"In general the 53 countries on the continent of Africa have made great progress towards freedom and democracy, and in terms of electing good, sound administrations."

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I must say that, in the first instance, we got the request from many African countries who said, look, you people had better host the Parliament. So, the general feeling around the Continent was that it would be better that the Parliament was based here. In part, because of what this country has done with regard to establishing a democratic system, and we have responded to that. We have said, fine.

— Thabo Mbeki