Ankara: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday announced that elections will be held on May 14, a month earlier than scheduled, according to a video shared by his office Sunday.
Erdogan, who plans to seek re-election, made the announcement during a Saturday youth conference in northwestern Bursa province. A video of the event was released on Sunday.
“I thank God that we are destined to share our path with you, our valued youth, who will vote for the first time in the elections that will be held on May 14,” said Erdogan.
“This is not an early election but bringing it forward,” Erdogan said in a video from his meeting with young people in Bursa, shared by the presidency.
Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held on June 18 but President Erdogan previously signalled that the vote could be brought forward, reported Khaleej Times.
An official of his AK Party has previously said that an election in June would coincide with the summer holiday season when people travel.
This year’s elections were supposed to take place in June. Still, ruling party members said that month would coincide with summer and religious holidays, prompting an earlier date, reported The Washington Post.
If no candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the vote, a second round of voting would be held on May 28, reported The Washington Post.
Erdogan has been in office since 2003 — first as prime minister and as president since 2014.
This will be the most challenging election for the Turkish strongman who has been in power for two decades shaping the predominantly Muslim but officially secular country’s politics.
Opinion polls show the parliamentary and presidential elections will be tight and will mark Erdogan’s biggest test in his two decades at the reins of the regional military power, NATO member and major emerging market economy, reported Khaleej Times.
The May 14 election date was also supported by the opposition alliance still arguing over the choice of a united candidate against the 68-year-old leader.
A six-party opposition alliance has yet to put forth a presidential candidate. A pro-Kurdish party that is the third-largest in parliament has so far been excluded from the alliance and said it might field its own candidate, reported The Washington Post.
Erdogan, 68, introduced a system of governance in 2018 that abolished the office of the prime minister and concentrated most powers in the hands of the president. The office of the president was primarily a ceremonial post before then. Under the new system, presidential and parliamentary elections are held on the same day.
The opposition has blamed Turkey’s economic downturn and an erosion of civil rights and freedoms on Erdogan, saying the revised government system amounts to “one-man rule.”
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: India and Egypt are expected to sign around half-a-dozen Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in areas ranging from agriculture and digital during Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s visit to India.
The Egyptian President will be the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations. A 180-member military contingent from Egypt will take part in the celebrations.
Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is scheduled to arrive in New Delhi on January 24 and will be greeted by Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh.
The next day, on January 25, the Egyptian President will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a press statement will be made by the two leaders.
The visiting President will also meet Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar and attend a banquet hosted by President Droupadi Murmu.
Earlier in the day, he will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The Egyptian President is also expected to interact with the Indian business community during his visit.
A commemorative stamp marking 75 years of diplomatic ties between India and Egypt will be released during the Egyptian President’s visit.
This will be the first time that the President of Egypt will be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day. El-Sisi will be the fifth West Asian leader to be the chief guest at Republic Day. This will El-Sisi’s third visit to India.
There have been personal interactions between the Egyptian leader and PM Modi.
The Prime Minister visited Cairo in August 2015 while El-Sisi was in India for the India-Africa Forum in October 2015 and on a bilateral state visit in September 2016.
The two leaders had also spoken over the phone in 2020. Apart from this, Egypt has been invited as a guest country for the G20 summit that will be held in India later this year.
There also have been several exchanges at minister-level, including the visit of the Indian Defence Minister and External Affairs minister last year to Egypt.
In terms of defence cooperation, the two countries have robust military cooperation. When it comes to the exercises, IAF or the Indian Air Force participated in the first-ever joint exercise in Egypt.
Notably, the first-ever joint exercise between the special forces of the Indian Army and the Egyptian Army named ‘Exercise Cyclone-I’ is considered important. The exercise, which will boost defence cooperation between the two countries, is underway in Jodhpur.
The deepening of the defence cooperation is expected to be discussed during the Egyptian leader’s visit.
Egypt has also shown some interest in purchasing Tejas light combat aircraft with officials from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in touch with the Egyptian side for more discussions.
In terms of the current economic situation, like much of the world, the Arab state was hit hard by Covid Pandemic and is battling an economic crisis. This is also an area that is likely to be discussed during the visit.
The Arab State is relying on the resumption of tourist flows and has come up with certain economic liberalization polices. Egypt is also looking at Indian companies for investment that would generate employment.
