http://www.electionguide.org Election Guide - News en-us http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4875 Almost 90 percent of eligible Uzbekistani voters turned out for Parliamentary elections on Sunday, according to the country's election commission. The elections were contested by the country’s four registered political parties. While some multilateral organizations point to an improved human rights record, some advocacy groups say President Karimov has imprisoned activists and taken other actions stifling dissent, making it difficult for opposition parties to operate openly. Currently, there are no legally registered opposition political parties in Uzbekistan. Citing noncompliance with its pre-election recommendations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) restricted its monitoring activities in the run-up to voting. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4873 Representatives of Niger's government and opposition resumed negotiations on Thursday over the country's political future. Proxies for incumbent President Mamadou TANDJA walked out of talks earlier this week after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) denounced his presidency. The ECOWAS suspended Niger in October after TANDJA went ahead with legislative elections under a constitution approved in a controversial August referendum. That constitution repealed a two-term limit for Presidents, allowing TANDJA to serve into the present. TANDJA pressed ahead with the referendum last summer in spite of resistance from the High Court and legislature, which he had dismissed earlier in 2009. http://www.electionguide.org/news_item.php?id=4872 Mexican President Felipe CALDERON on Tuesday called for several electoral system changes. The suggested changes include: reducing the Chamber of Deputies from 500 to 400 members, shrinking the Senate from 129 to 96 members, switching majority runoffs for Presidential elections, permitting independents to seek federal office, and repealing a one-term limit for members of Congress, which has been in place since 1933. Journalists have noted that CALDERON did not seek repeal of Presidential term limits, which some other Latin American countries and have done in recent years. According to opposition politicians from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), CALDERON's reform package fails to clarify Presidential succession procedures. Passing the package requires a qualified majority in Congress and the consent of a majority of Mexican state legislatures. http://www.electionguide.org/news_item.php?id=4871 Romania's Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that incumbent President Traian BAESCU has won a disputed December 6 runoff election. According to the country's election authority, reconsideration of more than 138,000 invalidated ballots did not change the result, which has BAESCU defeating Mircea GEOANA, Social Democratic challenger and Foreign Minister, by two-thirds of a point. GEOANA's party challenged the result last week, alleging vote-buying, multiple voting, and ballot box-stuffing. The media have focused on whether BAESCU's cabinet will produce a 2010 budget, which the exiting caretaker government did not. Citing the budget impasse, the International Monetary Fund halted more than US$2 billion in loans to Romania earlier this year. http://www.electionguide.org/news_item.php?id=4870 The Presidency Council posted on their website today their decree, formally setting the date for the Council of Representatives (CoR) election as 7 March 2010. http://www.electionguide.org/news_item.php?id=4869 On December 8, Social Democratic Party leader Mircea GEOANA formally contested the result of a Presidential runoff election held last weekend. Despite early exit polls pointing to victory for former Foreign Minister GEOANA, results had incumbent President Traian BASESCU winning with 50.3 points to GEOANA's 49.7 points. Romania's constitutional court may order new elections, reject GEOANA's complaint, or re-open the polls in selected places. An interim government has run Romania since its Democratic Liberal minority government collapsed in October. Local news has speculated on whether President-elect BASECU’s new mandate would allow him to appoint a broadly supported Prime Minister. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4867 King ABDULLAH II of Jordan on Monday dissolved Parliament two years into its four-year term, giving lawmakers four months to organize new elections. He also called for election reforms that could induce lawmakers to run on national platforms. Critics of the current single-member district system say it has promoted parochial and "tribal" interests. The King did not give a reason for the dissolution of Parliament, but the press in Jordan has been critical in recent months of the "ineffectiveness" of members as well as corruption scandals linked to them. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4866 Romanians will go to the polls for a runoff Presidential election on December 6 after no candidate was able to obtain a majority of votes in the first round vote on November 22. Incumbent President Traian BAESCU and Foreign Minister Mirecea GEOANA will contest the runoff after winning approximately 32 and 31 percent of votes, respectively, in the first round. Unemployment and economic contraction have figured heavily in the election campaign. Voters on November 22 also overwhelmingly supported constitutional amendments abolishing the country's upper house and reducing its lower house from 471 to 300 members. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4865 President Mwai KIBAKI'S Party of National Unity (PNU) on Wednesday signaled opposition to a draft constitution released Tuesday that would shift executive power from the President to a Prime Minister. Kenya created the post of Prime Minister last year for Raila ODINGA, whom KIBAKI officially defeated in a disputed December 2007 election. The new constitution would make that post official, as well as create a Senate and devolve power to regional bodies. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4860 Election commission chief Robert MAMBE told reporters on Wednesday that transitional elections will be "a little bit late," but he did not offer a day. His announcement officiated a decision last week to postpone November 29’s transitional vote. According to MAMBE, the commission will set a date when all major parties have agreed on one. They are supposed to meet this weekend with foreign mediators. Despite continued disagreement over the voter roll, President Laurent GBAGBO was publicly adamant this summer about elections on November 29. United Nations officials are meanwhile said to distribute provisional registers. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4862 Members of a constitutional review committee have asked Kenya's legislature to enact a referendum law so that a new text may be put to the people. While the draft is due this week, the commission wants more time to work on it. Voters defeated a new constitution in 2005, and a disputed Presidential election in December 2007 strained the political system. A subsequent power-sharing agreement between incumbent President Mwai KIBAKI and challenger Raila ODINGA elevated the office of Prime Minister. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4858 Iraqi lawmakers on Wednesday and Thursday again did not act on proposed changes to a 2005 election law. The head of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said Thursday was the last day to pass a law in order to hold elections as scheduled on January 16. Lawmakers for weeks have repeatedly "failed" to agree on reforms, according to most English-language coverage, and the IEHC has repeatedly said it is running out of time to implement changes. Points of contention included whether to use open or closed party lists for Council of Representatives elections and, second, what voter list would prevail in the demographically volatile Kurdish region of Kirkuk. A special committee last week handed down two options, both of which would mandate open party lists. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4859 Against the backdrop of mostly state and local elections, voters in Saint Paul, Minnesota agreed on Wednesday to adopt the alternative vote (AV) for city elections. Known in the United States as ranked choice or instant runoff voting, AV asks voters to rank candidates so that, if no candidate wins a majority of first choices, voters’ second picks may also be tallied. Saint Paul joins 15 other localities currently or on the way to using AV. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4856 Citing disagreement over the voter registry, Ivoirien President Laurent GBAGBO has again postponed transitional Presidential elections due on November 29. Officials have pushed back Presidential and legislative elections every autumn since 2005. GBAGBO in August said political disagreements over the vote had been resolved, and officials transmitted a voter roll to him in October under international pressure. Civil war rocked C�te d’Ivoire from 2002 to 2005, with several peace gestures between rebels and GBAGBO’S government from 2003 to present. Ghanaian President John ATTA-MILLS has offered assistance from his country’s election authority. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4857 Incumbent President Armando GUEBUZA is expected to win re-election following general elections on October 28. With most votes counted on Monday, GUEBUZA had more than 75 percent support. Many observers expect his ruling Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO) to win a two-thirds legislative supermajority, which is required to amend the constitution, but final results are not due until late next week. Opposition activists have alleged fraud in some polling places, and international observers speculated about bias in the election commission. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4852 According to the Iraqi newspaper Al Sabah, National Assembly members will vote presently on two proposed election laws, either of which would mandate January legislative elections under open-list proportional representation. Either moreover would expand the Council of Representatives from 275 to 311 members. The difference between the proposals concerns voting arrangements in Kirkuk governorate, where ethnic Kurds fear the choice's implications for their representation in government. Assembly members last summer and several times this month delayed reforming Iraq's electoral law. Most analysts have intepreted this as the expression of lawmakers' quiet desire to retain the closed-list system under which they were elected in 2005. Last week, lawmakers referred the issue to a para-constitutional, multi-party Political Council on National Security, which today handed down the two options. Whichever receives the most votes will become binding. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4853 According to preliminary results released Thursday, the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique Party (FRELIMO) is leading in Presidential and legislative elections held on October 28. Final results are expected on November 12. Citing 100 percent support for incumbent President Armando GUEBUZA in some polling places, some observers believe there was fraud but have not yet estimated its extent. The vote is Mozambique's fourth since a 15-year civil war ended in 1992. FRELIMO has won every election since then, beginning in 1994. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4855 Following President Mahmoud ABBAS' surprise call last Friday for Presidential and legislative elections on January 24, representatives of Hamas this week said they would boycott the polls and punish Palestinians who vote in or help administer the elections. ABBAS announced the elections after Hamas and his Fatah party failed to agree on terms for the reunification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. While the two regions jointly comprise the Palestinian Territories, ABBAS is based in the West Bank, and Hamas has de facto control of Gaza. Hamas says ABBAS has no authority call elections, and they claim his leadership is illegal in light of 2006 elections in which they won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4854 Opposition politicians are protesting the victory of President Mamadou TANDJA'S co-partisans in legislative elections held on October 20. According to results announced Saturday, the National Movement for the Development of Society won 76 of 113 seats in the lower house. The snap elections were to replace a Parliament that TANDJA dismissed last summer. Lawmakers tried to block a referendum that eventually relaxed Presidential term limits and created an upper house. While most activists accuse TANDJA of effecting a coup, a 1999 constitution gives him the authority to call referenda unilaterally and dismiss the legislature once every two years. http://www.electionguide.org/news.php#4848 Iraq's National Assembly on Wednesday referred the debate over the rules governing January 16's national elections to a special committee of party leaders. The advisory Political Council for National Security, which includes representatives of the country's main factions, is mandated to weigh in on voting in Kirkuk governorate and whether an open-list election system should replace the closed-list one currently used for National Assembly elections. The ethnic balance of power in Kirkuk has made arrangements there contentious, since the rules chosen will affect the respective groups' strength in parliament. According to Faraj HAIDARI of Iraq's election authority, lawmakers are postponing the decision on list type because they secretly want to keep the current system despite public demonstrations and their own pronouncements to the contrary. Under open lists, voters would exercise some control over the particular individuals who represent each party in parliament. If a new law is not passed, current arrangements will remain in force. The Assembly again adjourned last week without acting despite notice from HAIDARI that October 16 would be the last day to change the system in time for January's vote.