THE BARZANI CLAN (KDP) RULES

Oil-rich Iraqi Kurdistan votes, shadowed by economic struggles

Hamid Mohamed with Shwan Mohammed in Sulaimaniyah
Sun 20 October 2024 

Iraqi Kurdistan presents itself as an oasis of Middle East stability but activists and opposition figures say it faces issues that also confront Iraq as a whole (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE) (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/AFP)


Iraq's Kurdistan voted on Sunday to elect a new parliament for the autonomous oil-rich region, where voters expressed concern over economic struggles and disenchantment with the political elite.

Iraqi Kurdistan presents itself as a relative oasis of stability in the turbulent Middle East, attracting foreign investors due to its close ties with the United States and Europe.

However, activists and opposition figures contend that the region, autonomous since 1991, faces the same issues affecting Iraq as a whole: corruption, political repression and cronyism among those in power.


Originally scheduled for two years ago, the vote was postponed four times due to disputes between the region's two historic parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Each party is controlled by a powerful Kurdish family -- the KDP by the Barzanis and the PUK by the Talabanis.

Despite holding election rallies and mobilising their patronage networks, experts say there is widespread public disillusionment with the parties, exacerbated by the region's bleak economic conditions.

Polls closed at 6:00 PM (1500 GMT) and official results were expected 24 hours later.

Huri Mohammed, a 66-year-old housewife, said she voted for the KDP which dominates the regional capital Arbil, as it "serves the people".

But she expressed hope the next government would "pay attention to the poor classes. The majority of our population has limited means".

Opposition parties such as New Generation and a movement led by Lahur Sheikh Jangi, a dissident from the Talabani clan, may gain from a protest vote, said Sarteep Jawhar, a PUK dissident and political commentator.

Hiwa Hadi, a candidate for the newly formed opposition Halwest party, said after voting in Arbil: "People are dissatisfied and angry due to rising prices and taxes, electricity and water shortages".

- Tensions with Baghdad -

Political analyst Shivan Fazil, a PhD student at the US-based Boston University, noted that there was "a growing fatigue with the region's two ruling parties".

Fazil, who focuses on Iraq, said people's living conditions "have deteriorated over the last decade".

Salaries for the region's 1.2 million civil servants are "a vital source of income for households" but payment of the money has been erratic, Fazil said.

This issue is tied to ongoing tensions between Kurdistan and the federal Iraqi government in Baghdad, amid disputes over control of the region's lucrative oil exports.

The creation of four new constituencies for this election -- a change from only one previously -- "could lead to redistribution in vote shares and seats in the next parliament", Fazil said.

He still predicted, however, that the KDP could maintain its power.

The KDP is the largest party in the outgoing parliament, with 45 seats against 21 for the PUK. The KDP's majority was assured by an alliance with deputies elected via a quota reserved for Turkmen, Armenian and Christian minorities.

Iraqi court rulings have reduced the number of seats in the Kurdish parliament from 111 to 100, but with five seats still reserved for the minorities.

Of the region's six million inhabitants, 2.9 million were eligible to vote for the 100 representatives, including 30 women mandated by a quota.

Once voted in, the new representatives will need to elect a new president and prime minister. The roles are currently filled by KDP figures Nechirvan Barzani and his cousin, Masrour Barzani.

In Baghdad on Sunday evening, Iraqi President Mohammed Shia al-Sudani called the vote a "success" and expressed hope for development and "stability" under a new regional government.

Mohamed al-Hassan, the United Nations special representative in Iraq, welcomed the election as an opportunity for the Kurdistan region to "reinvigorate democracy and inject new ideas into its institutions".

But 55-year-old teacher Sazan Saduala said she was boycotting the election.

"This government cannot be changed by voting," she said. "It maintains its power through force and money."

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Kurdish people in Irbil vote in long awaited Parliamentary elections

Updated Sun 20 October 2024

The primary competitors are the two dominant Kurdish parties: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Historically, these two parties have controlled different parts of the region, with the KDP overseeing Irbil and Dohuk, and the PUK governing Sulaymaniyah. (AP video shot by Rashid Yahya)


Iraq's Kurdish region goes to the polls with a flagging economy and political infighting top of mind

STELLA MARTANY
Updated Sun 20 October 2024 





A man registers to vote during parliamentary elections of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, in Irbil, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Salar Salim)

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Residents of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region went to the polls in long-awaited parliamentary elections Sunday under the shadow of ongoing rivalries, economic instability and unresolved disputes with Baghdad.

The primary competitors are the two dominant Kurdish parties: the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The two have historically controlled different parts of the region, with the KDP overseeing the regional capital, Irbil, and Dohuk and the PUK governing Sulaymaniyah.

This division has frequently led to political deadlock. The parliamentary elections, originally set for 2022, were postponed several times amid disputes over the election law and procedures.

Ministry of Interior personnel and peshmerga forces — the regional military — voted in special elections Friday, with the general public voting Sunday.

In Friday’s special election, the KDP secured a significant lead, capturing 60% of the votes, while the PUK got around 30%. The New Generation Movement, an opposition party that has seen a gradual rise in support, garnered 5.3% of the total, up from 3% in the 2018 special election. In that special election, the KDP garnered 40% of the vote and the PUK 28.5%.

While New Generation’s appeal continues to grow, particularly among younger voters frustrated with the traditional political system, it still faces significant challenges in competing with the well-established dominance of the KDP and PUK.

Results of Sunday's vote were expected to be announced Monday.

At some polling centers, there were delays due to malfunctions in fingerprint scanners used for biometric verification of voters’ identities. In some cases, it was unclear if voters whose fingerprints could not be scanned would be able to vote at all.

At a center in Irbil's Ankawa district, resident Raman Ramzi said his wife and mother hadn't been able to vote due to fingerprint and ID recognition issues caused by the biometric machines. A number of other would-be voters left the station without casting a vote due to the same issue.

At another polling station in Irbil, coordinator Sirwan Gardi said that three to four percent of prospective voters' fingerprints were not being recognized by the devices, particularly older people and women.

Rizgar Maghdid, whose fingerprint was not recognized, said he felt sad because he could not vote. Voting “is an essential right of humans,” he said. “I would like to vote for the person who would serve us and our country.”

Regional government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, a KDP official, called on voters to “reward service and truthfulness and punish the parties that are playing with the rights and destiny of the people of Kurdistan," using the region's local name.

The region’s economic struggles are voters’ primary concern. Despite its oil wealth, the Kurdish region faces significant economic issues, including delayed payment of salaries to civil servants, fluctuating oil prices, and budget cuts from Baghdad. The public is deeply dissatisfied with the economy and lack of opportunities, and many blame political leaders for mismanagement.

“People want to have electricity and get paid their salary on time, and to have more jobs. This is all they want," said Ghazi Najib, who went to the polls in Irbil.

Corruption is also among the central issues in the election. For years, the regional government has faced allegations of nepotism and lack of transparency. Many voters, particularly among the younger generation, are calling for reforms to address these concerns.

Many voters, however, have lost hope for reforms and are also skeptical of opposition parties’ ability to make changes, given the longstanding hold the two major parties have over the political landscape.

Political cooperation with the central government is another key electoral issue. Relations between Irbil and Baghdad have remained tense since a 2017 referendum over independence for the Kurdish region, particularly over issues of oil revenue sharing and budget allocations.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani in a recent visit to Irbil said, “We are committed to ensuring the rights of the Kurdish people, but this must be done within Iraq’s constitution.”

In certain areas, the current elections are significantly influenced by security concerns since Islamic State group sleeper cells are still active in areas that are disputed between the regional and central governments.

“We hope that Kurdistan will be more developed, and to see more safety and reconstruction in Kurdistan,” said Jamila Mohammed Amin, a voter in Irbil. “All political parties and entities should work together and achieve these goals and protect it against enemies.”

___

Associated Press journalist Salar Salim in Irbil contributed to this report.

