World
‘My vote snatched’: India election clouded by mysterious candidate pullouts
New Delhi, India – Prince Patel cancelled his vacation plans after the dates were announced for India’s ongoing weeks-long elections. The 61-year-old retired engineer said he had waited patiently for five years to cast his vote in Surat, India’s diamond hub in the western Indian state of Gujarat, “to give my referendum against the policy failures of [Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s] government”.
But when the May 7 date arrived for the city to vote along with 92 other constituencies in the third phase of India’s election, there were no polling booths set up in Surat.
Two weeks earlier, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had already called the seat in favour of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after cancelling the nominations of the opposition Congress party’s candidate and five others. The eight remaining candidates all withdrew.
Patel said he was devastated. He had voted for the BJP in 2014, lifted by Modi’s promises of “acche din” (good days). But by 2019, disenchantment had set in. Unemployment and price rise are some of his biggest worries, he said – sentiments that mirror recent opinion polls.
“I would rather vote for a pigeon than choose the BJP,” he said. “My children have graduated but there are no jobs.”
Yet, Surat is only the most extreme example of a peculiar phenomenon that is playing out in multiple constituencies across India: opposition candidates dropping out, joining the ruling BJP or alleging threats to their lives. Even as the BJP has denied any foul play, opposition candidates claim these instances are evidence of an uneven political playing field.
“The government is their [BJP’s] own, and the election commission cancelled several nominations on one point or another,” said Vijay Lohar, who was the candidate of a regional party, the Bahujan Republican Socialist Party, before his nomination was rejected by election authorities. “The BJP is the referee of this game. Where should I complain?”
‘Show of dominance’
More than 400km (250 miles) miles away from Surat, the city of Indore in the central state of Madhya Pradesh is also preparing for what is shaping up, effectively, as a non-contest.
The city’s vote is scheduled for May 13. But Akshay Kanti Bam, the candidate for the Congress, withdrew his nomination on April 29, the last date for withdrawal of candidatures – after the deadline for filing nominations had passed. In essence, that has meant that the Congress cannot contest against sitting BJP member of parliament Shankar Lalwani, who is also the party’s nominee this time around. Bam, meanwhile, has also quit the Congress and joined the BJP on election eve, claiming that the party that nominated him for the constituency did not support his campaign on the ground.
The Congress party has called on voters in Indore to pick the ‘None of the Above’, or NOTA, option on electoral voting machines – which allows them to show displeasure with all candidates who are contesting – even as it accuses the BJP of pressuring Bam to switch sides on election eve. Bam did not respond to repeated requests from Al Jazeera for an interview.
The BJP insists it has had no role in the decisions of opposition candidates who have withdrawn their nominations.
“People have withdrawn as per their discretion and these are absolutely baseless allegations,” said Zafar Islam, a national spokesperson for the BJP. “Thousands of candidates are fighting in this election across hundreds of seats peacefully – these allegations are only aimed at maligning the BJP’s image.”
But some analysts see a pattern in the constituencies affected by candidate withdrawals. Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are both bastions of the BJP: The party won all 26 of Gujarat’s seats in the Lok Sabha – the lower house of India’s parliament – in 2014 and 2019. It won 27 out of Madhya Pradesh’s 29 seats in 2014 and improved that to 28 wins in 2019.
In the public eye, the pull-out of opposition candidates from key contests in these states is akin to “booth capturing”, said Neelanjan Sircar, a senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research (CPR), referring to the illegal practice of seizing control of a polling station during elections, which used to be common in parts of India until a few decades ago.
“At a level of the booth, you capture the booth you are strongest at, and that is done to demonstrate dominance,” said Sircar. The idea, he said, is to “signal to the opposition that we can win elections whenever we want”.
And however the ruling party wants, if Jitendra Chauhan, a candidate who withdrew his nomination from the Gandhinagar seat in Gujarat, is to be believed.
‘Threat to our lives’
Chauhan’s name was supposed to be among the options on the voting machine on May 7, when Gandhinagar voted.
But the 39-year-old painter, who was contesting as an independent candidate, pulled out of the election against India’s powerful Home Minister Amit Shah, who is widely seen as Modi’s deputy.
“There has been extreme pressure upon me, and I have been mentally tortured to the point where I gave up,” Chauhan told Al Jazeera. He claimed that “BJP people” approached his extended family to pressure him to quit. If they could reach his family, they could hurt them too, he feared.
“So I backed off and withdrew my nomination,” he said.
Father to three daughters, Chauhan released a video on April 21, sobbing and alluding to a threat that he received of consequences – including for his very life – if he did not back down. Many other candidates also pulled out from the contest against Shah.
