Thursday May 19, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

The African National Congress (ANC) had garnered more than 60% of the 10,9-million local government election votes counted by 07:00 this morning. According to figures from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), 6 548 709 votes had been cast in favour of the ANC while the Democratic Alliance had secured 2 790 862 votes or 26,03%. It was still not clear how many of South Africa's 23,65-million eligible voters took part in Wednesday's election. The IEC’s Chief Electoral Officer Advocate Pansy Tlakula told a press briefing on Wednesday that she hoped that at least 40% of registered voters had cast their ballots.

The next managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should be from a developing country to ensure the interests of all countries are reflected in its operations, South Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said. Gordhan's predecessor Trevor Manuel is among potential candidates to succeed IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn after he resigned following being accused of trying to rape a maid in his New York hotel room. "Institutions such as the IMF must reform so that they can become credible, and to be credible they must represent the interests and fully reflect the voices of all countries, not just a few industrialised nations," Gordhan said in a statement.

Government is satisfied with the running of South Africa's fourth democratic local government elections. "Government expresses great satisfaction with the collective efforts of departments in ensuring the success registered thus far in rolling out the local government elections under the auspices and leadership of the Independent Electoral Commission," said Cabinet spokesperson Jimmy Manyi. Government congratulated security agencies as well as those in the security community, who have been on high alert, for their tireless work to ensuring the safety of voters.

Also making headlines:
Al Qaeda has appointed an Egyptian militant as temporary leader and named a new head of operations following the killing of Osama bin Laden by US commandos, al Jazeera reported on Wednesday.
And, Tunisia threatened to report Libya to the United Nations Security Council if it fired into Tunisian territory again, after Libya's three-month-old conflict spilled beyond its borders.
That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.