Georgian president delivers pro-EU message at opposition rally as election looms

Lucy Papachristou
Sun 20 October 2024 






Georgian president delivers pro-EU message at opposition rally as election looms
Georgian opposition holds final rally before general election

By Lucy Papachristou

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili addressed a crowd of thousands at rally in the capital on Sunday, delivering a strong pro-EU message just days before a fiercely-contested parliamentary election.

The crowds gathered in Tbilisi's central square represented "a free Georgia", she said.

"Here today is the society, the people, the Georgians who are going to Europe," said Zourabichvili, who has urged people to vote against the incumbent Georgian Dream party.

The Oct. 26 election is widely viewed as a test of whether Georgia returns to Russia's orbit or maintains its pro-Western orientation.

The EU last year granted candidate status to Georgia, a first stage towards eventual membership. But relations have worsened sharply since Georgian Dream passed a "foreign agent" law in May that critics say is evidence it is pivoting towards Russia.

Draped in EU and Georgian flags, Georgians converged on Freedom Square on Sunday to support the four main pro-Western opposition groups running next weekend.

Zourabichvili, who has largely ceremonial powers, was elected in 2018 with Georgian Dream's support but has since become one of its strongest critics.

She has been attempting to broker pacts among opposition groups to oust Georgian Dream, which domestic critics and the West accuse of derailing Tbilisi's prospects of joining the European Union.

As Zourabichvili spoke, unknown people shone lasers at her face from a nearby rooftop in an apparent attempt to distract her.

Activists said the election was an opportunity to seize a European future for themselves and their children.

"We want to live in Europe," said Liza Davitadze, 25, from the opposition Coalition for Change.

Brussels has said Georgia's accession process is "practically frozen" amid concerns of democratic backsliding, while Washington, a major aid donor, paused tens of millions of dollars in assistance this year citing similar concerns.

Many demonstrators said they saw the election as existential for the country.

"We are here because we are ready for changes," said Bachuki Tsitelidze, from Tbilisi.

Opinion polls show Georgian Dream remains the country's most popular party, though it has lost ground since 2020, when it won almost 50% of the vote and a narrow parliamentary majority.

(Reporting and writing by Lucy Papachristou; Additional reporting by Felix Light; Editing by Giles Elgood)


Tens of thousands rally in Georgia for EU ahead of pivotal vote
AFP UK
Sun 20 October 2024 at 11:39 am GMT-6

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Tens of thousands of Georgians on Sunday staged a pro-Europe rally, days before parliamentary elections seen as a crucial test for the country's democracy and its bid for EU membership.

Saturday's vote will pit an unprecedented alliance of pro-Western opposition forces against the ruling Georgian Dream party, accused by Brussels of shifting towards authoritarianism and derailing EU candidate Tbilisi from its European path.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators, waving EU and Georgian flags and holding banners that read "Georgia chooses the European Union" gathered at Tbilisi's central Freedom Square after marching towards the venue from five different locations, AFP journalists on the scene reported.

The crowd sang the country's national anthem and the Georgian lyrics to Europe's "Ode to Joy".

Pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili -- at loggerheads with the government -- joined the rally, which she said "shows that Georgia has already won and will reintegrate with Europe".

She also addressed fellow EU-hopeful Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky: "You are fighting for Georgia as well. You will be victorious and we will enter the European Union together."

One of the demonstrators, 20-year-old university student Kote Tsintsandze said: "Georgia's fate is hanging by a thread. These elections will decide if we can finally break free from Georgian Dream's dictatorship.

"You can see here that the people are united in their determination to be where we belong -- Europe," he added.

Another demonstrator, 49-year-old nurse Lia Nemsadze, said: "This huge rally shows that people are rejecting Georgian Dream's pro-Russian government and choosing Europe.

"Look at this sea of EU flags. Where else in Europe are these flags held with such hope?"

- 'Path of EU membership' -

Several Georgian NGOs, including Georgia's European Orbit and the "My Voice to the EU" coalition, called on Georgians to stage a mass rally from 7:00 pm (1500 GMT).

"Choosing unity, development, and the European Union, Georgians will rally on October 20 (Sunday) and show their resolve to pursue the path of EU membership," organisers said on Facebook.

Brussels froze Georgia's EU accession process earlier this year after Georgian Dream lawmakers passed a controversial "foreign influence law" targeting civil society.

The adoption of the measure -- criticised as a Kremlin-style law to silence dissent -- sparked weeks of mass street protests and also prompted Washington to impose sanctions on dozens of Georgian officials.

Earlier this month, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell cautioned that Georgian Dream's actions "signal a shift towards authoritarianism".

He called the upcoming polls "a crucial test for democracy in Georgia and its European Union path".

Opinion polls suggest opposition parties are likely to garner enough votes in Saturday's election to form a coalition government and replace the ruling party, controlled by powerful billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Analysts have warned of the risk of turmoil if Georgian Dream attempts to hold onto power regardless of the vote's outcome.

In power since 2012, the party initially pursued a liberal pro-Western policy agenda, but over the last two years has reversed course and been accused of moving closer to Moscow.

Bids for membership of the EU and NATO are enshrined in Georgia's constitution and supported by some 80 percent of the population, according to multiple opinion polls commissioned by groups including the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute.

im/bc

Thousands of Georgians join pro-EU march in Tbilisi ahead of next week's elections

Euronews
Sun 20 October 2024

Tens of thousands of Georgians have marched through the streets of the capital Tbilisi in a show of support for their country joining the European Union.

The rally comes just a week ahead of parliamentary elections, set to take place on 26 October, which are widely seen as a bellwether to determine if Georgia returns to Russia's orbit or continues on its pro-European path.

"It's the last gathering before the upcoming elections and this is not under any political banner, this is under the banner of the unity for European future of Georgia," said pro-EU protester, Nodar Kharshiladze.

Tens of thousands of pro-European protesters march through Tbilisi, 20 October, 2024 - Screenshot from EBU video 2024_10265731

"That's why it is important and that goes on behind the scene when the government is very actively undermining our European future. So, this is our kind of the answer, plus it is our voice to support Europe and of course it is also to show ourselves that that we are many and we are united."

Last year, the EU granted Georgia candidate country status but since then opposition supporters argue that the ruling Georgian Dream party has derailed the country's chances of joining the bloc.
Controversial legislation

Two recent pieces of legislation in particular raised eyebrows in Brussels.

Earlier this month, Georgia's parliament speaker signed a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ rights bill into law after President Salome Zourabichvili refused to endorse it.

The bill, which has been sharply criticised by human rights and LGBTQ+ groups, includes bans on same-sex marriages, adoptions by same-sex couples and limitations on the depiction of LGBTQ+ couples in the media.

It also bans gender-affirming care and changing gender designations in official documents — a move that activists say disproportionately impacts transgender people and is directly linked to anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in the country.

Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said in a social media post that the legislation was "based on common sense, historical experience and centuries-old Christian, Georgian and European values."



And in May, parliament passed a controversial foreign agent law that requires media organisations and NGOs to register as foreign agents if they receive at least 20% of their funds from abroad, imposing hefty fines on those who fail to comply.

Georgia's governing authorities claim the new measure, which they have dubbed the "transparency law", will curb alleged foreign attempts to sway domestic politics.

However, critics dubbed it the 'Russian law' because they say it mirrors similar legislation adopted by the Kremlin to target, discriminate and ultimately outlaw political opponents.

President Salome Zourabichvili, who is pro-European, has long been at odds with the Georgian Dream party, which proposed both pieces of legislation, and refused to sign both bills into law.

Demonstrators march during an opposition rally ahead upcoming parliamentary elections in Georgia, 20 October, 2024 - Zurab Tsertsvadze/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved

"I want to turn to our partners, Europeans or Americans, and tell them that we will be such a partner and ally as you can't even dream of when we enter Europe,” she said at the Tbilisi rally.

Both laws have been roundly criticised by the European Union, leading to the freezing of Georgia's EU accession process.

