Poland: Arab Spring activists observing Poland’s election | The Associated Press

A group of Arab Spring activists observing Polish parliamentary elections are championing the spirit of civil society, and say such ballots back home will be milestones in turning hard-won freedoms into lasting democracy.

Fifteen activists and election officials — five from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya — met Friday with deputy foreign ministers Krzysztof Stanowski and Jerzy Pomianowski. They also held a meeting with the members and judges of the State Electoral Commission. Poland is to hold parliamentary elections on Sunday, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party presently leading in opinion polls.

Following this year’s wave of Arab Spring revolutions, the first free elections in decades are to be held in Tunisia on Oct. 23 and in Egypt at the end of November. No elections are yet scheduled for Libya, where dictator Moammar Gadhafi remains in hiding.

Bahrain: Bahraini women win in special election | Bikya Masr

Bahraini and international women’s advocates praised the victory of three women in the special parliamentary elections in the embattled Gulf island nation. The women’s victory brings the number of women now sitting in the 40-seat assembly to four. The special elections were held on September 24 and October 1.

Latvia: Pro-Russia party gains historic election victory in Latvia, hopes for role in government | The Washington Post

A left-wing, pro-Russia party captured the most votes in Latvia’s parliamentary elections, marking a milestone for the tiny Baltic nation where parties distrustful of Russia have dominated all national elections since independence 20 years ago. With some 95 percent of ballots counted early Sunday, Harmony Center, a party catering to the country’s ethnic Russian minority, had 29.2 percent of the vote.

Since 1991, when Latvia regained its independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union, no such party had either won an election or been included in a coalition government, a streak that Harmony hopes to change after Saturday’s election. But other parties were already maneuvering to shut Harmony out of any coalition government.

Latvia: Pro-Russia party gains historic election victory in Latvia, hopes for role in government | The Washington Post

A left-wing, pro-Russia party captured the most votes in Latvia’s parliamentary elections, marking a milestone for the tiny Baltic nation where parties distrustful of Russia have dominated all national elections since independence 20 years ago. With some 95 percent of ballots counted early Sunday, Harmony Center, a party catering to the country’s ethnic Russian minority, had 29.2 percent of the vote.

Since 1991, when Latvia regained its independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union, no such party had either won an election or been included in a coalition government, a streak that Harmony hopes to change after Saturday’s election. But other parties were already maneuvering to shut Harmony out of any coalition government.

Egypt: Parties want Mubarak allies barred from vote | Reuters

Political parties have called on Egypt’s military rulers to ensure that figures associated with the government of ousted President Hosni Mubarak cannot run in parliamentary elections expected this year.

The military council that took over from Mubarak after street protests forced him to stand down in February has said it will hold a parliamentary vote this year, although a statement earlier this week announcing plans for voter registration did not mention any dates.

“The members of the coalition insist on changes to the parliamentary elections law and a law that would prevent the return of remnants of the former regime,” a coalition of 17 groups, including the leading Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group, said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Egypt: Army warned of election delay | The Egyptian Gazette

Muslim fundamentalists are warning that they are ready to shed their blood in Tahrir Square, if the Military Council decides to delay parliamentary elections due in November. Egypt’s fundamentalists have also announced September 27 as the date for an end to the transitional period in post-revolution Egypt.

Since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted on February 11, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has been ruling the nation; it is also responsible for supervising the transfer of power to a civil government and an elected president.

It was the Muslim Brotherhood, who threw down the gauntlet to the army generals during a mass rally organised in Alexandria, widely regarded as a bastion for Egypt’s fundamentalists and Salafis (ultra-fundamentalists).

Poland: Election Campaign Fails to Change Trends | WSJ

Poland’s parliamentary election campaign has so far offered little beyond PR stunts, which haven’t visibly impacted voters’ preferences five weeks ahead of election day. The ruling party continues to have a commanding lead over rival conservatives.

The Civic Platform party, which has governed Poland since 2007 in a stable coalition with the Peasants’ Party, would get 32% of the vote, while the conservative Law and Justice party would get 24%, according to a poll by Homo Homini for daily Super Express. The Democratic Left Alliance would get 12%, and the ruling party’s agrarian coalition partner would get 7%.

