November 6, 2024
A weekly review of news and analysis of elections in Europe, usually posted on Wednesdays and occasionally updated throughout the week.
The Custom House in Dublin, Ireland. Photo credit: Wikimedia/Bjørn Christian Tørrissen (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Upcoming Europe Elections
Romania Presidential Election: November 24, 2024 and Legislative Elections: December 1, 2024
Romania holds presidential and legislative elections later this year.
Una Hajdari at Politico notes: “The electoral outcome may keep Romania on its mostly pro-European, centrist path — or tip it toward more nativist policies that would sound alarm bells in Brussels because of the country’s strategic proximity to Ukraine and its role as a key southeast European economy.”
Paul Dragos Aligica, GIS (November 1, 2024): European security stakes in Romania’s 2024 elections
Ireland Snap Parliamentary Elections: November 29, 2024
Shawn Pogatchnik, Politico (November 6, 2024): Ireland faces snap election on Nov. 29
Willis Sparks, GZERO (November 5, 2024): Ireland preps for an election sprint
Iceland Snap Parliamentary Elections: November 30, 2024
Iceland is holding snap parliamentary elections on November 30, 2024 following the collapse of the coalition government of the conservative Independence Party, center-right Progressive Party, and the Left-Green Movement.
Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir, Bloomberg (October 30, 2024):
Albania Parliamentary Elections: By June 2025
Albania is due to hold parliamentary elections in June 2025 amid tension and protests by the opposition center-right Democratic Party demanding that the Socialist Party government of Edi Rama step down and appoint a caretaker government ahead of the vote. Democratic Party leaders have accused Rama of manipulating elections and corruption. Protesters are also demanding the release of Democratic Party figures who have been arrested, including former Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
Albania is currently in membership negotiations with the European Union.
Fjori Sinoruka, Balkan Insight (November 4, 2024): Albanian Premier Edi Rama’s Diaspora Tour: Outreach or Electioneering?
AP (November 3, 2024): Albania aims to join the European Union by 2030, prime minister tells expatriates in Greek city
Bekim Bruka, Jurist (November 1, 2024): Democracy Beyond Borders: Albania’s First Diaspora Vote and the Struggle for Fair Representation.
Germany Federal Parliamentary Elections: September 28, 2025
Germany’s 2025 federal elections come on the heels of three state elections in the east that delivered blows to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s left-leaning coalition government. The far-right AfD won in Thuringia and came in a close second in Saxony. While Scholz’s SPD pulled off a surprise win in Brandenburg, AfD made large gains there as well. In addition, a new pro-Putin, anti-establishment left-wing populist party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), won large percentages of the vote.
Notably, Die Linke (The Left), which formed from remnants of the Communist Party in the east, saw a major collapse in the recent state elections.
The governing coalition is currently hanging on by a thread and snap elections could happen.
Kate Brady, Washington Post (November 6, 2024): German governing coalition collapses, adding upheaval in uncertain moment
Nette Nöstlinger, Politico (November 4, 2024): German government faces make-or-break moment in shadow of US election
Past Europe Elections
United Kingdom Conservative Party Leadership Election: Results Announced November 2, 2024
Jill Lawless, AP (November 2, 2024): UK Conservatives pick Kemi Badenoch as new leader, first Black woman to head a big British party
Elections On Deck
Americas This Week: November 9, 2024
Last Updated: November 21, 2024 by 21votes Leave a Comment
November 9, 2024
A weekly review of news and analysis of elections in the Americas, usually posted on Saturdays and occasionally updated throughout the week.
Upcoming Americas Elections
Uruguay Presidential Runoff: November 24, 2024
Stratfor (November 5, 2024): Previewing Uruguay’s Presidential Run-Off
Ecuador Presidential and Legislative Elections: February 9, 2025
Gabriela Molina, AP (November 9, 2024): Ecuador’s VP suspended for 150 days deepening rift with president as February election looms
Bolivia Presidential and Legislative Elections: August 17, 2025
Al Jazeera (November 9, 2024): Bolivia court bars former leader Evo Morales from running for office
DW (November 9, 2024): Bolivia: Evo Morales accuses government of refusing talks
Raúl Peñaranda U., Americas Quarterly (November 7, 2024): Bolivia’s Turmoil May Lead to a Political Shift
Sofia Ferreira Santos and Thomas Mackintosh, BBC (November 2, 2024): Bolivia military post seized and soldiers kidnapped
Honduras Presidential and Legislative Elections: Due by November 2025
Nicolás Devia-Valbuena and Dany Diaz Mejía, U.S. Institute of Peace (November 7, 2024): Can Honduras Get Its Democracy in Order in 2025?
Ryan C. Berg, CSIS (November 4, 2024): From Bad to Worse: The Xiomara Castro Administration Begins to Weaponize the Honduran State
Elections On Deck
Asia This Week: November 8, 2024
Last Updated: November 18, 2024 by 21votes Leave a Comment
November 8, 2024
A weekly review of key news and analysis of elections in Asia and the Indo-Pacific, usually posted on Fridays and occasionally updated throughout the week.