Some Georgians fear they are being drawn further into Moscow's orbit after more than three decades of independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Opinion polls show the Georgian Dream remains the country's most popular party, with some pollsters expecting them to take more than 40% of the vote.

Moldovans elect president, vote on EU path as claims of Russian meddling spike

Voters in Moldova cast their ballots on Sunday in two decisive polls regarding the country's future: a presidential election and a referendum on joining the EU. Frontrunner and incumbent President Maia Sandu is seeking a second term in office but is likely to come up short of the majority needed to avoid a second round of voting.

Issued on: 20/10/2024 -
FRANCE 24

01:40

Women cast their vote in Chisinau, Moldova on October 20, 2024 during a presidential election and referendum on whether to enshrine in the Constitution the country's path to European Union membership. © Vadim Ghirda, AP

Moldovans voted on Sunday in a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union, with fears of Russian meddling amid the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

The elections are a test of the former Soviet republic's pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu, who is seeking a second term.

Police made hundreds of arrests after discovering a massive vote-buying scheme, warning this week that up to a quarter of the ballots cast in the country of 2.6 million could be tainted by Russian cash.

Sandu, who beat a Moscow-backed incumbent in 2020, cut ties with Moscow and applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.ng

01:47

She has repeatedly sounded the alarm about Russian efforts to interfere in the vote -- a claim Moscow has rejected.

"We categorically reject these accusations," Russian state news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Monday.

Washington issued a fresh warning this week about suspected Russian interference, while the EU passed new sanctions on several Moldovans.

"I have come to cast my vote for prosperity, peace and wellbeing in our country," said Olga Cernega, a 60-year-old economist, after voting in freezing weather in the capital Chisinau.

Another voter, Ghenadie, who declined to give his last name, said he was worried by what he saw as the country's "western" drift and thought the government was "making the situation worse" economically.

An hour from there in the town of Varnita, a special polling booth was set up for inhabitants of the breakaway pro-Russian region of Transnistria.

Nicolai, 33, an IT specialist, came to vote with his 5-year-old son.

He said he voted "yes" in the referendum and for Sandu as president.

"I want a life in a free and safe European country," he said, declining to give his full name to avoid repercussion in the state of Transnistria.
'Fate of our country'

Sandu, 52, a former World Bank economist, is the clear favourite in the race.

But with only 35.8 percent of voter support, she is predicted to fall short of the majority needed to avoid a second-round ballot on November 3, according to the latest polls by the WatchDog think tank.

"This election will determine our fate for many years," Sandu said when she came out to vote.

She said the "will of the Moldovan people" should be heard, "not that of others, not dirty money".

Her 10 competitors include Alexandr Stoianoglo, a 57-year-old former prosecutor supported by the pro-Russian Socialists, who is polling at nine percent.

Moldova's Sandu decries 'unprecedented' meddling as EU referendum goes to wire

Updated Sun, October 20, 2024 
By Tom Balmforth and Alexander Tanas

CHISINAU (Reuters) -Moldovan President Maia Sandu said Sunday's twin votes faced an "unprecedented" assault from outside interference after preliminary results showed the election heading for a tight run-off and an EU referendum going to the wire.

With more than 92% of the ballots counted, 52% voted "no" in the referendum with 47% Moldovans voting "yes". Despite the gap, analysts said the "yes" camp could still prevail because the largely pro-EU diaspora's ballots were yet to be counted.

Sandu meanwhile had 38% of the vote at the presidential election, while her main rival, former Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo, had 28%, setting the stage for a Nov. 3 run-off in the poor ex-Soviet southeast European nation.

The vote goes to a run-off if no candidate clears the 50% mark.

In a statement to Moldovans, Sandu said there was "clear evidence" that criminal groups working together with foreign forces hostile to Moldova's interests sought to buy off 300,000 votes, something she called "fraud of unprecedented scale."

"Their objective was to undermine a democratic process. Their intention was to spread fear and panic in society... We are waiting for the final results, and we will respond with firm decisions," she said.

The run-up to the vote was overshadowed by a slew of Moldovan allegations of election meddling by fugitive tycoon Ilan Shor who lives in Russia. Moscow has denied interfering, while Shor denies wrongdoing.

Earlier this month, Moldovan police accused Shor, who was jailed in absentia for fraud and theft, of trying to pay off a network of at least 130,000 voters to vote "no" and support "our candidate" at the elections.

Shor has openly offered on social media to pay Moldovans to convince others to vote in a certain way and said that is a legitimate use of money that he earned.

In the early hours of Monday, he said Moldovans had voted against the referendum, adding "today I congratulate you, you lost the battle", addressing Sandu simply as Maia.

Ahead of the vote, Moldovan authorities took down online resources they said hosted disinformation, announced they had uncovered a programme in Russia to train Moldovans to stage mass unrest and opened criminal cases against allies of Shor.

'IN THE GRAY ZONE'

Flanked by Romania and war-stricken Ukraine, Moldova has alternated between pro-Western and pro-Russian courses since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.

Ties with Moscow have deteriorated under Sandu who has championed EU integration. Her government has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, accused Russia of plotting her overthrow, and diversified energy supply after Russia reduced gas supplies. Russia has accused Sandu's government of Russophobia.

Sunday's referendum sought to decide whether to insert a clause into the constitution defining EU accession as a goal.

As the war in Ukraine has raged to the east, turning the political and diplomatic spotlight on Moldova, it has accelerated its push to escape Moscow's orbit and embarked on the long process of EU accession talks.

A "no" vote would not be legally binding, but would energise Stoianoglo's campaign and would be a blow to Sandu. The pro-Western incumbent wants Moldova to join the EU by 2030.

Polls had showed a clear majority of Moldovans supporting accession to the European Union ahead of the vote.

At least five of the candidates told their supporters to either boycott the referendum or vote "no", arguing the referendum was a ruse to boost Sandu's haul at the election.

Stoianoglo, whose candidacy was backed by the traditionally pro-Moscow Party of Socialists, boycotted the referendum as he voted, saying the country needed a new government and that if he won, he would develop ties with the EU, Russia, U.S. and China.

Oazu Nantoi, a lawmaker for Sandu's PAS party, put the weaker-than-expected result down to what he said was Russian "hybrid" interference.

"We are in the gray zone and under great influence of Putin," he said.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Alexander Tanas; editing by David Evans, Rod Nickel, Alex Richardson, Giles Elgood and Diane Craft)


Moldova votes on EU future amid fears of Russian meddling

Ani SANDU
Sun, October 20, 2024 

Sandu's critics say she has not done enough to fight inflation (Daniel MIHAILESCU) (Daniel MIHAILESCU/AFP/AFP)


Moldovans voted on Sunday in a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union, with fears of Russian meddling amid the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

The elections are a test of the former Soviet republic's pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu, who is seeking a second term.

Police made hundreds of arrests after discovering a massive vote-buying scheme, warning this week that up to a quarter of the ballots cast in the country of 2.6 million could be tainted by Russian cash.

Sandu, who beat a Moscow-backed incumbent in 2020, cut ties with Moscow and applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

She has repeatedly sounded the alarm about Russian efforts to interfere in the vote -- a claim Moscow has rejected.

"We categorically reject these accusations," Russian state news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Monday.

Washington issued a fresh warning this week about suspected Russian interference, while the EU passed new sanctions on several Moldovans.

"I have come to cast my vote for prosperity, peace and wellbeing in our country," said Olga Cernega, a 60-year-old economist, after voting in freezing weather in the capital Chisinau.

Another voter, Ghenadie, who declined to give his last name, said he was worried by what he saw as the country's "western" drift and thought the government was "making the situation worse" economically.

An hour from there in the town of Varnita, a special polling booth was set up for inhabitants of the breakaway pro-Russian region of Transnistria.

Nicolai, 33, an IT specialist, came to vote with his 5-year-old son.

