Upcoming Elections
Algeria Presidential – July 4, 2019 (cancelled)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Presidential Republic
Algerian politics are dominated by Le Pouvoir, a small group of elite from the military and the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) party. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, aged 82 and unable to walk or talk, was going to run for a fifth term in the election originally scheduled for April, but tens of thousands of Algerians protested for two months, and Bouteflika resigned. The election was moved to July 4, but then the Constitutional Council cancelled the vote and has not set a new date. Protests continue. Protesters are demanding assurances that any new elections will be free and fair.
Hamid Ould Ahmed, Reuters: “Tens of thousands of Algerians returned to the streets in the capital Algiers and other cities on Friday [July 18] to demand radical political reforms and the departure of the ruling elite.”
Heba Saleh, Financial Times: “Algeria’s military ruler ramps up crackdown on uprising. Dozens of arrests as authorities brace for more protests following Africa cup final”
Israel Snap Parliamentary – September 17, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Free – Government Type: Parliamentary Democracy
Israel – nicknamed the “startup nation” – is a vibrant democracy. In September, Israelis head to the polls again in an unprecedented do-over of parliamentary elections after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s center-right Likud was unable to form a coalition following April’s elections. While parties friendly to Netanyahu won more seats than those friendly to Netanyahu’s main rival, former IDF chief Benny Gantz, coalition talks collapsed over the issue of drafting ultra-Orthodox into the military. One of Likud’s coalition partners, Avgidor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, supported conscription – and refused to budge – while religious parties adamantly opposed it, highlighting growing tensions between secular and religious Israelis. Netanyahu dissolved the Knesset and called for new elections rather than giving Gantz the chance to try to form a government. Additionally, Netanyahu faces corruption charges. The elections are happening in the middle of U.S. President Donald Trump’s quixotic attempt to seal the “deal of the century” between Israelis and Palestinians.
Loveday Morris and Ruth Eglash, Washington Post: “Netanyahu is now Israel’s longest-serving leader. Watch some of the key moments on his rocky road so far. He has overtaken the record held by the country’s founder, David Ben-Gurion”
Times of Israel: “Polls give right-wing alliance headed by Shaked 12-13 seats. Likud still mostly likely to form a coalition but it would require the inclusion of MK Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu”
Haaretz: “Right-wing Joint Slate Led by Shaked Would Be Third Largest in Knesset, Polls Show. Both Kahol Lavan and Likud projected to lose seats to smaller parties in September”
Chemi Shalev, Haaretz: “On Eve of Existential Election, Israel’s Center-left Is on the Verge of Implosion. Peretz’s merger with center-rightist Levi-Abekasis has enraged Labor’s base and could consign it to the dustbin of history, much to Netanyahu’s delight”
Aaron David Miller, Foreign Policy: “Netanyahu Keeps Winning Because He’s an Effective Leader. Israel’s prime minister has now served in the role for as long as the country’s founding father. Voters support him because they’re convinced he keeps them safe and reduces their international isolation.”
Afghanistan Presidential – September 28, 2019 (further delays possible)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Presidential Islamic Republic
Afghanistan held long-delayed parliamentary elections in October 2018, marred by violence and administrative problems. In order to fix problems from the legislative elections, the presidential election has been delayed twice. President Ashraf Ghani’s term ended on May 22, 2019, but he has remained in office, despite calls for a caretaker government, infuriating some. Ghani became president in 2014 in a power sharing deal with his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, following a flawed election. Presidential campaign is gearing up right in the middle of peacenegotiations between the United States and the Taliban.
Anisa Shaheed, TOLO News: “Some presidential candidates said on Sunday that they doubt the Afghan government and the Independent Election Commission’s will to hold timely elections as according to them there is “ambiguity” around the ongoing peace process which has seen new momentum earlier this month. The presidential elections are scheduled for September 28 and, meanwhile, reports indicate that there is the possibility of a peace deal ahead of the polls.”
