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Foreign Elections Thread - Currently: Brazil 🇧🇷 (1 Viewer)

A sign of good news in Sudan.

Sudan’s military, civilians sign power-sharing deal, setting up elections in 2022

NAIROBI — Sudan marked a major symbolic milestone Saturday as the military officers who overthrew President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in April signed an agreement to share power with civilian leaders in an arrangement that sets up elections in 2022. Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years, is awaiting trial, with proceedings expected to begin Monday. 

The agreement to form a transitional “sovereign council” to govern the country was signed amid a celebratory mood in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. 

Protest leader Mohammed Naji al-Assam said in a speech at the signing ceremony that the agreement begins a “new page” in Sudan’s history after Bashir’s decades of “repression and corruption.”

The council will be made up of equal numbers from the military and civilian sides, although Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has led the country since just after Bashir’s ouster, will lead it for the first 21 months.

 
Expected news out of Italy, but back into chaos...

Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli
@silvia_sb_
#BreakingNews #Italy PM Giuseppe Conte has announced his resignation

ETA: link

 
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Expected news out of Italy, but back into chaos...

Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli
@silvia_sb_
#BreakingNews #Italy PM Giuseppe Conte has announced his resignation

ETA: link
The president will determine whether there will be a new election.

Salvini and Lega de Nord (who not so long ago was working for the Northern parts of Italy to secede from the South) have been improving their polling since the election, basically on a populist/xenophobic basis. It will take some doing to block Salvini from being PM if his polling holds true in a new election - they have been polling at about 32-34% of the vote

 
The president will determine whether there will be a new election.

Salvini and Lega de Nord (who not so long ago was working for the Northern parts of Italy to secede from the South) have been improving their polling since the election, basically on a populist/xenophobic basis. It will take some doing to block Salvini from being PM if his polling holds true in a new election - they have been polling at about 32-34% of the vote
Yeah, I guess we'll see if a new coalition can be formed, or if they have to go to elections.  Coalition may make sense given what might come out of an election.

 
Yeah, I guess we'll see if a new coalition can be formed, or if they have to go to elections.  Coalition may make sense given what might come out of an election.
Italy's PD opens door to coalition but sets conditions

Zingaretti laid down five conditions that he said should be the backbone of any accord — “loyal membership” of the European Union; giving parliament a central role; economic development based on environmental sustainability; a change in handling migrants and a change to economic policy to boost investment.
Could be huge if it happens

ETA: PD has previously denied all possibility of a coalition with M5S so this is a significant step

 
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And so it did

M5S and PD join in coalition

Movement say they have agreed to form a coalition government.

"We consider it worthwhile to try this experience," the PD's Nicola Zingaretti said after meeting the president on Wednesday - the deadline for any deal.

It was agreed that Giuseppe Conte should stay on as prime minister.

The planned joint administration will serve until the next scheduled elections in 2023.

On Tuesday, Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio welcomed what he referred to as the PD's willingness to accept Mr Conte's reappointment.

The two parties, traditionally staunch rivals, have been holding tense talks following the collapse of the previous coalition government last week.

"In difficult times like these, shunning our responsibility to have the courage to try this is something we cannot afford," Mr Zingaretti said.

President Sergio Mattarella, who met party leaders in Rome to try to chart a way forward, has summoned Mr Conte to a meeting on Thursday morning.

Mr Mattarella is due to make a statement on the outcome of the talks later on Wednesday.

If an agreement had not been reached, he would have named a caretaker government and called early elections.

 
New government in Ukraine: young and liberal

Former lawyer Oleksiy Honcharuk is the new prime minister of Ukraine. The parliament voted for his candidacy on Aug. 29. He was supported by 290 out of 424 lawmakers.

Volunteer Andriy Zahorodniuk, 44, was voted in as Ukraine’s new defense minister, career diplomat Vadym Prystaiko, 49, was voted in as new foreign minister, while president’s childhood friend Ivan Bakanov, 45, became head of Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU.
 
Russian Municipal and Regional Elections September 8.  Should be interesting to see what happens.

On Sept. 8, Russians will vote in municipal and regional elections, and the authorities are afraid. Not of any foreign power’s interference in Russia’s elections — there have been no fair elections in decades — but of Russia’s own people and opposition candidates, who are far more popular than the official nominees.

Moscow’s old bag of electoral tricks survives — for example, moving elections from December to early September so that summer vacations would leave challengers little time to organize. The authorities have resorted to new tricks too, like clogging the electoral system with fake candidates and putting party loyalists on the ballot as independent candidates.

This year’s election will also see a new mobile digital voting system that allows people to vote online from any location. Critics say it is yet another trick to help the authorities.