“I have a responsibility to raise my daughters,” he said, adding that he moved his children to safety outside Gujarat, which is ruled by the BJP, before coming back to vote on May 7. “I’m not financially well-off and I cannot afford to resist the BJP because anything can happen to our lives.”
The BJP has not lost the Gandhinagar seat since 1984. In the 2019 elections, Shah won the seat by a margin of 550,000 votes, and there is little evidence that he would have faced any risk of a loss even if all candidates had contested as they had planned to. But his campaign has set its eyes on doubling Shah’s 2019 victory margin, and fewer contestants could help.
In the 2014 and 2019 elections, “there was a booming turnout for anticorruption promises and nationalism”, but the BJP has lost that wave, said Sircar of the CPR. “The BJP is certainly the most popular party in India, but you have to manufacture some ways of keeping these markers of dominance,” he said.
A Gujarat-based political analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears over their safety, said these incidents pointed to holes in India’s claims to be the world’s largest democracy simply because of the scale of the election it holds. “The worst of democracies also have elections – you cannot do away with elections,” they said. “But the question is about the fairness of the electoral process, and that seems compromised in India.”
It is a sentiment that Chauhan echoed. He said he had thought of contesting because, as a common man who had grown up in poverty, he felt politics was the only vehicle for change.
“But it will always be like a hole in my heart that I was forced into withdrawing,” said Chauhan, his voice cracking, as he spoke on May 7 after voting. “When I voted today, I did not feel like an independent citizen. I felt like a subject of King Modi.”
‘Future in darkness’
In India, a walkover is rare for candidates. An uncontested win has only been recorded 23 times since the country gained independence in 1947.
But for a little more than a decade, Indian elections have also offered the NOTA option. That’s what the Congress is pushing voters in Indore to pick on May 13.
Anuj, a 60-year-old from Indore, who wished to be identified by his first name, was first drawn to the Congress when he drove the campaign jeep of the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as a young man more than three decades ago. Since then, he has been loyal to the party, he said, and has campaigned for the Congress this time too.
“We all will vote NOTA. My party candidate is not there, and the other option is the BJP,” he said. “It may not change anything, but it will give comfort to my heart that I resisted.”
Meanwhile, a group of lawyers working with civil society activists are also planning to take India’s election commission to court for calling the result of the Surat election without allowing people to vote on NOTA.
“Is NOTA not seen as an independent candidate on the machine?” one of the lawyers said in a conversation with Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity, citing fears of pressure aimed at pre-empting the petition.
Back in Surat, Patel, the retired engineer, was more blunt about his frustration.
“My right to vote has been snatched,” he said.
World
Jackie Farry, Nirvana Associate, Veteran Tour Manager and Frances Bean Cobain’s Former Nanny, Dies at 58
Jackie Farry, an industry veteran who worked closely with Nirvana — becoming Frances Bean Cobain’s first nanny — and then was tour manager for Elliott Smith, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Lemonheads and others, died Sunday of complications from a lung disease. Farry, who had battled cancer for more than 20 years, was 58.
Farry’s industry career began at Homestead Records, where she was a receptionist for the influential indie label that was a precursor to Matador Records. She moved quickly into radio-promotion roles at Atlantic and Epic, but she quickly became a familiar and popular presence on the New York music scene and a friend to many of the bands of the era. After working with Nirvana until Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, she was briefly host of a short-lived MTV show called “Super Rock” that was intended to replace the metal show “Headbangers’ Ball.” Later in the ’90s, Farry became a tour manager for bands like the Lemonheads, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Elliott Smith, Quasi, Stereolab and Quintron.
A native of New York, Farry was raised in the controversial Synanon community before relocating to Long Island. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2003 and her friends in the music industry rallied for her, with benefits headlined by such artists as the Breeders, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Liars and Guided by Voices.
Her longtime friend and associate Janet Billig Rich told the Hollywood Reporter, “Jackie’s love for music was matched only by her sharp wit, humor, and magnetic personality. She was a beacon for friends and strangers alike, drawing people in with her infectious energy.”
Donations in her honor can be made to LovePaws, Farry’s charity of choice.
World
Incoming Trump administration given new blueprint on ways to weaken Iran: 'unique opportunity'
A new report shared with the Trump transition team and shown to Fox News Digital recommends drastic steps to curtail the Iranian regime just days away from the start of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term in office.
“President-elect Trump now has the unique opportunity to push back on the regime in a moment of its significant decline. By using diplomatic, informational, military, and economic means to hold Tehran accountable, he can promote regional stability and a new Middle East,” Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, CEO and founder of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News Digital.
The UANI report, titled “A 100 Day Plan for the Incoming Trump Administration on Iran” is a blueprint for the administration to employ against Iran and has been shared with the Trump transition team, according to its authors.