Nicholas Sakelaris, UPI: “U.S. gives $29M for Afghanistan elections in September”
David Ignatius, Washington Post: “Uncertainty clouds the path forward for Afghanistan”
Tunisia Parliamentary – October 6, 2019 and Presidential – November 17, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Free – Government Type: Parliamentary Republic
Tunisia began transitioning to democracy in 2011, amid the Arab Spring protests, and this year, the country will hold the third national elections since the fall of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Ennadha, which presents itself as a moderate, pro-democracy Islamist party but holds some retrograde views, won the first post-Ben Ali elections, but in the 2014 parliamentary elections, the secularist Nidaa Tounes won the most seats. In 2018, Tunisia held long-delayed municipal elections, which saw independent candidates win the most seats, followed by Ennadha. President Beji Caid Essebsi of Nidaa Tounes, who became Tunisia’s first democratically-elected president in 2014, has said he will not seek a second term this year, even though the constitution allows it, saying it was time to “open the door to the youth” (Essebsi is 92). Prime Minister Youssef Chahed broke off from Nidaa Tounes to form Tahya Tounes, another secularist party, and it looks to be a close contest between the fractious secularist parties and Ennadha (Machrouu Tounes, another secularist party, broke from Nidaa Tounes in 2016 and currently has 25 seats in parliament).
Terrorist attacks and Essebsi’s sudden illness threatened to throw a wrench in Tunisian politics.
Tarek Amara, Reuters: “Leader of moderate Islamist party to stand for parliamentary elections in Tunisia”
Elizia Volkmann, Al-Monitor: “Can Tunisia get back into international good graces after imprisoning UN expert?”
Egypt Local – Due 2019 (delays possible)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Presidential Republic
Egypt’s first local elections in over 10 years are supposed to happen this year, but a date has not been set. The country has not had elected local government since 2011. Last year’s presidential election, which saw President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi re-elected for a second term, was neither free nor fair, and took place in an environment of harassment and intimidation of the opposition.
Al-Monitor: “Egypt extends state of emergency for ninth time”
Sarah Salama, DW: “Egypt: The security situation remains tense. Lufthansa and British Airways canceled flights to Cairo over the weekend, citing security concerns. Although they were reticent with details, the situation in Egypt, and particularly in North Sinai, is indeed unstable.”
Iran Parliamentary – February 2020
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Theocratic Republic
Some analysts argue that “moderates” or “reformers” won Iran’s 2016 parliamentary elections, but the country’s opaque politics make it difficult to know for sure how to characterize the results. All candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council, which rejected thousands during the 2016 elections. Parliament is less powerful than the Supreme Leader and other institutions such as the Guardian Council, the judiciary, and the security services. The elections are happening in the context of escalating tensions with the United States.
RFE/RL’s Radio Farda: “Iran’s former reformist President Mohammad Khatami has called on Iranians not to boycott the February 2020 Parliamentary elections. Khatami, who was Iran’s President from 1997 to 2005, said in a statement on his own media platform, Khatami Media, ‘Disgruntled voters and reformists should make a sacrifice for Iran and go to the polls to prevent a major threat’ to the country’s existence.”
RFE/RL’s Radio Farda: “A veteran political activist and heavyweight Reformist in Iran has lamented about an unprecedented division among members of the so-called pro-reform camp in the country.”
Borzou Daraghi, The Independent: “How Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei turned his position into one ‘Persian monarchs would have envied’”
Amnesty International: “Iran’s authorities are using incommunicado detention, prolonged solitary confinement and threats against family members in order to extract forced video “confessions” from women’s rights defenders detained for campaigning against the country’s discriminatory forced veiling (hijab) laws, said Amnesty International….The White Wednesdays campaign is a popular online platform on which women from inside Iran share videos of themselves walking in public without a headscarf and expressing opposition to forced veiling and discussing their hopes for women’s rights.”
Iraq Provincial – April 20, 2020
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Federal Parliamentary Republic
Date tentative – election commission has set it as their preferred date. Originally scheduled for December 2018, but delayed multiple times following controversial national elections in May 2018 (the first since the defeat of ISIS).
Rend al-Rahim, Atlantic Council’s MENASource: “A Shift in Iraqi Politics: An Opposition Emerges”
Renad Mansour, World Politics Review: “To many Iraqis, protest is the only voice they have left. They view the formal political and electoral process as just reinforcing the same elites who have repeatedly failed them since the U.S. invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein.”