He said he voted "yes" in the referendum and for Sandu as president.

"I want a life in a free and safe European country," he said, declining to give his full name to avoid repercussion in the state of Transnistria.

- 'Fate of our country' -

Sandu, 52, a former World Bank economist, is the clear favourite in the race.

But with only 35.8 percent of voter support, she is predicted to fall short of the majority needed to avoid a second-round ballot on November 3, according to the latest polls by the WatchDog think tank.

"This election will determine our fate for many years," Sandu said when she came out to vote.

She said the "will of the Moldovan people" should be heard, "not that of others, not dirty money".

Her 10 competitors include Alexandr Stoianoglo, a 57-year-old former prosecutor supported by the pro-Russian Socialists, who is polling at nine percent.

Renato Usatii, a 45-year-old former mayor of Moldova's second largest city Balti, is predicted to win 6.4 percent.

Polls opened at 7:00 am (0400 GMT), with the national anthem playing over loudspeakers in the capital Chisinau, according to an AFP journalist.

Voting will end at 9:00 pm and partial results are expected from around 10:00 pm.

Voter turnout at 3:00 pm local time was 39 percent for the presidential election, and 33 percent for a referendum asking whether the constitution should be modified to include joining the EU as an objective.

The 27-member bloc began membership talks with Chisinau this June.

Of those surveyed, 55.1 percent said they would vote "yes", while 34.5 percent said they were set on "no".

For any referendum result to be valid, participation must reach at least 33 percent, indicating that Sunday's result should be valid. Some pro-Russian parties have campaigned for a boycott.

- 'Hard at work' -

Sandu toured the country saying that joining the EU will help improve life in one of Europe's poorest nations.

Sandu's critics say she has not done enough to fight inflation and reform the judiciary.

In his campaign, Stoianoglo -- who was fired as prosecutor by Sandu -- has called for the "restoration of justice" and vowed to wage a "balanced foreign policy".

He abstained from voting in the referendum.

Usatii has said he is the best choice, as he is "the only one who is not controlled either by the East or the West".

Fears of Russian interference are looming large.

Police said this month that millions of dollars from Russia to corrupt voters were funnelled into the country by people affiliated to Ilan Shor, a fugitive businessman and former politician.

The "unprecedented" scheme could taint up to 300,000 ballots, according to police.

Convicted in absentia last year for fraud, Shor regularly brands Moldova a "police state" and the West's "obedient puppet".

"Russia is hard at work. They have never (before) put in so much money," Romanian historian Armand Gosu, who specialises in Russia and the former Soviet space, told AFP.

In addition to the suspected vote buying, hundreds of young people were found to have been trained in Russia and the Balkans to create "mass disorder" in Moldova, including in tactics to provoke law enforcement, according to police.


Moldova votes in election and EU referendum amid alleged Russian interference

Alastair Jamieson
Sun, October 20, 2024 

Moldova’s president Maia Sandu casts her vote in Chisinau on Sunday (AFP via Getty)


Moldovans were voting on Sunday in a presidential election and a referendum that could determine whether the small country continues its path to European Union membership, amid ongoing allegations of Russian election meddling.

With the war in Ukraine raging to the east, the former Soviet republic has accelerated its push to escape Moscow’s orbit and embarked on the long process of EU accession talks.

Polls show pro-Western incumbent Maia Sandu has a lead over her 10 rivals on the ballot, though the race will go to a November run-off if she fails to reach the 50 per cent threshold to win outright.

Voters will also choose “Yes” or “No” in a referendum on whether to enshrine in the country’s constitution its path towards joining the 27-nation EU. Polls by WatchDog, a Chisinau-based think tank, show that a clear majority of more than 50 per cent support the EU path. The referendum needs a one-third turnout to be valid.

Voters queue outside the Moldovan embassy in Moscow on Sunday (Reuters)

Ms Sandu hopes to see a resounding “Yes” at the referendum, which will decide whether a clause should be inserted into the constitution defining EU accession as a goal.

“Our vote at the referendum will define our fate for many decades to come,” she said after casting her ballot, urging all Moldovans to vote and singling out the diaspora in particular.

The referendum was boycotted by Ms Sandu’s chief presidential rival, Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor-general backed by the traditionally pro-Russian Party of Socialists. He said Moldova needed a new government and that he stood for a “balanced” foreign policy that would develop ties with the EU, Russia, the United States and China.

Flanked by Romania and Ukraine, and with a population of fewer than 3 million people, Moldova has alternated between pro-Western and pro-Russian courses since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

Ties with Moscow have deteriorated since Ms Sandu came to power in December 2020. Her government has condemned Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, accused Russia of plotting her overthrow, and diversified Moldova’s energy sources after Russia reduced its supply of gas to other countries.

Presidential candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo speaks after casting his vote in the contest. He said he would boycott the parallel EU referendum (EPA)

The foreign ministry issued a statement saying that two polling stations in Moscow – among many set up for Moldovans living abroad – had been “artificially” overcrowded with people, and warning against what it said might be illegal attempts to bus voters in.

The run-up to the vote was overshadowed by election-meddling allegations.

The police accused Ilan Shor, a fugitive tycoon who lives in Russia, of trying to pay off a network of at least 130,000 voters to vote “No” and to back a specific candidate whose identity he would only disclose at the last minute.

Shor, who was jailed in absentia for fraud and theft and is under Western sanctions, has openly offered to pay Moldovans to persuade others to vote “No” and back “our candidate”. He denies wrongdoing and says the money is his.

In the run-up to the vote, state radio in Chisinau has run adverts appealing to people not to vote for money, and asking them to report any such offers to the authorities.

Voters line up around the block in the Romanian capital Bucharest to take part in elections in neighbouring Moldova (Alastair Jamieson)

On Thursday, law enforcement agencies said they had uncovered a programme in which hundreds of people were taken to Russia to undergo training to stage riots and civil unrest.

US national security spokesperson John Kirby echoed those concerns this week, saying in a statement that “Russia is working actively to undermine Moldova’s election and its European integration”.

Russia denies interfering and accuses Ms Sandu’s government of “Russophobia”.

Police chief Viorel Cernauteanu told reporters there had been a slew of voice and text messages sent from abroad in recent days, telling Moldovans to either boycott the referendum or to vote “No”.

He said the police had done everything they could to prevent any impact on the vote. “There will be some kind of impact in any case, but I think it will not influence the votes overall,” he said.

Early turnout figures were high. In the Romanian capital Bucharest, Moldovans queued around the block to cast their votes.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report

05:28FOCUS © FRANCE 24

Renato Usatii, a 45-year-old former mayor of Moldova's second largest city Balti, is predicted to win 6.4 percent.

Polls opened at 7:00 am (0400 GMT), with the national anthem playing over loudspeakers in the capital Chisinau, according to an AFP journalist.

Voting ended at 9:00 pm and partial results were expected after 10:00 pm.

Voter turnout at 3:00 pm local time was 39 percent for the presidential election, and 33 percent for a referendum asking whether the constitution should be modified to include joining the EU as an objective.

The 27-member bloc began membership talks with Chisinau this June.

Of those surveyed, 55.1 percent said they would vote "yes", while 34.5 percent said they were set on "no".

For any referendum result to be valid, participation must reach at least 33 percent, indicating that Sunday's result should be valid. Some pro-Russian parties have campaigned for a boycott.
'Hard at work'

Sandu toured the country saying that joining the EU will help improve life in one of Europe's poorest nations.

Sandu's critics say she has not done enough to fight inflation and reform the judiciary.

In his campaign, Stoianoglo -- who was fired as prosecutor by Sandu -- has called for the "restoration of justice" and vowed to wage a "balanced foreign policy".

He abstained from voting in the referendum.

Usatii has said he is the best choice, as he is "the only one who is not controlled either by the East or the West".

Fears of Russian interference are looming large.

01:09

Police said this month that millions of dollars from Russia to corrupt voters were funnelled into the country by people affiliated to Ilan Shor, a fugitive businessman and former politician.