Leaving nothing to chance, Moscow’s electoral commission found bogus reasons to disqualify all unapproved candidates from running in the elections. And to intimidate those would-be candidates, their homes were raided and many of them were detained, brought to Police Headquarters and interrogated in the middle of the night.

 
Russian Municipal and Regional Elections September 8.  Should be interesting to see what happens.
Russia's ruling party hit badly in Moscow election

Russia's ruling United Russia party has suffered major losses in Sunday's election to the Moscow city parliament, nearly complete results show.

The party lost nearly a third of the seats in the 45-member parliament, but remains on course to retain its majority with about 26 seats.

With most opposition candidates disqualified, the Communists, independents and others gained seats.

The exclusion of the opposition candidates triggered mass protests.

The party's brand has become so toxic lately that all its members ran as independents, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow reports.

In a major upset, the party's leader in the Russian capital, Andrei Metelsky, was not re-elected.

Unlike Moscow, Kremlin-backed candidates dominated in other local and regional elections held across the country on 8 September.

They look set to win in all 16 regions that were electing their governors.
I guess I'm not really clear about the true extent of the "victory" in Moscow.  If several United Russia members just ran as independents and won anyway (maybe they didn't win), how much was gained.

 
Russia's ruling party hit badly in Moscow election

I guess I'm not really clear about the true extent of the "victory" in Moscow.  If several United Russia members just ran as independents and won anyway (maybe they didn't win), how much was gained.
Real opposition candidates, besides Yabloko which seems grandfathered in somehow, were blocked from running, so basically Putin got what he wants. 

The decision to keep them off the ballot sparked a series of opposition rallies in Moscow that saw over 2,500 people arrested by baton-wielding riot police. Lyubov Sobol, an aspiring opposition candidate, said on Sunday that the City Duma polls represented “a funeral for even the illusion of democracy.”
United Russia’s candidates won 25 of the City Duma’s 45 seats, down 15 from the 40 the party previously held. The Communist Party claimed 13 seats, while the center-left A Just Russia party took three seats. Although both parties are nominally in opposition to United Russia, analysts say they are controlled by the Kremlin to varying degrees.
Politico

- Navalny's point was to just show opposition to UR in any way possible, but obviously again it's self-defeating. Just creates an illusion of plurality when there is none. 

 
Presidential election in Afghanistan today. Threat of violence from the Taliban seemed to keep turnout low.

Afghan presidential vote spared major violence, but turnout sharply lower

By Pamela Constable and

Susannah George

September 28 at 12:45 PM

KABUL — Voters in Afghanistan’s presidential election faced less violence from Taliban insurgents than expected but also turned out Saturday in far fewer numbers than officials had hoped — suggesting the winner will enter office with a weak mandate to lead the struggling democracy and possibly launch peace talks with the Taliban. 

Initial results of the race — whose main contenders were President Ashraf Ghani and his government’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah — will not be announced until Oct. 17. The final results are not expected until early November.

Neither candidate claimed victory, although Ghani has been predicted to win with more than 50 percent of the vote.

In a brief live address, Ghani thanked the voters for their “passion for democracy” and called on the Taliban to “honor the people’s demand for peace … the door to negotiation is open.” The election was the fourth presidential contest since the end of Taliban rule in 2001.

The insurgents, who had denounced the election as a sham and vowed to violently disrupt the polls, claimed they carried out 300 attacks during the voting. But officials reported only a handful of serious attacks, including a suicide bombing in southern Kandahar province that injured 16 people and an explosion in eastern Nangahar province that left two dead. 

There were numerous reports of relatively minor violent incidents, mostly small bomb blasts near polling sites.

[Elections in Afghanistan: What you need to know]

But while the election was more peaceful than anticipated, the low turnout nationwide came as a shock to the government and both major candidates, who had crisscrossed the country by air to stage campaign rallies under insurgent threat.

Election monitoring groups, gathering reports from officials across the country, estimated that fewer than 2.5 million voters, out of 9.6 million who had registered, came to the polls. They attributed the low numbers to fear of Taliban attack, concerns about fraud and skepticism that holding the election would help bring peace after 18 years of conflict.