Heavy weapons, including ballistic missiles, air defense systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, are displayed during the 44th anniversary of the 8-year war with Iraq, which is known as “Holy Defense Week”, at Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 25, 2024. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
INSIDE ISRAEL’S DARING RAID THAT DESTROYED IRAN-FUNDED UNDERGROUND MISSILE FACTORY IN SYRIA
“Since 1979, Iran has been the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism, the major cause of instability in the Middle East, and has brutally repressed its people with impunity,” Wallace said.
The report recommends that the incoming Trump administration take a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach across, as Ambassador Wallace said, the diplomatic, informational, military and economic sectors alongside allies to properly hold Iran accountable for its regional destabilization efforts.
Iranian protesters carry flowers while standing in front of a giant banner depicting a portrait of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah during a protest gathering to condemn an Israeli air strike against Hezbollah’s headquarters in the suburb of Beirut and the killing of Hassan Nasrallah and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force commander, General Abbas Nilforoushan, in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 30, 2024. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Iran fears the incoming Trump administration, said co-author of the report Jason Brodsky, adding he believes there is a strategic opportunity for Washington and its allies to capitalize on that fear to advance U.S. interests.
“Rushing into premature diplomacy risks undermining that dynamic,” Brodsky, policy director of UANI, told Fox News Digital.
The report outlines several specific policy prescriptions in order to weaken Iran and argues that the U.S. government should first build a pressure campaign against Iran which will sharpen the regime’s choices.
IRAN EXECUTES OVER 1K PRISONERS IN 2024, HIGHEST TOTAL IN 30 YEARS, REPORT SAYS
In this new policy approach, the United States should learn from Israel’s experience since Oct. 7 about how to strike the Islamic Republic militarily without triggering a wider war.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, left, and President-elect Donald Trump. (AP)
“If the Israelis can do so without triggering a wider war, so can the U.S. government,” Brodsky said.
The authors assert that President-elect Trump should deliver a major policy address to warn Tehran that the U.S. would not hesitate to use military force to destroy Iran’s nuclear program if it takes steps to further advance its capabilities. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in early December enriched uranium to weapons-grade levels. French President Emmanuel Macron said Iran’s nuclear program is nearing the “point of no return” with many seeing it as a method to build leverage against the incoming Trump administration.
Additionally, the report’s authors say the incoming Republican administration could also use targeted strikes against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, Quds Force and Intelligence Ministry assets inside Iran if Iran or its proxies harm Americans. Targeted strikes should also hit Iran’s repressive apparatus through cyber and kinetic means if security forces violently suppress innocent protesters, as happened in 2009 after the disputed presidential election and in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the morality police for not covering her hair with a hijab.
Demonstrators in Iran protesting the regime in 2022. (Credit: NCRI)
U.S. strikes or retaliations against the regime, the report notes, have been non-existent or focused on the Islamic Republic’s proxies.
“That dynamic only emboldens Iranian decision-making to calculate the benefits of these operations against Americans outweigh the costs and to doubt the U.S. resolve to defend its interests. The incoming Trump administration should reverse that calculus and one way to do so is to start holding Iran’s regime responsible on Iranian soil for the terrorism of its proxies,” Brodsky explained. The U.S. should also build a military defector program and encourage political and military actors across the Islamic Republic, including within the Revolutionary Guard and other security forces, to defect from the regime.
IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM IS NEARING ‘THE POINT OF NO RETURN,’ FRANCE’S MACRON SAYS
A key source of Iranian revenue is provided by its vast oil exports and allows Iran to sustain its terror across the Middle East through its “Axis of Resistance” proxy networks. In 2024, Iran exported 587 million barrels of oil, an increase of 10.75% compared to the previous year due to OPEC cuts and lack of sanctions enforcement.
Claire Jungman, co-author and director of the Tanker Tracking Program and chief of staff of UANI, told Fox News Digital that Iran’s oil exports have surged to nearly 2 million barrels per day—the highest in five years—under President Biden’s administration, reflecting weakened sanctions enforcement and the impact of billions in unfrozen assets.
The Simorgh, or “Phoenix,” rocket launches at Iran’s Imam Khomeini Spaceport in rural Semnan province, Iran, on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (Iranian Defense Ministry via AP)
“The incoming Trump administration has a critical opportunity to halt Tehran’s illicit revenue streams and restore maximum pressure on the regime,” Jungman added.
Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and is a key source of regional Islamist terror groups including Hezbollah and Hamas, the group responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel. The State Department estimates that Iran provides some $100 million annually to Hamas and helps fund Hezbollah with about $700 million a year.
