A significant number of countries have brought back incumbent leaders, some with reduced numbers and coalitions rather than the majority as before, such as South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and India’s Modi. Some countries have returned to power.
Current company:
Algeria: Algerian leader Abdelmadjid Tebboune was re-elected as president in September with 94.7 percent of the vote.
Azerbaijan: President Ilham Aliyev secured a fifth term in office in February after a severe crackdown on the media and with no real opposition.
Belarus: President Alexander Lukashenko retained power in parliament in parliamentary elections in February. Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russia, has been accused of manipulating past elections and eliminating political opposition. The presidential vote will take place in January 2025.
Bulgaria: In the country’s seventh snap election in four years, held in October, the center-right party GERB took the lead, but failed to win a majority of votes.
Chad: Mahamat Idriss Deby was declared the winner of May’s presidential election after rejecting challenges from two unsuccessful candidates, extending his family’s decades-long rule. Parliamentary elections were held in the country on Sunday, December 29, but the results have not yet been announced.
Comoros: President Azali Assomani has won a fourth five-year term in the island nation. He received 62.97 percent of the votes and was declared the winner against five opponents. The protests shook the country, and the military imposed a curfew after the results were announced.
Croatia: Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has formed a coalition to remain in power after the April vote.
Dominican Republic: Luis Abinader won a second term in May with 58.5% of the vote, gaining support for his tough stance on immigration from neighboring Haiti.
Georgia: Billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili’s ruling Georgian Dream party won more than 54% of the vote in parliamentary elections. The result was seen as a blow to pro-Western Georgians, who had cast the election to choose between a ruling party that has deepened ties with Russia and an opposition party that wanted to hasten integration with the European Union. There is.
India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party won a third term, but unlike in previous terms, it did not have a majority. Prime Minister Modi was forced to form a coalition government against the opposition party led by Rahul Gandhi, which had won seats and visibility across the country.
Lithuania: The Social Democratic Party formed a coalition government with the Dawn Party of Nemunas and For Lithuania, controlling 86 seats in the 141-member parliament, and Gintautas Paluckas became prime minister in December.
Pakistan: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif returned to power in February after a controversial election in which his family-led party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), failed to secure enough support on its own. Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, was disqualified before the vote, but its candidates contested as independents and won more seats than any other party. Mr. Sharif formed a coalition government with the Pakistan Peoples Party. PTI alleges electoral fraud in the vote, which the government denies.
Russia: Vladimir Putin won his fifth presidential election with 87 percent of the vote, the best result in Russia’s post-Soviet history.
Rwanda: Paul Kagame was elected for a fourth term with 99% of the vote. His critics accuse him of a crackdown on dissent. His supporters argue that his critics are merely puppets of the West, which does not want to accept his popularity.
South Africa: Cyril Ramaphosa of the African National Congress has been re-elected as President of South Africa for a second term. After losing its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994, the ruling African National Congress has formed an unruly coalition with political opponents to maintain power.
Taiwan: In January, Lai Ching-de (also known as William Lai) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DP) won Taiwan’s presidential election despite warnings from China not to vote. China views Lai, who claims Taiwan as part of its territory and harshly criticizes the Chinese government, as a separatist. Lai served as Taiwan’s vice president under outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen.
Togo: Togo’s ruling UNIR party, led by President Faure Gnassingbé, won 108 of the 113 seats in parliament. The overwhelming majority follows the outgoing parliament’s approval of controversial constitutional amendments that could extend the Gnassingbé family’s 57-year rule.
Tunisia: In October, President Kais Saied won a second term in presidential elections. Several other presidential candidates were also jailed. In 2021, Mr Said dissolved the elected parliament and rewrote the constitution in a move the opposition called a coup.