Louisa Loveluck and Mustafa Salim, Washington Post: “Hundreds of Islamic State militants are slipping back into Iraq. Their fight isn’t over.”
Kate Bubacz, Buzzfeed: “12 Photos That Show Iraq Like You’ve Never Seen It Before”
Past Elections
Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Partial Provincial Assembly – July 20, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Partly Free – Government Type: Federal Parliamentary Republic
Twenty-one seats out of total 145 seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Provincial Assembly are up for election on July 20. The seats are for constituencies that were previously part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which merged with KP in 2018 (KP was called the Northwest Frontier Province until 2010). Since FATA did not have a provincial assembly, this marks the first time that voters in those areas will vote for provincial representatives.
The Economist: “Pakistan’s borderlands at last win a say in their own administration. But the area’s politicians are already clashing with the all-powerful army”
Ayaz Gul, VOA: “Pakistan organized its first ever provincial elections Saturday in a northwestern region along the mountainous border with Afghanistan that until a few years ago was condemned as the “epicenter” of international terrorism.”
PTI: “Pakistan: 7 killed in suicide attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The blast happened at the emergency gate of district headquarter hospital”
Turkey, Istanbul Mayoral Re-Run, June 23, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Not Free (downgraded from Party Free in 2018) – Government Type: Presidential Republic
Turkey held local elections on March 31, but invalidated the results of the Istanbul mayoral election after Ekrem Imamoglu from the opposition Republican Party (CHP) won by a small margin. They re-ran the election on June 23 after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) alleged fraud. The move did not pay off – Imamoglu defeated AKP’s Binali Yildirim once again, by an even bigger margin. The election took place in the context of Turkey’s slide into authoritarianism.
Gerald F. Hyman, The National Interest: “What Does a New Mayor in Istanbul Mean for Erdogan? It is too early to tell whether the mayoral elections mark a turning point for Erdoğan within the Justice and Development party and within the larger Turkish political system.”
AFP: “Following losses in key cities this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now risks losing more voters as former allies stick their head above the parapet and appear to be on the verge of creating new parties.”
Keith Johnson and Robbie Gramer, Foreign Policy: “Who Lost Turkey? The blame for Ankara’s antagonistic stance to Washington lies with both sides, a product of decades of misunderstandings.”
Iraq, Kurdistan Regional Parliamentary – September 30, 2018
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Autonomous Region within a Federal Parliamentary Republic
On July 10, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) finally announced its new cabinet, more than eight months after elections. Three major parties – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and Gorran (Change) – will have ministerial posts. The KRG is largely autonomous, but relations with Baghdad are tense in the wake of a controversial referendum on independence in 2017. Nonetheless, Kurdistan’s economy is strong and despite some problems, generally has better governance than the rest of Iraq. Kurds were on the forefront of the fight against ISIS.
Kurdistan regional PM Masrour Barzani, Washington Post: “Why the Kurdistan region of Iraq is making a new start”
Carlotta Gall, New York Times: “Gunmen Kill Turkish Diplomat and Two Iraqis in the Kurdish Region of Iraq”
Middle East This Week – July 23, 2019
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Last Updated: August 1, 2019 by 21votes
July 23, 2019
Each day, 21votes gathers election news, analysis, and opinions from a different region of the world. We explore the greater Middle East and North Africa on Tuesdays. Click the map pins.
Algeria Presidential – July 4, 2019 (cancelled)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Presidential Republic
Algerian politics are dominated by Le Pouvoir, a small group of elite from the military and the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) party. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, aged 82 and unable to walk or talk, was going to run for a fifth term in the election originally scheduled for April, but tens of thousands of Algerians protested for two months, and Bouteflika resigned. The election was moved to July 4, but then the Constitutional Council cancelled the vote and has not set a new date. Protests continue. Protesters are demanding assurances that any new elections will be free and fair.