Upcoming Asia/Pacific Elections
Sri Lanka Snap Parliamentary Elections: November 14, 2024
Sri Lanka held its first presidential election since the 2022 financial crisis on September 21. Marxist Anura Kumara Dissanayake won, defeating a number of establishment political figures. He then called snap parliamentary elections, in a bid to consolidate his power. Sri Lanka remains a key site of geopolitical competition, with China constantly seeking to expand its influence and India continuing to play a role.
Tushar Shetty, The Diplomat (November 8, 2024): Rumble in Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Election Surprise
Hussain Haqqani, GIS (November 7, 2024): Sri Lanka’s new president looking for parliamentary backing
Alan J. Keenan, London School of Economics (November 4, 2024): Sri Lanka Goes to the Polls (Again)
Bangladesh Snap Elections: Forthcoming
Julhas Alam, AP (November 8, 2024): Thousands rally in Bangladesh capital as major political party demands quick reforms and an election
Rimon Tanvir Hossain, Foreign Policy Research Institute (November 4, 2024): Beyond the Revolution: Building a New Bangladesh
Past Asia/Pacific Elections
Palau Presidential and Legislative Elections: November 5, 2024
Reuters (November 5, 2024): Palau, U.S. security ally in Pacific, holds presidential election as China looks on
AFP (November 4, 2024): Palau Polls Open As Pro-US President Faces Election Test
Cleo Paskal, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (November 2, 2024): Palau is under attack from PRC
Japan Snap Parliamentary Elections: October 27, 2024
In August 2024, Japan’s then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced he was stepping down in the wake of a slush fund scandal in the governing Liberal Democratic Party. The party helped a leadership election on September 27, which former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba won. Following the election, Ishiba called a snap election for October 27, a move that had been widely expected.
Kazuto Suzuki, Chatham House (November 7, 2024): Following its snap election, Japanese politics has entered uncharted waters
Tobias Harris, World Politics Review (November 4, 2024): A Weakened Ishiba Means a Less Ambitious Japan
Shihoko Goto, East Asia Forum (November 4, 2024): Japan’s surprise election result could spell the return of ‘revolving door’ leadership
Yuki Tatsumi, Stimson Center (November 1, 2024): Japan’s October Surprise: Déjà Vu All Over Again?
Elections On Deck
Eurasia This Week: November 7, 2024
Last Updated: November 18, 2024 by 21votes Leave a Comment
November 7, 2024
A weekly review of news and analysis of elections in Eurasia, usually posted on Thursdays and occasionally updated throughout the week.
Upcoming Eurasia Elections
Belarus Presidential Election: January 26, 2025
Aleksandr Lukashenko has been president of Belarus since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country last held a presidential election on August 9, 2020. In a vote widely deemed not free and not fair, Lukashenko declared victory. However, the opposition declared that its candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, had in fact won. Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets in protest to demand free and fair elections, even in the face of assault and arrest by security forces.
In 2022, Lukashenko held a constitutional referendum on February 27, 2022 as a way of extending his time in power (he has been president since 1994 – the first and only president of post-Soviet Belarus). The changes allow Lukashenko to remain in office until 2035 and scrap Belarus’s non-nuclear status.
Yuras Karmanau, AP (November 4, 2024): Belarus’ authoritarian ruler will face only token challengers in presidential vote
Past Eurasia Elections
Moldova Presidential Runoff: November 3, 2024
Moldova held a presidential election and referendum on joining the European Union on October 20. Voters narrowly chose to pursue EU membership. Maia Sandu, Moldova’s pro-west president, came in first in the presidential election but did not win a majority. She subsequently defeated Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor-general who is backed by the pro-Russia faction, in the runoff on November 3.
OSCE (November 4, 2024): Moldova’s well-managed presidential run-off offered voters genuine choice, despite legal deficiencies, unbalanced media coverage and impact of foreign interference, international observers say
Clare Sebastian, CNN (November 4, 2024): Putin’s latest election meddling effort failed. It’s unlikely to stop him trying again
Stefan Wolff, The Conversation (November 4, 2024): Maia Sandu’s victory in second round of Moldovan election show’s limits to Moscow’s meddling
Stephen McGrath and Vadim Ghirda, AP (November 3, 2024): Moldova’s pro-Western president wins second term in runoff overshadowed by Russian meddling claims
Georgia Parliamentary Elections: October 26, 2024
AP (November 4, 2024): Thousands rally again in Georgia to protest Oct. 26 parliamentary election they say was rigged
Irakli Machaidze, Eurasianet (November 1, 2024): European Commission highlights Georgia’s “Backsliding”
Luka Pertaia, Ivan Gutterman, and Wojtek Grojec, RFE/RL (November 1, 2024): The Russian Tail: How Data Could Reveal Georgian Election Fraud
Paul Kirby, BBC (November 1, 2024): Georgian vote result makes no statistical sense – Western pollsters
Regional Analysis
Adam Simpson, Lowy Institute (November 6, 2024): Moldova and Georgia serve as geopolitical bellwethers
Elections On Deck
Europe This Week: November 6, 2024
Last Updated: November 18, 2024 by 21votes Leave a Comment
November 6, 2024
A weekly review of news and analysis of elections in Europe, usually posted on Wednesdays and occasionally updated throughout the week.
