Feed aggregator

A Magyarországon állandó lakóhelyre bejegyzett magyar állampolgárok a külképviseleteken szavazhatnak. Szlovákiában a pozsonyi magyar nagykövetségen, valamint a besztercebányai és a kassai konzulátusokon - tájékoztatta a TASR-t a Magyar Nemzeti Választási Iroda (NVI) sajtóosztálya.

Im Podcast «intim&laut» gehen Sandra Casalini und Paartherapeutin Ramona Zenger gemeinsam mit ihrem Gast Maja Zivadinovic der Frage nach, wie man als Eltern ein Liebespaar bleibt. Für gewisse väterliche Verhaltensweisen hat die Blick-Redaktorin wenig Verständnis.

Ein Hackerangriff trifft das Reifencenter Häpo in Winterthur ZH hart. Seit Sonntag sind die IT-Systeme lahmgelegt. Angestellte müssen die im Mega-Lager eingelagerten Räder und Reifen von Kunden mühsam zusammensuchen. Die Cyberkriminellen fordern ein hohes Lösegeld.

Le Parquet européen avait ouvert une enquête pour la première fois en 2025

The post Fraude aux fonds agricoles : la procureure générale de l’UE sollicite la levée d’immunité de 11 députés grecs appeared first on Euractiv FR.

Par un message empreint d’émotion et de fierté nationale, la ministre de la Culture, Malika Bendouda, a officialisé une étape cruciale pour l’identité culturelle du […]

L’article UNESCO : après le caftan, l’Algérie relance la bataille du patrimoine avec une nouvelle candidature est apparu en premier sur .

Die Nati-Legende ist zurück an der Seitenlinie. Alex Frei hatte seine U21-Schäfchen nun erstmals beisammen. Sein Fazit nach gut einer Woche mit dem Team reicht von «super» über «überraschend» bis zu «grauenvoll».

Die Kantonspolizei Zürich hat am Dienstag in einer Privatwohnung in der Stadt Zürich eine Kontrolle durchgeführt und dabei zwei ukrainische Staatsangehörige verhaftet, welche kosmetische Behandlungen anboten.

Im vergangenen Herbst erschoss ein Jugendlicher einen Polizisten mit dessen Waffe. Nun hat ihn das Gericht wegen besonders schweren Raubes verurteilt.

Ein Hollywoodstar macht es sich gerade so richtig in der Schweiz gemütlich – der Liebe wegen? Wer Hollywoodstar Orlando Bloom auf Instagram verfolgt, kann ihn bei seinen Aktivitäten beobachten.

L'article 5 de l'OTAN jouit d'une notoriété immédiate, tandis que l'article 42, paragraphe 7, reste une disposition méconnue du traité de Lisbonne – une situation que l'UE entend changer

The post L’UE prépare le déclenchement de sa clause de défense mutuelle appeared first on Euractiv FR.

Pressemitteilung der Projektgruppe Gemeinschaftsdiagnose: Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW Berlin), ifo Institut – Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung an der Universität München e. V. in Kooperation mit dem Österreichischen Institut für Wirt­schaftsforschung (WIFO), Kiel ...

By CIVICUS
Apr 1 2026 (IPS)

 
CIVICUS discusses the presidential election in the Republic of the Congo with Ivan Kibangou Ngoy, executive director of Global Participe, a civil society action-research organisation focused on democratic governance based in Pointe-Noire.

Ivan Kibangou Ngoy

On 15 March, President Denis Sassou Nguesso, aged 82, won the election with around 95 per cent of the vote, extending his 42-year rule. The result came as no surprise: two major opposition parties boycotted the poll, key opposition figures were jailed or in exile and independent observers were denied accreditation. On polling day, borders were closed and the internet cut off. The non-competitive election produced the result it was designed to.

How can the 94.8 per cent result be explained?

The outcome of this election was predictable from the outset, and for one fundamental reason: the legal framework gives free rein to electoral fraud. The electoral law lacks the necessary safeguards to prevent manipulation. The ruling party has systematically rigged the electoral process, excluding its opponents and independent civil society from any meaningful participation.

Accreditation for observers was refused to independent civil society organisations (CSOs), evidence of a total lack of transparency. Without independent observers, there’s no external oversight of the conduct of the vote or the counting of votes.

The result was not the outcome of electoral competition; it was the logical result of a system designed to guarantee precisely this outcome. When the legal framework allows for fraud, the opposition cannot campaign, observers are excluded and the government controls all administrative mechanisms, including the electoral administration, the result becomes inevitable. This is not an anomaly but the product of a system designed to produce it and to give it the appearance of democratic legitimacy. So the result was already decided even before polling stations opened.

How was competition restricted?

Opposition parties and independent CSOs were not allowed to organise public meetings or campaign openly among voters. They were denied access to public media, preventing them communicating with people.

The country still operates under a prior authorisation regime: the government must approve all public political activity. This system creates a fundamental imbalance: the ruling party can organise its rallies freely, while the opposition is blocked at every turn. There is an urgent need to move to a simple notification system, in which CSOs and parties would inform the authorities of their activities without needing their consent. Without this change, the opposition has no legal mechanism to participate fairly in an election.

The imprisonment and exile of major opposition figures send a clear message: challenging Sassou Nguesso’s regime is criminalised. Two of the country’s best-known opposition figures have been in prison for nearly a decade. When opponents cannot stand for election, campaign or move about freely, the result is predetermined both by fraud and the physical elimination of alternatives. The election is merely an administrative charade designed to legitimise the retention of power. It’s not a genuine choice but a demonstration of state power over a population reduced to silence.

Why is the internet cut off during elections?