Israel Snap Parliamentary – September 17, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Free – Government Type: Parliamentary Democracy
Israel – nicknamed the “startup nation” – is a vibrant democracy. In September, Israelis head to the polls again in an unprecedented do-over of parliamentary elections after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s center-right Likud was unable to form a coalition following April’s elections. While parties friendly to Netanyahu won more seats than those friendly to Netanyahu’s main rival, former IDF chief Benny Gantz, coalition talks collapsed over the issue of drafting ultra-Orthodox into the military. One of Likud’s coalition partners, Avgidor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, supported conscription – and refused to budge – while religious parties adamantly opposed it, highlighting growing tensions between secular and religious Israelis. Netanyahu dissolved the Knesset and called for new elections rather than giving Gantz the chance to try to form a government. Additionally, Netanyahu faces corruption charges. The elections are happening in the middle of U.S. President Donald Trump’s quixotic attempt to seal the “deal of the century” between Israelis and Palestinians.
Egypt Local – Due 2019 (delays possible)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Presidential Republic
Egypt’s first local elections in over 10 years are supposed to happen this year, but a date has not been set. The country has not had elected local government since 2011. Last year’s presidential election, which saw President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi re-elected for a second term, was neither free nor fair, and took place in an environment of harassment and intimidation of the opposition.
Iraq Provincial - April 20, 2020
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Federal Parliamentary Republic
Date tentative – election commission has set it as their preferred date. Originally scheduled for December 2018, but delayed multiple times following controversial national elections in May 2018 (the first since the defeat of ISIS).
Iran Parliamentary – February 2020
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Theocratic Republic
Some analysts argue that “moderates” or “reformers” won Iran’s 2016 parliamentary elections, but the country’s opaque politics make it difficult to know for sure how to characterize the results. All candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council, which rejected thousands during the 2016 elections. Parliament is less powerful than the Supreme Leader and other institutions such as the Guardian Council, the judiciary, and the security services. The elections are happening in the context of escalating tensions with the United States.
Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Partial Provincial Assembly – July 20, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Partly Free – Government Type: Federal Parliamentary Republic
Twenty-one seats out of total 145 seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Provincial Assembly are up for election on July 20. The seats are for constituencies that were previously part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which merged with KP in 2018 (KP was called the Northwest Frontier Province until 2010). Since FATA did not have a provincial assembly, this marks the first time that voters in those areas will vote for provincial representatives.
Turkey, Istanbul Mayoral Re-Run, June 23, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Not Free (downgraded from Party Free in 2018) – Government Type: Presidential Republic
Turkey held local elections on March 31, but invalidated the results of the Istanbul mayoral election after Ekrem Imamoglu from the opposition Republican Party (CHP) won by a small margin. They re-ran the election on June 23 after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) alleged fraud. The move did not pay off – Imamoglu defeated AKP’s Binali Yildirim once again, by an even bigger margin. The election took place in the context of Turkey’s slide into authoritarianism.
Iraq, Kurdistan Regional Parliamentary – September 30, 2018
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Autonomous Region within a Federal Parliamentary Republic
On July 10, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) finally announced its new cabinet, more than eight months after elections. Three major parties – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and Gorran (Change) – will have ministerial posts. The KRG is largely autonomous, but relations with Baghdad are tense in the wake of a controversial referendum on independence in 2017. Nonetheless, Kurdistan’s economy is strong and despite some problems, generally has better governance than the rest of Iraq. Kurds were on the forefront of the fight against ISIS.
Tunisia Parliamentary – October 6, 2019 and Presidential – November 17, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Free – Government Type: Parliamentary Republic
Tunisia began transitioning to democracy in 2011, amid the Arab Spring protests, and this year, the country will hold the third national elections since the fall of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Ennadha, which presents itself as a moderate, pro-democracy Islamist party but holds some retrograde views, won the first post-Ben Ali elections, but in the 2014 parliamentary elections, the secularist Nidaa Tounes won the most seats. In 2018, Tunisia held long-delayed municipal elections, which saw independent candidates win the most seats, followed by Ennadha. President Beji Caid Essebsi of Nidaa Tounes, who became Tunisia’s first democratically-elected president in 2014, has said he will not seek a second term this year, even though the constitution allows it, saying it was time to “open the door to the youth” (Essebsi is 92). Prime Minister Youssef Chahed broke off from Nidaa Tounes to form Tahya Tounes, another secularist party, and it looks to be a close contest between the fractious secularist parties and Ennadha (Machrouu Tounes, another secularist party, broke from Nidaa Tounes in 2016 and currently has 25 seats in parliament).