The "unprecedented" scheme could taint up to 300,000 ballots, according to police.

Convicted in absentia last year for fraud, Shor regularly brands Moldova a "police state" and the West's "obedient puppet".

"Russia is hard at work. They have never (before) put in so much money," Romanian historian Armand Gosu, who specialises in Russia and the former Soviet space, told AFP.

In addition to the suspected vote buying, hundreds of young people were found to have been trained in Russia and the Balkans to create "mass disorder" in Moldova, including in tactics to provoke law enforcement, according to police.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Fighting demons: The New Apostolic Reformation is waging a holy war against democracy

Paul Rosenberg

SALON
Sun, October 20, 2024 

Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump pray outside the U.S. Capitol January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images

“You do not attack the enemy — you attack the enemy’s strategy,” and the strategy of the Christian right “has always been to master the tools of electoral democracy in order to erode and to end it.” That advice, quoting Sun Tzu, came from Frederick Clarkson, a senior researcher at Political Research Associates (and Salon contributor), in a recent webinar, "The New Apostolic Reformation and the Threat to Democracy In Pennsylvania."

Unlike earlier incarnations of the Christian right, the explicit goal of the widely-discussed but little-understood NAR is to install theocracy with a democratic facade, approximately on the Iranian model. They call it “theonomy.” The movement is led by mutually recognized “apostles” and “prophets” who purport to receive direct guidance from God and see themselves engaged in spiritual warfare — literally, as in fighting actual demons — to gain dominion over the “seven mountains of culture”: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business and government. As in Iran, they wouldn’t just control government but every aspect of society, but would still call it democracy and claim, in the face of America’s "Godless Constitution," that this was what the founders wanted all along. It’s gaslighting in the name of God.

Understanding the NAR’s goals and strategy is crucial in exposing what the movement really wants, most of which is broadly unpopular. And how they want to get there — boosting turnout among a minority base by demonizing their fellow citizens — is highly corrosive to democracy itself. “The left is loaded with demons,” NAR apostle Lance Wallnau has said (according to Clarkson). “I don’t think it’s people anymore; I think you’re dealing with demons talking through people.”


Pennsylvania plays a key role in the NAR’s plans, and reinventing the state’s eponymous founder, William Penn, as a like-minded forebear — rather than the champion of religious diversity and secular government he actually was — is a core part of their strategy, as advanced by NAR apostle Abby Abildness.

The webinar came three days after Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance appeared at an NAR-sponsored event in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, where he stood the biblical teaching to love the stranger on its head, without even trying to quote scripture. That event was part of the Courage Tour, targeting 19 counties in seven swing states “where demonic strongholds have corrupt control over the voting," according to Wallnau, who has recently described Kamala Harris as "the spirit of Jezebel" and "the devil's choice."

Wallnau’s partner in planning his tour is the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank. Vance’s appearance was perfectly in keeping with a whole web of NAR-GOP collaboration, high-level examples of which were provided by researcher Peter Montgomery of People for the American Way during the webinar.

The event kicked off with two presentations on how best to understand the NAR, from former PRA researcher Rachel Tabachnick and religion scholar Julie Ingersoll, author of “Building God’s Kingdom” (Salon author interview here), a study of Christian Reconstruction, which informs most of NAR’s theology.

“This movement has been building in Pennsylvania for more than 20 years,” Tabachnick said. “There is the belief that Pennsylvania is key to taking the rest of the country, a theme that has been repeated in campaigns and media for more than a decade.”

Two Pennsylvania researchers provided research under pseudonyms, focusing first on six key NAR figures explaining the state’s significance, and then on NAR power and influence in Lancaster Country, which has seen a dramatic shift away from its historical Anabaptist tradition.

Collectively, these presentations delivered a chilling portrait of a potent but under-recognized threat to democracy that’s MAGA-affiliated but operates on a much longer timeline, and demands a thoughtful strategic response, as outlined by Clarkson in his closing remarks.
Tearing down the religious establishment

The NAR “predates Trump and it will outlast him,” Tabachnick said. It’s a movement dedicated to “tearing down the establishment, not just in D.C., not just in Harrisburg, but also, and perhaps most importantly … tearing down the traditional religious establishment…. This is not just a religious versus secular movement,” she continued, and should not be framed that way. “This is a movement about reorganizing Christendom under their dominance.”

This entails conflict not just with liberal or moderate Christians, but also with evangelicals, Pentecostals and charismatic Christians who do not share the NAR's theology or worldview. In fact, both the NAR and its predecessor fringe movements going back to the 1940s have been formally denounced by other Christians, along lines that echo Paul’s denunciation of the Colossian heresies: “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.”

For many Christians, the NAR’s focus on fighting demons is inherently heretical, since it implies that salvation through Christ is insufficient. Indeed, orthodox critics have accused the NAR and its predecessors of practicing the same sort of pagan ritual magic they claim to be fighting against.

For example, NAR father figure C. Peter Wagner, who first named the movement and did more than anyone to give it coherence, specifically developed and promoted forms of “spiritual warfare,” that have little if any Christian precedent. This began with “spiritual mapping” to identify “demonic strongholds,” which has more in common with the practices of various pagan traditions than anything adjacent to mainstream Christianity.

“This is the same movement that led many of the Jericho Marches around the [state] Capitol building in Harrisburg and other states around the country, and organized and led many of the events in D.C. and on the U.S. Capitol grounds in December 2020 and on Jan. 6,” Tabachnick said, events at least arguably informed by the practice of spiritual mapping.

It’s good to keep this context in mind when confronted with the NAR’s claims to speak for all Christians, much less to have a personal download from God. But while it’s easy to dismiss a movement that blows shofars and talks about spiritual warfare, Tabachnick noted, the NAR “is simultaneously mastering the mundane nuts and bolts work of legislative work,” and as head of the state prayer caucus, Abby Abildness has worked with legislators for years, drawing on the Project Blitz playbook that was exposed by Clarkson and reported here in 2018. It starts out with benign-sounding bills and then works up to attacking reproductive freedom, LGBTQ equality and more.

As with Project 2025, “we have playbooks and we need to expose them,” Tabachnick said. NAR strategy is “not meant for public consumption,” she continued, “and a little sunshine goes a very long way. The American people don't want this.”

The outraged nationwide response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade is a striking example, but far from the only one. The NAR has long been interested in denying women the vote, as Ingersoll has tracked for more than a decade.

“This is a media-savvy movement, filling the airwaves with claims that those opposed to them are cutural Marxists, communists and, in the words of Wallnau, demons that have to be removed from the high places of culture and society,” Tabachnick said. While it’s impossible to say how many deep NAR support runs, she said research indicates that about 30 percent of adult Christians support the “seven-mountain mandate.”

NAR is one of “two significant sources of dominionism,” having cross-pollinated with Christian reconstructionism, whose founders “produced thousands upon thousands of pages of blueprints for reconstructing the U.S. in accordance with biblical law,” Tabachnick continued. This “Project 2025 for dominion theology” is against taxation, regulation and labor unions, and its theorists “were fellow travelers with states’ righters, the John Birch Society and, later, the Tea Party movement.”

From its neo-Pentecostal roots, the NAR inherits “a strong supernatural component,” including the “belief that individuals receive supernatural gifts, that these apostles and prophets are given direction from God and have been chosen to be God’s government on earth in all the seven mountains.”

While Doug Mastriano’s losing gubernatorial campaign in Pennsylvania in 2022 brought the movement to the surface, Tabachnick said, he wasn’t the first NAR-associated political candidate, only “the first to launch it with blowing a shofar” — a Jewish ritual ram’s horn that Christian Zionist groups have appropriated. It’s an example of how NAR readily gobbles up elements of other faiths. For the NAR, she concluded, Mastriano’s campaign was a major step forward in mastering the tools of electoral democracy than an electoral defeat.
The NAR's widening influence and long-term goals

Ingersoll’s presentation was largely about understanding the NAR and cutting through the confusion around it. Asking if someone is a member is “actually the wrong question,” she said, “based on a misunderstanding about how ideas and social movements work. The NAR is incredibly diffuse by design.”