Seychelles: Seychelles election time: new party, new game? | eTurboNews.com

With the general election just a few weeks away now, Seychelles politics are set to change as a new political party, the Popular Democratic Party, is entering the main arena of an election fight for the first time. Long-time opposition leader, Wavel Ramkalawan, following his significant defeat in the May presidential elections, virtually threw in the towel soon afterwards, and in an act of defiance, seems to have propelled his own party, the SNP, into the abyss, too.

First refusing to take part in the declaration of election results, he then went on to stop attending parliamentary proceedings and compelling his party’s assembly members to follow his example, culminating in his declaration that the SNP, as if a piece of personal property, would not participate in the next round of parliamentary elections at all. This resulted in taking the one major opposition to the ruling party, LEPEP, out of the equation, this did not go down well with many of his followers who now doubt not only his wisdom but his rationale and motive.

Syria: Assad says Syria to hold parliamentary elections in February | Xinhuanet

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that he expected to have parliamentary elections conducted in February of 2012 in an interview broadcast by state TV. The solution to the five-month-old crisis in the country is ” political,” al-Assad said, adding that the security situation is better now.

Syria is passing through a transitional stage and there will be a revision of the constitution, he said. He pledged that whoever has committed any crime against any Syrian citizen, whether he was civilian or military, would be held accountable when he is proven to be guilty.

Egypt: Electoral commission to issue regulations of political rights law | Daily News Egypt

Egypt’s Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC), which will monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections, is slated to issue the regulations for the political rights laws in the upcoming days. The regulations will include 38 articles that will guide the electoral process and give the power to the SEC to manage every stage, from preparing the voters’ lists to the complaints related to the elections.

Regulations will also include forming a committee headed by a member of the SEC, Judge Samir Abdel Moaty, to prepare the first database for voters.

One of the articles will stipulate forming an electoral committee in every governorate to include members of the judiciary, authorizing them to supervise the presentations of the voters’ database as well as inspecting voting stations and reviewing candidates’ proxies inside the stations.

Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan’s Ruling Party Takes All Seats In Senate Election | Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur-Otan party has claimed all 16 seats available in today’s election to the Senate, or upper house of parliament.

This was not a popular election, as the new deputies were chosen by regional and provincial officials as well as MPs from the Mazhilis, or lower house of parliament, rather than by the country’s electorate. The lower house is comprised entirely of Nur-Otan members.

Kazakhstan: CIS mission confident of transparent elections in Kazakhstan | Trend

The CIS observer mission head has expressed confidence that the elections to the upper house of Kazakhstan’s parliament on August 19 will be transparent and will comply with all democratic principles, Itar-Tass reported. The mission’s head and the CIS Executive Committee chairman, Sergei Lebedev, met with the head of the Kazakhstan’s central election commission, Kuandyk Turgankulov, on Thursday.

Lebedev underlined that the CIS observer mission has been repeatedly monitoring the elections in the Central Asian republic and its goal “is to ensure transparency of the election process and citizens’ expression of will.” The mission that has been staying in Kazakhstan since August 11 includes 68 representatives from eight CIS member-states, except for Moldova and Azerbaijan.

UAE: 477 candidates file nominations to run in UAE parliamentary election | Arab News

More than 475 candidates have filed their nominations to run in parliamentary election which is slated for Sept. 24. According to the National Election Committee (NEC), the total number of registered candidates in different emirates of the UAE includes 121 in Abu Dhabi, 125 in Dubai, 97 in Sharjah, 60 in Ras Al Khaimah, 34 in Ajman, 19 in Umm Al Quwain and 21 in Fujairah.

The government sources said 477 people had registered so far to run for half the seats in the 40 member Federal National Council. The other half of the seats will be chosen by the rulers of each emirate. A number of women candidates also have filed their applications this time, especially from Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah.  Every individual from among the 129,000 voters who have been chosen by the government is eligible to file nomination papers abiding by the set rules.

Poland: General election set for 9 October | news.pl

President Bronislaw Komorowski announced this morning that Poland’s general election will take place on 9 October.

“According to the article 98 of the Polish Constitution, from today 4 August, we officially start the election calendar,” Komrowski said, signaling the start of the election campaign. “We have already set a date for the electoral day for the Parliament and Senate, which will be on the 9th October 2011,” he added. On the idea mooted that the election should take place over two, and not one, day – in an attempt to boost Poland’s moderate turnout during ballots.

Egypt: Egypt’s vote in November, says election official | gulfnews

Egypt’s parliamentary elections will be held in the second half of November, two months later than originally scheduled, Chief of the Higher Election Commission Abdul Moaez Ebrahim said on Saturday.

He added that the elections of both houses of the parliament will be held at the same time and fully supervised by judges. “Whether Egyptian expatriates will be able to vote or not needs a political decision,” Ebrahim told reporters in Cairo.

Croatia: Croatian parliamentary elections scheduled for Dec. 4 | SEE news

Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor told reporters after the meeting that the idea was to hold the vote before Dec. 9, when Croatia is supposed to sign an accession deal with the EU, followed by a Croatian referendum on joining the 27-nation bloc. On July 15, the representatives of Croatia’s ruling coalition in Zagreb set Dec. 4 as the date of the next parliamentary election.

Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor told reporters after the meeting that the idea was to hold the vote before Dec. 9, when Croatia is supposed to sign an accession deal with the EU, followed by a Croatian referendum on joining the 27-nation bloc.

Egypt: Egypt: No foreign monitors in upcoming election | The Washington Post

Egypt will not allow international groups to monitor its upcoming parliamentary election, the country’s military rulers announced Wednesday, echoing ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s argument that foreign electoral oversight would be an affront to Egyptian sovereignty.

Maj. Gen. Mamdouh Shahin, a spokesman for the ruling military supreme council, said during a news conference that only Egyptian monitoring groups would be allowed to watch the polls. Foreign monitors, he added, “would interfere with the sovereignty of Egypt.”

The United States and others in the international community have long pressed Egypt to allow foreign monitors into polling stations, a practice that has lent credibility to elections in nascent democracies such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Egypt: Parties welcome electoral commission measures, demand more | The Daily News Egypt

Several political parties welcomed Tuesday the measures announced by the Supreme Electoral Commission concerning the next parliamentary polls, but demanded more steps. On Monday, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) formed the Commission led by the head of the Cairo Appeals Court Abdel-Mo’ez Ibrahim.

A few hours later, Ibrahim said in a telephone interview with ON TV’s Baladna Bil Masry talk show that the polls will be held in the second part of November but that the electoral process as a whole will start on Sept. 18. Earlier in March, SCAF had announced that parliamentary elections will be held in September but later in July, the polls were delayed to November.

Egypt: Egypt military rulers name electoral council head | The Associated Press

Egypt’s military rulers commissioned a top judge Monday to form an electoral commission, starting the process of organizing the country’s first elections after the popular uprising that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
The military decree effectively sets a timeframe for the first parliamentary elections in Egypt’s transition to democracy. The commission begind work on Sept.18, with the vote expected to follow roughly two months later, according to human rights lawyers. The decree, reported by the state news agency, did not set an exact date.

The decision settles a major dispute among various political factions over whether elections should come before or after the writing of a constitution. Many liberals fear well-organized Islamist groups are poised to win big in parliament and hence influence the writing of the country’s post-revolution constitution.

Egypt: Egypt hit by new wave of protests as military postpones election | guardian.co.uk

Egypt’s first democratic parliamentary elections look set to be postponed until November, amid a growing standoff between the ruling military council and protesters who believe their revolution is being betrayed.

The vote was initially scheduled to take place in September, causing concern among many nascent political parties who claim they have not had enough time to prepare since the fall of the former president Hosni Mubarak in February, which ended more than half a century of one-party rule.

Many activists argue that an early poll would only benefit those forces which already boast a strong organisational capacity – namely the Muslim Brotherhood and local remnants of Mubarak’s NDP party – and some have called for a new constitution to be written before any parliamentary ballot takes place.

Hungary: Hungary Proposes Single-Round Election | Wall Street Journal

Over the weekend, Hungary’s governing party Fidesz proposed a mixed, single-round parliamentary election system instead of the current two-round one, immediately attracting huge public outcry.

The governing party, which has a sweeping majority in parliament, is in the process of revamping the country’s public sector. This spans from changes in the administration to cutting red tape to simplifying the election system. Part of the latter effort is a plan to eventually decrease the number of parliament members to 200 from the current 386.

Bangladesh: Chief Election Commissioner frustrated over Dhaka City Corporation election delay | The Daily Star

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday expressed his frustration over the government’s dilly-dallying approach on holding the long overdue Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) poll.

“Government’s attitude indicates that they have no headache to hold the election,” he said during a dialogue with Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB) on electoral reform at the commission’s secretariat in the city.

The last DCC election was held in early 2002 and its tenure expired on May 14, 2007. Election Commission (EC) already approached the government three times to hold the election but there was no satisfactory response, he said.

Hungary: Fidesz may cut number of lawmakers and introduce single-round elections | bbj.hu

Hungary’s governing party plans to cut the number of lawmakers from 386 to 200, abolish the second round of voting and end the system of compensating for votes cast for runner-up candidates.

Fidesz proposes introducing a single-round election system featuring both individual candidates and party lists, MEP János Áder said on Saturday. Áder, whom Fidesz asked to coordinate the drafting of the new election law to be approved this year, told reporters about plans to field half the number of lawmakers from individual constituencies and the other half from national party lists.

Vietnam: Over 300,000 selected for Vietnamese People’s Councils | Viet Nam News

The nation selected 302,648 members for People’s Councils at all levels for the 2011-16 term, reported the Ministry of Home Affairs at a conference in Ha Noi yesterday to review the parliamentary election.

Just 3,843 candidates failed to win seats, according to Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Tran Huu Thang. Of those elected, 3,822 will sit on provincial People’s Councils, over 21,000 on councils at district level and 277,740 at commune’s level.

During the election, which took place on May 22, 500 National Assembly deputies were also elected. The result was announced earlier.

Ukraine: Kyiv unable to tell investors date of mayoral elections | Kyiv Post

Kyiv is unable to name the date of the next mayoral elections due to there having been amendments made to the Constitution of Ukraine, according to information in Kyiv’s bond issue prospectus

“The mayor of the city is elected by direct voting. Until 2011, the residents elected the mayor for a term of four years. But the amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, which are envisaged by the law adopted on February 1, 2011, extended mayor’s service term to five years. The previous snap elections were held on May 25, 2008.

Croatia: Coalition to set election dates this week | Croatian Times

Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor together with the coalition partners is expected to set the parliamentary election dates sometime this week, daily 24 Sata writes.

According to some sources, 20 or 27 November are under consideration. Former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader is also expected to be extradited to Croatia after having been held in detention in Austria since December.

Pakistan: Azad Kashmir constituencies: Polls will be conducted on July 20, court told | The Express Tribune

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Election Commission (EC) on Saturday assured the high court that elections for the two legislative assembly constituencies reserved for Kashmiri refugees settled in Karachi would be held on July 20.

The EC counsel presented a notification for the election schedule before the court for polling in LA-30 of Jammu and others-1 and LA-36 Kashmir valley-1 in Karachi.

New Zealand: New Zealand Electoral Commission deputy chair appointed | Scoop News

The Government today announced the appointment of Jane Huria as a member and Deputy Chair of the Electoral Commission.

Ms Huria’s appointment by the Governor-General is for a term of four years.
“Parliament has unanimously endorsed the appointment of Ms Huria, who will play a vital role in preparing New Zealand for this year’s General Election and the referendum on our voting system,” Justice Minister Simon Power said.

The new consolidated Electoral Commission was created as part of the Government’s wider programme of electoral reform and became operational on 1 October last year.

Egypt: Foreign Ministry to develop Egyptian expatriate voting process | Al-Masry Al-Youm

The Foreign Ministry seeks to develop an expatriate voting process for any upcoming elections or referendums in collaboration with other state bodies, it said Thursday. The ministry’s official spokesperson, Menha Bakhoum, said in a statement that there are many obstacles to organizing the balloting process for Egyptians abroad, such as the absence of legislative rules.

The interim government granted Egyptian expatriates voting rights when it amended election laws earlier this year.

However, in an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology Maged Othman ruled out the possibility of expatriates taking part in parliamentary elections set for September.

Bahamas: Prime Minister outlines sweeping election act changes | Bahama News

Amendments to the Parliamentary Elections Act could lead to the elimination of the requirement for Bahamians whose addresses do not change to register before every general election.

“We are unique in that we require people to register every general election no matter whether you’ve moved or didn’t move,” said Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham as he led debate on the bill in the House of Assembly yesterday.

The requirement has been viewed as an unnecessary one for years. The government is hoping that this will be the last time that people who maintain their addresses will have to re-register.