India Elections 2024
In New Delhi this weekend, the Election Commission of India announced the schedule for the biggest election exercise in human history so far. Up for a vote are all 543 constituencies for the reconstitution of the 18th Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of Parliament, with the winning party selecting the country’s prime minister and forming a government.
“We will take democracy to every corner of the country,” the chief election commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, said at a press conference in New Delhi announcing the voting dates, which will take place across six weeks.
A total of 970 million people are eligible to vote in the election. This is more than the populations of the US, European Union and Russia combined.
More than a million polling stations will act as the lifeblood of the world’s biggest democratic exercise in an operation staffed by 15 million poll workers, the election commission said.
In 2019, the National Democratic Alliance led by BJP got 353 members elected.
Lisbon, Portugal
For the democratic control of the Portuguese capital, the country’s general election handed the centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) a slim victory, setting the stage for a potentially unstable governing scenario without an outright majority.
The far-right party Chega issued warnings of instability if it is not included in the government coalition.
The Democratic Alliance (AD) secured 80 seats in the 230-seat legislature, edging out the Socialists who won 77 seats.
Moscow, Russia
The Russian corridors of power are poised to stay with President Vladimir Putin in what is expected to be a landslide victory for the former KGB spy in the country’s presidential elections that concluded on March 17.
Putin, who rose to the presidency in 1999, is on track to secure another six-year term, a distinction that would make him Russia’s longest-serving leader in over two centuries, surpassing Josef Stalin.
The voting also took place in what Moscow says are its new territories, parts of internationally-recognised Ukrainian territories captured by Russia during the war in Ukraine.
Cairo, Egypt
Three key Libyan leaders announced their agreement to establish a new unified government during a meeting convened in Cairo at the invitation of the Arab League. This government would play a defining role in supervising long-awaited elections in what could be a potential turning point in the country’s tumultuous political history.
The leaders involved in this agreement include the President of the Presidential Council (PC) Mohamed Menfi, Head of the High State Council (HSC) Mohamed Takala, and Aguila Saleh, Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR) in Benghazi.
Paris, France
French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Russia will be urged to adhere to a ceasefire in Ukraine during the Paris Olympics later this summer.
During an interview, the interviewer, speaking through an interpreter, said, “The demand for a ceasefire during the Olympics. They (the Russians) must do this. That is what has always happened.” Macron, responding in French, affirmed the intention to request such action, stating, “It will be requested.”
Macron added, “The rule of the host country is to move in step with the Olympic movement,” underscoring the message of peace. He further expressed the commitment to follow the decision of the Olympic Committee.