Upcoming Europe Elections
Romania Presidential Election: November 24, 2024 and Legislative Elections: December 1, 2024
Romania holds presidential and legislative elections later this year.
Una Hajdari at Politico notes: “The electoral outcome may keep Romania on its mostly pro-European, centrist path — or tip it toward more nativist policies that would sound alarm bells in Brussels because of the country’s strategic proximity to Ukraine and its role as a key southeast European economy.”
Paul Dragos Aligica, GIS (November 1, 2024): European security stakes in Romania’s 2024 elections
Ireland Snap Parliamentary Elections: November 29, 2024
Shawn Pogatchnik, Politico (November 6, 2024): Ireland faces snap election on Nov. 29
Willis Sparks, GZERO (November 5, 2024): Ireland preps for an election sprint
Iceland Snap Parliamentary Elections: November 30, 2024
Iceland is holding snap parliamentary elections on November 30, 2024 following the collapse of the coalition government of the conservative Independence Party, center-right Progressive Party, and the Left-Green Movement.
Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir, Bloomberg (October 30, 2024):
Albania Parliamentary Elections: By June 2025
Albania is due to hold parliamentary elections in June 2025 amid tension and protests by the opposition center-right Democratic Party demanding that the Socialist Party government of Edi Rama step down and appoint a caretaker government ahead of the vote. Democratic Party leaders have accused Rama of manipulating elections and corruption. Protesters are also demanding the release of Democratic Party figures who have been arrested, including former Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
Albania is currently in membership negotiations with the European Union.
Fjori Sinoruka, Balkan Insight (November 4, 2024): Albanian Premier Edi Rama’s Diaspora Tour: Outreach or Electioneering?
AP (November 3, 2024): Albania aims to join the European Union by 2030, prime minister tells expatriates in Greek city
Bekim Bruka, Jurist (November 1, 2024): Democracy Beyond Borders: Albania’s First Diaspora Vote and the Struggle for Fair Representation.
Germany Federal Parliamentary Elections: September 28, 2025
Germany’s 2025 federal elections come on the heels of three state elections in the east that delivered blows to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s left-leaning coalition government. The far-right AfD won in Thuringia and came in a close second in Saxony. While Scholz’s SPD pulled off a surprise win in Brandenburg, AfD made large gains there as well. In addition, a new pro-Putin, anti-establishment left-wing populist party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), won large percentages of the vote.
Notably, Die Linke (The Left), which formed from remnants of the Communist Party in the east, saw a major collapse in the recent state elections.
The governing coalition is currently hanging on by a thread and snap elections could happen.
Kate Brady, Washington Post (November 6, 2024): German governing coalition collapses, adding upheaval in uncertain moment
Nette Nöstlinger, Politico (November 4, 2024): German government faces make-or-break moment in shadow of US election
Past Europe Elections
United Kingdom Conservative Party Leadership Election: Results Announced November 2, 2024
Jill Lawless, AP (November 2, 2024): UK Conservatives pick Kemi Badenoch as new leader, first Black woman to head a big British party
Elections On Deck
Middle East This Week: November 5, 2024
Last Updated: November 18, 2024 by 21votes Leave a Comment
November 5, 2024
A weekly review of news and analysis of elections in the greater Middle East and North Africa, usually posted on Tuesdays and occasionally updated throughout the week.
Past Middle East Elections
Iraq, Kurdistan Regional Parliamentary Elections: October 20, 2024
Stella Martany, AP (October 30, 2024): Dominant Kurdish parties maintain their sway in the election for the parliament in the Iraqi region
Tunisia Presidential Election: October 6, 2024
Sarah E. Yerkes and Sabina Henneberg, Foreign Affairs (November 4, 2024): How Autocracy Prevailed in Tunisia
Basma El Atti, The New Arab (November 1, 2024): Tunisia sentences influencer to 4 years in prison, arrests four others, after new TikTok ‘morality law’
Ishac Diwan, Hachemi Alaya, and Hamza Meddeb, Carnegie Endowment (October 31, 2024): A Path Out of Tunisia’s Economic Crisis
Algeria Presidential Election: September 7, 2024
AP (November 1, 2024): Algeria pardons and releases journalist who became a key voice during 2019 pro-democracy protests
Turkey Local Elections: March 31, 2024
AFP (November 4, 2024): Turkey sacks three more mayors in Kurdish-majority southeast
Elections On Deck
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Inspiration
“For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny.” Ronald Reagan, Address to Members of the British Parliament
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