Terrorist attacks and Essebsi’s sudden illness threatened to throw a wrench in Tunisian politics.
Upcoming Elections
Algeria Presidential – July 4, 2019 (cancelled)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Presidential Republic
Algerian politics are dominated by Le Pouvoir, a small group of elite from the military and the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) party. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, aged 82 and unable to walk or talk, was going to run for a fifth term in the election originally scheduled for April, but tens of thousands of Algerians protested for two months, and Bouteflika resigned. The election was moved to July 4, but then the Constitutional Council cancelled the vote and has not set a new date. Protests continue. Protesters are demanding assurances that any new elections will be free and fair.
Hamid Ould Ahmed, Reuters: “Tens of thousands of Algerians returned to the streets in the capital Algiers and other cities on Friday [July 18] to demand radical political reforms and the departure of the ruling elite.”
Heba Saleh, Financial Times: “Algeria’s military ruler ramps up crackdown on uprising. Dozens of arrests as authorities brace for more protests following Africa cup final”
Israel Snap Parliamentary – September 17, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Free – Government Type: Parliamentary Democracy
Israel – nicknamed the “startup nation” – is a vibrant democracy. In September, Israelis head to the polls again in an unprecedented do-over of parliamentary elections after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s center-right Likud was unable to form a coalition following April’s elections. While parties friendly to Netanyahu won more seats than those friendly to Netanyahu’s main rival, former IDF chief Benny Gantz, coalition talks collapsed over the issue of drafting ultra-Orthodox into the military. One of Likud’s coalition partners, Avgidor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, supported conscription – and refused to budge – while religious parties adamantly opposed it, highlighting growing tensions between secular and religious Israelis. Netanyahu dissolved the Knesset and called for new elections rather than giving Gantz the chance to try to form a government. Additionally, Netanyahu faces corruption charges. The elections are happening in the middle of U.S. President Donald Trump’s quixotic attempt to seal the “deal of the century” between Israelis and Palestinians.
Loveday Morris and Ruth Eglash, Washington Post: “Netanyahu is now Israel’s longest-serving leader. Watch some of the key moments on his rocky road so far. He has overtaken the record held by the country’s founder, David Ben-Gurion”
Times of Israel: “Polls give right-wing alliance headed by Shaked 12-13 seats. Likud still mostly likely to form a coalition but it would require the inclusion of MK Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu”
Haaretz: “Right-wing Joint Slate Led by Shaked Would Be Third Largest in Knesset, Polls Show. Both Kahol Lavan and Likud projected to lose seats to smaller parties in September”
Chemi Shalev, Haaretz: “On Eve of Existential Election, Israel’s Center-left Is on the Verge of Implosion. Peretz’s merger with center-rightist Levi-Abekasis has enraged Labor’s base and could consign it to the dustbin of history, much to Netanyahu’s delight”
Aaron David Miller, Foreign Policy: “Netanyahu Keeps Winning Because He’s an Effective Leader. Israel’s prime minister has now served in the role for as long as the country’s founding father. Voters support him because they’re convinced he keeps them safe and reduces their international isolation.”
Afghanistan Presidential – September 28, 2019 (further delays possible)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Presidential Islamic Republic
Afghanistan held long-delayed parliamentary elections in October 2018, marred by violence and administrative problems. In order to fix problems from the legislative elections, the presidential election has been delayed twice. President Ashraf Ghani’s term ended on May 22, 2019, but he has remained in office, despite calls for a caretaker government, infuriating some. Ghani became president in 2014 in a power sharing deal with his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, following a flawed election. Presidential campaign is gearing up right in the middle of peacenegotiations between the United States and the Taliban.
Anisa Shaheed, TOLO News: “Some presidential candidates said on Sunday that they doubt the Afghan government and the Independent Election Commission’s will to hold timely elections as according to them there is “ambiguity” around the ongoing peace process which has seen new momentum earlier this month. The presidential elections are scheduled for September 28 and, meanwhile, reports indicate that there is the possibility of a peace deal ahead of the polls.”