The issues pertaining to wheat supply are also expected to be discussed between the two countries. India supported Egypt and made an exemption of up to 61,000 tonnes of wheat to Egypt in May last year in three tranches despite a temporary ban on exports imposed by the government.
Other than the importance of its geostrategic location, specially the Suez Canal from where twelve percent of the world trade passes, Egypt is also one of the most populous states in the Arab world which makes it a key player in the politics of the Arab world.
From a commercial perspective, Egypt is a major market for India in terms of it being a gateway to Europe and Africa. When it comes to the bilateral trade between the two countries which was recorded at an all-time high of US dollars 7.2 billion between 2021 and 2022, the two countries hope for trade to increase to about USD 12 billion in the next five years.
On security and counter-terrorism cooperation, there is a joint working group between India and Egypt and the next meeting of the joint committee is scheduled for next month after the Egyptian President’s visit.
Notably, in forums like OIC or Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Egypt has never supported Pakistan. Islamabad has frequently raked up Kashmir issue in the organisation.
Last year, India had invited leaders of the five Central Asian Republics, who were to visit Delhi for the India-Central Asia Summit, as chief guests for the Republic Day celebrations. However, the visit was cancelled due to the rise in COVID-19 cases.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the latest development in the Ukraine crisis by phone on Friday, the Turkish presidential office said in a statement.
Erdogan told Zelensky that Turkey is committed to providing diplomatic assistance for a lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine, according to the statement.
The Turkish leader reiterated that his country is ready to facilitate the process and act as a mediator, Xinhua news agency reported.
Erdogan also offered condolences for Wednesday’s deadly helicopter crash near Kiev which killed at least 16 people, including Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky.
The US President, Joe Biden, is 80 today, which is one thing. On the other hand, Elon Musk restored access to Donald Trump’s account on Twitter on Saturday, lifting a ban that had prevented the former president from using the social media platform ever since a pro Trump mob attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Congress prepared to certify Joe Biden’s election victory.
Following a vote asking Twitter users if Trump’s account should be reinstated, Musk made the announcement in the evening. With a majority of 51.8%, “yes” was chosen. Before deciding whether to reinstate suspended accounts, Musk had previously stated that Twitter would set up new rules and a “content moderation council.”
“The people have had their say. Trump will get his job back. Musk used the Latin term “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” which translates to “the voice of the people, the voice of God,” in his tweet.
Shortly later, Trump’s account, which had earlier looked to be suspended, returned on the platform with all of his prior tweets—more than 59,000 in all. At least initially, his supporters had vanished, but he quickly started getting them back. But as of late Saturday, there have been no new tweets from the account.
Less than a month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk took over Twitter and four days after Trump declared his campaign for the 2024 presidential election, Musk restored the account.
Trump may or may not truly come back to Twitter. Trump, who was an unstoppable tweeter prior to his suspension, has previously claimed that he would not return even if his account was reactivated. He has been relying on Truth Social, a far more modest social media platform that he started after being banned from Twitter.
Additionally, on Saturday, Trump mentioned Musk’s poll in a video address to a gathering of Republican Jews in Las Vegas, but added that he thought Twitter had “a lot of problems.”
“I hear we’re receiving a lot of support to also return to Twitter. I don’t see it because I can’t think of a good explanation for it, said Trump. He said, seemingly alluding to the recent internal turmoil at Twitter, “It may make it, it may not make it.”
Trump’s potential return to the platform comes in the wake of Musk’s purchase of Twitter last month, which sparked widespread worries that the site’s billionaire owner would enable the propagation of lies and misinformation. Musk has often stated his opinion that Twitter has become too censorship-heavy for free speech.
His attempts to redesign the area have been both quick and disorganised. Many of the 7,500 full-time employees and incalculable numbers of contractors who are in charge of content moderation and other critical duties have been fired by Musk. A large number of employees, including hundreds of software engineers, resigned as a result of his demand that the remaining staff promise to work “very hardcore.”
Following the mass layoffs and staff migration, users have noted more spam and frauds on their feeds and in their direct messages, among other issues. Twitter may soon deteriorate to the point where it could actually crash, according to some programmers who were fired or resigned this week.
More than 15 million people participated in Musk’s online survey, which was published on his personal Twitter account.
Musk acknowledged that the findings lacked much rigour. He tweeted early on Saturday that “Bot & troll armies might be running out of steam shortly.” “Some intriguing insights to improve polling in the future.”
