Presidency settled, French face complex parliamentary election
The French have decisively settled the question of who their next President will be. Between two candidates from outside their major parties, they have chosen the 39-year old political centrist … Continue reading
French election: would different rules have mattered?
What would have been the result if the French had chosen their president yesterday by a single round of preferential voting? Preferential voting is use to elect parliaments in Australia, … Continue reading
French voters send Macron and Le Pen to second round
The next 5-year term of the French presidency will be contested by independent Emmanuel Macron and nationalist Marine Le Pen (National Front) on May 7, after they were the two highest-placed candidates … Continue reading
Armenians shift to parliamentary government with unique voting rules
In contrast to the increasingly presidential governments seen in nations such as Turkey and Russia, the little Caucuses republic of Armenia has deliberately shifted to a parliamentary system of government, … Continue reading
Western Australian election shows weaknesses of Australian electoral laws
Counting has finished in the state election for Western Australia. The result is a pair of only partially satisfactory democratic assemblies. Western Australia has a fairly standard form of Australian … Continue reading
Pro-EU government survives in Bulgaria
The Bulgarians have snuck an early election into the 2017 calendar, after their governing party lost control of the nation’s presidency and parliament late in 2016. The Bulgarian Narodno Sabranie (National … Continue reading
German state swings right, but not far-right
Voters in the small German state of Saarland have swung behind national Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party. The centre-right CDU party will fall just short of a majority in … Continue reading
First German test for the far-right
Elections in Germany during 2017 begin this weekend with the poll for the state assembly of Saarland. All eyes will be on the performance of the far-right Alternative for Germany … Continue reading
Anti-immigrant revolt fails to fire in the Netherlands
The results of yesterday’s election in the Netherlands have seen several realignments, but did not see the rise of the populist anti-immigrant political right that had been predicted for several … Continue reading
Removal from elected office takes out innocent colleague
A Melbourne City Councilor, one of nine originally elected in last year’s election under the single transferable vote system (STV), has been removed from office after a technical – and … Continue reading
On Elections 