Stories about Elections from August, 2011
Nepal: Celebrating Appointment Of New Prime Minister
Anil P. Ghimire compiles the reactions of Nepali Twitter and Facebook users on the appointment of the new Prime Minister.
Central African Republic: Violence Marks Lead Up to Elections
The Central African Republic is set to hold partial parliamentary elections on September 4, yet tensions have arisen after an opposition party rally was marred with violence. The country is still recovering from violent conflicts that started in the late 1990s. Lova Rakotomalala reports.
Egypt: Omar Soliman Facebook Army
A poll conducted by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces on their Facebook page to see how much support each of the potential Egyptian presidential elections candidates had on the ground yielded 'fishy' results. Here are reactions online after news emerged that a Facebook army was hired to tweak them.
Singapore Elects New President
Dr Tony Tan was elected Singapore's seventh president on August 27 with a winning margin of only 7,269 votes. This was enough to beat the three other candidates in Singapore’s first presidential election in 18 years.
Denmark: At Last, the Prime Minister Calls the Elections
Today the Danish PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen has finally called the parliamentary elections: the big day is in three weeks, on September 15. Maria Grabowski reports on two online initiatives inspired by the long wait for the PM's announcement.
Georgia: Social Media Used by Presidential Election Candidate in Breakaway Region
Three candidates are competing this week for the presidency in Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia recognized only by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru, and Vanuatu. Despite being the oldest candidate, Sergei Shamba, born in 1951, turned to social media in order to attract support from voters online.
Liberia: Voting Ends in Liberia's Referendum
Voting ends in Liberia 23rd August referendum with the Liberia's Election Coordinating Committee (ECC), which deployed 400 elections observers throughout 15 counties reporting that voting was peaceful. The referendum was marred with an error on the ballot paper…
Latvia: Electoral Expectations
Veiko Spolitis of Baltic blog spans the pollster field in the runup to the 17 September parliamentary elections in Latvia and finds that a great but decreasing proportion of voters are still undecided.
Russia: “Democracy Without Balls”
Oleg Klimov writes [ru] that Mikhail Gorbachev, speaking on the 20th anniversary of the Soviet Union's collapse, said that “Putin is no dictator – he has just castrated democracy by depriving citizens of the democratic right to choose.”
Bermuda: BAD Call to Boycott
“Bermudians Against the Draft have launched a campaign to persuade young black men not to cast their ballot in the next general election [because] neither political party supports their position”: Respice Finem disagrees, on the grounds “that disengagement keeps the status quo in place and renders you voiceless.”
Russia: Arresting Political Opposition
Vladimir Kara-Murza of Spotlight on Russia argues that Putin's Russia is becoming increasingly Kafkaesque as opposition leader Boris Nemtsov again – twice in two days – has been arrested for exercising political rights and freedoms, at the same time as Prime Minister Putin is seemingly becoming all the more detached...
Argentina: Primary Elections and Future Presidential Candidates
On August 14, Argentina held primary elections to select presidential candidates for the upcoming October elections. The current president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, won the absolute majority for re-nomination, obtaining more than 50% of the vote. On Twitter netizens shared all kinds of reactions.
Latvia: Uncertain Election Outcome
Veikko Spolitis of Baltic blog discusses the uncertain political situation in Latvia subsequent to the 23 July referendum resulting in a call for new parliamentary elections on September 17, where a third of the electorate is undecided whom to vote for.
Bulgaria: Mapping Crime and Electoral Violations
Bulgarian blogger Boyan Yurukov has set up Bulgaria's first Ushahidi-based site, Crime.bg, whose goal is to collect signals of crimes and irregularities, via the site itself as well as through mobile applications, Twitter and Facebook. On his blog, Yurukov explained the reasons [bg] for creating Crime.bg: “1. People's lack of...
Malaysia: Voter Registration Details
reg2vote is a website developed by concerned citizens of Malaysia to give information on voter registration events throughout the country.
Madagascar: Sanctions Result in Economic Decline and Food Insecurity
After two and a half years of transitional government, Madagascar has experienced a slow, seemingly unstoppable decline of its fragile economy that has put a strain on the lives of millions. With an economy ranked worst in the world and a food crisis looming, Malagasy citizens debate the merits and impacts of international sanctions
Zambia: Netizen Launches Vlog Ahead of Elections
As Zambians are getting ready for the country's September 20 tripartite elections, a Zambian political activist has decided to put across his political and socio-economic messages through videos. He shares his videos on YouTube.
Poland: Parties Not So Eager to Obey New Gender Quota Act
With the announcement of the date of the Polish parliamentary elections this October 9, bloggers are discussing whether the country's political parties will follow the new rules introduced by the Gender Quota Act.
Russia: Moscow Calls for Limited OSCE Election Observation
The Democratist argues that the OSCE should not bulge to Russian demands to limit the number of election observers for the December 2011 parliamentary elections in the country.
Russia: Prokhorov Launches Pravoe Delo Pre-election Campaign
Kevin Rothrock of A Good Treaty presents an extensive analysis on billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and his Kremlin-close opposition party Pravoe Delo [ru], as the party joins an intensifying campaign to lay the ground for success in parliamentary elections due in December this year.
Russia: Babe Armies of Putin, Medvedev and Limonov
Gerhard Mangott reports [ger] that the use of Russian pre-election campaign videos with scantily clad girls now has spread from Prime Minister Putin [ru], via President Medvedev [ru], to National Bolshevik leader Limonov [ru].