Since the advent of social media, every election has been accompanied by an internet blackout, a deliberate measure the authorities take to control the information circulating during the vote. Internet shutdowns directly reinforce the system of electoral fraud by preventing the spread of information on fraud, irregularities or violations of voters’ rights. Without the internet, people cannot share photos or videos from polling stations, observers cannot report anomalies in real time and citizen movements cannot coordinate monitoring efforts.

The internet blackout effectively transforms the country into an information-controlled zone where only government messages can circulate. This reveals that the regime understands the power of social media as a tool for accountability and mobilisation. It’s an implicit acknowledgement that, without control over information, the regime could not maintain its official narrative. This systematic practice ultimately reveals the fragility of the regime’s legitimacy.

How has civil society mobilised despite restrictions?

Despite systematic restrictions, civil society organised itself by holding press conferences and workshops in private spaces, where the authorities could not intervene directly. These meetings enabled civil society to coordinate strategies and strengthen cohesion between organisations, even with a limited number of participants. Press conferences enabled direct engagement with the media despite restrictions on access to public media. Civil society also used social media to document rights violations, mobilise people and maintain a public conversation on electoral issues.

However, these strategies reveal the limits of resistance in a heavily controlled environment. Meetings in private spaces reach only a limited audience and social media can be shut down at any moment, as happened on election day. We must continue mapping independent CSOs to identify and connect all those working outside the regime’s control. We must also train CSO leaders in techniques for raising awareness and mobilising people.

People must understand the nature of the regime governing Congo-Brazzaville. The current regime is embodied by the Congolese Labour Party, a former Soviet-style party-state ousted from power at the ballot box in 1992, in the only truly free and transparent election the country has ever held. The party returned to power by force of arms after overthrowing the democratically elected government. Understanding this history is crucial: it proves that democratic change is possible. When people understand the mechanisms of power seizure and refuse to accept them, the regime loses its legitimacy even if it retains formal control of the state.

What’s the future for democracy in Congo after 42 years of rule?

Four decades under the same regime amount to the systematic denial of democratic change, of citizens’ fundamental right to choose a different government through the ballot box. Sassou Nguesso’s fifth term consolidates an institutional framework designed to ensure no one else ever comes to power through democratic means.

This framework operates through the systematic contradiction between constitutional promises and practice. The constitution proclaims a multi-party system, but a law recognises only those parties that pledge allegiance to the ruling power. The constitution creates the post of leader of the opposition, but this leader is the head of a party affiliated with the ruling power. The constitution establishes an advisory council of associations, but this institution is attached to the office of the head of state to muzzle civil society. The country is run like a barracks.

We must expose and discredit this regime internationally, by publicly denouncing its supporters, notably the French government and oil multinationals. Independent civil society must step up awareness-raising campaigns, both in person and online. The international community must exert sustained pressure, including diplomatic pressure, sanctions and support for organisations in exile. Without this combination of internal action and international pressure, democratic change will remain impossible. But it is possible. It happened in 1992, and it can happen again.

CIVICUS interviews a wide range of civil society activists, experts and leaders to gather diverse perspectives on civil society action and current issues for publication on its CIVICUS Lens platform. The views expressed in interviews are the interviewees’ and do not necessarily reflect those of CIVICUS. Publication does not imply endorsement of interviewees or the organisations they represent.

GET IN TOUCH
Facebook

SEE ALSO
Democracy: an enduring aspiration CIVICUS | 2026 State of Civil Society Report
‘Gabon remains at a crossroads between democratic change and authoritarian continuity’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Sentiment Ondo 21.Nov.2025
‘Media and social networks are battlegrounds where rumours and disinformation circulate widely’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Kaberu Tairu 11.Oct.2025

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');  

Die unabhängige, private Stiftung „Kohli Foundation“ hat das Sozio-oekonomische Panel mit seinem diesjährigen Infrastrukturpreis ausgezeichnet. Sein Auswahlkomitee betont die Rolle des SOEP als Vorbild und treibende Kraft im Bereich Dateninfrastruktur – auch über Deutschland hinaus. Es leiste ...

ÄNDERUNGSANTRÄGE 1 - 402 - Entwurf eines Berichts Bericht 2025 der Kommission über die Türkei
Ausschuss für auswärtige Angelegenheiten
Nacho Sánchez Amor

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2026 - EP

Les deux grands partis traditionnels du pays sont sur le banc des accusés

The post L’élite politique espagnole devant les tribunaux appeared first on Euractiv FR.

La RD Congo se qualifie pour sa première Coupe du monde depuis 1974 grâce au but d'Axel Tuanzebe, qui a permis aux Léopards de s'imposer 1-0 face à la Jamaïque lors du match de barrage.

La RD Congo se qualifie pour sa première Coupe du monde depuis 1974 grâce au but d'Axel Tuanzebe, qui a permis aux Léopards de s'imposer 1-0 face à la Jamaïque lors du match de barrage.

Kallas estime que la pression doit s'exercer sur l'agresseur, et non sur la victime

The post L’UE à Kiev : une unité de façade face aux tensions sur le soutien à l’Ukraine appeared first on Euractiv FR.

Pénzcentrum: Erősödött a forint árfolyama szerda (4. 1.) reggel a nemzetközi devizapiacon. Az eurót hét órakor 384,27 forinton jegyezték, alacsonyabban a kedd esti 385,86 forintnál. A dollár jegyzése 332,26 forintra süllyedt 334,79 forintról, a svájci franké pedig 417,45 forintról 416,52 forintra gyengült.

Studie untersucht Zusammenhang zwischen Berufen mit hohem KI-Transformationspotenzial und Frauenanteil der Beschäftigten – Geschlechtsspezifisches Muster lässt sich nicht erkennen – Für Frauen wie Männer besteht Bedarf an einschlägiger und kontinuierlicher Weiterbildung Der technologische ...