elections

President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party won a sweeping victory on Sunday in the Russian national elections.

Putin's party was expected to win the election. However, international organizations say that the elections were rigged. Putin denies the claim and has said that the recent elections mirrors the internal stability in Russia.

Putin has been president of Russia for two consecutive terms, which is the limit in that country. Putin is expected to step down after the presidential elections in the spring, however, he has indicated that he intends to remain the most important person in Russian politics.

On Tuesday Denmark held a contentious election. After a new party entered the political scene in the spring, the election was viewed as a chance to enable political change after six years under the Liberal-Conservative government.

However, after a heated election the Liberal-Conservatives, together with the support of the Danish Peoples Party (Dansk Folkeparti), won a narrow majority in parliament, with 90 of 179 seats.

The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh, has promised to seek broader coalltions while in government.

According to Koigi Wa Wamwere's article on allAfrica.com the upcomming Kenyan elections are becomming all about 'Majimbo'.

Majimbo is a term referring to power being vested in the various regions of Kenya, rather than with a national government. Majimbo is promoted by the Orange Democratic Movement, or the ODM, which argue that it will lead to powersharing between the regions of Kenya.

However, Wamwere argues taht Majimbo will not lead to greater powersharing, but rather will lead to a divided Kenya, in which the rich regions will become richer and the poor regions will become poorer.

Instead Wamwere suggests that the politicians should promote Social Democracy as the way forward for a united Kenya.

Recently Nigeria's Senate President David Mark announced that the 2007 Presidential elections were legitimate.

Mark said that the elections mark a milestone in Nigerian Democracy as it is the first time one Nigerian government has been democratically replaced with another.

According to allAfrica.com Mark

"urged politicians to learn to accept election results in good faith,
saying that there would always be a loser and a winner in any contest."

Monitoring the SADC Guidelines

On the 17th August 2004, in Mauritius, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders adopted the "SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections". As a member of SADC, Zimbabwe was a signatory to these benchmark principles, and therefore it is entirely fitting that the regime's performance in relation to the forthcoming elections in 2008 should be measured against this standard.

Sokwanele has embarked on a project with precisely this in mind: for the last 16 weeks, through our Zimbabwe Election Watch (ZEW) project, we have been monitoring the Zimbabwean government's performance against the SADC standards. We believe that elections are a process, not an event. The success or failure of the day itself depends largely on the months (perhaps years?)preceding it, and whether vital electoral standards have been respected throughout the process.

We have so far identified a total of 492 breaches across 24 of the SADC standards. These figures present questions that need answers. Chief among them,

• Is it possible, despite the 492 breaches recorded so far, for the people of Zimbabwe to have genuinely 'free and fair' elections in 2008?
• What is an acceptable standard for 'free and fair elections' : 1 breach? 10 breaches? 100 breaches? 492 breaches?
• How much time needs to pass to counter-balance mayhem? A few months or a few years?
• Are some breaches 'maximum penalty' offences, while others warrant nothing more than a slap on the wrist, or a small fine?

The activist who wrote this blog for us works very closely with victims of Murambatsvina (please also read our post written by a 14 year old child). Operation Murambatsvina took place in 2005, but the consequences will be felt for years. Operation Murambatsvina took place immediately after the 2005 elections - an act which most believe was a vicious 'lesson' and form of reprisal attack to dissuade those from supporting the opposition party. It is because of people like MaSibanda and MaMoyo that the fight for democracy is absolutely critical. For many the difference between totalitarianism and democracy is akin to a choice between life and death.

MaMoyo wakes thrashing about in a hopeless deep darkness, her heart pounding. It's that dream, the one where she falls into the well while fetching water, and her grandchildren trying to rescue her fall in too. As her terror subsides she looks through a rip in the plastic wall to see it's still dark. Exhausted, she tries to sleep again. Every night is a struggle. Alone crying, her heart racing she tries to think of some way to lift her family out of the pit. Her daughter sleeping beside her mutters something, fighting off her own demons.

On Sunday the small West African Country Togo will hold parliamentary elections.

The election is supposed to mark the first free and fair election in
over forty years. Since 1993 all main donor countries have frozen aid
to the country because of bad governance, first under President
Gnassingbe Eyadema and later under his son Faure Gnassingbe, who came
to power in 2005.

International pressure forced Faure Gnassingbe to hold presidential
elections later that year. Although fraud was suspected Gnassingbe
officially won the elections with more than 60% of the vote.

According to Reuters Africa, the
Togolese people hope that Sunday's elections will mark a change to the
40 year rule of the Gnassingbe family and will put the country on a
path towards real democracy.

This weekend Pakistan's President and Army General Prevez Musharraf won the elections, after a controversial election campaign.

Musharraf won with a sweeping 152 of a 157 votes from parliament.

Musharraf also promised to take off his uniform before being reinstated in office.

According to the Daily Times of Pakistan Musharraf will have to wait 10 days for the Supreme Court to verify the legality of his re-election.

According to the Daily Times, a Pakistani newspaper, President Pervez Musharraf says that November 15th will be the last day he wears his military uniform.

He also says that staying in uniform after 2004 was necessitated by the regional and domestic political climate.

What else does Musharraf think about democracy in Pakistan?

Watch this.

Meanwhile Adil Nadjam of The Pakistaniat analyzes what will happen in Pakistan if Musharraf indeed gets re-elected. Read the full article here.

Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled today that President Pervez Musharraf (the subject of the Why Democracy? film Dinner with the President) can run in the upcoming elections without giving up his position as head of the country's army.

Buzzvines opines that the decision contradicts the constitution and offers three possible explanations:

"1. The justices and their families were threated to get a favorable verdict
2. The justices will be making a lot of trips to the banks
3. The justices were first allowed to gain the nation's confidence by
the staged drama earlier this year so that when a preposterous verdict
was read the nation would accept the verdict."

On the other side, some commenters on Metroblogging Islamabad are hailing the decision as a sign of the Supreme Court's independence. And cyrilalmedia argues that this decision by no means the final one.

Meanwhile, most sources expect to see former PM Benazir Bhutto return to Pakistan on Oct. 18.