Upcoming Elections
Tunisia Presidential – September 15, 2019 and Parliamentary – October 6, 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, whichpresents itself as a moderate, pro-democracy Islamist party but holds someretrograde 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.
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).
President Beji Caid Essebsi of Nidaa Tounes, who became Tunisia’s first democratically-elected president in 2014, died at age 92 on July 25, 2019. The presidential election – originally scheduled for November – was moved to September 15.
Al Jazeera: “Tunisia sets presidential election for September 15. Originally scheduled for November, the vote was brought forward following President Beji Caid Essebsi’s death.”
Lilia Blaise, New York Times: “Tunisia’s Democracy Is Tested, and Pulls Through, After a President’s Death”
Allen James Fromherz, Foreign Affairs: “Why President Essebsi, and Tunisia, Stood Alone: He Was Both Link to the Past and Bridge to a Democratic Future”
Amel al-Hilali, Al-Monitor: “Former military officers jump into Tunisia’s political arena: Tunisia’s military had for decades adhered to remaining outside the political arena, but in a first for the country, retired commanders and officers of the Tunisian Armed Forces in early July announced the official establishment of a political party, Halumou li Tunis (Acting Together for Tunisia or Agissons pour La Tunisie).”
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.
The deadline to present candidate lists for the elections is August 1, so coalitions are being announced this week.
Anshel Pfeffer, The JC: “With election deadline looming, Israeli politicians scramble to form alliances between parties. Parties on the left and right of the political spectrum are discussing alliances ahead of the September 17 election”
AP: “A group of religious nationalist parties in Israel announced Monday that they would run together in the upcoming parliamentary elections, the same day four Arab political parties formalized a merger of their own.”
Aron Heller, AP: “A trio of forces on the Israeli left — including former Prime Minister Ehud Barak — united on Thursday ahead of the country’s upcoming elections, looking to pose a powerful contrast to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative ruling Likud party.”
Bar Peleg, Haaretz: “Lieberman, Again Israel Election Kingmaker, Would Only Support PM Candidate Who ‘Commits to Unity Gov’t’: Maintaining firm standing in polls, former defense minister minister says ‘Netanyahu is the same as Gantz’”
Shmuel Rosner, New York Times: “So this is where Israel now finds itself: preparing for a second election that appears likely to deliver the same political stalemate as the first, and with the two leading parties seemingly unable to avoid a disastrous third election.”
Times of Israel: “Netanyahu said pushing for pre-election Putin trip to Israel: As Likud appeals for Russian-speaking voters, Jerusalem city hall rushes approval for memorial to siege of Leningrad, reportedly in bid to give president a reason to visit.”
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.
Thomas Watkins, AFP: “20 dead as violence mars Afghan election season start. ”
Ben Farmer, The Telegraph: “Ashraf Ghani’s running-mate wounded in Kabul blast as Afghan election campaign begins”
Frud Bezhan, RFE/RL: “The security fears have added to the deep uncertainty over the September 28 election — a vote that has been delayed and is expected to be the war-torn nation’s second-ever democratic transition of power.”
David Zucchino, New York Times: “Yet colorful campaign posters and billboards were raised on Sunday despite those fears, the deteriorating security situation around the country and a confusing government bid a day earlier to inject itself into the peace talks between the Taliban and the United States.”
UN Security Council: “Women’s Rights Must Not Be Sacrificed during Political Deal-Making in Afghanistan, Civil Society Expert Warns Security Council amid Calls to End Bloodshed”
Libya Ongoing Crisis
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: In Transition
Libya remains in a civil war. The international community wants Libya to hold presidential or parliamentary elections this year. Unclear when the elections will actually happen.
Kim Sengupta, The Independent: “Concerns are growing over the fate of a prominent MP and women’s rights campaigner in Libya, who has been kidnapped after criticising Khalifa Haftar, the strongman who has been a central and controversial figure in the country’s violent strife.”
Tim Lister and Nada Bashir, CNN: “Seham Sergewa, a women’s rights activist and a rare independent voice in Libya, was taken from her home on Wednesday, family members have told CNN, by a militia loyal to the leader of the Libyan National Army, Khalifa Haftar.”
Anas El Gomati, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “An often-repeated myth in Libya is that Haftar first emerged after Libya’s second elections, to fight against and save the country from Islamists who sought to ‘cancel the June 25th 2014 elections.’ However, Haftar’s first coup took place well before Libya’s second elections—to which his rise is widely linked—on February 14, 2014. Haftar announced the establishment of his own self-styled Libyan army, in the hopes that Libya’s plethora of militias would join him and remove Libya’s first democratically elected parliament from power.”
Iran Parliamentary – February 2020 and Presidential – May or June 2021
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.
Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Financial Times: “Mohammad Ali Najafi, an ex-mayor of Tehran once seen as a potential presidential candidate, has become the first former Iranian official to be sentenced to death after being found guilty of murdering his wife….His conviction on Tuesday is another blow to reformist politicians in Iran, who had seen the former minister as a potential standard bearer in a presidential election due in 2021.”
Eric Randolph, New York Review of Books: “An Iranian Dissident’s Tale”
Algeria Presidential – TBD (was set for July 4, 2019 but has been postponed indefinitely)
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.
Adam Nossiter, New York Times: “In an Epic Standoff, Unarmed Algerians Get the Army to Blink: The side with the guns — the army command — dares not spill blood, five months into a popular uprising that chased out Algeria’s autocratic president. The side without — the protesters — remains mobilized, still coursing through the capital’s sun-blasted streets twice a week.”
Al Jazeera: “’No more time to lose’: Algeria army chief renews call for polls. Gaid Salah rejects opposition’s preconditions, says elections are needed to end crisis in North African country.”
Hamid Ould Ahmed, Reuters: “Algerian interim president Abdelkader Bensalah has set up a six-member panel to oversee a national dialog and hold a presidential election aimed at ending months of political crisis, the presidency said on [July 25].”
Farid Alilat, The Africa Report: “More than three months after Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s resignation, the political stalemate is entrenched: each party has its own plan to end the crisis and does not want to compromise.”
Palestinian Authority Legislative – Due by July 2019 (postponed indefinitely)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free (in both Gaza and West Bank)
Elections are long overdue. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is currently in year 14 of a four-year term. Legislative Council elections are similarly long overdue – the last took place in 2006. Islamist fundamentalist Hamas won in a landslide. Municipal elections – boycotted by Hamas – have happened three times – in 2004-2005 in both Gaza and the West Bank and in 2012 and 2017 in the West Bank. In December 2018, the Ramallah-based Constitutional Court issued a ruling dissolving the Legislative Council (which had not met since 2007) and ordering elections within six months, but the elections are on hold indefinitely in the midst of a deadlocked conflict between the Gaza-baed Hamas and Abbas’s secularist Fatah, based in the West Bank.
Daoud Kuttab, Al-Monitor: “Did Abbas just ditch Oslo?….On July 25 in a clearly made-for-TV event, Abbas announced the suspension of agreements with Israel.”
Past Elections
Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Partial Provincial Assembly – July 20, 2019 and General – July 25, 2018
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.
Following the turbulent 2018 general election, former cricket star Imran Khan – seen as the military’s preferred candidate – became prime minister.
Farman Kakar, The News on Sunday: “Elections in the tribal districts: There is a long way to go before we can be assured of democratic elections that are free, fair and inclusive”
Yousaf Ali, The News on Sunday: “Women stand up to be counted: Women in tribal areas finally exercise their fundamental right to vote without a threat hanging over them”
AP: “Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s opposition parties are rallying across the country, urging Prime Minister Imran Khan to step down over what they say is his failure in handling the nation’s ailing economy.”
RFE/RL’s Gandhara: “In an escalating crackdown, Pakistani police have arrested scores of opposition activists as most major political parties united in marking July 25 as a “black day” to protest what they say were rigged elections on the same day last year.”
Colin Cookman, The Diplomat: “Imran Khan’s First Year at Bat: What has Pakistan’s iconoclastic new prime minister achieved during his first year in power?”
Middle East This Week – July 30, 2019
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Last Updated: August 7, 2019 by 21votes
July 30, 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.
Tunisia Presidential - September 15, 2019 and Parliamentary - October 6, 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, whichpresents itself as a moderate, pro-democracy Islamist party but holds someretrograde 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.
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).
President Beji Caid Essebsi of Nidaa Tounes, who became Tunisia’s first democratically-elected president in 2014, died at age 92 on July 25, 2019. The presidential election – originally scheduled for November – was moved to September 15.
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.
The deadline to present candidate lists for the elections is August 1, so coalitions are being announced this week.
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.
Libya Ongoing Crisis
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: In Transition
Libya remains in a civil war. The international community wants Libya to hold presidential or parliamentary elections this year. Unclear when the elections will actually happen.
Iran Parliamentary – February 2020 and Presidential - May/June 2021
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.
Algeria Presidential – TBD (was set for July 4, 2019 but has been postponed indefinitely)
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.
Palestinian Authority Legislative – Due by July 2019 (postponed indefinitely)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free (in both Gaza and West Bank)
Elections are long overdue. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is currently in year 14 of a four-year term. Legislative Council elections are similarly long overdue – the last took place in 2006. Islamist fundamentalist Hamas won in a landslide. Municipal elections – boycotted by Hamas – have happened three times – in 2004-2005 in both Gaza and the West Bank and in 2012 and 2017 in the West Bank. In December 2018, the Ramallah-based Constitutional Court issued a ruling dissolving the Legislative Council (which had not met since 2007) and ordering elections within six months, but the elections are on hold indefinitely in the midst of a deadlocked conflict between the Gaza-baed Hamas and Abbas’s secularist Fatah, based in the West Bank.
Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Partial Provincial Assembly – July 20, 2019 and General - July 25, 2018
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.
Following the turbulent 2018 general election, former cricket star Imran Khan – seen as the military’s preferred candidate – became prime minister.
Upcoming Elections
Tunisia Presidential – September 15, 2019 and Parliamentary – October 6, 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, whichpresents itself as a moderate, pro-democracy Islamist party but holds someretrograde 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.
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).
President Beji Caid Essebsi of Nidaa Tounes, who became Tunisia’s first democratically-elected president in 2014, died at age 92 on July 25, 2019. The presidential election – originally scheduled for November – was moved to September 15.
Al Jazeera: “Tunisia sets presidential election for September 15. Originally scheduled for November, the vote was brought forward following President Beji Caid Essebsi’s death.”
Lilia Blaise, New York Times: “Tunisia’s Democracy Is Tested, and Pulls Through, After a President’s Death”
Allen James Fromherz, Foreign Affairs: “Why President Essebsi, and Tunisia, Stood Alone: He Was Both Link to the Past and Bridge to a Democratic Future”
Amel al-Hilali, Al-Monitor: “Former military officers jump into Tunisia’s political arena: Tunisia’s military had for decades adhered to remaining outside the political arena, but in a first for the country, retired commanders and officers of the Tunisian Armed Forces in early July announced the official establishment of a political party, Halumou li Tunis (Acting Together for Tunisia or Agissons pour La Tunisie).”
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.
The deadline to present candidate lists for the elections is August 1, so coalitions are being announced this week.
Anshel Pfeffer, The JC: “With election deadline looming, Israeli politicians scramble to form alliances between parties. Parties on the left and right of the political spectrum are discussing alliances ahead of the September 17 election”
AP: “A group of religious nationalist parties in Israel announced Monday that they would run together in the upcoming parliamentary elections, the same day four Arab political parties formalized a merger of their own.”
Aron Heller, AP: “A trio of forces on the Israeli left — including former Prime Minister Ehud Barak — united on Thursday ahead of the country’s upcoming elections, looking to pose a powerful contrast to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative ruling Likud party.”
Bar Peleg, Haaretz: “Lieberman, Again Israel Election Kingmaker, Would Only Support PM Candidate Who ‘Commits to Unity Gov’t’: Maintaining firm standing in polls, former defense minister minister says ‘Netanyahu is the same as Gantz’”
Shmuel Rosner, New York Times: “So this is where Israel now finds itself: preparing for a second election that appears likely to deliver the same political stalemate as the first, and with the two leading parties seemingly unable to avoid a disastrous third election.”
Times of Israel: “Netanyahu said pushing for pre-election Putin trip to Israel: As Likud appeals for Russian-speaking voters, Jerusalem city hall rushes approval for memorial to siege of Leningrad, reportedly in bid to give president a reason to visit.”
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.
Thomas Watkins, AFP: “20 dead as violence mars Afghan election season start. ”
Ben Farmer, The Telegraph: “Ashraf Ghani’s running-mate wounded in Kabul blast as Afghan election campaign begins”
Frud Bezhan, RFE/RL: “The security fears have added to the deep uncertainty over the September 28 election — a vote that has been delayed and is expected to be the war-torn nation’s second-ever democratic transition of power.”
David Zucchino, New York Times: “Yet colorful campaign posters and billboards were raised on Sunday despite those fears, the deteriorating security situation around the country and a confusing government bid a day earlier to inject itself into the peace talks between the Taliban and the United States.”
UN Security Council: “Women’s Rights Must Not Be Sacrificed during Political Deal-Making in Afghanistan, Civil Society Expert Warns Security Council amid Calls to End Bloodshed”
Libya Ongoing Crisis
Freedom House Rating: Not Free – Government Type: In Transition
Libya remains in a civil war. The international community wants Libya to hold presidential or parliamentary elections this year. Unclear when the elections will actually happen.
Kim Sengupta, The Independent: “Concerns are growing over the fate of a prominent MP and women’s rights campaigner in Libya, who has been kidnapped after criticising Khalifa Haftar, the strongman who has been a central and controversial figure in the country’s violent strife.”
Tim Lister and Nada Bashir, CNN: “Seham Sergewa, a women’s rights activist and a rare independent voice in Libya, was taken from her home on Wednesday, family members have told CNN, by a militia loyal to the leader of the Libyan National Army, Khalifa Haftar.”
Anas El Gomati, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “An often-repeated myth in Libya is that Haftar first emerged after Libya’s second elections, to fight against and save the country from Islamists who sought to ‘cancel the June 25th 2014 elections.’ However, Haftar’s first coup took place well before Libya’s second elections—to which his rise is widely linked—on February 14, 2014. Haftar announced the establishment of his own self-styled Libyan army, in the hopes that Libya’s plethora of militias would join him and remove Libya’s first democratically elected parliament from power.”
Iran Parliamentary – February 2020 and Presidential – May or June 2021
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.
Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Financial Times: “Mohammad Ali Najafi, an ex-mayor of Tehran once seen as a potential presidential candidate, has become the first former Iranian official to be sentenced to death after being found guilty of murdering his wife….His conviction on Tuesday is another blow to reformist politicians in Iran, who had seen the former minister as a potential standard bearer in a presidential election due in 2021.”
Eric Randolph, New York Review of Books: “An Iranian Dissident’s Tale”
Algeria Presidential – TBD (was set for July 4, 2019 but has been postponed indefinitely)
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.
Adam Nossiter, New York Times: “In an Epic Standoff, Unarmed Algerians Get the Army to Blink: The side with the guns — the army command — dares not spill blood, five months into a popular uprising that chased out Algeria’s autocratic president. The side without — the protesters — remains mobilized, still coursing through the capital’s sun-blasted streets twice a week.”
Al Jazeera: “’No more time to lose’: Algeria army chief renews call for polls. Gaid Salah rejects opposition’s preconditions, says elections are needed to end crisis in North African country.”
Hamid Ould Ahmed, Reuters: “Algerian interim president Abdelkader Bensalah has set up a six-member panel to oversee a national dialog and hold a presidential election aimed at ending months of political crisis, the presidency said on [July 25].”
Farid Alilat, The Africa Report: “More than three months after Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s resignation, the political stalemate is entrenched: each party has its own plan to end the crisis and does not want to compromise.”
Palestinian Authority Legislative – Due by July 2019 (postponed indefinitely)
Freedom House Rating: Not Free (in both Gaza and West Bank)
Elections are long overdue. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is currently in year 14 of a four-year term. Legislative Council elections are similarly long overdue – the last took place in 2006. Islamist fundamentalist Hamas won in a landslide. Municipal elections – boycotted by Hamas – have happened three times – in 2004-2005 in both Gaza and the West Bank and in 2012 and 2017 in the West Bank. In December 2018, the Ramallah-based Constitutional Court issued a ruling dissolving the Legislative Council (which had not met since 2007) and ordering elections within six months, but the elections are on hold indefinitely in the midst of a deadlocked conflict between the Gaza-baed Hamas and Abbas’s secularist Fatah, based in the West Bank.
Daoud Kuttab, Al-Monitor: “Did Abbas just ditch Oslo?….On July 25 in a clearly made-for-TV event, Abbas announced the suspension of agreements with Israel.”
Past Elections
Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Partial Provincial Assembly – July 20, 2019 and General – July 25, 2018
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.
Following the turbulent 2018 general election, former cricket star Imran Khan – seen as the military’s preferred candidate – became prime minister.
Farman Kakar, The News on Sunday: “Elections in the tribal districts: There is a long way to go before we can be assured of democratic elections that are free, fair and inclusive”
Yousaf Ali, The News on Sunday: “Women stand up to be counted: Women in tribal areas finally exercise their fundamental right to vote without a threat hanging over them”
AP: “Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s opposition parties are rallying across the country, urging Prime Minister Imran Khan to step down over what they say is his failure in handling the nation’s ailing economy.”
RFE/RL’s Gandhara: “In an escalating crackdown, Pakistani police have arrested scores of opposition activists as most major political parties united in marking July 25 as a “black day” to protest what they say were rigged elections on the same day last year.”
Colin Cookman, The Diplomat: “Imran Khan’s First Year at Bat: What has Pakistan’s iconoclastic new prime minister achieved during his first year in power?”
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 presidential and parliamentary (September 15 and October 6); Iraq provincial (November 16); Iran parliamentary (February 2020); Palestinian Authority legislative (elections overdue – new government says they aim to hold elections but no date set)
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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Category: This Week Tags: Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Israel, Libya, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Tunisia