In part, that’s because of a problem mentioned above: From a traditional Christian point of view, the NAR and its leaders are ungodly. “There are massive egos involved that don't want to be in coordination, let alone under the authority of other people,” Ingersoll explained. But they also fail a basic test of democratic leadership: “They like to preserve a level of deniability. They want to be able to make outrageous claims in some contexts, but not be held accountable for them in other contexts,” she said. Some people who clearly fit in with the NAR will “deny the label, because they don't want to carry around some of the baggage.”

Abstract questions about membership don’t much matter, Ingersoll stressed. What’s important is what people actually do. “People don't live articulated theological systems,” she said. “They assemble components of the systems that work for them in any given context. … Dominionism in the NAR is a fluid assemblage of ideas, traditions and practices that are invoked as they seem applicable.”

For example, the movement simultaneously embraces two incompatible eschatologies, to use the theological term. On one hand, there’s the pre-millennial interpretation of the Book of Revelation shared by most evangelical Christians: The world gets worse and worse until the day of Rapture and the last judgment. On the other is the Christian Reconstructionist post-millennial interpretation: “The kingdom of God was actually reestablished at the resurrection [of Christ], and it’s the job of Christians to build it.” (Hence the title of Ingersoll’s book.) Logically, you can’t believe both at once, but situationally, Christians of the NAR variety choose to believe whichever one seems to fit the moment.

One result is NAR’s long time-horizon. “They think in a thousand years,” Ingersoll said. One home-school movement has developed a package for families to build “a 200-year plan for family dominion.” When she began writing about the push to roll back women’s right to vote about 15 years ago, “People would say, ‘That's crazy. That could never happen.’ I don't know that it can't happen, and among Christian nationalists there is a big discussion now about whether or not it's biblical for women to have the right to vote. If we don't think in the long term, we miss where they're going with all these things.

“When we’re thinking in terms of the election or a current crisis or one particular leader, we are missing the long-term horizon with which these these efforts are made,” she continued. One way to shift focus, Ingersoll argues, is to track the use of terms that circulate in NAR circles, many of which (thanks to her) appeared in the glossary Salon published in May. These include “dominion,” ”biblical worldview,” “patriarchy” (as a positive), “government schools” instead of public schools, “civil government” instead of just government, “lesser magistrates,” “biblical spheres of authority” and “covenant marriage.”

Another complementary focus is to track known pro-NAR individuals and their associates, as Peter Montgomery did in his presentation. He began with high-level examples such as House Speaker Mike Johnson “and a couple dozen members of Congress” who have “gathered with NAR leaders for prayer and spiritual warfare.” His second example cited this year’s Republican convention in Milwaukee, where “spiritual warfare rhetoric was everywhere,” specifically “the idea that the American political scene is not about right or left … but an actual spiritual battle between good and evil, between the forces of God and the agents of Satan.”
The NAR's reinvention of William Penn

“Each state has a specific NAR name and NAR purpose,” explained the researcher introduced under the pseudonym Kira Resistance. “Pennsylvania is not only ‘seed of a nation’ state, but it's also the ‘government-shift state.’” NAR leaders see Pennsylvania as “the holy seed of a government,” not just for the United States but “a holy governmental example to the entire world,” which is one reason, Kira said, why she avoids the term "Christian nationalism."

Kira discussed six key Pennsylvania figures, beginning not with Doug Mastriano but Abby Abildness, who has been a leader in developing, articulating and spreading the vision of Pennsylvania’s special role, with a reverse-engineered, NAR-friendly version of William Penn at its core. To carry out the vision of this imaginary Penn, “You have to elect righteous leaders,” which of course means those who share NAR’s vision.

Abildness once said that God had told her that he wanted to claim the state capital of Harrisburg, Kira recounted, after which Abildness released a video “showing dozens of people on a hill right before the Harrisburg Capitol, bending the knee.”

This kind of ritual performance is typical of the ways NAR seeks to rewrite history and redraw boundaries to suit its vision, sweeping aside inconvenient facts or counter-arguments. In terms of actual history, William Penn’s vision was almost exactly the opposite of the NAR fantasy. As noted on the website of Penn’s country estate, his “belief that ‘Religion and Policy … are two distinct things, have two different ends, and may be fully prosecuted without respect one to the other’ took hold and became one of America’s most important ideals.” In that sense, Penn’s vision really can be seen as the “seed of a nation” in which religious diversity, rather than unanimity, was a hallmark from the beginning.

Like many early colonial leaders and many of America’s founders, Penn was a slaveowner, a fact that has led liberal Quakers to expunge him “from our Friendly pantheon,” as Quaker activist Chuck Fager wrote in 2022. But as he continued, if liberal Quakers didn’t want Penn anymore, Doug Mastriano and his allies surely did:



[I]n Penn there are 340 years worth of — in plain worldly language — overwhelmingly positive branding for Quakers and the liberating aspects of our testimonies.

Christian nationalists now want to turn him and them into their opposite….

Penn had his faults; but a theocrat he never ever was.

Doug Mastriano and his wife, Rebbe, are often referred to as “spiritual parents of the state” in NAR-world, Kira continued. At Mastriano's 2022 campaign kickoff, Abildness said “that Penn's heart was bringing forth the godly foundation to our nation” and that “Mastriano's heart is like Penn's heart.”

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Rebbe Mastriano stirred up the faithful with fighting words: "When the Israelites came into their promised land, they didn't just march in and take it. God had to move in mighty ways to remove their enemies. Our promised land is Pennsylvania, and we're taking it back."

After Mastriano’s defeat, Kira noted, he literally compared himself to Abraham Lincoln, saying, “We are in it for the long haul. We often hear about Lincoln losing important races in his time. In the end God gave him the great victory because of perseverance. This movement is going to stay influential in this state.”
Lancaster County: Microcosm, harbinger or bellwether?

The next pseudonymous presenter, who called himself the Lancaster Examiner, took a hyper-local focus on how NAR power gets built from the ground up. First, the apostolic networks are present in the county, then they attract “big-name visitors” for special events, and then “the local growth of these communities and networks” begins to impact local politics.

At least five or six apostolic networks have been active in Lancaster County and devoted to the mission of “taking over churches,” mostly within “historically Anabaptist communities” such as the Mennonites, the Amish, the Brethren, the Hutterites and similar Christian traditions.

In a follow-up email, the Examiner explained that as with “the NAR's retelling of the William Penn narrative, local Anabaptist-turned-NAR churches have massaged their own history,” citing one sermon in which a local pastor “twists the narrative a quarter-turn or so to frame south central Pennsylvania's NAR community as uniquely called by God for such a time as this.”

It’s quite a historical twist, since “religious freedom is absolutely a core value of Anabaptists,” the Examiner wrote. “But as you've seen, the NAR and similar charismatic evangelical movements engage in the language of diversity and ‘come as you are,’ but all of that is in dissonance with what comes next in their agenda.”

For several decades, he continued, “Local leaders have cultivated communities that are involved in dominionist activities and behavior, knowingly and not. What’s noteworthy is arguably not that it’s happened but that such incredible growth has gone unnoticed. So while Mastriano lost, this movement predates him and will outlive his moment in the spotlight.”

Lancaster County should be seen as a harbinger of sorts, he suggested. "The number of networks that have emerged here feels atypical and significant to me in comparison to other parts of the state," the Examiner said, adding that "Lancastrians have a penchant for reinventing the wheel — or even inventing the same wheel by different people at the same time."