UANI cautions against some in Western capitals who wish to seek negotiation with Tehran and views this flawed approach of endless negotiations as a way Iran can buy time and avert pressure. Ambassador Wallace said the previous maximum pressure campaign worked, and it’s time to reapply this policy as the regime faces setback after setback as it became embroiled in regional conflict with Israel after October 7th.
“With the loss of its proxies and the support of the Iranian people … the Iranian regime’s days are numbered and, inevitably, the brave Iranian people will rise against the weakened corrupt mullahs,” Wallace said.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and top ICJ judge Nawaf Salam seen as frontrunners.
Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun has begun binding consultations with members of parliament to nominate a prime minister.
Aoun’s consultations got under way at 8:15am (06:15 GMT) on Monday with a meeting with Elias Abu Saab, the deputy parliament speaker, according to the official National News Agency.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who is backed by the Hezbollah-led alliance, and Nawaf Salam, a favourite of anti-Hezbollah legislators who is the presiding judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, are seen as the frontrunners.
The consultations follow Aoun’s election last week amid foreign pressure to form a government desperately needed to tackle major challenges in the country.
Lebanon had been without a president since October 2022, run by a caretaker government amid a crushing economic crisis compounded by all-out war between Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israel.
The outcome of the parliamentary consultations is expected to emerge by the end of the day. Once the prime minister is selected, it is their job to form a new government, a process that could take months.
“The newly elected President Aoun said that he hopes the next prime minister will be a partner and not an opponent,” said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from the Lebanese capital, Beirut. “A man who has the support of the international community, and a man who is ready to carry out much-needed reforms.”
Big challenges
Lebanon has a unique power-sharing system, designed to balance power among the nation’s different communities.
The president, who must be a Maronite Christian, serves as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Meanwhile, the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim and has significantly more executive power than the president.
The speaker of parliament, who leads parliamentary debates as well as playing the role of political mediator, has to be a Shia Muslim.
One of the country’s richest men, Mikati has headed the country in a caretaker capacity throughout the presidential vacuum.
Mikati said on the sidelines of the presidential vote on Thursday that he was ready to serve Lebanon “if needed”.
However, Hezbollah’s opponents see Mikati as part of an old political system that the group has within its grip.
Whoever heads Lebanon’s new government will face major challenges, including implementing reforms to satisfy international donors amid the country’s worst economic crisis in its history.
They will also face the daunting task of reconstructing swaths of the country after the Israel-Hezbollah war and implementing the November 27 ceasefire agreement, which includes the thorny issue of disarming the Lebanese armed group.
Genetic diversity in Alaska’s red king crab may provide climate change resilience
Mock Draft: Cardinals Trade Out of First Round
Former Arkansas OT Ty'Kieast Crawford transferring to West Virginia, per report
Ricki Lake says California fire destroying her home was 'called' months ago by celebrity psychic
I've been to 3 Alpine-style towns in the US. Each was charming and made me feel like I was in Switzerland.
Colorado Rockies game no. 116 thread: Zac Gallen vs José Ureña
Why Marjorie Taylor Greene was ‘kicked out’ of the Freedom Caucus according to Rep. Buck
See it: Tesla crashes into Columbus convention center at 70 mph
Fox News Politics: Georgia the whole day through
Death of missing Oregon girl found in stream ruled homicide
RFK Jr. Would ‘Significantly Undermine’ Public Health, a Group of Experts Says
Trudeau says 51st state is distraction from Trump tariff threat, acknowledges facing 'successful negotiator'
Lebanon President Joseph Aoun starts consultations for PM selection
Firefighters Brace For More Santa Ana Winds As Los Angeles Palisades and Eaton Fires Continue To Burn | Weather.com
Newsom Suspends State Environmental Rules for Rebuilding After Fires
-
Politics1 week agoWho Are the Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
-
Health1 week agoOzempic ‘microdosing’ is the new weight-loss trend: Should you try it?
-
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25822586/STK169_ZUCKERBERG_MAGA_STKS491_CVIRGINIA_A.jpg "Meta is highlighting a splintering global approach to online speech")
Technology4 days agoMeta is highlighting a splintering global approach to online speech
-
News1 week agoSeeking to heal the country, Jimmy Carter pardoned men who evaded the Vietnam War draft
-
Science2 days agoMetro will offer free rides in L.A. through Sunday due to fires
-
Movie Reviews6 days ago‘How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies’ Review: Thai Oscar Entry Is a Disarmingly Sentimental Tear-Jerker
-
News1 week agoTrump Has Reeled in More Than $200 Million Since Election Day
-
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25821992/videoframe_720397.png "Las Vegas police release ChatGPT logs from the suspect in the Cybertruck explosion")
Technology6 days agoLas Vegas police release ChatGPT logs from the suspect in the Cybertruck explosion