Election Updates:
(This is not complete coverage of all the elections going on. Instead, I have provided some summaries on a couple of elections of interest.)
Sweden held elections in late September. The bad news: Sweden Democrats, a far-right party that is anti-immigration, won 20 seats in parliament (there are 349 total seats in parliament). As a result, The Alliance -- a center-right alliance that consists of the four center-right parties in parliament -- fell short of a majority. The Alliance was the previous governing party and their leader Fredrik Reinfeldt is the incumbent Prime Minister. The Alliance will now seek support from other parties.
The good news: No one wants to work with the far-right Sweden Democrats. The Alliance said they would not form a coalition with the Sweden Democrats. Reinfeldt said, "I have been clear on how we will handle this uncertain situation. We will not cooperate, or become dependent on, the Sweden Democrats." The Social Democrats party leader is also opposed to the Sweden Democrats getting any political influence.
Reinfeldt said The Alliance will instead seek support from the opposition Green Party. However, the Green Party is currently allied with the center-left Social Democrats, and the Green Party co-chair said the opposition bloc (which won 157 seats compared to the Alliance's 172 seats) remains united. Reinfeldt said he also is not ruling out working with the Social Democrats -- but it depends on "how the Social Democrats define their road ahead." It's also a possibility that The Alliance could remain in office with a minority government. However, that would mean they need to win over other parties in order to get any legislation passed.
The success of the far-right Sweden Democrats in the election shocked a lot of Swedish voters. Although it's just 20 seats, that's still a concerning number considering this is Sweden (if far-right candidates can get elected in Sweden, it's probably not looking good for other less-liberal countries). Immigrants make up 14% of Sweden's population. The Sweden Democrats obviously tapped into the fear and dissatisfaction over immigration among voters -- which is becoming a growing concern in Europe. A lot of European countries have seen a growing negative response among their citizens towards the issue of immigration. There has been a growing backlash against "outsiders" -- who are feared to be taking jobs, taking benefits, burdening the social welfare system, changing their country's way of life/culture, etc. This concern with immigrants or "outsiders" has grown even more as the global economy has suffered. I hope the Sweden Democrats get very little attention and continue to hold very little political power or influence. (Full Story)
In case you didn't continue to follow the British election -- I last wrote about the hung parliament because no party won an outright majority. Both the Conservative Party (led by David Cameron) and the Labour Party (led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown) tried to strike a deal with the Liberal Democrats (led by Nick Clegg) to form a coalition. If one party doesn't win enough seats in the election to earn an outright majority, they need to form a coalition government (or governing alliance) with another party (or parties) in order to get a majority.
The good news: No one wants to work with the far-right Sweden Democrats. The Alliance said they would not form a coalition with the Sweden Democrats. Reinfeldt said, "I have been clear on how we will handle this uncertain situation. We will not cooperate, or become dependent on, the Sweden Democrats." The Social Democrats party leader is also opposed to the Sweden Democrats getting any political influence.
Reinfeldt said The Alliance will instead seek support from the opposition Green Party. However, the Green Party is currently allied with the center-left Social Democrats, and the Green Party co-chair said the opposition bloc (which won 157 seats compared to the Alliance's 172 seats) remains united. Reinfeldt said he also is not ruling out working with the Social Democrats -- but it depends on "how the Social Democrats define their road ahead." It's also a possibility that The Alliance could remain in office with a minority government. However, that would mean they need to win over other parties in order to get any legislation passed.
The success of the far-right Sweden Democrats in the election shocked a lot of Swedish voters. Although it's just 20 seats, that's still a concerning number considering this is Sweden (if far-right candidates can get elected in Sweden, it's probably not looking good for other less-liberal countries). Immigrants make up 14% of Sweden's population. The Sweden Democrats obviously tapped into the fear and dissatisfaction over immigration among voters -- which is becoming a growing concern in Europe. A lot of European countries have seen a growing negative response among their citizens towards the issue of immigration. There has been a growing backlash against "outsiders" -- who are feared to be taking jobs, taking benefits, burdening the social welfare system, changing their country's way of life/culture, etc. This concern with immigrants or "outsiders" has grown even more as the global economy has suffered. I hope the Sweden Democrats get very little attention and continue to hold very little political power or influence. (Full Story)
In case you didn't continue to follow the British election -- I last wrote about the hung parliament because no party won an outright majority. Both the Conservative Party (led by David Cameron) and the Labour Party (led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown) tried to strike a deal with the Liberal Democrats (led by Nick Clegg) to form a coalition. If one party doesn't win enough seats in the election to earn an outright majority, they need to form a coalition government (or governing alliance) with another party (or parties) in order to get a majority.