Lancaster County is "different from the rest of the country only in degree," Ingersoll added. "Dominionist Christians have worked for decades to establish a beachhead in culture, whether you're thinking in terms of reconstructionists or the NAR. In some places they've been more successful than others, and they have particularly targeted Pennsylvania because it's such a key state in the election.”
Fighting back: "A quiet call to action"

In the final presentation, Clarkson laid out a broad overview of one key aspect of the NAR strategy “to master the tools of electoral democracy in order to erode and to end it.” The group seeks to “embolden reluctant conservative evangelicals in blue suburbs and make them feel part of a religious and political cause far greater than themselves,” he said.

“Beyond their efforts at electoral mobilization and possible monkey-wrenching is something far more concerning,” Clarkson continued. “NAR leaders are increasingly teaching that normal religious, political and gender differences are to be seen as supernatural evil, as demonic.” Such demonization, as we should know by now, can readily lead to violence.

Clarkson ended with what he called “a quiet call to action,” but “not a call to do things we have done before that haven’t worked, but this time with more energy.” Instead, activists who hope to battle the NAR’s political influence “need to know more than we do now about who they are and what they are about. If knowledge is power, we need more knowledge — and we need to spread it more widely.”

Along with that, Clarkson concluded, NAR opponents “need some agreed-upon vocabulary in order to be able to discuss the knowledge we acquire. This is how good strategy is made. We also need to deepen our knowledge of the rules and practices of electoral democracy. We should not be content to leave these things to political professionals. Democracy belongs to all of us, and we need to act like it.” That was what the real William Penn, flaws and all, actually believed. He wasn’t interested in fighting demons.

Trump boosts a hard-right Christian worldview that paints the election as 'spiritual warfare'

MATT BROWN
Sun, October 20, 2024

LIVONIA, Mich. (AP) — Standing before hundreds of people in a suburban Detroit chapel, at an event organized by Donald Trump's campaign, Marlin J. Reed declared that God had called on them to vote for the former president.

“You are being called upon to stand up and face down this darkness and face down these lies and refuse to stop speaking, but to speak up and to stand up and make it known that we are not going to take this," said Reed, the pastor of New Wine Glory Ministries in Livonia, Michigan. “We are not going to lie down, we are not going to allow you to take our country and take our rights and our freedoms.”

“Even if it means war, we are not going to allow you to take it,” Reid said to cheers.

Trump's campaign has directly nourished a fusion of hard-right politics and theology to energize evangelical Christians in swing states. The campaign has launched a “Believers for Trump” program and conducted several calls with conservative faith leaders, overwhelmingly evangelical pastors, on how to mobilize their congregations for Trump. The Republican nominee plans an event Monday near Charlotte, North Carolina, with allied pastors.

The “Believers for Trump” initiative includes outreach to Black voters, a traditionally Democratic constituency with which Trump has tried to increase his support. The Oct. 5 stop in Michigan included Black speakers such as Ben Carson, a longtime Trump surrogate who was his housing secretary. Carson urged evangelicals not to shy away from what he called “corrupt” earthly politics.

“Unless Jesus Christ is on the ballot, you’re always choosing between the lesser of two evils,” Carson said to applause. “That’s why God gave you a brain.”

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who spoke at the Republican National Convention and whose Detroit church hosted a Black conservative roundtable with Trump over the summer, rallied the crowd and proclaimed that the United States must remain a Christian country.

Democrats have also stepped up outreach to churchgoers

Churches in African American communities have long conducted “Souls to the Polls” efforts to mobilize Black voters. Black pastors have a tradition of speaking on political issues with a moral and spiritual lens. Similarly, conservative evangelical pastors have often frankly discussed opposition to abortion in the past but refrained officially from endorsing GOP candidates.

Democrats have also stepped up outreach to churchgoing voters.

On Friday, the Democratic National Committee hosted a call to launch its “Souls to the Polls” effort with the civil rights activist Martin Luther King III, who endorsed Harris and called Trump “a disaster for Black America." The campaign has kicked off its own "Souls to the Polls" program and set up a faith advisory board of progressive faith leaders that includes Harris' pastor, Amos C. Brown, who leads Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.

Harris has visited Black churches this month, including New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta on Sunday morning.

The engagement of faith voters in the 2024 election underscores an unprecedented blending of partisan politics with Christianity at a moment when many churches have seen attendance decline and as issues such as the coronavirus pandemic and liberalizing cultural norms dominate debate within many congregations.

At the close of his event with Carson, Reid boasted that the gathering had already prompted some backlash online for bringing politics into a religious space.

“I’m getting attacked on Facebook. I’m being told by several people, I’m going to go to jail and I’m breaking the law, and you can’t have politics in church," he said.

He noted that he had not registered his church as a nonprofit that has to remain officially nonpartisan specifically so he could say what he wanted.

“I knew this day was coming a long time ago. We’re a different kind of charter,” he said.

Trump and conservative Christians have embraced each other

A former New York playboy who was once viewed with deep skepticism by evangelical Christian leaders, Trump is now embraced as a champion of religious liberty by the Christian right. GOP events are filled with Christian iconography and many Trump's supporters say he has been divinely blessed, particularly after he survived an assassination attempt at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One man at Trump’s October rally in Butler carried a large wooden cross.

Trump often posts Christian prayers and images. He has licensed a “God Bless the USA” Bible — made in China and selling for $59.99 — that includes copies of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and Pledge of Allegiance alongside the King James Version text and the lyrics to his campaign walkout song, “God Bless The USA."

The campaign's program for Christians includes a “Believers and Ballots” program. It aims to boost vote-by-mail and in-person early voting efforts by training “Church Captains” who will coordinate their respective congregations on behalf of the campaign, according to a program overview. That overview includes a disclaimer warning churches to consult legal counsel about how congregations can participate in the program.

Trump-aligned groups including Turning Point USA and the America First Policy Institute have outlined plans to mobilize conservative Christian voters in the election around cultural topics such as abortion, LGBTQ rights and public education curricula.

“How many times do we need to emphasize that there are civilizational defining issues on this? If we lose, it’ll be largely because pastors and Christians arrogantly say to God, ’We don’t care. We’re more religious than Donald Trump. I hope they enjoy the gulags,” said Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA.

The Trump campaign has had missteps

The campaign has had missteps in its outreach to faith voters.

Trump posted an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Sept. 8, when Catholics celebrate the Nativity of Mary, eliding the nuance of the two figures. While his campaign has been eager to spotlight Black pastors who support Trump, the campaign also incorrectly listed one Detroit Black pastor as a supporter in its promotional materials. That pastor is an ardent Harris backer.

In July, Trump faced backlash for telling an audience of conservative Christians that they “won’t have to vote again” after the November election. “Christians, get out and vote. Just this time,” Trump said. “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”

Evangelical leaders in Trump's orbit have increasingly used the rhetoric that he is “anointed” to fight "spiritual warfare” against Democrats.

White evangelical Christians overwhelmingly support Trump this year, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center. White Catholic voters also largely support the former president’s reelection bid. But Trump significantly lags in support among other faith communities, including mainline protestant Christians, Hispanic Catholics, Black protestant voters, Jewish and Muslim Americans, and atheist or agnostic voters, according to Pew.

Not all evangelical Christians are turning out for Trump. Some faith leaders have launched an Evangelicals for Harris campaign targeting their fellow evangelicals to turn out for her.

The event in Livonia featured scant Biblical references. Carson, in his remarks, claimed that immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally were violent criminals intentionally sent by foreign countries to the border “where foolish people would take care of them.”

“Frankly, we see the opposite on the other side," Albert Mughannem, a realtor in Livonia who came to support Carson. “We see evil, we see demons.”

CNN pundit downplays Big Tech censorship of Hunter Biden laptop in 2020, calls government collusion 'nonsense'

Joseph Wulfsohn

FOX NEWS
Sat, October 19, 2024

CNN contributor Kara Swisher raised eyebrows as she significantly downplayed Big Tech's censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 election and called claims of collusion between tech companies and the federal government "absolute nonsense."

