Simmering just below a boil in Turkey:

Up to a million protesters have gathered in Istanbul accusing the government of planning an Islamist state and demanding it withdraw its presidential candidate.

Despite the Istanbul protests and a threat from the powerful army to intervene in the election, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, architect of Turkey’s EU membership drive, said he would remain the ruling AK Party’s candidate for head of state. Article

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On the day more than 700,000 protesters rallied in Istanbul to demand that the government withdraw its presidential candidate because he is a Muslim, the military said it has the final say in the matter.

“It should not be forgotten that the Turkish armed forces is one of the sides in this debate and the absolute defender of secularism,” the military said in a statement.

“When necessary, they will display its stance and attitudes very clearly. No one should doubt that.” Article

A bit more here.

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The political clash between secularists and Islamists has become critical, analysts say, and taps into one of the deepest faultlines of modern Turkish society. The entrance of the military, which ousted an elected Islamic government a decade ago and mounted three coups in decades before that, brought condemnation from the European Union and has intensified debate about having all strategic civilian arms of government under a pro-Islamic party.

“Today is really a defining moment in Turkey,” says Nilufer Narli, an expert on political Islam at Bahcehir University. “There is a polarization, a secular-Islamist conflict, but today it is sharper.”

Protesters Sunday, shouting that the presidential palace was “closed to imams,” echoed a rally in Ankara two weeks ago.

“Some people say this is a crisis, but it is not. If radical Islam comes, it will be a crisis,” said Bashar Unal, a textile businessman who brought his father to the rally. “We are Turkey. We do not want to be like Iran.” Article

Nigerian ‘elections’ — second time is not the charm.

Nigeria’s ruling party won more legislators’ seats and consolidated its grip on power in several states after rescheduled polls marred by very low turnout and electoral fraud, early results showed on Sunday.

The electoral authority re-staged polls for hundreds of federal and state legislators’ seats on Saturday in places where earlier elections were annulled due to irregularities.

But Reuters reporters in several states said the re-runs showed little improvement on the original polls. Voting slips and ballot boxes were stolen by ruling party supporters in some places and polling stations never opened in others.

Nigerian newspapers reported from around the country that even where polling stations were up and running the turnout was extremely low as voters were poorly informed, fearful of trouble and did not believe their votes would be counted.

[snip]

A Reuters reporter in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers, saw youths shouting PDP slogans and carrying ballot boxes stuffed with voting slips marked for the PDP take over a polling station and scare voters away on Saturday. Other polling stations in the city failed to materialise or were deserted.

Enugu, Anambra and Oyo were among states where media reported many polling stations did not open at all on Saturday and there were widespread reports of missing voting materials. Article