Tuesday, March 3, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
Yesterday afternoon Independent Electoral Commission chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula closed the door on candidate list submissions for the upcoming elections.
Tlakula said that 90% of those who intended to contest the elections had waited until the last day to make submissions. She sternly reiterated that parties can not change their lists or make any substitutions.
Tlakula said that 156 parties had registered with the IEC ahead of the polls, 117 of them at national level, and 39 at provincial level.
At the time of the 2004 elections, there were 75 parties registered, of which only 21 actually contested.

In other news, the Economic Community of West African States has condemned the assassination of Guinea-Bissau's President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira, and called on the country's armed forces to help restore constitutional order.
Soldiers killed Vieira in an apparent revenge attack for the slaying of the army chief of the tiny West African country on Sunday. The army said that it is managing the crisis and will respect democratic institutions.
Chairperson of Ecowas, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, has emphasised the importance of constitutional succession to the Presidency after these events. He called on the armed forces and other security agencies of Guinea-Bissau to desist from any actions likely to plunge the country further into lawlessness and political instability.
The African Union has also condemned the killings in Guinea-Bissau, calling on political leaders to rally behind legitimate authorities in the country.

Back home, convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik has been released from jail on medical parole. A Correctional Services official says that by law a prisoner would have to be "in the final stages of a terminal illness" to qualify for medical parole, and that the Correctional Services Act was "very clear" on medical parole rules.
The determination of terminal illness is not, however, undertaken by the officials of the department, but by medical doctors who submit their reports to the parole board.
Shaik has served two years and four months of his 15-year term, spending most of that time in hospital owing to high blood pressure, depression and chest pains.
The African National Congress's Presidential candidate, Jacob Zuma, has reportedly said that given Shaik's health, he should have been released long ago.

Also making headlines:
In Zimbabwe, human rights activist Jestina Mukoko has been freed on bail.
In Sudan, a Darfur rebel accuses the Sudanese government of planning riots if the International Criminal Court decides to issue a warrant of arrest for the country's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
And, ANC President Jacob Zuma says at a sustainability conference that South Africa is one of worst greenhouse gas offenders.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.