FOLLOWING the disputed elections in Kenya, in which approximately 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced from their homes and livelihoods, there is still no functioning Kenyan government.

President George Bush is meeting with the leaders of several African nations later this month to celebrate elections held last year in each and hold them up as models of democratic progress on the troubled continent.

People in Botswana, where more than a third of the population is HIV positive, go to the polls today in elections that were expected to be dominated by the ruling party – like every other vote since the southern African country gained independence nearly four decades ago.