“Under election law, a low turnout does not make the results less legitimate, but, of course, there will be worries about fairness and participation,” said Yousuf Rasheed, executive director of the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan. “Turnout was not just an issue in some places, but everywhere.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afghans-go-to-the-polls-amid-spike-in-violence-to-vote-on-a-new-president/2019/09/28/e333b13c-dfda-11e9-be7f-4cc85017c36f_story.html

 
Canada election today.  Link

Canada chooses a new prime minister: What to know

By Amanda Coletta 
Oct. 21, 2019 at 5:00 a.m. EDT
TORONTO — Canadian voters head to the polls Monday to decide whether to give Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a second mandate. Canada has a long history of reelecting its first-term prime ministers who have led parliamentary majorities, but after recent missteps and scandals, the telegenic Liberal leader has fallen back into a tight race with Conservative Andrew Scheer.

The vote will conclude an unusually cynical race that has been dominated by questions and attacks on the personal character and backgrounds of the party leaders as substantive discussions on policy have taken a back seat. Some have called it the Seinfeld Election (it’s been about nothing); others have lamented the American-style attacks. A Globe and Mail columnist dubbed it “The Most Depressing Election Campaign Ever.”

Who’s going to win?
Of the six party leaders, there are two clear front-runners: Trudeau, 47, and Scheer, 40.

There was much enthusiasm for Trudeau, the bilingual son of longtime Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, when he first won election in 2015. He championed diversity, welcomed refugees, imposed a nationwide price on carbon and legalized recreational cannabis. The unemployment rate is at the lowest in decades.

But his image has been tarnished in the run-up to the election by scandals, including the revelation that he wore blackface and brownface as a younger man. Trudeau has apologized, but his rivals have seized on the opportunity to paint him as a “phony” who is “not as advertised.”

Scheer, an affable father of five, has struggled to define himself or attract voters outside of his base since winning the party leadership in 2017. He has come under attack for his opposition to abortion and for refusing to say whether he supports same-sex marriage. He has promised not to reopen the debate on either issue and to balance the budget within five years.

Scheer has also been on the defensive over his personal background. The Globe and Mail reported during the campaign that he misrepresented his experience in the insurance industry on his résumé and revealed that he is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. Scheer said he sought in August to renounce his U.S. citizenship, but critics charged hypocrisy because he once questioned the dual citizenship of Michaëlle Jean, a former Haitian refu­gee who served as governor general, Queen Elizabeth II’s representative in Canada.

In Canada’s election, running against Trump is good politics

Who else is running?
New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh, 40, has seen a bump in support since the campaign began. A practicing Sikh born to immigrant parents from India, he has earned praise for his response to Trudeau’s blackface scandal and for his debate performances. His candidacy has exposed a darker side of Canadian society: At a campaign stop in Montreal, a man suggested he remove his turban so he could “look like a Canadian.” Singh’s left-leaning party could siphon votes away from the Liberals.

Elizabeth May, 65, the U.S.-born leader of the Green Party, saw her poll numbers climb to historic highs before the campaign kicked off last month, but the party has since lost momentum. She has promised to create a “war cabinet” to combat climate change and to phase out fossil fuels by 2030. Her campaign has experienced some embarrassing gaffes, including using Photoshop to show her holding a reusable cup with a metal straw.

The separatist Bloc Québécois poses a serious threat to the fortunes of the Liberals and Conservatives in Quebec. The resurgent party is led by Yves-Francois Blançhet, 54, a former rock group manager nicknamed “The Goon.” He supports a controversial Quebec law that bans public employees from wearing religious symbols at work.

Then there’s Maxime Bernier, 56, the libertarian who founded the hard-right People’s Party of Canada last year after losing the Conservative Party leadership race to Scheer. Bernier has railed against multiculturalism, proposed building a “border fence” at the U.S.-Canada border and mocked Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg. His new party, however, is struggling, and Bernier, elected to Parliament in 2015 as a Conservative, could lose his seat.

What are the issues?
No single issue has dominated the campaign. The candidates have largely tried to address concerns over affordability in their platforms, with pledges to slash cellphone bills and offer boutique tax credits for middle-class families with children.

One of the main areas of disagreement is on the environment. Trudeau has promised to commit Canada to net-zero emissions by 2050 but has offered few details on how he’d get there. Scheer, by contrast, says his first order of business as prime minister would be to repeal the Liberal government’s carbon tax. The New Democrats and the Greens have criticized both parties for putting forth inadequate plans on climate change and have attacked Trudeau for buying the Trans Mountain pipeline last year. On climate change, Singh has said, Trudeau and Scheer offer a choice between “Mr. Delay and Mr. Deny.”

If the campaign is remembered for anything, it might be its uncharacteristically nasty tone. Candidates from all sides have participated in the mudslinging. A debate earlier this month quickly devolved into a six-way screaming match. Underscoring the souring of the political climate, Trudeau took the unprecedented step of wearing a bulletproof vest at a rally in Mississauga, Ontario, this month because of a security threat.

