Election Watch

Issue Date July 2013
Volume 24
Issue 3
Page Numbers 178-82
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ELECTION RESULTS (April–June 2013)

Albania: Parliamentary elections were scheduled for June 23; results will be reported in a future issue.

Bhutan: Elections were held April 23 to choose from a pool of 67 candidates for the 20 elected members of the National Council (5 additional members are appointed by the king). Candidates for the Council are proscribed from political party membership. Turnout was 45 percent.

Bulgaria: In May 12 elections for the 240-seat National Assembly, the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) of Boiko Borisov, the former prime minister who resigned in February amid public protest over austerity measures and corruption scandals, won 31 percent of the vote and 97 seats. The opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) won 27 percent and 84 seats, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) won 11 percent and 36 seats, and the nationalist Ataka won 7 percent and 23 seats. No other party surpassed the 4 percent threshold required to take seats in parliament. After GERB failed to form a government, the BSP formed a governing coalition with the DPS, with former finance minister Plamen Oresharski as prime minister. A preliminary statement by OSCE election observers called the elections “competitive” and “well administered” but noted that “cases of pre-election wiretapping and concerns over last-minute incidents related to ballot security weakened public confidence in the process.”

Equatorial Guinea: Following May 26 elections for the 100-seat Chamber of People’s Representatives and for 55 seats in the newly formed 70-member Senate, the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema announced that its coalition had won all [End Page 178] but one seat in the Chamber and another in the Senate. Plácido Micó, the lone incumbent opposition member of parliament, called the vote “sham elections.” Prior to the elections, Amnesty International criticized the arrest of opposition leaders for organizing protests.

Iran: The presidential election was scheduled to be held on June 14; results will be reported in a future issue.

Kenya: As reported in the April issue, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta won the March 4 presidential election with 50.07 percent of the vote, deafeating Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the first round. In concurrent elections for the 337 directly elected members of the National Assembly, Kenyatta’s The National Alliance (TNA) won 86 seats, including 14 of the 47 seats reserved for women winners of county elections. Its ally in the Jubilee Coalition, the United Republican Party, (URP) won 73 seats, including 10 for women county representatives. Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) won 93 seats, including 15 for women county representatives. Its ally in CORD, the Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM), won 25 seats, including 6 for women county representatives. The rest of the seats went to independents and members of smaller parties. In concurrent elections for the 47-member Senate, TNA won 11 and the URP won 9. The ODM won 11 and the WDM won 4. Independents and members of smaller parties won the remaining 12 seats. For more coverage of Kenya’s elections, see the articles by James Long et al. on pp. 140–55 and Joel D. Barkan on pp. 156–65.

Malaysia: In May 5 elections for the 222-seat House of Representatives, Prime Minister Najib Razak’s National Front won 133 seats with only 47 percent of the vote. The opposition People’s Alliance won 51 percent of the vote but only 89 seats. Following the elections, Anwar Ibrahim of the People’s Alliance alleged fraud, pledged a legal challenge, and conducted a series of protest rallies.

Mongolia: The presidential election was scheduled for June 26; results will be reported in a future issue.

Montenegro: In the April 7 presidential election, incumbent Filip Vujanović of the Democratic Party of Socialists won 51 percent of the vote, defeating Miodrag Lekić of the recently formed Democratic Front, who won 49 percent. The Democratic Front alleged fraud, declared Lekić the true winner, and called for a revote in certain districts, a request denied by the electoral commission. A preliminary statement by OSCE election observers praised the administration of the election but noted with concern a “blurring of the line between state and party” that diminished public trust and fed allegations of misuse of state resources. [End Page 179]

Pakistan: In May 11 elections for the 342-seat National Assembly, the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) won 33 percent of the vote and, along with allied independents, 186 seats: 145 of the 272 determined by geographic constituencies, 35 of the 60 reserved for women, and 6 of the 10 reserved for non-Muslims. The Pakistan People’s Party of President Asif Ali Zardari won 15 percent and 39 seats, including 7 for women and 1 for non-Muslims; Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf, led by former cricket star Imran Khan, won 17 percent and 35 seats, including 6 for women and one for non-Muslims; the Muttahida Qaumi Movement won 5 percent and 23 seats, including 4 for women and one for non-Muslims; and the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam Fazlur Rahman Group won 3 percent and 14 seats, including 3 for women and one for non-Muslims. Smaller parties won the remaining seats, and 12 seats remained unfilled. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif of the PML-N became prime minister. About 150 people were killed in election-related violence.

