http://eguide.gerdbad.net/ Election Guide - News en-us http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5368 Namibia's South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) on Saturday captured 92 percent of constituencies in the country’s regional elections. The opposition Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), which won about 10 percent of the vote in last year’s general election, only captured one of the 107 constituencies. About 1.18 million voters were registered to vote for regional councillors in 107 constituencies in 13 political regions. Legislation passed this year means that newly elected councilors will serve five-year terms, down from the previous terms of six-year. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5367 Tonga’s Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands on Thursday captured 12 of 17 seats in the country’s parliamentary elections. Independent candidates captured the five remaining seats. This was the Tonga’s first election where a majority of MPs were democratically elected. Under the new system, nine MPs are reserved for nobles and 17 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies. Previously, only nine members were elected under multi-member districts, while 23 MPs were indirectly elected. It is still uncertain, however, if the Democratic Party will be able to form a government; the nine unelected MPs are attempting to form a governing coalition with the five independents. The government stated that turnout among the 42,000 registered voters was around 89 percent. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5366 Voters in the Cook Islands on Wednesday went to the polls to elect a new parliament. Initial results show that the opposition Cook Island Party captured 15 out of the Parliament’s 24 seats. The ruling Democratic Party has won only eight seats. Voters also cast ballots on a non-binding referendum to reduce the number of MPs in parliament. If the referendum succeeds, Parliament will vote on the issue, where a two-thirds majority is required for passage. The final tabulation for the election will be unavailable for several days, due to the time needed to return ballot boxes from the country’s outer islands. In the weeks leading up to the election, fuel shortages led to fears that ballot boxes would not be distributed to the outer islands in time for the polls. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5365 Comoros’ constitutional court on Saturday published the names of the three candidates who will compete in the country’s December presidential election. Ikililou DHOININE, Mohamed Said FAZUL, and Djabir ABDOU captured the most votes in the first round of the election, held on the archipelago's island of Moheli. The presidency of the Comoros rotates every four years among the country’s three main islands. This cycle, Moheli chooses the three candidates who will compete in a second round on December 26. The second round will take place among the entire country, and the candidate who receives the most votes, even if not an absolute majority, will become president. This will be the first time a politician from Moheli will become president. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5364 Greek Prime Minister George PAPANDREOU’s ruling Socialist Party on Sunday won eight out of thirteen regional races in the country’s local elections. The results caused PAPANDREOU, who had billed the local polls as a referendum on his government’s austerity measures, to drop his threats of calling early, snap elections. Voting is compulsory in Greece, but turnout was projected at around 60 percent. Recent changes to the electoral law, which requires candidates to achieve an absolute majority to gain office, means many constituencies will be decided in a second round on November 14. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5362 Nauru’s state of emergency, designed to keep government services operating during a political deadlock, was lifted on Monday with the re-election of Marcus STEPHEN as president. STEPHEN defeated opposition parliamentarian Milton DUBE in an 11 to 6 vote. Parliament indirectly elects presidents in Nauru but for the past eight months, neither of the two major factions has been able to form a majority in the eighteen-member parliament. The government called snap elections in April and June, but both failed to give either side a majority. There are no formal political parties in Nauru, but Parliament has been evenly divided between supporters and opponents of STEPHEN. The stalemate was broken in a deal that made opposition lawmaker, and former president, Ludwig SCOTTY, Speaker of the House. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5363 Almost 80 percent of Cote d’Ivoire’s registered voters participated in Sunday’s presidential election. Results from the first round show that current President Laurent GBAGBO has received 38 percent of the vote, while former Prime Minister Alassane OUATTARA captured 32 percent. As no candidate received an absolute majority of votes in the first round, a second round will be held on November 28. Former President Henri Konan BEDIE, who received 25 percent of the vote, accused the Election Commission of fraud during the tabulation process. The election, originally scheduled for 2005, has been postponed six times. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5361 Despite fears of more delays, Cote d'Ivoire's presidential election will take place on October 31, a UN representative confirmed on Monday. The divided nation has been overdue for a vote since 2005, when current President Laurent GBAGBO’s term ended. The country resolved a potential hurdle on Monday when Prime Minister Guillaume SORO announced that votes will be tabulated by an independent body. Opposition parties had complained that the previous method of vote counting established by the Election Commission would have favored GBAGO. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5360 Al-Wifaq, Bahrain's main Shi'a opposition group, captured 18 out of 40 seats in the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday. In the weeks leading up to the election, al-Wifaq accused the government of harassing their supporters. Although Shias comprise 70 percent of the population in Bahrain, the Sunni minority controls the government. This was the third parliamentary election in the Gulf nation since King HAMAD bin Isa Al-Khalifa reinstated Parliament in 2002. The lower chamber of Parliament has the ability to pass legislation proposed by the King. However, the upper chamber, whose members are appointed by the monarch, can veto that legislation. Eight women were among the 127 competing candidates. Nine districts will hold a runoff vote on October 30, as no candidate received an absolute majority in the first round. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5359 Marie-Luce PENCHARD, the overseas territories minister for French Polynesia, has unveiled her proposed plan for electoral reform in the country. The plan, which will be submitted to the French legislature before the end of the year, will cut the number of representatives to the assembly from 57 to 50, and reduce the proportion of seats reserved for the more remote islands. This will mark the third reform to the electoral system since 2007; the last reforms resulted in a government that lasted only a few weeks. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5358 Women’s civic groups in the Solomon Islands are welcoming proposed reforms to the country’s electoral code. The reforms would add special constituencies reserved for women, increasing the number of districts to 70. The government previously rejected a proposal from female advocacy groups that would have created ten reserved seats for women. Currently, the country’s parliament is comprised of 50 members, elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies. Despite high turnover during August’s parliamentary elections, none of the 25 female candidates won their races. The Solomon Islands has had only one female MP in its history. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5357 Austria’s far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) on Sunday made large gains in elections for the Vienna city parliament, while the Social Democrats (SPÖ) lost their absolute majority for the second time since World War Two. The SPÖ captured 44.2 percent of the vote compared with 27.2 per cent for the FPÖ. The SPO’s national coalition partner, The People’s Party (ÖVP), captured just 13.2 percent of the vote, its worst showing ever in Vienna elections. The ÖVP on Monday ran a newspaper ad informing voters that they could still mail in their postal ballots, despite it being illegal for voters to fill in postal votes after polling stations close. Current law only requires postal ballots to arrive within eight days after election day. Although not legal, this allows voters to mark their ballot after initial results are released. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5356 Celia WADE-BROWN on Saturday narrowly defeated incumbent Kerry PRENDERGAST in Wellington, New Zealand’s mayoral race. WADE-BROWN won the race due to Wellington’s Alternative Voting (AV) system, which gave her a victory despite receiving less first preference votes. AV systems allow voters to rank candidates based on preference. If no candidate wins a majority of first choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their votes are transferred to candidates ranked next on their ballots. Initial results on Saturday had PRENDERGAST leading by just 40 votes, but a count of special, second-preference votes put WADE-BROWN ahead by 176 votes. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5354 Dilma ROUSSEFF, a former Marxist guerrilla, received 46.9% of the vote in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday. Her main opponent, Jose SERRA, received 32.61%. If elected, ROUSSEFF would become the nation’s first female president. ROUSSEFF was unable to secure the absolute majority needed to avoid a runoff, despite having the support of outgoing President Luiz Inácio LULA da Silva. LULA, who is term limited, is leaving office with record high approval ratings. Marina SILVA, the candidate for the Green Party, received 20% of the vote, preventing ROUSSEFF a first-round victory. SILVA was Minister of Environment under LULA’s government. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5355 Prime Minister Viktor ORBAN's ruling Fidesz Party on Sunday made dramatic gains in Hungary’s municipal elections. Preliminary results show that Fidesz will hold 22 out of 23 major cities, including Budapest. The ruling Fidesz-Christian Democratic alliance won a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s national parliament during last April’s elections. Since that time, the alliance used their super-majority to pass major reforms, which included cutting the number of representatives on local councils in half. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5352 Hungarian state television is appealing a decision by the National Election Committee over the right to block an anti-Roma political advertisement. The ad from the nationalist Jobbik party discusses the need to rid Hungary of “parasites” and "Gypsy criminals." Hungarian state television refused to run the ad claiming it was offensive and did not comply with broadcast rules. The National Election Committee, however, ruled that Hungarian TV must broadcast the ad as it did not violate any laws. The broadcaster is appealing the election committee’s decision to Supreme Court. On October 3 Hungarians will elect mayors and representatives to 3,200 local government bodies. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5353 Chad's national election commission on Saturday delayed parliamentary and local elections to 2011. The new timetable postpones parliamentary and local polls due in November to next February, and will move the presidential election from next April to May. The head of CENI claimed that the country lacked the capacity to successfully administer the election under the old dates. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5349 Swedish voters on Sunday handed the Social Democratic party, which ruled the country for most of its modern history, its worst result since 1914. The party received 30.9 percent of the vote, while the center-right alliance of Prime Minister Fredrik REINFELDT received 49.3 percent. This is the first time in Swedish history that voters reelected a center-right coalition. The election also marks the first time the Sweden Democrats, a far-right party that pushes an anti-immigration agenda, will enter parliament. The Sweden Democrats gained 5.7% of the votes, just clearing the 4 percent threshold needed to gain representation. Since 1932, the Social Democratic party has governed Sweden for more than 80 percent of the time. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5350 Eighteen newly elected MPs in the Solomon Islands are facing challenges to their victories in the form of election petitions. The Solomon Islands High Court will hold a pre-trial conference to assess the 18 petitions, the highest number ever filed. There are only 50 seats in the country’s National Parliament, all elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies. Half of the Solomon Islands’ MPs lost their seats in last month’s parliamentary election. http://eguide.gerdbad.net/news.php#5351 Sri Lanka’s parliament will introduce a bill next month to change the electoral system for local elections. The bill would move the election of local bodies to a parallel system. Two thirds of seats would be allocated through in a first-past-the-post electoral system, and one third with proportional representation.