Recently in Elections Category

The results are in from the December 2, 2007 Russian Parliamentary election and there are no surprises. United Russia easily won, gaining an additional 16 seats in the Duma as compared to the last election. 63% of eligible voters turned out to vote for one of the 11 competing political parties.

The structure of the new, incoming Duma is (party with number of seats):

• United Russia - 315
• Communist Party of the Russian Federation - 57
• Liberal Democratic Party of Russia - 40
• A Just Russia Party (pro-Kremlin) - 38

I guess it's time to get ready for Prime Minister Putin.

Reports that boxes at three polling stations contained more ballots than there were voters has delayed the release of official results from Croatia’s parliamentary election. The Croatian State Electoral Committee has announced that the vote will be repeated on December 9, only at those three polling stations.

Branko Hrvatin, President of the State Electoral Committee, indicated that they are legally bound to repeat the vote at those stations, even though those votes will not affect the overall election.

Official election results will be released on or after December 11.

With 99% of votes counted, the incumbent Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) holds a slim lead in Sunday’s Croatian parliamentary election. Preliminary results from the Croatian State Election Commission indicate HDZ leads with 34.78% of the vote, while the opposition Social Democrat Party (SDP) trails with 32.46%.

If these results hold, the structure of the new Parliament will be (seats by party):

• Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) - 61
• Social Democrat Party (SDP) - 56
• Croatian Peasant’s Party (HSS)/Croatian Liberal Party (HSLS) Coalition - 8
• Croatian People’s Party (HNS) - 7

Minorities are guaranteed 8 seats, and the remaining 12 will most likely represent the diaspora.

A parliamentary majority of 77 seats is required to govern. Both HDZ and SDP have begun coalition talks with potential partners to create a majority. President Stipe Mesic will ultimately decide who has the best chance of governing.

I have published an article at Suite101.com covering Ukraine's Parliamentary election results. I was trying to hold off for the absolute final results, but figured it was safe enough with 99.93% of the votes counted.

I am very happy that the democratic forces have won a majority of seats in the Verkhovna Rada (as an alliance). However, I am dumbfounded as to why it has taken so long to count all the votes. It seems like it has taken 2-3 days to count the last 2% of ballots. Something doesn't seem right about the process, but at least we should be avoiding another round of demonstrations like we saw during the Orange Revolution after the 2004 Presidential election.

What are your thoughts about this election and the results?

With almost 90% of the votes counted, the Party of Regions looks to have won the election. Here is the latest vote information, by party:

• Party of Regions - 33.41%
• Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYut) - 31.32%
• Our Ukraine People's Self Defense Bloc - 14.59%
• Communist Party - 5.3%
• Lytvyn Bloc - 3.98%
• Socialist Party - 3.01%

Most important for democratic forces though, is that the pro-West "Orange" alliance between BYut and Our Ukraine would have a majority in the Verkhovna Rada. Viktor Yanukovych, current Prime Minister and leader of the Party of Regions, has vowed to not give up his power without a fight.

This election may not have cleared up much of the upheaval in Ukraine's government. It may have only introduced another issue for future disagreements. We need to wait for the final vote totals before coming to any conclusions. It could be interesting in Ukraine over the next several weeks.

It should not surprise anyone that there are already reports of some voting irregularities in the Ukrainian parliamentary election today. There are reports of empty ballots being stuffed into ballot boxes and laying around at polling stations in the country's Donetsk region. This is the area that most strongly supports Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions. Are they trying to repeat what they did in the 2004 election?

Early reports from the exit polls indicate a statistical dead heat. A poll from the Democratic Initiatives Foundation shows the Party of Regions with 35.2% of the vote, and their Communist Party friends with 5.1%. The Orange group is led by the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc with 31.5% and Our Ukraine People's Self Defense Bloc with 13.4%.

A surprise is the People's Party, led by former Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodmyr Lytvyn, winning enough votes to earn some parliamentary seats. It is not clear which side Lytvyn would back.

More news as it becomes available.

With the Ukrainian Parliamentary election a mere two weeks away, I have decided to conduct a very unscientific poll. I want to get a feeling for people's opinions regarding which political group should win a majority of seats in the Verkhovna Rada.

I have published a poll in the Eastern European/Russian Affairs section of Suite101.com. I have also provided a very brief description of the five major political groups in my latest Suite101 blog.

Since the election is on September 30, the poll will remain open through September 29. Please take a few moments to read up on the election and political groups, and then take a moment to vote in my poll.

If you do not see radio buttons on the poll's page, try the E. European/Russian Affairs topic page (at the bottom).

Thanks for your help.

On September 30, Ukraine will hold a special parliamentary election. This election was mandated by President Viktor Yushchenko after he dismissed the country's Parliament on April 2. The vote was originally supposed to take place in May, but Ukraine was caught in the midst of a political crisis, with opposing political entities unable to come to an agreement on how to deal with the dismissal. At the end of May, President Yushchenko, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, and Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) Speaker Oleksandr Moroz reached an agreement to hold a "valid and constitutional" election in September.