Jamaica
Portia Simpson Miller (“Sista P” to her supporters) led the People’s National Party (PNP) to a landslide victory in elections on 29 December, securing 42 of the 63 parliamentary seats. Miller returns to the office she held briefl y in 2006/7. She defeated Andrew Holness, Jamaica’s youngest ever prime minister, following his snap decision to hold a ballot just two months after he succeeded Bruce Golding as head of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party in October. The economy and unemployment dominated the campaign. And with the national debt currently standing at 130 percent of GDP and joblessness running at around 13 percent, the PNP government’s room for manoeuvre will be severely restricted. In a change from previous elections that have been marred by violence and vote tampering, monitors said that polling was mainly smooth and peaceful.
Taiwan
In Taiwan’s fifth direct presidential election, Ma Ying-jeou was reelected to a second four-year term in office. His main opponent was Tsai Ing-wen, the island’s first female presidential candidate. While she failed to unseat Ma, she reduced his share of the vote to 51.5 percent, down from 58 percent in 2008. Ma’s party, the Kuomintang, also saw its parliament majority cut, winning just 64 of the legislature’s 113 seats, compared to 81 last time round. Around 74 percent of Taiwan’s 18 million eligible voters turned out on 14 January. Ma’s victory was welcomed by both Beijing and Washington, because he favours closer ties with China, unlike Tsai who, it was feared, might lead the country closer to formal independence.
Russia
Vladimir Putin was reelected to a third term as president, winning – according to the official result – with 64 percent of the vote. In a victory speech in front of the Kremlin, to a crowd of around 100,000 people, Putin said, “We won in an open and honest battle.” But international monitors declared that the ballot was neither open nor honest, concluding that the elections were “clearly skewed” in Putin’s favour. According to some estimates, vote-rigging increased Putin’s tally by at least 10 percentage points, enough to ensure that he exceeded the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a second round run-off. In Moscow, Putin received less than half the votes with more than 20 percent going to Mikhail Prokhorov, a liberal business tycoon. On the night of the elections, 4 March, at least 120 people, including opposition leaders Alexei Navalny and Sergei Udaltsov, were arrested at anti-Putin rallies across the country.
Belize
In elections on 7 March, the ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) narrowly held on to its majority. The UDP, led by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, took 17 seats (down from 25) in the 31-member parliament, to the opposition People’s United Party’s 14. Internal leadership quarrels in the lead-up to the ballot may have lost the UDP some support. Belize is one of the world’s most indebted countries, and Barrow promised before the election to renegotiate the terms of a $550 million bond.
Slovakia
For the first time in its 18-year history, a single party will hold a parliamentary majority in Slovakia. In elections on 10 March, Robert Fico’s social-democratic party, Smer, won 45 percent of the vote, giving it 83 seats in the 150-member assembly. Turnout was the highest in a decade, at almost 60 percent. Fico’s impressive victory refl ects public outrage at a corruption scandal alleging that senior right-wing politicians may have received millions of euros in illegal payments in exchange for public contracts and rigged privatisation sales. The elections came two years early following the collapse, last autumn, of a four-party coalition due to quarrels over a euro bailout scheme. The government will have to find savings worth $2.42 billion if it is to reduce the budget deficit to below 3 percent of GDP, as required by the latest EU fiscal compact.
El Salvador
The leftist Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN), led by President Mauricio Funes, suffered a bruising defeat in legislative elections held on March 11. The right-wing Arena party, with 33 seats, is now a bigger force than the FMLN, which dropped to 31 seats from 35. Funes will be dependent on the support of the third-place party, the Great Alliance for National Unity, made up of dissidents from Arena, if he is to push through his social programme. Commentators said that Arena’s promise to increase security in El Salvador, which is plagued by gang violence, appealed to voters. The president, however, is still popular – his approval rating is 65 percent, one of the highest in Latin America.
Senegal
Less than three hours after the polls closed on 25 March, President Abdoulaye Wade telephoned his rival, Macky Sall, to concede defeat in the presidential run-off. Wade, who came to power in elections in 2000, was widely praised for this action by the international community. Sall’s victory was conclusive, however – he won 66 percent of the vote. Disillusionment with Wade had been growing in recent years as a result of soaring food prices and constant power cuts. His bid for a third term in office sparked violent protests – six people died in rioting that began on 27 January following the constitutional court’s decisions that the two-term limit did not apply to Wade because it was introduced after his first election victory in 2000. The election, which was described as “credible” by external observers, came just days after a military coup in neighbouring Mali.