Nicholas Sakelaris, UPI: “U.S. gives $29M for Afghanistan elections in September”
David Ignatius, Washington Post: “Uncertainty clouds the path forward for Afghanistan”
Tunisia Parliamentary – October 6, 2019 and Presidential – November 17, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Free – Government Type: Parliamentary Republic
Tunisia began transitioning to democracy in 2011, amid the Arab Spring protests, and this year, the country will hold the third national elections since the fall of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Ennadha, which presents itself as a moderate, pro-democracy Islamist party but holds some retrograde views, won the first post-Ben Ali elections, but in the 2014 parliamentary elections, the secularist Nidaa Tounes won the most seats. In 2018, Tunisia held long-delayed municipal elections, which saw independent candidates win the most seats, followed by Ennadha. President Beji Caid Essebsi of Nidaa Tounes, who became Tunisia’s first democratically-elected president in 2014, has said he will not seek a second term this year, even though the constitution allows it, saying it was time to “open the door to the youth” (Essebsi is 92). Prime Minister Youssef Chahed broke off from Nidaa Tounes to form Tahya Tounes, another secularist party, and it looks to be a close contest between the fractious secularist parties and Ennadha (Machrouu Tounes, another secularist party, broke from Nidaa Tounes in 2016 and currently has 25 seats in parliament).
Terrorist attacks and Essebsi’s sudden illness threatened to throw a wrench in Tunisian politics.
Tarek Amara, Reuters: “Leader of moderate Islamist party to stand for parliamentary elections in Tunisia”
Elizia Volkmann, Al-Monitor: “Can Tunisia get back into international good graces after imprisoning UN expert?”
Egypt Local – Due 2019 (delays possible)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Presidential Republic
Egypt’s first local elections in over 10 years are supposed to happen this year, but a date has not been set. The country has not had elected local government since 2011. Last year’s presidential election, which saw President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi re-elected for a second term, was neither free nor fair, and took place in an environment of harassment and intimidation of the opposition.
Al-Monitor: “Egypt extends state of emergency for ninth time”
Sarah Salama, DW: “Egypt: The security situation remains tense. Lufthansa and British Airways canceled flights to Cairo over the weekend, citing security concerns. Although they were reticent with details, the situation in Egypt, and particularly in North Sinai, is indeed unstable.”
Iran Parliamentary – February 2020
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Theocratic Republic
Some analysts argue that “moderates” or “reformers” won Iran’s 2016 parliamentary elections, but the country’s opaque politics make it difficult to know for sure how to characterize the results. All candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council, which rejected thousands during the 2016 elections. Parliament is less powerful than the Supreme Leader and other institutions such as the Guardian Council, the judiciary, and the security services. The elections are happening in the context of escalating tensions with the United States.
RFE/RL’s Radio Farda: “Iran’s former reformist President Mohammad Khatami has called on Iranians not to boycott the February 2020 Parliamentary elections. Khatami, who was Iran’s President from 1997 to 2005, said in a statement on his own media platform, Khatami Media, ‘Disgruntled voters and reformists should make a sacrifice for Iran and go to the polls to prevent a major threat’ to the country’s existence.”
RFE/RL’s Radio Farda: “A veteran political activist and heavyweight Reformist in Iran has lamented about an unprecedented division among members of the so-called pro-reform camp in the country.”
Borzou Daraghi, The Independent: “How Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei turned his position into one ‘Persian monarchs would have envied’”
Amnesty International: “Iran’s authorities are using incommunicado detention, prolonged solitary confinement and threats against family members in order to extract forced video “confessions” from women’s rights defenders detained for campaigning against the country’s discriminatory forced veiling (hijab) laws, said Amnesty International….The White Wednesdays campaign is a popular online platform on which women from inside Iran share videos of themselves walking in public without a headscarf and expressing opposition to forced veiling and discussing their hopes for women’s rights.”
Iraq Provincial – April 20, 2020
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Federal Parliamentary Republic
Date tentative – election commission has set it as their preferred date. Originally scheduled for December 2018, but delayed multiple times following controversial national elections in May 2018 (the first since the defeat of ISIS).
