Finland Becomes 31st Nation to Join NATO
Matthew Kroenig, a political science professor at Georgetown University, argues that Finland’s membership in NATO marks the largest boost to NATO capacity since West Germany joined in 1955.
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Nigeria Holds General Elections in Africa’s Largest Democracy
Nigeria held one of its closest presidential elections in history on February 25. As current president Muhammadu Buhari reached his two-term limit, three main candidates vied for the spot.
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Recent Bosnian Elections Spark Rise in Ethnic Tensions
The Bosnian election commission (CIK) has ordered a recount of votes for the presidency of Republika Srpskaafter numerous complaints filed by opposition parties alleged the rigging of ballots by pro-Russia Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, according to Reuters.
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Brazilian Elections Head to Runoff as Right and Left Face Off
On October 2, Brazil held its presidential election and statistics show that it is headed for a run-off vote, reports Reuters. Election authorities stated on the day of the election that current right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro was surprisingly outperforming his rival former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva who was initially leading the polls in the days prior to the election.
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Political Violence on the Rise Ahead of Pivotal Brazilian Elections
Tensions between supporters of the two Brazilian Presidential candidates became deadly on September 9, when a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro murdered a backer of his challenger, former President Lula ahead of the October 2 election, reports The Guardian.
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Conservatives Win Swedish Elections for First Time in Eight Years
On September 11, Sweden’s right-wing party won the general election after a tight race against the center-left. As of September 15, conservatives have won 176 of 349 seats in parliament, reports The New York Times. Though the Swedish Social Democratic Party obtained the largest percentage of votes, they only were able to grab 173 seats in parliament, marking an end to Sweden’s historic left-leaning control of the government.
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Somalia Elections Again Delayed, Drawing Western Warnings
Somalia’s federal parliamentary elections have been postponed with no planned makeup date, drawing the ire of Western backers that have condemned the delay.
March 15 was the deadline for each of Somalia’s five states to separately hold elections for the country’s lower house of parliament. By the end of the day, however, the central government failed to announce the completion of the vote nationwide. While voting was completed in the states of South West and Galmudug, the states of Jubaland, Hirshabelle, and Puntland cumulatively still had 40 vacant seats to fill as of the date of the deadline, according to Africanews.
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Labor Forms Coalition After Norwegian Election
The September 13 parliamentary election in Norway has left the Nordic country in the hands of the Labor Party and its coalition after nearly a decade of a Conservative administration. According to Valg Resultat, the official ballot counting site for Norwegian elections, Prime Minister Erna Solberg was unseated by a 5.9 percent margin on a one-to-one comparison with the incoming prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.
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Libyan Parliament Approves Unity Government
Libya’s parliament has appointed a new interim government in hopes of progressing unification in the conflict-ridden state. The government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah will replace the rivaling East-West administrations that have been ruling Libya for years, a transition that PBS reports was approved by 132 lawmakers.
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Failure to Pick New President Leads to Violence in Somalia
Somalia failed to pick a new president by the February 8 deadline after negotiations between the central government and the federal states broke down in the days leading up to the election, states Africa News.
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