Presidential Elections

President Zine Abidine ben Ali announced Saturday that he will seek election in April in Tunisia's first presidential balloting in 15 years. Ben Ali, 52, took power in November, 1987, ousting Habib Bourguiba, who had ruled for three decades. The presidential elections, the first since 1974, are expected to take place April 2 and will be the first public test of Ben Ali's popularity.

Togolese lobbed stones and Molotov cocktails for a second day after Faure Gnassingbe, the son of their late dictator, was declared the winner of disputed presidential elections. At least six people died and at least 100 were injured in the violence. Opposition leaders alleged widespread fraud in Sunday's vote in the West African nation and called for supporters to continue their protests.

Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, known by the initials PRI, is expected at a convention on Wednesday to formally nominate Luis Donaldo Colosio as its candidate in presidential elections scheduled for next August. Because the PRI has not lost a presidential election since its founding 64 years ago, the nomination will make Colosio, who was social development minister until last month, the automatic presidential front-runner.

The future of the Supreme Court is the forgotten issue in this year's presidential election. This is surprising and disturbing because a president's picks for the federal judiciary are one of the most long-lasting legacies of any presidency. There is a sharp contrast between the types of individuals that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney would place on the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts, yet neither is saying much about it. Recent history powerfully shows the importance of presidential elections to Supreme Court decision-making.

Algeria's main militant Muslim group Saturday rejected a call by the country's army-backed government for presidential elections in November, saying the authorities were trying to win legitimacy by force. "The Islamic Salvation Front [FIS] refuses point-blank these elections as they are proposed by the putschists. . . ," the outlawed group said in a statement signed by one of its spokesmen, Anwar Haddam, from his exile in Washington.

Amid a wave of violence, Colombians will vote Sunday for new legislators in elections that could shed light on presidential races later this year. All 100 senators and 163 members of the House of Representatives will be chosen. Election-watchers will look to the voting to gauge the strength of Colombia's two major political parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, in anticipation of presidential elections on May 8.

Poland set Nov. 25 as the date for presidential elections that could replace ex-Communist Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski with Solidarity leader Lech Walesa. The announcement followed two weeks of frenzied parliamentary activity to pass legislation cutting short Jaruzelski's term. He announced Sept. 18 that he wants to step down to avoid becoming a focus for public protests.

About 3,000 Guatemalans dressed in black marched in the capital against the presidential candidacy of a former dictator. "No to the assassins!" demonstrators shouted, referring to the candidacy of retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, who held power for 18 months after a March 1982 coup at the height of the country's bloody 36-year civil war. He is accused by rights groups of overseeing massacres.

As expected, Democrat Michael S. Dukakis easily won the District of Columbia's three electoral votes for president. Democrats have carried the district, with its overwhelmingly black voting population, all six previous times its residents have voted in presidential elections. Walter Fauntroy, the city's non-voting delegate to Congress, also easily kept his seat. The Democrat, a minister and veteran of the civil rights movement, had only token opposition to his bid for the 10th term.

Political novice Arturas Paulauskas triumphed in the first round of Lithuania's presidential elections but was heading for a tough runoff with former Chicago resident Valdas Adamkus. With 64% of the vote counted, Paulauskas, 44, had garnered 45.3%. But without a majority, Paulauskas was set to face fellow political newcomer Adamkus, 71, who polled 27.6%, in a runoff Jan. 4.