By Magdalena Rahn, SofiaEcho

The United States embassy in Sofia gave Bulgarians the opportunity to “vote” in mock presidential elections in the city of Karlovo and in the village of Banya on November 2 2008. Bulgarian National Television reported on the initiative on its evening programme Po sveta i u nas (Around the World and at Home) the same day.

The preferences were clear: 61 per cent preferred Democratic candidate Barack Obama to 39 per cent for Republican pretendant John McCain.

The experimental elections were held in the open, with 800 ballots available and lots of patriotic promotional material like flags. Throughout the day, two groups of “party reps” canvassed the voting areas, campaigning.

“We just wanted to see what people thought,” Branimir Botev, head of the Obama “campaign”, who is otherwise director of the supervisory council of the Banya winery. McCain’s “campaign” was headed by chairman of the municipal council of Karlovo, Toshko Stoev.

Asked for why he chose one candidate over another, one man in his late 30s said to BNT that he voted for McCain because “Republicans are hardliners compared to the rest of the world”.

Another man, a gentleman in his 70s, said that he voted for Obama because he “looks like a nice guy, he has great promise, he said he will lower taxes, he’ll get the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and he just looks nice”.

Obama fever grips Kenya: Minibuses festooned with Obama’s image ply Kenya’s roads (Fox News)

NAIROBI, KENYA – Senator Barrack Obama’s relatives have congregated at Nyangoma Kogelo village and will remain together until after Tuesday’s US presidential elections.

They have set aside a bull to slaughter in celebration should the Illinois senator whose father was Kenyan win, according to family spokesperson Mr Malik Abongo. – Daily Nation

Worshippers in Kisumu, in the heartland of Obama’s Kenyan family, on Sunday prayed for the Democrat senator’s victory in the November 4 presidential poll.

Sarah Palin, the vice presidential candidate on the rival Republican ticket, famously received a blessing earlier this year in Alaska from a visiting Kenyan pastor who claims special powers against witchcraft.

But two days before the crucial vote, Obama received the less controversial backing of thousands of church-goers in Kisumu and the surrounding region, where his 86-year-old grandmother still lives.

At Kisumu’s Baptist Church, dozens of Christian faithful sang and prayed for Obama, who has become the East African nation’s favorite son and whose White House bid has triggered a wave of enthusiasm and seen support groups crop up all over Kenya.

Raising their hands in the air, grimacing worshipers weaved their prayers into a chorus over keyboard tunes belting through a home-made woofer.

“We put Barack Obama in your hands. It is you who chooses leaders, help him in the elections so that he can win,” prayed Reverend Samson Otieno, likening the contest between Obama and Republican candidate John McCain to the biblical duel between David and Goliath.

“We will give you thanks and praise when he wins,” Otieno said.

“I am praying the will of God be done so that people do not despise Africans,” said Olivia Achieng, sweat pearling on her forehead, after an energetic prayer for her favourite candidate.

Other special prayer sessions were scheduled across the western Kenyan region in the final run-up to Tuesday’s vote. – AFP

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – A last-minute visa hitch has forced a Melbourne Ethiopian refugee to wait one more day to be reunited with four of his children he hasn’t seen in a decade.

Jemal Ambo fled Ethiopia in 1998, leaving behind his six young children, then aged one, two, three, five, seven and nine.

Two years later his wife Rumana Kedir Osmar also fled, able only to take with her one of their sons, who was then four years old.

The mother and son joined Mr Ambo in a Kenyan refugee camp and in 2003 the three were granted a refugee visa to Australia.

Their five other children were left behind with relatives. However, the oldest son is now missing, his fate or whereabouts in the war-torn nation unknown.

This week, more than 10 years after he fled for his life, Mr Ambo was set to be re-united with his four other children at Melbourne Airport on Tuesday.

But a last-minute visa hitch in Ethiopia delayed the children’s departure by one day and they are now not due to arrive until Wednesday.

Mr Ambo has worked with Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre (SMRC) to bring his children, now aged 11, 13, 15 and 17, to Australia.

“There are no words to describe the desperation we felt at leaving our children to be cared for by relatives and there will be no words to describe the joy of having them finally with us,” Mr Ambo said in an SMRC statement.

“We didn’t know whether our children were alive, one child is still missing.

“But we hoped and prayed and now we are overjoyed at the thought that they will soon be with us.”

Two of the children are Mr Ambo’s with his previous wife, who died in jail while being detained.

Mr Ambo and his wife Rumana have had three daughters since arriving in Melbourne and have also succeeded in bringing Rumana’s 19-year-old daughter from another marriage to live with them as well.

SMRC case officer Lyda Dankha said it took two years to bring the couple’s other four children over, as it had taken much longer than expected to get them Ethiopian passports.

“It is a great story of family reunion, in spite of war and against all odds,” SMRC settlement and family services manager Sonia Vignjevic said.

She said the re-united family, which will then be nine children and two parents, will now need support for their next challenge, finding an affordable home big enough for them all in Melbourne’s inner-city Collingwood, where they now live.

–The Age

MOGADISHU (Xinhua) — Islamist insurgents have peacefully taken over the coastal town of Marka in the south of Somalia and announced the formation of an Islamic administration, local residents and reports from the southern town said Sunday.

“There were no fighting in the town (of Marka) and we just saw Islamist forces in the town and their commanders speaking with people in the town,” Aden Omar, a local resident told Xinhua by phone.

Yusuf Siyad Indha Adde, the Defense Secretary for the main opposition group, the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS), who led the Islamist forces that took over the town, spoke with local residents.

“We will form an Islamic administration for this town, which will represent all residents of this town, which will not be governed other than by the Islamic law,” Indha Adde told a crowd of people who gathered near the town hall.

The takeover came days after two senior local officials, the deputy regional governor, and vice chief of police, who were allegedly government appointed but insurgent sympathizers, were killed when their vehicle hit a landmine in Marka, the provincial capital of Lower Shabelle, 90 km south of Mogadishu.

Indha Adde said that the officials were not killed by opposition fighters and he thanked the two officials for “keeping their promise with the insurgents”, a reference that indicated link between the two sides.

Marka, a relatively peaceful town, has recently been the scene of numerous attacks on local and international humanitarian workers.

Tag: Ethiopia, Somalia