How do Canadians elect their prime minister?
Voters in each of 338 electoral districts, called ridings, elect a member to represent them in the House of Commons, the lower chamber of Canadian Parliament.

The suburbs outside Toronto and Vancouver and the province of Quebec are key battlegrounds where elections are won and lost.

Canadians do not vote directly for prime minister. The prime minister is the leader of the party that commands the confidence of the House of Commons — analogous to the speaker of the House of Representatives in the United States. If a party wins a majority of the seats — 170 or more — it forms the government and its leader becomes prime minister.

But polls show neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives are likely to win a majority.

What then?
There would be a minority government — and it could get complicated.

No matter the result on Monday, Trudeau will remain prime minister until he resigns or is dismissed. If neither happens, he gets the first crack at forming a new government.

This is where smaller parties can play kingmaker. Trudeau could try to put together a formal coalition, in which lawmakers from more than one party share cabinet seats, but the last time Canada saw such an arrangement was 1917. More common are informal coalitions, in which the governing party works with other parties to pass bills on a case-by-case basis.

The first test to see if the government has the confidence of the House is the “Speech from the Throne.” It’s written by the government to outline its agenda and is then put to a vote. If the government loses the vote, it collapses. The governor general can then ask the other parties to try to form a government or dissolve Parliament, forcing a new election.

The Conservatives would have few natural allies in a minority government. Singh already has ruled out propping up a Conservative minority government. He said last week he’d “absolutely” form a coalition with the other parties to block the Conservatives from holding power, but has since retreated from those remarks.

Philippe Lagassé, an international relations professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, says much will depend on the difference in seat count between the top two parties. If the Conservatives win by a wide margin, he said, Trudeau will come under “fairly significant” pressure to resign.

 
I've had a soft spot in my heart for Lebanon since I visited a few times in '95 and '96. Incredibly nice people who had gone through so much in the civil war, the Israeli occupation, Syrian quasi occupation, burdened with refugee camps for (at the time) almost 50 years in numbers that comprised a very large share of the population, Hezbollah, missiles and airstrikes, yet still hospitable and just looking forward. I wish them the best!

 
In 2015 Trudeau promised electoral reform. He opted not to follow through and benefitted tonight as he lost the popular vote to another party, but won enough seats to remain as the leader in a minority government (five party system now)

 
Don Quixote said:
Poland is looking like it could have been worse for democracy.  The Law and Justice party did not win by as much as projected, and lost control of the Senate.

Also a nationalist setback in Hungary in the Budapest mayor election.  Maybe some cause for optimism.
Poland back to maybe not so good for democracy.  The Law and Justice Party seeking recounts in some Senate seats.  They had pushed through some judicial "reforms," which may come into play.

 
In 2015 Trudeau promised electoral reform. He opted not to follow through and benefitted tonight as he lost the popular vote to another party, but won enough seats to remain as the leader in a minority government (five party system now)
Kind of. 

Canada voted 65% for parties on the left and 35% for parties on the right. There are 4 parties on the left and 1 on the right. 

Under the current first past the post system, the Liberal party and the Conservative party occasionally win a majority of seats with ~39% of the vote.

So people on the left in Canada voted strategically in favour of the Liberal party, so that they win more seats than the Conservative party and keep them out of office. 

The calls for electoral reform have traditionally come from the left. The non-Liberal parties on the left always lose votes because of the strategic vote splitting inherent in the first past the post system to vote not for the party they most align with but to vote against the Conservative boogeyman. 

Because of the results this year, there are calls for electoral reform from the right wing (voters, not the Conservative party). This is very poorly thought out on their part. 

Yes, they did get a higher percentage of the overall vote at 34% to 33% to the Liberal party but the overall split was still 65/35 in favour of left leaning parties. 

Under a proportional representation system, the Conservative party would have 34% of the 338 seats (115 seats). Under the current system they have 121 seats, so no real difference in power.

The Liberals have 157 seats because they won big in Ontario. They would obviously lose seats under a proportional representation system, dropping to 113 seats - this is what many right wing voters like when they say we need electoral reform - those nasty Liberals with their carbon tax and their green policies get less power. 

Ok - but now the Liberals and Conservatives have both lost seats - who gets them? Because of the aforementioned 65/35 left/right split - they're obviously going to parties on the left - and since the Liberals are the most centrist of the left leaning parties - those remaining 110 seats are all going to parties farther left than the Liberals (NDP, Green Party and Bloc Quebecois). These parties right now only have 59 seats despite getting almost 30% of votes. 