On Wednesday night, a CNN panel discussion put a spotlight on comments made by Republican vice-presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, who suggested that President Biden's victory was illegitimate by pointing to how social media giants "verifiably" "censored Americans from talking about things like the Hunter Biden laptop story," saying that had a "major, major consequence" on the results of the previous election.

"There is no proof that tech companies colluded to do this," Swisher reacted. "This is nonsense and he knows it."

Hunter Biden ‘Laptop From Hell’ Scandal Turns 4: How Media, Intelligence Community Misled Americans

CNN contributor Kara Swisher raised eyebrows when she downplayed the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 election.

Fellow panelist, conservative CNN political analyst Scott Jennings, pushed back, saying there was an "institutional effort" to suppress the New York Post's bombshell reporting on the laptop.

"I have been one of the biggest critics of tech. This is nonsense. Absolute nonsense," Swisher doubled down.

"Wasn't the New York Post thrown off of Twitter?" Jennings asked.

As Jennings attempted to refute Swisher, CNN anchor Abby Phillip interjected to validate Swisher as a tech journalist, telling him Swisher "has done actual reporting on this" and that she's "done the work."

"I don't know why you keep repeating things that aren't true," Swisher told Jennings.

"Did they get thrown off of Twitter? It's true!" Jennings reacted.

"They did, and then [Twitter] said they made a mistake and they put them right back on, just like CNN does, just like The New York Time does," Swisher responded. "It wasn't after the election, it was during the time… and [then-Twitter CEO] Jack Dorsey switched."

Big tech famously dismissed the New York Post's bombshell reporting during the 2020 presidential election. The Post reporting was famously censored by Twitter ahead of the 2020 election.

Swisher continued, "So I think what the issue is – is you think Twitter is the government. You think Twitter is running things. And there is not this wide collusion. And JD Vance knows that because he's worked in tech. He knows there's no such thing as Big Tech. There are big tech companies. They do not collude on this issue."

However, Swisher was incorrect when she claimed The New York Post was put "right back on" Twitter (now called X). The New York Post's account was locked for a whopping 16 days because it refused to take down its posts linking to its Hunter Biden laptop reporting, being let back on the platform less than a week before Election Day 2020.

Also left unmentioned was how Twitter blocked its users from even sharing the links through direct messages and that Twitter users including then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany had their accounts locked for sharing the Post's reporting, claiming they violated Twitter's rules "against distribution of hacked material" despite the fact the Biden campaign never claimed the laptop was hacked.

Additionally, Swisher's assertion that there was no collusion between the social media giants and the government is undercut by the revelations from the Twitter Files, which showed how the FBI and DOJ informed Twitter about a potential "hack and leak" operation from Russia pertaining to Hunter Biden before the New York Post ran its story. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also admitted in August how his company was pressured by the Biden administration to remove COVID-related content it deemed misinformation and that the FBI previously warned about "Russian propaganda" before Hunter Biden's laptop surfaced.

Flashback: Msnbc, Cnn, Cbs Told Viewers Hunter Biden Laptop Story Was Russian Disinformation

Critics took aim at Swisher's comments on social media.

"Yes, this is all a complete lie from @karaswisher on CNN - as they claim she's the one who ‘knows,’" independent journalist Glenn Greenwald reacted. Twitter locked the NY Post out of their account for 2 weeks - until **3 days before the election** - because the NY Post refused to remove links to 6 stories about Biden."

"The Hunter Biden laptop story was obviously suppressed by Twitter and Facebook," Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi reacted. "Mark Zuckerberg’s letters, the deposition of FBI agent Elvis Chan, the FEC declaration of Yoel Roth, and other docs show the FBI at minimum falsely warned of a foreign ‘hack and leak’ operation."

"Perfect example of the arrogance of pigheaded ignorance," New York Post columnist Miranda Devine said. "The @nypost twitter account was locked for two weeks, until a few days before the 2020 election. People like @kayleighmcenany were suspended just for trying to privately DM a link to our story. You don’t know what you are talking about @karaswisher."

CNN did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Opinion

Commentary: What more does Kamala Harris have to do to win?

Carla Hall
Sat, October 19, 2024

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris with Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego and vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at Cocina Adamex restaurant in Phoenix. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)

There is a video clip of Vice President Kamala Harris talking to a young girl about leadership. Her advice: “You never have to ask anyone permission to lead. When you want to lead, just lead,” she says.

Clearly Harris took that permission for herself in her overnight rise from Joe Biden’s loyal running mate to his replacement as presidential candidate.

Even Oprah Winfrey, in a town hall with the candidate on Sept. 19, commented on how Harris transformed from serviceable Joe Biden stand-in one week to fiery, swaggery speechmaker the next. I saw it too. Gone was the vice president from early 2021 stuck with the gargantuan no-win task of figuring out why people illegally cross the border.


Read more: L.A. Times electoral endorsements for 2024 November election

She was the commanding candidate accepting her party's nomination. She was master debater, putting Donald Trump on his heels during their Sept. 10 debate, verbally smacking him for boasting about his supposed friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, “a dictator who would eat you for lunch.”

This was a Kamala Harris I didn’t know existed. Years ago, probably when she was California attorney general, I’d seen her leave an L.A. Times editorial board meeting, looking exasperated after being pummeled with questions from my colleagues and me. We could be a tough room, and how the attorney general dealt with criminal justice issues was often a topic of controversy.

Kamala Harris, the 2.0 version, is self-assured, unflappable and funny. (To the hecklers at one of her recent rallies in Wisconsin: “Oh — you guys are at the wrong rally. No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.”)

Read more: Granderson: At the debate, Trump confessed he's unfit and unprepared

But being smart and compelling may not be enough in the scary closing days of this race. She can’t win against Trump just by having a successful record as a prosecutor and lawmaker and creative ideas about how to increase housing supply, support entrepreneurs starting businesses and help people buy their first home. And that’s maddening. That should be enough.

Of course, she knows all this, but even reminding her audiences that Trump is “unhinged, ” as she has done, has so far not moved the needle on polls that show Harris and Trump in a dead heat.

When she first got in the race, Republicans were obsessed with her and treated her like some exotic animal whose name they pretended they couldn’t pronounce. The way she talks, her ethnicity — is she Black or South Asian or, shockingly, both? — her lack of biological children. Though Harris has two stepchildren whom she treats as her own, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a smarmy speech that her children keep her humble but Harris "doesn't have anything" to keep her humble. Trump called her low-IQ and, according to published reports, “retarded.”

Never has Harris taken the bait. Never has she been drawn into a trash-talk brawl. But as a childless (though cat-less) Black woman, I’ll throw a punch on Harris’ behalf: If children keep you humble, how have Trump’s five children failed to keep him from becoming a megalomaniac?

She took the high road, but her poll numbers didn’t. Alarmingly, she seems to be losing some support among Black men — even though the overwhelming majority of Black people polled say they support her. In an effort to win as many Black voters as possible, she dashed to Detroit on Tuesday for an hour long chat with the enormously popular Black radio show host Charlamagne Tha God. Then, to woo any remaining fence-sitters, she went to Pennsylvania on Wednesday where she sparred with Fox News political anchor Bret Baier.

She skipped the fusty white-tie Al Smith dinner fundraiser in New York for Catholic charities — generally a must-show event for presidential candidates — to campaign in Wisconsin on Thursday night. She's right to focus on campaigning in key states. But here is what she should never skip in what time remains: Harris, who has long fought for a federal right to abortion, needs to remind voters that Trump is a threat to reproductive rights, not (as he called himself) a protector of women — or white men, or Black men or any person of color. He is a protector only of himself.

Two and a half weeks from now, I don’t want to write that Harris lost but ran a glorious campaign. I want to write that she had a spectacular victory. And then on Inauguration Day, I want to watch Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to become a Supreme Court justice, swear in the first Black and South Asian woman to become president of the United States. I want to imagine what it would be like if my parents had lived to see that. My father would be sobbing as he watched, and my mother would be smiling as if she trusted all along this would happen.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.