Elections Around the World
While candidates are just beginning to line up for the biggest election on American soil — the presidential race in 2016 — around the world other nations are preparing for celebrating the outcomes of elections.
Nigeria
The Nigerian elections took place on March 31 and saw Muhammadu Buhari elected president, ousting the current president Goodluck Jonathan. Germany’s Der Spiegel noted that “es ist der Tag, an dem zum ersten Mal seit dem Ende der Militärherrschaft im Jahr 1999 ein amtierender Staatschef abgewählt wurde” — “this is the day, on which for the first time since the end of the military regime in 1999 that a sitting head of state was voted out of power.” This is truly a remarkable accomplishment for a nation whose recent past is plagued with military coups and bloody power transitions.
The path to the polls was not easy for Nigerians either. In the north, the militant Muslim extremist group Boko Haram threatened attacks in the north against voters, attacked polling stations, and killed 41 people. Critics of the election noted other factors which could have potentially instigated chaos and violence, such as the ideological split between the Christian south which favored Jonathan and the Muslim north favoring Buhari, electoral fraud, and general chaos. Nevertheless, 60 million Nigerians registered to vote in the election.
The power transition represents a major achievement for Africa’s largest democracy. As previously mentioned, these stages have been fraught with chaos and turmoil in the past. Furthermore, corruption in the past made the results of this election — an opposition party candidate winning — impossible.
Although he is the new president, Muhammadu Buhari is far from new to the Nigerian political scene. The 72-year-old ruled Nigeria from 1983 to 1985, after both gaining and then losing power through a military coup. Buhari’s goals today are to stop Boko Haram, eliminate any forms of government corruption, and deal with the country’s severe economic situation, especially with regards to oil.
United Kingdom
On March 30 the UK parliament was dissolved. Although this sounds like a drastic measure, the dissolution of the parliament is standard procedure before an election. When the parliament is dissolved, all of the Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons (the lower house of the British legislature) lose their positions and become candidates again. All business in the house is stopped. This is not, however, like when the US government shuts down. In the UK, the government continues to function, and posts like ministerial positions remain filled until after the new administration is put into place.
As previously stated, all of the previous members of parliament lose their position and must be voted back into the House. The party with the majority of seats in the House of Commons will control it; the Prime Minister will come from this party. Prior to the dissolution, the Parliament was under the control of a Conservative (Tory) and Liberal Democratic coalition, since for the first time since 1974 the Tories did not carry a large enough percentage of the house to govern alone. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, came from the conservative party, and worked in conjunction with the leader of the Lib-Dems, Nick Clegg. Clegg recently commented to The Guardian that while he could see the Lib Dems working in a coalition with the Conservatives again, an agreement with the Labour party was more of a stretch.
The main opposition to the Conservatives in this election is the Labour party, which is the party on the left of the British political spectrum. They are led by Ed Miliband, who would become prime minister should they win.
Thursday night the leaders of the parties (David Cameron – Conservatives, Ed Miliband – Labour, Nigel Farage — United Kingdom Independence Party, Nicola Sturgeon — Scottish National Party, Natalie Bennett — Green, Leanne Wood — Plaid Cymru, and Ed Miliband – Liberal Democrats) engaged in the “leaders’ debate” on ITV. The debate covered hot topics in the UK such as immigration policies, the National Health Service, the UK’s role in the European Union, the economy, and living standards. The heated debate saw viewers poll Cameron and Miliband as neck and neck; The Guardian noted Miliband as holding a 1% lead over Cameron, with 25% voting that he won the debate and 24% voting that Cameron had won.
The United Kingdom will hold general elections on May 7, 2015. The Queen will summon the new Parliament to meet on May 18, 2015, with the state opening of Parliament occurring on May 27.
France
France also held recent elections on March 29, 2015. While the presidential election is not until 2017, these elections still have a significant impact and suggest how that election will appear as well. Although France does not officially have a two party system, it somewhat resembles one because there are decisive leaders on the right and left. Currently, the conservative factions are fairing much better than the socialist factions in France. The current president of France, François Hollande, comes from the Socialist Party. He is being strongly challenged by Nicolas Sarkozy, the previous French president and the leader of the UMP, as the conservative party scored big in the first round of elections. In France, all positions have two rounds of elections.
“Elections are always held on Sundays in France. The campaigns end at midnight the Friday before the election; then, on election Sunday, by law, no polls can be published, no electoral publication and broadcasts can be made.” 18 is the age to vote. In towns with populations over 5000, identification must be shown in order to vote. Although the election is not mandatorily broken down into two rounds, for more important offices, such as the president, this almost always occurs. The second round could be avoided if any candidate managed to obtain 50.1% of the vote. However, in reality, the two candidates who receive the highest number of votes face off again 14 days later, with the losers generally endorsing one or the other of the remaining candidates.
Finally, these elections have garnered an additional amount of interest from the outside world because the National Front — a party on the far right — appears to be on the rise again. The party is led by Marine Le Pen, who is slated as a contender in the presidential race, although some political scientists argue that the electoral system in France will bar her ability to actually win because if the conservatives win, the left will back the more moderate (UMP) candidate, and if the socialists win, the number of anti-FN voters would be greater than the number of pro-FN voters. Although the presidency may still be out of reach, the National Front did secure a significant number of seats in theses recent elections, although they failed to take control of any council.
USA
In Pennsylvania, Municipal Elections are coming up on May 19. Don’t forget to vote!
Additional sources:
http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/dissolution/
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3 Responses to “Elections Around the World”
I really liked reading this post! It was interesting reading about the different systems of voting in different countries. I was shocked to read about Nigeria, but hopefully he achieves the goals he has because Boko Haram is a group that needs to be stopped.
Wow, I was really shocked to read about Nigeria. The American voting system, in my opinion, has its flaws, but at least I have never felt fearful of my life when voting. Out of those three and the United States, it seems like the UK may have a really good system figured out. In the United States, even though we have third parties and you are able to register as Independent, our government is clearly bipartisan and there are many obstacles that third parties face that suppress them even more. Either way, I really loved your post! I like to think I have a good grasp on the voting system in the US, and it was really interesting to be able to read about different elections around the world and compare.
I’m always fascinated by how differently things are run in different countries. I’m very intrigued by what you’ve written about Nigeria. I can’t say I’m surprised that there were threats to voters, but I’m shocked that a number of people were actually killed by Boko Haram. I wouldn’t think it a very effective way to get people on their side. I also think it’s really nice how the UK has so many different parties. I know the US technically does have more than just republican and democratic parties, but those 2 overshadow all the others so much that they are hardly even heard of.