He has employed Twitter polling before to help him make business decisions. Following a poll of his supporters, he decided to sell millions of shares of Tesla stock last year.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, tweeted a video of the uprising on January 6 in response to Musk’s poll on Trump. On Friday, she wrote that Trump’s last tweets “were used to fuel an insurrection, many people died, the US Vice President was almost assassinated, and hundreds were injured but I guess that’s not enough for you to answer the question.” It’s a poll on Twitter.
Two days after Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol and shortly after the former president urged them to “fight like hell,” he was denied access to Twitter. After Trump sent out two tweets that Twitter claimed raised concerns about the integrity of the election and threatened the inauguration of Vice President Biden, the website shut off his account.
Trump was also banned from Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram, all of which are owned by Meta Platforms, after the incident on January 6. Additionally suspended was his capacity to upload videos to his YouTube page. In January, Facebook plans to review its decision to suspend Trump.
Trump’s use of social media throughout his time as president presented a significant challenge to major social media platforms that aimed to strike a balance between the public’s desire to hear from public officials and concerns about false information, bigotry, harassment, and incitement to violence.
However, Musk claimed that Twitter’s move to block Trump was “morally awful” and “very idiotic” in a speech at an auto convention in May.
Musk announced earlier this month that the firm would not permit anyone who had been banned from the site to rejoin until Twitter had developed policies for doing so, including creating a “content moderation committee.” Musk completed the $44 billion buyout of Twitter in late October.
Musk tweeted on Friday that the comedian Kathy Griffin, the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, and the conservative Christian news satire website Babylon Bee have had their suspended Twitter accounts returned. He emphasised that a choice had not yet been made regarding Trump. On Twitter, he also replied “no” to a request to revive conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ account.
The Tesla CEO referred to the new content policy as “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach” in a tweet on Friday.
He said that although a tweet that was regarded to be “negative” or to include “hate” would be permitted on the website, only users who explicitly looked for it would be able to view it. According to Musk, such tweets would also be “demonetized, so no adverts or other money to Twitter.”
(With inputs from various media organisations)
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Dr. Farooq Abdullah has resigned as the party’s president, and elections are due to take place next month, thus the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference will soon have a new president.
Omar Abdullah, a former chief minister and vice president of the party, is most likely to succeed as president. The election scheduled on December 5 will, however, determine that.
Tanvir Sadiq, the chief spokesman for the party, was quoted by Excelsior as saying that Abdullah has resigned as NC president and that elections would take place on December 5. The mausoleum of the party’s founder, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, at Hazratbal, would host the polls, he claimed, and a notice to that effect will be issued soon.
Prior to this announcement, Abdullah made it known that he would be stepping down as party leader at a meeting of the In-charge Segments, district presidents, and other provincial office bearers held at the party headquarters in Nawa-e-Subha, Srinagar. But he will stay in office until the elections are held.
Dr. Abdullah announced his choice and urged the party leaders to take control of the party in an emotional speech at the party headquarters while crying. He said that his health no longer allowed him to lead the party.
In the discussion, Abdullah urged the party’s officials to grow the organisation and connect with voters in their various districts. The current state of the Valley and party issues were discussed at the conference. The party officials also gave the party president an update on the ongoing party events in their respective sectors.
Abdullah outlined the difficulties that the populace was experiencing and urged them to collaborate closely with locals. “Our ground force must serve as a link between the government and the populace. We must prioritise the needs of the general populace in addition to our just and peaceful campaign for the restoration of our rights. To ease people’s difficulties, you must provide excellent service, he stated.
The constituency in-charges were instructed by the senior party officials to be prepared for elections whenever they take place. They said that because the NC had already passed a resolution to this effect, there would be no pre-poll alliance. They said that the PAGD would continue to function as a forum and that each party would run its own campaign. “It serves a greater cause. It is a platform for the defence of Article 370 and Statehood, not for any pre-election coalition, they said.
Omar Abdullah, the vice president of the party, also spoke to the crowd. He also emphasised the need for party building. Ali Muhammad Sagar, the party’s general secretary, provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani, chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq, senior leaders Abdul Rahim Rather, Mubarak Gul, Shameema Firdous, Nazir Gurezi, and Muhammad Syed Akhoon, Zonal Presidents Ali Muhammad Dar and Javed Dar, Dr. Bashir Ahmed Veeri, district presidents, constituency in-charges, and other provincial office holders were also present.
(With inputs from Excelsior)
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