JAKARTA, Oct 21 (AFP)
Opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri was elected Indonesia�s vice-president on Thursday.
Megawati, who was defeated in Wednesday�s Presidential election by Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid, beat off a challenge from Hamzah Haz, chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), the largest Islamic party in the national assembly.
Armed forces chief General Wiranto and the former ruling party Golkar�s chairman Akbar Tanjung withdrew in quick succession before the voting began.
Megawati�s defeat on Wednesday had triggered rioting across Indonesia.
The post of vice-president had previously been seen as an insignificant one in Indonesia.
But it has assumed greater importance because of concern over the health of the frail and half-blind new president Wahid.
Under Indonesia�s current constitution, if the president becomes unable to exercise his functions, the deputy takes over as head of state for the remainder of his or her five-year term.
ANKARA, Oct 21 (AFP)
Lawyers for Abdullah Ocalan appealed for clemency Thursday before Turkey�s High Court of Appeals, saying the Kurdish rebel leader�s death sentence should be commuted because he has repented.
The court said it would make its ruling on November 25.
Presiding judge Demirel Tavil explained the delay of more than one month in pronouncing the final verdict by �the scope of the trial� and the voluminous case files magistrates will have to study first.
�The High Court will serve the cause of peace and democracy by opposing the death sentence,� attorney Ercan Kanar told the judges. �The death sentence is no longer a punishment for our times.
�If applied, it will not benefit (Turkish) society � it will only make gangrene set into a bleeding wound,� he said.
The hearing was conducted under tight security, but in the absence of Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers� Party (PKK).
The court also heard a document Ocalan wrote in his cell on the prison island of Imrali, which was read by Irfan Dundar, another member of his defense team.
The document, entitled �Law and the Question of Kurdish Freedom,� called for amendments to Turkish legislation that would allow greater individual and cultural freedom for Kurds.
�I understood that violence was not a solution (to the Kurdish problem) and tried since 1993 to renounce the use of violence within my organization,� Ocalan wrote.
But, he said, governments ignored all his appeals for a ceasefire in the 15-year old war between the PKK and Turkish forces, which has claimed 31,000 lives.
Another Ocalan attorney, Dogan Erbas, said all conditions were present for the penal code article poviding for sentence reductions in case of sincere repentance.
If the appeals court reverses the sentence, Ocalan will be retried by the same state security court that sentenced him to death on Imrali on June 29.
If it confirms the sentence, Ocalan�s final legal recourse in Turkey will have been exhausted and the file will have to be ratified by parliament and President Suleyman Demirel before the execution can go ahead.
Although the death sentence exists in Turkey, there have been no executions since 1984; 47 people are currently on death row in various Turkish prisons.
Oct 21
(Radio Liberty)
The Israel police performed a search in the former Premier Biniamin Netaniahy place on October 20, some valuable objects were confiscated.
Against Netaniahu were set allegations that while leaving the prime-minister office he misappropriated some values including paintings which were not his personal propriety. According Israel law, the gifts handled officially to the Prime-minister are state propriety. Number of allegations in corruption were put against Netaniahu as well. The former Premier argues that all allegations are politically motivated.
ASTANA, Oct 21 (THE GLOBE)
According to the point 9 (article 16) of the Constitutional law of RK �On elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan� �the circuit commission is to receive protocols on voting results submitted by district commissions; to determine results of the election in the circuit basing on the protocols, and to publish information about this in the mass media.�
However, the circuit commission received voting results from territorial regional election commissions.
This resulted in falsification of the vote results in Sarykol and Kostanai districts, the statement of Baltash Tursumbaev sent to the chairman of the Central Election Commission Zagipa Balieva. Mr. Tursumbaev is a candidate to deputies of the Parliament Mazhilis of RK in Kostanai southern district No. 40.
�So, the election results were falsified in favour of S.Z. Bisetaev in election districts No. 618, 715, 717, 721, 722, 725, 733, 736, 738, 745 & 758. They took my 1228 votes (1128 votes in Sarykol district, and 100 � in Kostanai region) and added them to S.Z. Bisetaev. However, these votes were not enough for him to pass the first round of the election. That is why, 602 votes were taken from V. Kornev and added to him.�
Mr. Tursumbaev�s proxies submitted protocols on voting for candidates nominated in election districts No. 715 and 721 of Sarykol district (Kostanai region). According to these protocols signed by the chairman of the election district, observers and eyewitnesses, 101 persons voted for Mr. Tursumbaev at the district No. 715 (while according to the territorial election commission � 21), 126 persons voted for him at the district No. 721 (26, according to the commission).
THE GLOBE called the Central Election Commission requesting to comment the letter. We were told the chairman Zagipa Balieva was on tour, and the deputy chairman Kuanysh Tursynkulov replied through his secretary, he could not comment, as he was too busy.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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