elections

Green Left’s Pip Hinman spoke to anti-war activist Vince Emanuele, who is active in US Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign for presidential nomination, about how it is drawing in new activists and shaping politics.

The seismic February 8 general election result, which saw Sinn Féin become the most popular political party in the 26-county Irish Republic for the first time, has shaken the Irish political system to its core and sent shockwaves across Europe, writes Duroyan Fertl.

The fear of collaboration by the so-called mainstream democratic parties with the far-right in Germany has been realised in the first such incident in post-war times, writes Sibylle Kaczorek.

The British General Election, held on December 12, resulted in a huge victory for the right and a sweeping defeat for the left. Boris Johnson, a close ally of United States President Donald Trump, topped the poll with 43% of the vote for the Conservative Party.

The British Labour Party has promised to “kick-start a housing revolution” as it unveiled its election manifesto, including commitments that would bring about Britain’s biggest public housing construction program for decades.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, regarded by many Tamils as a war criminal, won the Sri Lankan presidential election on November 16 with 52.3% of the vote.

He was defence secretary in 2009, when the Sri Lankan armed forces massacred tens of thousands of Tamils in the final stages of their war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE were fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island of Sri Lanka.

The ongoing coup attempt by the United States-backed opposition in Bolivia has reached boiling point. Sections of the police have declared mutiny and far-right protesters attacked and shut down the government’s media outlets, assaulting its journalists. Now new elections have been called by the Bolivian government in an attempt to defuse the situation.

Elections ahead

The proposed law will raise the amount of government funding political parties receive for campaigning purposes while placing tighter restrictions on individual and third-party donations.

Following the European Union’s agreement to grant Boris Johnson’s government until next January to exit the EU, the House of Commons voted to hold a snap election on December 12. At the time of writing the election bill has yet to pass the House of Lords, but looks a certainty.

In recent elections in two East German states on September 1, the vote for the far right was the highest yet, writes Sibylle Kaczorek.

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