Rend al-Rahim, Atlantic Council’s MENASource: “A Shift in Iraqi Politics: An Opposition Emerges”
Renad Mansour, World Politics Review: “To many Iraqis, protest is the only voice they have left. They view the formal political and electoral process as just reinforcing the same elites who have repeatedly failed them since the U.S. invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein.”
Louisa Loveluck and Mustafa Salim, Washington Post: “Hundreds of Islamic State militants are slipping back into Iraq. Their fight isn’t over.”
Kate Bubacz, Buzzfeed: “12 Photos That Show Iraq Like You’ve Never Seen It Before”
Past Elections
Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Partial Provincial Assembly – July 20, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Partly Free – Government Type: Federal Parliamentary Republic
Twenty-one seats out of total 145 seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Provincial Assembly are up for election on July 20. The seats are for constituencies that were previously part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which merged with KP in 2018 (KP was called the Northwest Frontier Province until 2010). Since FATA did not have a provincial assembly, this marks the first time that voters in those areas will vote for provincial representatives.
The Economist: “Pakistan’s borderlands at last win a say in their own administration. But the area’s politicians are already clashing with the all-powerful army”
Ayaz Gul, VOA: “Pakistan organized its first ever provincial elections Saturday in a northwestern region along the mountainous border with Afghanistan that until a few years ago was condemned as the “epicenter” of international terrorism.”
PTI: “Pakistan: 7 killed in suicide attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The blast happened at the emergency gate of district headquarter hospital”
Turkey, Istanbul Mayoral Re-Run, June 23, 2019
Freedom House Rating: Not Free (downgraded from Party Free in 2018) – Government Type: Presidential Republic
Turkey held local elections on March 31, but invalidated the results of the Istanbul mayoral election after Ekrem Imamoglu from the opposition Republican Party (CHP) won by a small margin. They re-ran the election on June 23 after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) alleged fraud. The move did not pay off – Imamoglu defeated AKP’s Binali Yildirim once again, by an even bigger margin. The election took place in the context of Turkey’s slide into authoritarianism.
Gerald F. Hyman, The National Interest: “What Does a New Mayor in Istanbul Mean for Erdogan? It is too early to tell whether the mayoral elections mark a turning point for Erdoğan within the Justice and Development party and within the larger Turkish political system.”
AFP: “Following losses in key cities this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now risks losing more voters as former allies stick their head above the parapet and appear to be on the verge of creating new parties.”
Keith Johnson and Robbie Gramer, Foreign Policy: “Who Lost Turkey? The blame for Ankara’s antagonistic stance to Washington lies with both sides, a product of decades of misunderstandings.”
Iraq, Kurdistan Regional Parliamentary – September 30, 2018
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: Autonomous Region within a Federal Parliamentary Republic
On July 10, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) finally announced its new cabinet, more than eight months after elections. Three major parties – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and Gorran (Change) – will have ministerial posts. The KRG is largely autonomous, but relations with Baghdad are tense in the wake of a controversial referendum on independence in 2017. Nonetheless, Kurdistan’s economy is strong and despite some problems, generally has better governance than the rest of Iraq. Kurds were on the forefront of the fight against ISIS.
Kurdistan regional PM Masrour Barzani, Washington Post: “Why the Kurdistan region of Iraq is making a new start”
Carlotta Gall, New York Times: “Gunmen Kill Turkish Diplomat and Two Iraqis in the Kurdish Region of Iraq”
The Year Ahead: Middle East
Egypt local (due 2019 – date not set – delays likely); Libya (international community wants presidential or legislative elections this year – delays highly likely); Algeria presidential (July 4 – cancelled); Israel snap parliamentary (September 17); Afghanistan presidential (September 28); Tunisia parliamentary and presidential (October 6 and November 17); Iran parliamentary (February 2020); Iraq provincial (April 20); Palestinian Authority legislative (elections overdue – new government says they aim to hold elections but no date set)
A Likud banner featuring Benjamin Netanyahu on a bus in Jerusalem during Israel’s 2009 election. Netanyahu became Prime Minister following that election, and he hopes to remain in office after the upcoming election.
Photo credit: Flickr/Zeevveez (CC BY 2.0)
21votes does not necessarily endorse all of the views in all of the linked articles or publications. More on our approach here.
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