| Opinion/Commentary |
UP: Varun Gandhi stakes claim to his father's legacy in Sultanpur -
IBNLive
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Varun Gandhi is staking claim to his father's legacy. Addressing a rally in Sultanpur, a Congress bastion, on Thursday, the BJP General Secretary made an emotional appeal to voters. This came even as the UP government is facing flak for allegedly letting him off in the 2009 hate speech cases. Varun Gandhi's first public meeting came in Sultanpur, the same district that elected his cousin Rahul to Parliament, and not so far away from Raebareli where Sonia Gandhi fights her elections. "I have come to Sultanpur, I have come home," Varun Gandhi said. |
Iran elections: Candidates and rivalries in the frame -
Saeed Barzin, BBC
The Iranian presidential elections, on 14 June, are now expected to pit three wings of the establishment against each other. Political parties opposed to the Islamic Republic are boycotting the process for not being free and fair. However, the regime's internal factions, which have been locked in bitter power struggles for years, have all put forward candidates. |
Iran’s Elections: The Maneouvering Begins -
Suzanne Maloney, Diplomat
While Saeed Jalili appears the early frontrunner, the early chaos of Iran’s presidential elections underscores the unpredictability of the race. The race to replace Iran’s deeply polarizing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, officially opened last week with the registration of prospective candidates, and already the campaign promises to be an utterly fascinating ride through the unpredictable politics of the Islamic Republic. The shock and awe surrounding the last-minute decision by Iran’s iconic former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to throw his hat into yet another race has only been topped for drama by the latest antics of the current incumbent, aimed apparently at elevating a controversial protégé to succeed him. |
Three men in a simmering archipelago -
RK Radhakrishnan, Hindu
Maldives President Mohamed Waheed has unexpectedly thrown his hat in the ring for the September 2013 elections, upsetting what was supposed to be a two-cornered contest between the country’s best-known democrat and its infamous strongman. Until last week, it appeared that the race for the Maldivian Presidency would be between two candidates — the charismatic former President Mohamed Nasheed and Yameen Abdullah, the brother of former dictator and Nasheed’s tormentor Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. |
Bulgarian president tries to break election stalemate -
Tsvetelia Tsolova, Reuters
Bulgaria's political stalemate deepened on Wednesday after final results confirmed a prospective Socialist alliance with ethnic Turkish MRF allies lacking a majority, and its president warned of destabilization without a new government soon. President Rosen Plevneliev appealed to political parties to hammer out a coalition deal after the inconclusive weekend election in the European Union's poorest member state. |
How did Christy Clark pull off a B.C. election upset? -
CBC News
B.C. voters had a surprise in store for the politicians, the pundits and the pollsters last night: a Liberal majority. Anchor Tony Parsons opened the CBC election night special broadcast by declaring it would be "an exciting night of political drama." That it was, but the voters didn't follow the script. |
India seems almost as excited by Pakistan’s election results as Nawaz Sharif -
ET
New Delhi seems almost as excited by Pakistan's election results as Nawaz Sharif. Manmohan Singh's gushing letter to Sharif was probably to be expected. Even the BJP has joined the general consensus that the strengthening of democracy in Pakistan would improve India-Pakistan relations. But the India-Pakistan dispute was not caused by military rule in Pakistan and the strengthening of democracy, which this election surely indicates, will have only marginal effects on improving India-Pakistan relations. |
Karnataka polls: multi-cornered fights led to big victory margins -
Anuja, Mint
Prakash Babbana Hukkeri, a 66-year-old Congress member of the legislative assembly (MLA) from Karnataka, is a happy man. Hukkeri has won the recently concluded assembly election from Chikkodi-Sadalga constituency for the second time in a row. Even better, he vanquished his rival from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 76,588 votes—the biggest margin of victory in the just concluded election. |
Malaysia: Government scrapes home—allegedly aided by vote rigging -
Economist
On may 5th Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional coalition, led by the prime minister, Najib Razak (above), was re-elected for the 13th time in a row. Barisan won a majority of seats in parliament, 133 out of 222, against 89 for the opposition, a three-party coalition called Pakatan Rakyat and led by Anwar Ibrahim. The turnout was a record 85%. And so the same government which has ruled Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957 is set for another five years in office. |
SP, BSP vie with each other to woo Brahmins -
Atiq Khan, Hindu
With the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) vying with each other to woo Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh, Bhagwan Parshuram Jayanti on Sunday was used as an occasion to bolster support from the community which comprises about 14 per cent of the electorate. Two parallel Brahmin conventions organised by the two main political adversaries underlined their approach to garner support of the community ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Election Calendar 2013
|
| Assembly Elections |
| |
Madhya Pradesh |
Before Oct 2013 |
| |
Chhattisgarh |
Before Oct 2013 |
| |
Jammu & Kashmir |
Before Oct 2013 |
| |
Rajasthan |
Before Oct 2013 |
| |
Delhi |
Before Oct 2013 |
|
|
|
| International Elections |
|
|
|
| Iran |
Presidential |
14th June 2013 |
| Maldives |
Presidential |
7th Sept 2013 |
| Germany |
Chancellor |
September 2013 |
| Australia |
Parliamentary |
14th Sep 2013 |
|
|
|
|
