India
Elections for five Indian state assemblies—Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, and Telangana—took place throughout the month of November. Results were announced on December 4. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept three state elections, two where Congress had previously held power: Chhattisgargh and Rajasthan. In Chhattisgarh, with 90 seats at stake, the BJP won 54 to Congress’s 35. The Gondvana Gantantra Party won the remaining seat. In Rajasthan, 199 seats were contested; the BJP won 115, while Congress won just 69. Smaller parties shared the remaining 15. And in Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP was the incumbent party and 230 seats were at stake, the BJP won 163, and Congress only 66. The Bharat Adivasi Party won the final seat. In Telangana, Congress won 64 seats out of a possible 119, overtaking the Bharat Rashtra Samithi party, which won 39. The BJP won only 8 seats, with smaller parties sharing the remaining 8. Lastly, in Mizoram, the Zoram People’s Movement won 27 of the 40 seats, and the Mizo National Front won 10. Turnout ranged between 71 and 81 percent in each state. To learn more about these contests and what they could mean for the 2024 general election, read “The Most Important Elections This Year That You Missed” by Rahul Mukherji, Harsh Mander, and Seyed Hossein Zarhani.
Marshall Islands
Parliamentary elections for the 33-seat, unicameral Nitijela were held on November 22. With postal ballots accepted until December 3, official vote tabulation is still underway. It appears that as many as a third of the parliament’s members will be voted out, including Speaker Kenneth Kedi and Vice-Speaker Peterson Jibas. All candidates officially run as independents, are directly elected by a plurality vote, and serve four-year terms.
Netherlands
In the November 22 election for the 150-seat House of Representatives, the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) under the leadership of Geert Wilders emerged on top with 23.6 percent and 37 seats, more than doubling its presence in the chamber from the 2021 election. The Labour-Green alliance secured 15.7 percent of the vote and 25 seats. The center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of Mark Rutte, the outgoing prime minister, won 15.2 percent of the vote and 24 seats. The centrist New Social Contract (NSC) party, founded in August 2023 by Pieter Omtzigt, entered Parliament with 12.9 percent of the vote and 20 seats. Smaller parties shared the remaining 44 seats. The snap election was triggered in August after Rutte’s government collapsed in July 2023 over migration-policy disagreements. Wilders may become the country’s first ever far-right prime minister, depending on whether he can navigate complicated coalition talks and win support from moderate parties. Turnout was 77.7 percent.