There was an attempt to put together a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition, and Gordon Brown even resigned as Labour Party leader because he thought it would help his party's chances. However, the attempt to form a coalition didn't work out. The Liberal Democrats ended up forming a coalition with the Conservative Party. As a result, David Cameron became the new prime minister of the UK and Nick Clegg became the deputy prime minister. This new government marked the end of the Labour Party's 13 year rule.
Ed Miliband (former energy secretary) was elected as the new leader of the Labour Party after Gordon Brown resigned. Ed Miliband narrowly defeated his older brother David (who was the former foreign secretary) for the role. In a dramatic run-off vote, Ed won by just a little over 1%. The Labour Party has a complex electoral system in which voting power is equally divided between three sections: Members of Parliament and Members of European Parliament, affiliated organizations including trade unions, and ordinary party members. Preferential votes are cast (where the voter indicates their first choice, second choice, etc). The first candidate to get 50% or more of the votes wins. If no candidate reaches that threshold during the first round of voting, the last place contender is eliminated and the second preference from their backers will be redistributed. In the first three rounds of voting, David was ahead (but he did not reach 50%); but as preference votes were reallocated as the other candidates were knocked out, Ed pulled ahead as the winner. David had won a majority of support from Labour members of parliament and party members, whereas Ed had a lot of support from trade unions and other affiliated organizations. (Full Story)
Iraq held elections back in early March. You may remember that former prime minister Ayad Allawi and his Iraqiya bloc got 91 seats, while Nuri Kamal al-Maliki (the incumbent prime minister) and his State of Law bloc got 89 seats. Neither candidate won enough seats to have a majority in Parliament. Both parties have attempted to form coalitions in order to reach that majority. Here is the latest update: A government still hasn't been formed. There have been months of start-and-stop negotiations, but no coalition has materialized. In fact, Iraq has set a new record as the country that has gone the longest between holding parliamentary elections and forming a government. The Netherlands previously held the record when they went 207 days in 1977. Iraq reached 208 days about four days ago.
Iraq held elections back in early March. You may remember that former prime minister Ayad Allawi and his Iraqiya bloc got 91 seats, while Nuri Kamal al-Maliki (the incumbent prime minister) and his State of Law bloc got 89 seats. Neither candidate won enough seats to have a majority in Parliament. Both parties have attempted to form coalitions in order to reach that majority. Here is the latest update: A government still hasn't been formed. There have been months of start-and-stop negotiations, but no coalition has materialized. In fact, Iraq has set a new record as the country that has gone the longest between holding parliamentary elections and forming a government. The Netherlands previously held the record when they went 207 days in 1977. Iraq reached 208 days about four days ago.
The most optimistic of Iraqi politicians think the process will take at least another month, but not much longer than that. On the downside, many Iraqis now wonder why they risked their lives to vote. There's also the concern that this stalemate has limited Iraq's ability to make national decisions and that it could make hard-earned security gains vulnerable. An Iraq expert explained, "The Netherlands had strong, functioning institutions and a caretaker government that continued to govern. Iraq has very weak institutions and a caretaker government that can do very little. This makes for a potentially highly unstable and precarious situation."
The U.S. had proposed a power-sharing plan between Allawi and Maliki -- which would have limited Maliki's power as prime minister and would create a new federal position for Allawi. But that plan has all but failed as many of the parties are unwilling to compromise. In the meanwhile, governance in Iraq is suffering during this deadlock. Iraq is unable to ratify legislation, constitutional amendments, and international agreements. This is putting a lot of important legislation on hold. Iraq's ministers are also afraid to make decisions because it is unclear who will be elected as the new leader -- and this undetermined person holds the key to their political future. In addition, business investment has largely been stalled as people are waiting to see what happens and who gets elected. Furthermore, the foreign ministry is unable to implement international treaties or agreements without a new government. Foreign countries are also reluctant to deal with a caretaker government because they have less power and their decisions can easily be reversed by the elected government. (Full Story)
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