· June, 2011

Stories about Elections from June, 2011

Senegal: The Protests Will be “Twitterized”

On June 23, 2011, Dakar's streets were stormed by protesters. Their goal: derail the electoral reform that would allow the election of the president with 25% of the votes in the first round and would also propose a dual ticket with a vice-president, much like the American electoral system. The protests succeeded in getting the bill withdrawn - and Twitter played a significant role.

29 June 2011

Thailand: ‘Vote No’ Campaign

Thais will troop to the polls next week and although the opposition is leading in some surveys, there is still no certainty of any group clinching a landslide victory. Unusually, the election ballot has a ‘no’ option provided to voters, and a movement has been orchestrated by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), or Yellow Shirts, to encourage citizens to 'Vote No'.

27 June 2011

Zimbabwe: Choosing the Lesser Devil

Thandi argues that an assessment of the range of political parties in Zimbabwe shows that Zimbabweans just have to choose the lesser devil: “It’s mediocre politicians all around, positing ludicrous...

27 June 2011

Thailand: #hiogat election hashtag

What does #hiogat means in the current Thailand election campaign? It refers to the protest placard raised during a speech of the Prime Minister which reads “He is only good...

27 June 2011

Barbados: The Warner Effect

Barbados Underground comments on Jack Warner's FIFA resignation: “Warner is generating ‘heat’ which is not doing T&T and the wider Caribbean any favour in the international arena. All the world...

24 June 2011

Senegal: Proposed New Election Law Sparks Riots in Dakar

President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade's, proposed amendment to the Constitution and election law, in anticipation of the presidential elections of 2012, has made a lot of Senegalese angry and sparked demonstrations and riots in the capital Dakar on June 23. This popular unrest has since forced the government to drop the suggested amendment.

24 June 2011

Macedonia: How the Protests Started

Tamara Atanasoska posts a personal account of the beginning of the protests against police brutality in Skopje, Macedonia: “We were walking, a handful of people, […] not knowing each other,...

23 June 2011

Bahamas: Elections, Then & Now

Blogworld hearkens back to the country's 1977 elections to make the point “that the elections coming up have every chance of being equally memorable — not necessarily in the same...

21 June 2011

Thailand: Animal election posters

Election posters depicting politicians as wild beasts have sprouted in Thailand. Catherine translates the meaning of the posters. Thais will go to the polls next month.

20 June 2011

India: Failure Of Democracy

Atanu Dey thinks that democracy is failing in India and things must change. The blogger comments: “the change has to come from a section of the population that has the...

19 June 2011