The day after I post something about the upcoming independence referendum in Sudan, election problems boil over in two other countries on the continent. The Guinean military has proclaimed a state of emergency following a disputed election earlier this month, and reports are emerging of a military coup in Madagascar this morning. On November 7, […]
Today (Tuesday, November 2) is Election Day in the United States. While it is an off-year for presidential elections, in my home state of New York the entire state legislature is up for election, governor, attorney general, comptroller, both US Senators (rare as they are usually staggered , but one is running for Hillary Clinton’s […]
Earlier this month I served as a member of the US delegation to the election observation mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (overseeing presidential, parliamentary and cantonal elections held on October 3). The observation was implemented by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODHIR) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) […]
We’ve hit an emotional milestone in Iraq. The end is in sight. Major combat is over and the troops are coming home. And we can expect many more of these talks, with appearances planned throughout the month by the president, Vice President Biden and other senior administration officials as they wax eloquent on Obama’s steadfast commitment to ending the war.
President Obama has given formal assurances that U.S. forces in Iraq will drop to 50,000 by the end of the month – a reduction of 94,000 troops since he took office 18 months ago. The remaining troops will form a transitional force until a final U.S. withdrawal from the country by the end of 2011. […]
Repression, certainly. The news coming out of Rwanda doesn’t look good. As the country prepares for elections in August (which current president Kagame is almost certain to win) dissident voices and opposition party leaders are feeling the heat. Last week editor-journalist Jean-Léonard Rugambage was shot dead outside his house. He worked for Umuvugizi, a banned […]
With the backing of Brazil’s most popular president in history and support from the state’s publicity machine, Dilma Rousseff’s ongoing tie in opinion polls forces a shift in strategy. Presidential opinion polls released this week continued to show the PT’s Dilma Rousseff and the PSDB’s José Serra in a ‘technical tie’, with Jose Serra at […]
Deadlocked efforts to resolve Iraq’s governing crisis nearly four months after parliamentary elections failed to produce decisive results, are at the heart of this current wave of political violence.
The 2010 Ibrahim Prize for excellence in African leadership goes to…no one. The prize committee of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation announced last week they are not granting the award this year, as they found no suitable candidates. The Ibrahim prize is granted to an African leader who has achieved positive developments in their country, and, […]
by Jessica D’Itri Mu Sochua, 55, the most prominent woman in Cambodia’s Sam Rainsey opposition party is on the campaign trail three years in advance of the scheduled parliamentary elections. Sochua, a human rights and women’s rights activist, faces a tough and at times vicious campaign. The Prime Minister, Hun Sen, of the ruling Cambodian […]
At the press conference on 14 March 2010, immediately after the close of the National People’s Congress annual session (NPC, China’s legislature and highest state body), Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao discussed Hong Kong. The speech came in the wake of a stormy political debate over the slow progress towards universal suffrage that has seen clashes […]
China has eight non-communist parties under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). What at first seems like an oddity under an one-party system is not so once we understand the reality of the relationship between the CCP and these parties. Open political debates are strictly constrained in China. The CCP maintains its dominance […]
Brazil’s success in diplomacy, international commerce, and becoming a world player have been in part dependent on President Lula’s success during his administration. Now, with an election coming up this year, there is a possibility that the tides will change and Brazil may change its course with new leadership. José Serra, the governor of São […]
Lula, o Filho do Brasil, the film by Fabio Barreto that was recently released in Brazil, has been controversial since its release. The biopic about President Lula da Silva has come under fire for various reasons, including the plot and the political message. While President Lula is a popular president with high approval ratings, the […]
Campaign finance is one of the gray areas of corruption, a practice that makes those concerned with accountability squirm, but one that is largely legal. Few would claim that democracy is served when a donor’s financing of a political campaign leads directly to policies in favor of that donor – but such a link is […]