I like those farther left parties, I'd love electoral reform - not only would people on the left vote for the party they truly believe in, not the Liberals strategically but it would ensure that the right wing (which never gets more than 35-40% of the vote) is never ever in power again. 

The Liberal and Conservative parties should never go for it because in the current system they can still get that 39-40% vote that comes with enough seats to form a (false) majority government. 

Right wing voters should never ever ever want reform because they're not only ensuring they never have the power in the government, they're actually pushing the country farther left by increasing the power of the farther left parties that make up the 65% of Canadian voters (and growing, the country isn't getting less diverse, urban and younger).

So did Trudeau keep power because of not reforming the electoral process? I guess maybe but not really. He won the most seats because of that but 65% of the country voted left, any coalition government was always coming from that side and the Liberal party remains the largest of the left leaning parties.

 
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They are so ####ed. It was the neo peronistas under Menem that spent all the money in the 90'ies. Since then it's been more of the same to "solve" the issue, up to Macri, who they just booted for not solving a generation's problems in less than four years. Unless they start to list all prices in dollars it will become even cheaper to visit.

 
Lebanon's PM resigns...

Lebanon's Hariri resigns after nearly two weeks of nationwide protests

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN)Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced he was resigning on Tuesday, succumbing to the demands of protesters who have staged nationwide demonstrations for nearly two weeks.

The three-time prime minister has led a national unity government, which included some of his political adversaries, for less than two years. In recent months, the country saw rapid economic deterioration, ballooning debt and rising prices.

On October 17, the government proposed imposing a tax on Whatsapp calls, along with other austerity measures, sparking nationwide protests that paralyzed the country, Lebanon has been under lock-down since the protests began. Banks and schools have been closed for 12 days, while protesters blocked major routes throughout the tiny eastern Mediterranean country.

 
Lebanon's PM resigns...

Lebanon's Hariri resigns after nearly two weeks of nationwide protests

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN)Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced he was resigning on Tuesday, succumbing to the demands of protesters who have staged nationwide demonstrations for nearly two weeks.

The three-time prime minister has led a national unity government, which included some of his political adversaries, for less than two years. In recent months, the country saw rapid economic deterioration, ballooning debt and rising prices.

On October 17, the government proposed imposing a tax on Whatsapp calls, along with other austerity measures, sparking nationwide protests that paralyzed the country, Lebanon has been under lock-down since the protests began. Banks and schools have been closed for 12 days, while protesters blocked major routes throughout the tiny eastern Mediterranean country.
First step taken. What will the second step be? And will it be enough?

 
Cabinet reshuffle has not stopped protests in Chile. They just announced that they will no longer host APEC summit next month.

 
Protests in Bolivia too after Morales declares victory in the 1st round. OAS reportedly investigating

 
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SNP to ask for new referendum on independence

The EU was not exactly welcoming of the thought last time around, for fear of more independence movements gaining steam. At least it will be pursued by legal means

 
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Protests continuing in Algeria

37 straight Fridays of demonstrations ahead of December's elections

 
Bolivian military urges Morales to step down

The army chief in Bolivia has urged President Evo Morales to step down amid protests stemming from his disputed re-election last month.

The call comes hours after Mr Morales agreed to call a new election after international monitors called for the result to be annulled.

The Organization of American States (OAS), which monitored the elections, found "clear manipulation".

Mr Morales has denied wrongdoing and previous calls to resign.

General Williams Kaliman told reporters on Sunday: "After analysing the conflicted domestic situation, we ask the president to resign his presidential mandate to allow for pacification and the maintaining of stability, for the good of our Bolivia."

He added that the military had ordered "operations in the air and on land to neutralise armed groups acting outside the law".
Normally the military taking an active role in domestic politics is not a benefit to democracy, but with Morales this might be an exception

Morales resigns

Now what?

 
Spain again went to the polls to try and get a functioning legislature... Doesn't look like that's in the cards. The Socialists (PSOE) again have the most seats but it will be tough to form a coalltion.  I know some people want multiple political parties in the US, but look at what an ungovernable disaster can come about with such a fractures landscape.

 
Wow that’s something. I guess there will be an investigation into the election or maybe there’s been one already. I had thought he was fairly popular but maybe not:
The population is divided (poor farmers love him, the rest, not so much), and also flaunting term limits. He's already governed three terms and wanted a fourth.
I believe the constitution stipulates only two but IIRC he got an exception for the third term by referendum some years back.
The OAS found the count in the past election fraudulent in favor of Morales which he claims not to have anything to do with.

ETA: Another big issue is who rules now? Who will stand for the new election? And Morales claims that the police want to arrest him - if for election fraud that would seem fair (if they have evidence)...

 
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