Venezuela: In July, President Nicolás Maduro was re-elected with 51 percent of the vote, his third victory since taking office in 2013 after the death of his mentor, former president Hugo Chávez. The United Socialist Party has been in power for 25 years. Opposition parties claim that the results of the July 28 election were rigged, and protests have erupted demanding that each polling station release their results. Maduro’s government has cracked down on anti-government protesters and leaders, forcing many to seek refuge in foreign embassies.
New leader:
Austria: In September, Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) won parliamentary elections. Although the FPO received the most votes, it did not win by a large enough margin to rule alone. The three centrist parties are under pressure to reach an agreement, and with no party willing to work with the FPO, coalition talks will continue into the new year.
Botswana: In November, Duma Boko was declared the winner of an election, defeating incumbent President Mokgweetsi Masisi, in a shake-up that ended 58 years of ruling power since independence from Britain in 1960. .
Bhutan: Tshering Tobgay has returned as prime minister and his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won the most seats in Bhutan’s parliamentary elections in January, defeating Druk Nyamrup Tsogpa (DNT).
Iceland: In December, Iceland’s centre-left Social Democratic Union won the most votes in a snap election following the collapse of the coalition government that had been in power for the past seven years. Kristórn Hróstadóttir was sworn in as Prime Minister on December 21st. Previously, in June, Hala Tomasdóttir was elected president of Iceland, defeating incumbent Gudni Johannesson with 55% of the vote.
Indonesia: Former general Prabowo Subianto has been sworn in as president of the world’s third-most populous country, along with his running mate, Gibran Rakabumin Raka, son of former President Joko Widodo.
Iran: Masoud Pezeshkian won the presidential election in July. Pezeshkian, a reformist, took office after the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi amidst Israel’s war against the Palestinians and its fallout across the wider Middle East.
Mexico: Climatologist and former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum succeeds her Morena party leader Andres Manuel López Obrador as Mexico’s first female president after a landslide victory in June. was appointed.
Portugal: In March, a center-right coalition led by the Social Democratic Party narrowly won the Portuguese general election and established a minority government. The far-right Chega party made a major breakthrough and demanded ministerial positions, but the centre-right coalition formed a cabinet without them.
Senegal: In March’s presidential election, opposition candidate Bashir Diomai Fay won 54% of the vote. His victory came just 10 days after his release from prison.
Sri Lanka: In November, the leftist coalition led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake won a landslide victory in a snap election, giving the self-proclaimed Marxist leader a strong mandate to fight poverty and corruption in the crisis-hit country. Gave.
Tuvalu: Former Attorney General Feleti Teo has been named the new prime minister following a general election that eliminated the island’s pro-Taiwan leaders. Mr Teo’s elevation to prime minister came after his pro-Taiwan predecessor Kausea Natano lost his seat in the January 26 election.
UK: With the lowest turnout in 20 years, British voters ended 14 years of Conservative rule in a snap election, returning Keir Starmer and the Labor Party to Downing Street.
Amid the economic and health crisis, support for the populist right-wing party Reform Britain has surged.
United States: Donald Trump won the electoral college by a wide margin over Kamala Harris in November, as many states that had previously voted Democratic went Republican.
Removed reader:
Bangladesh: Sheikh Hasina will be re-elected in January 2024 for her fifth term as Prime Minister. Protests against the quota policy erupted in June and quickly expanded into a movement against the country’s increasingly authoritarian rule. Hasina resigned and fled to India in early August after days of deadly clashes between protesters and security forces. At least 280 people were killed and thousands injured.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been appointed interim prime minister until elections are held.
Syria: Bashar al-Assad held parliamentary elections in July, with all 250 seats awarded to his Baath Party. But five months later he lost power. Rebels took control of Damascus in the early hours of December 8 after a lightning strike, ending the al-Assad family’s 50-year rule in a surprise attack.
A 13-year civil war that left hundreds of thousands killed, thousands missing and six million people fleeing the country has finally come to an end.
The offensive, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its leader Ahmed al-Sharah, known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, established an interim government that established a new constitution and a new government.
