October 29, 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.
The city of Duhok in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Photo credit: Wikimedia/Claus Weinberg (CC BY 2.0)
Ongoing Middle East Elections
Lebanon Indirect Presidential Election (by parliament): Continuing
Lebanon’s fractious parliament is in the process of selecting a president. As part of Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, the president is always a Maronite Christian (and conversely, a Sunni serves as prime minister and a Shi’ite as speaker of the parliament).
The last parliamentary elections took place in May 2022 in the context of a political and economic crisis exacerbated by the August 2020 explosion in the port of Beirut. In those elections, Hezbollah and its allies lost their majority in parliament, and a number of independents won seats.
The fragmented parliament has not been able to pick a new president as the pro- and anti-Hezbollah factions remain at odds, leaving a vacuum following the end of Michel Aoun’s term in October 2022.
Abbie Cheeseman, Suzan Haidamous, Yasmeen Abutaleb and John Hudson, Washington Post (October 25, 2024): U.S. push for political reform in Lebanon collides with harsh realities
Past Middle East Elections
Iraq, Kurdistan Regional Parliamentary Elections: October 20, 2024
Dana Taib Menmy, The New Arab (October 25, 2024): Four Kurdish parties allege tampering in Iraqi Kurdistan parliamentary elections, electoral commission denies claims
Hurriyet Daily News (October 22, 2024): Ruling party leads parliamentary elections Iraq’s KRG
Arab Weekly (October 22, 2024): Ruling KDP leads in Iraqi Kurdish parliamentary election results in rebuke to Iran
Seth J. Frantzman, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (October 22, 2024): Kurdistan regional elections mark a step forward for Iraq’s stability
Stratfor (October 22, 2024): Iraqi Kurdistan’s Parliamentary Elections Highlight Two Major Kurdish Groups in the Middle East
Algeria Presidential Election: September 7, 2024
Sofian Philip Naceur, Jacobin (October 23, 2024): Algeria’s Old Guard Has Repressed the Hirak Protest Movement
Pakistan General Elections: February 8, 2024
Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, The Guardian (October 26, 2024): Pakistan’s budding democracy is on the verge of collapse. It has two options – change tack or implode
Ayaz Gul, Voice of America (October 23, 2024): US lawmakers label Pakistan’s governance ‘military rule with civilian facade’
Morocco General Elections: September 8, 2021
Morocco last held general elections on September 8, 2021. The elections took place in the context of discontentment and disillusionment. The moderate Islamic democratic Party of Justice and Development (PJD), which won the most seats in the 2016 elections, lost badly. Businessman Aziz Akhannouch became the new prime minister.
Although the current monarch, King Mohammed VI, has instituted a number of political reforms, he still plays a major role in governing, both through formal structures and informally. Following the 2011 constitutional reforms, the king must appoint a prime minister from the party that wins the most seats in parliament, but the king can still circumvent elected officials in various ways (including dissolving parliament or simply issuing decrees).
Basma El Atti, The New Arab (October 24, 2024): Morocco’s King Mohammed VI reshuffles government amid growing social, political unrest
Elections On Deck
Middle East This Week: October 29, 2024
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Last Updated: November 8, 2024 by 21votes
October 29, 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.
Ongoing Middle East Elections
Lebanon Indirect Presidential Election (by parliament): Continuing
Lebanon’s fractious parliament is in the process of selecting a president. As part of Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, the president is always a Maronite Christian (and conversely, a Sunni serves as prime minister and a Shi’ite as speaker of the parliament).
The last parliamentary elections took place in May 2022 in the context of a political and economic crisis exacerbated by the August 2020 explosion in the port of Beirut. In those elections, Hezbollah and its allies lost their majority in parliament, and a number of independents won seats.
The fragmented parliament has not been able to pick a new president as the pro- and anti-Hezbollah factions remain at odds, leaving a vacuum following the end of Michel Aoun’s term in October 2022.
Abbie Cheeseman, Suzan Haidamous, Yasmeen Abutaleb and John Hudson, Washington Post (October 25, 2024): U.S. push for political reform in Lebanon collides with harsh realities
Past Middle East Elections
Iraq, Kurdistan Regional Parliamentary Elections: October 20, 2024
Dana Taib Menmy, The New Arab (October 25, 2024): Four Kurdish parties allege tampering in Iraqi Kurdistan parliamentary elections, electoral commission denies claims
Hurriyet Daily News (October 22, 2024): Ruling party leads parliamentary elections Iraq’s KRG
Arab Weekly (October 22, 2024): Ruling KDP leads in Iraqi Kurdish parliamentary election results in rebuke to Iran
Seth J. Frantzman, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (October 22, 2024): Kurdistan regional elections mark a step forward for Iraq’s stability
Stratfor (October 22, 2024): Iraqi Kurdistan’s Parliamentary Elections Highlight Two Major Kurdish Groups in the Middle East
Algeria Presidential Election: September 7, 2024
Sofian Philip Naceur, Jacobin (October 23, 2024): Algeria’s Old Guard Has Repressed the Hirak Protest Movement
Pakistan General Elections: February 8, 2024
Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, The Guardian (October 26, 2024): Pakistan’s budding democracy is on the verge of collapse. It has two options – change tack or implode
Ayaz Gul, Voice of America (October 23, 2024): US lawmakers label Pakistan’s governance ‘military rule with civilian facade’
Morocco General Elections: September 8, 2021
Morocco last held general elections on September 8, 2021. The elections took place in the context of discontentment and disillusionment. The moderate Islamic democratic Party of Justice and Development (PJD), which won the most seats in the 2016 elections, lost badly. Businessman Aziz Akhannouch became the new prime minister.
Although the current monarch, King Mohammed VI, has instituted a number of political reforms, he still plays a major role in governing, both through formal structures and informally. Following the 2011 constitutional reforms, the king must appoint a prime minister from the party that wins the most seats in parliament, but the king can still circumvent elected officials in various ways (including dissolving parliament or simply issuing decrees).
Basma El Atti, The New Arab (October 24, 2024): Morocco’s King Mohammed VI reshuffles government amid growing social, political unrest
Elections On Deck
Category: This Week Tags: Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan