Election Watch
Africa | Asia | Eurasia | Europe | Latin America and the Caribbean | Middle East and North Africa
Building on decades of experience in more than 100 countries, IRI's Election Watches offer perspectives from the people living and working in the countries holding elections. The Election Watches are compiled by IRI field staff and contain analysis of the existing political climate and a breakdown of the election details such as the candidates, issues and poll results, in addition to the implications of election results.
Africa
Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation, will hold parliamentary elections on May 23, 2010. Despite being Africa’s oldest...
Somalilanders will go to the polls on June 26, 2010, to elect their nation’s president for only the second time since declaring independence...
Multi-party elections are scheduled to be held in Sudan April 11 – 13, 2010. In 2005, the President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, signed the...
Asia
A secular nation with the largest Muslim majority in the world, Indonesia has made important advances towards democratic consolidation in the years...
On the heels of the April 9, 2009 national parliamentary elections, an estimated 170 million Indonesian voters are headed to the polls again on July...
On July 11, Japan will hold elections for 121 seats of the 242 seat House of Councillors (Sangiin), Japan’s popularly elected upper body in the...
Mongolia is the only country in Central Asia, and one of a handful of countries in East Asia, that continues to boast dynamic institutions of...
Eurasia
On May 30, 2010, thousands of Georgians cast ballots throughout the country in local elections in order to elect their municipal leaders. In...
Following the war with Russia in August 2008, Georgia’s political opposition ordered street protests beginning in April 2009, as they had in...
On July 23, 2009, presidential elections took place in the Kyrgyz Republic. According to the official results from the Central Election...
Although the Kyrgyz Republic is considered by many to be Central Asia's best chance for a successful democracy, President Kurmanbek Bakiev's efforts...
Moldova is a parliamentary republic, in which parliament is elected every four years by popular vote. Parliament, in turn, then elects the president...
Since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova has marched slowly towards a more liberalized economy and democratic system. Moldova is...
The 2010 presidential elections were the first presidential elections held in Ukraine since the events known as the Orange Revolution. The...
Since gaining its independence in 1991, Ukraine has achieved certain success in promoting democratic changes, especially in the sphere of creating...
Since gaining its independence in 1991, Ukraine has achieved some success in promoting democratic change, especially in creating independent mass...
Europe
As the first elections since Albania's accession to NATO, the June 28, 2009, parliamentary elections drew a great deal of attention from the...
Albania’s June 28 parliamentary elections are drawing close scrutiny from the international community, not only because of Albania’s...
In 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union (EU), some 17 years after the collapse of communism. This achievement signaled the completion...
Results and Consequences
The parliamentary elections of May 28-29, 2010, have been called an “earthquake” in Czech politics, producing...
Since the 1990s, the Czech Republic has been considered an example of stability among the post-Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe....
Elections to the European Parliament (EP) are unique, as voters in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) choose representatives to a...
In a landslide victory, Hungary’s Fidesz captured 68 percent of the seats in April’s parliamentary elections and a super-majority that...
Political Environment
The political party system of Hungary emerged early as one of the most stable of all of the former communist countries of...
While Macedonia has experienced significant democratic evolution since independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, the county’s democratic progress...
Following the tragic death of President Lech Kaczynski (and his wife and a large number of Polish political, military, economic and civil society...
In 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union (EU), an accession which, for the first time in the EU’s history was accompanied by a...
On June 12, Slovakia will hold parliamentary elections for the 150-seat National Council. Voters will choose among 18 parties, eight of which...
The May 6, 2010, general elections ushered in significant change in the government in the United Kingdom. As most polls had predicted,...
Nearing the end of its third term in government, Britain’s Labour Party has now governed the United Kingdom for the longest unbroken period...
Latin America and the Caribbean
Only four months ago there was a strong sense among Colombians, as well as among the international community, that President Alvaro Uribe would...
On Sunday, July 5, 2009, Mexicans went to the polls to cast their votes in the country's mid-term elections. Following an eight-year period during...
On July 5, Mexicans will elect 500 new members to the Cámara de Diputados, Mexico's lower chamber of Congress, as well as governors in six...
Middle East and North Africa
On March 7 Iraqis turned out in huge numbers to participate in their country’s second parliamentary election since the fall of Saddam Hussein...
On March 7, 2010, Iraq will hold its parliamentary elections for all 325 seats in the Iraqi Council of Representatives. The elections will be...
Since 2005, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has maintained a secure region that has been largely free of the violence seen in other parts of...
On June 7, 2009, an unprecedented 55 percent of the Lebanese electorate cast their ballots in the parliamentary elections. The elections pitted the...
A nation of four million people with 18 officially recognized religious confessions, Lebanon is only starting to emerge from its tumultuous past of...
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