPA

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Santo Domingo, May 20 (IANS/DPA) Incumbent Luis Abinader has been re-elected in the first round of the presidential election in the Dominican Republic.

The candidate of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) received over 57% of the vote, the electoral office announced on Monday after almost all the votes had been counted.

Former president Leonel Fernández, who governed in 1996-2000 and again in 2004-08, received around 29% of the vote, while the former mayor of the second largest city Santiago, Abel Martínez, received around 10%. Both have conceded defeat.

All three candidates can be assigned to the centre-left camp.

“We have already travelled part of the way. Now it is time to deepen the changes and reforms in order to consistently continue on the path of development,” Abinader said after his election victory, according to a report in the Listin Diario newspaper.

The election campaign in the Caribbean state was dominated by the crisis in neighbouring Haiti, with which the Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola.

Powerful gangs have brought the state there to the brink of collapse. Abinader recently said that the crisis in Haiti poses a direct threat to the stability and security of the Dominican Republic. His government is currently building a wall along the approximately 400 kilometre-long border.

The Dominican Republic is the most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean. The beach paradise has recovered from the slump in tourism caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and last year recorded more than 10 million visitors for the first time. The economy has been one of the fastest growing in Latin America on average for decades.

–IANS/DPA

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Istanbul, May 20 (IANS) Turkish Police on Monday detained 20 suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) in a large operation in Turkey’s western province of Izmir, local media reported.

As part of the investigation conducted by the Izmir Public Prosecutor’s Office Terrorism Crimes Investigation Bureau, several simultaneous operations were carried out in the Menemen district, according to the state-run TRT broadcaster, reported Xinhua News Agency.

Police units seized weapons, organisational documents, and many digital materials during the searches at the addresses, TRT said, noting that the suspects were referred to the courthouse for further procedures.

Turkey, which listed IS as a terror organisation in 2013, has faced multiple attacks from the extremist group. In response, Turkish authorities have initiated counter-terrorism operations both domestically and internationally.

–IANS

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New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) India on Monday declared one day of state mourning on May 21 as a mark of respect to Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi and the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

“On the day of mourning (Tuesday), the National Flag will be flown at half-mast on all buildings where the National Flag is flown regularly and there will be no official entertainment on the day,” read a statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Raisi and Abdollahian were among nine people who died after their helicopter crashed in Iran’s mountainous north-west region while they were returning from the Azerbaijan border after flagging off joint projects in the region.

–IANS

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