Paraguay: In the April 21 presidential election, Horacio Cartes of the Colorado Party (ANR) won with 46 percent of the vote, defeating Efraín Alegre, who was backed by a coalition including incumbent president Federico Franco’s Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA), and won 37 percent. Mario Ferreiro of the Avanza País coalition won 6 percent, and eight other candidates split the remaining votes. Elections were held concurrently for Paraguay’s bicameral legislature. In the 80-member House of Deputies, ANR won 37 percent and 44 seats, the PLRA won 13 percent and 27 seats, and several other parties split the remaining seats. In the 45-seat Senate, ANR won 36 percent of the vote and 19 seats, the PLRA won 24 percent of the vote and 13 seats, Frente Guasú won 10 percent and 5 seats, the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) won 6 percent and 3 seats, and several smaller parties split the remaining 5 seats.

Philippines: In May 13 elections for the Philippines’ bicameral legislature, supporters of President Benigno Aquino III won 9 of the 12 seats up for election in the 24-seat Senate. The United Nationalist Alliance, which opposed Aquino, won 3 seats. Aquino supporters now hold 13 seats in the Senate. In elections for the 234 seats of the House of Representatives allotted to single-member districts, Aquino’s Liberal Party won 107 seats, according to unofficial results. The Nationalist People’s Coalition won 41 seats; the newly formed National Union Party won 24 seats; the Nacionalista Party won 19 seats; and smaller parties and independents claimed the other district seats. The remaining 58 seats in the 292-member body were allotted to closed national lists designed to benefit underrepresented political groups.

Venezuela: According to official results of the April 14 presidential election, the United Socialist Party’s Nicolás Maduro, who became interim [End Page 180] president upon the March 5 death of Hugo Chávez, defeated Henrique Capriles of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) by a margin of 1.5 percent. On the night of the election, the head of the electoral council called the results “irreversible.” Capriles’s call for a manual recount was rejected by the electoral council. He then challenged the results before the Supreme Court, which had not announced a decision as of early June. For more on Venezuela’s election, see Miriam Kornblith’s article on pp. 47–61.

UPCOMING ELECTIONS (July 2013–June 2014)

Afghanistan: presidential, 5 April 2014

Algeria: presidential, April 2014

Argentina: legislative, 27 October 2013

Azerbaijan: presidential, 16 October 2013

Bangladesh: parliamentary, by 24 January 2014

Bhutan: parliamentary, 13 July 2013

Cambodia: parliamentary, 28 July 2013

Chile: presidential/legislative, 17 November 2013

Colombia: legislative, 9 March 2014; presidential, 25 May 2014

Costa Rica: presidential/legislative, 2 February 2014

Dominican Republic: legislative, May 2014

El Salvador: presidential, 2 February 2014

Georgia: presidential, October 2013

Honduras: presidential/legislative, 24 November 2013

India: parliamentary, by May 2014

Indonesia: parliamentary, 9 April 2014 [End Page 181]

Iraq: parliamentary, April 2014

Lithuania: presidential, May 2014

Macedonia: presidential, March 2014

Malawi: presidential/parliamentary, May 2014

Maldives: presidential, 7 September 2013; parliamentary, May 2014

Mali: presidential, 28 July 2013; parliamentary, 8 September 2013

Panama: presidential/legislative, May 2014

Rwanda: parliamentary, 16 September 2013

Slovakia: presidential, by April 2014

Swaziland: parliamentary, 20 September 2013

Tajikistan: presidential, November 2013

Thailand: senate, March 2014

Election Watch provides reports of recently decided and upcoming elections in developing nations and the postcommunist world. Some of the data for Election Watch come from IFES, a private, nonprofit education and research foundation that assists in monitoring, supporting, and strengthening the mechanics of the electoral process worldwide. For additional information, visit www.ifes.org. [End Page 182]