At last, day broke in Israel. After a long night spent counting double envelopes, hoping they contained the votes needed by Meretz and Balad to reach the threshold, the dawn announced Benjamin Netanyahu's return. This victory comes after five rounds of elections in less than four years, all of which ended in political stalemate.
Regardless of the outcome, Brazil’s election will reveal the deep divisions running through the country.
Now more than ever we need politics to work and our ruling classes to be able to do it. It is a matter of democratic resilience. Indeed, the magnitude of the tasks our states are now facing, from managing the health crisis to mobilising resources to spur reconstruction, put pressure on our political institutions, especially the collective ones (parliaments or national assemblies). The obvious health concerns that arose with the spread of Covid-19 could hamper and even block parliaments’ activities.
ISPI and the Italian Group of the Trilateral Commission held a Lunch Talk with Stefano Folli, columnist at La Repubblica, and Nando Pagnoncelli, President of Ipsos.
By invitation only
There are just over 6.3 million Israeli voters on the electoral roll for the 21st Knesset elections. Of these, some 950,000 (15%) are Arab citizens. A recent public opinion poll among Israeli Arab voters, conducted three weeks before Election Day by the German Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, found that in the upcoming elections, voter turnout among Arab citizens is expected to reach a low of 51%.
The upcoming Ukrainian elections are of crucial significance due to their ability to influence the complex structures of regional security and stability. The election results will indeed impact (although to what extent, remains to be seen) the Russia-Ukraine and the wider Russian-EU relations. Given their geopolitical importance, they will surely draw attention from all the significant international actors involved.
Will the Donbas conflict be frozen or will the results of the elections in Ukraine increase the level of confrontation with Russia? Should we expect a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh after the "velvet revolution" in Armenia? How will elections in Georgia and Moldova affect relations with their breakaway territories? These are some of the questions that have recently contributed to putting frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet space back in the international spotlight.
The new electoral cycle in Moldova will begin in February 2019.
Elections, when free and fair, are regular and legitimate occasions to vie for power in a democratic country. In order to compete and to be elected, political competitors, usually organized into parties or movements, must follow the democratic principles that rule electoral competitions.
In 2014, the roof fell over Brazil’s head as Operation Car Wash (Operação Lava Jato) began to unfold. What began as an investigation into money laundering soon uncovered what we today know to be one of the biggest corruption scandals in world history.
The upcoming parliamentary election in Lebanon – the first since 2009 – is unlikely to unsettle Hezbollah’s grip over its traditional constituencies. Yet, the polls will be a test for the "Party of God". This is mainly because this election comes at a moment of extreme regional uncertainty, and because of an ongoing reshuffling of the domestic balance of power that is putting traditional alliances under stress.