Blog post archive

Wednesday, 13 Mar 2024
Presidential ‘Elections’ Cannot Restore Putin’s Authority

This week, from March 15 to 17, Russia will hold presidential election. Canceling the elections would be entirely natural for the repressive autocratic regime that has matured in Moscow. The government already has all the enforcement structures it needs to suppress protests. Putin could easily justify the move by arguing ...

Wednesday, 28 Dec 2022
What Can Somalia’s Federal Member States Learn from Somaliland as They Transition to Multiparty Elections?

Democratisation in the territories of the former ‘Somali Republic’ is influenced by the experience with the 1960s elections. After independence, the Somali republic adopted a parliamentary democracy. However, this democracy was short lived as elections became fraught with malpractices such as rigging, fraud, intimidation, and manipulation. … many Somalis welcomed ...

Wednesday, 9 Nov 2022
Why has the Puntland state of Somalia been unable to conduct a ‘one person one vote’ election for over 24 years?

Somalia has not held multiparty elections since late 1969 when the military seized power from a democratically elected government in a bloodless coup.[1]  The military remained in control until 1991, followed by thirty years of civil war and political instability. After the collapse of the central government, major clans, notably ...

Friday, 9 Apr 2021
Karaoke politics: the Bulgarian election results in limbo

On 4 April, while some countries celebrated Easter and spring break, Bulgarians all around the world cast their votes in one of the most exciting parliamentary elections in decades. In Majorstuen, Oslo, over 500 people waited for up to 3 hours at the Bulgarian embassy to exercise their right to ...

Tuesday, 24 Nov 2020
Protests, Elections, and Ethnic Tensions in West Africa: What are the Driving Forces?

As ongoing post-electoral violence across West-Africa continues, especially in countries such as Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, the region is forced to urgently address the implications of long-term economic decline and poor governance systems. What are the key driving forces for the current troubling political atmosphere? Post-election Violence: Guinea  and Côte ...

Monday, 2 Nov 2020
A Surprise in Cyprus? Recent Elections and the Return of the Populist Right

In October, North Cyprus experienced a highly contested leadership election after a COVID-imposed delay. This stirred new debates over the realism of a possible federal solution for Cyprus. During his five years in office, Mustafa Akıncı, the left-wing candidate running for re-election, had expressed strong support for federation and had ...

Monday, 14 Dec 2015
Is it Strange that Dictators Hold Elections?

Why do dictators hold elections that merely play to the gallery? On 11 October, Alexander Lukashenko was re-elected as president of Belarus with an impressive 84 per cent share of the vote. The election was anything but free and fair. According to the OSCE, Belarusian law makes it impossible for ...

Thursday, 22 Oct 2015
Can an Economic Boom Ensure Peaceful Elections in Côte d’Ivoire?

On Oct. 25, Ivorians head to the polls for their first presidential election since the disputed 2010 election that left more than 3,000 dead and more than 500,000 displaced. Despite the previous electoral violence and a decade of civil war and political turmoil from 2000-2010, most discussion before this election ...

Wednesday, 26 Aug 2015
Cracking the Glass Ceiling: Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. presidential politics

In a now legendary 2008 Saturday Night Live skit, comedians Amy Poehler and Tina Fey opened the show by imitating Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and unsuccessful Democratic contender for the nomination Hillary Clinton, respectively. The skit could have been a harmless imitation game, with Fey and Poehler simply ...

Monday, 16 Jun 2014
An Own Goal in Brazil

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff must see off two fast gaining rivals to win reelection in October. Problems during the World Cup might end up being be her political downfall. With the World Cup underway, the eyes of the world are on the football in Brazil. Off the field though, the ...

Monday, 12 May 2014
Electing India's Future

In April, 800 hundred million people began casting their ballots all across India in the largest election the world has ever seen. When we think of voting in India, we often picture a poor elderly villager showing a big ink-stained thumb and boasting a wide smile as proof of democracy ...