History of Elections Podcast

The 2000 Egyptian legislative election was held at the height of President Hosni Mubarak’s rule, and drew a spotlight onto the nature and limitations of his regime’s control over Egypt. Transcript: Hello and welcome to episode 6 of the History of Elections Podcast, where we will be looking back at the 2000 legislative election in Egypt. Held at the height of President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year autho...

Transcript: Hello and welcome to episode 5 of the History of Elections podcast, where we will travel back in time to 1940, when a generally less well known referendum was held in the colony of French Polynesia to decide its loyalty during the Second World War. August, 1940. The Second World War raged. Italy conquered British Somalia; Britain endured what came to be known as the “hardest day” in th...

The 2020 Syrian legislative election was a controlled exercise by the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, which had governed Syria for 60 years. However, it provided an insight into the state of the regime and the country after nine years of civil war. Transcript: Hello and welcome to another episode of the History of Elections podcast, delayed somewhat by exciting life events: I got married! This we...

In 1940, Costa Rica held elections for its president and legislature amid a transitional period in the country's history that laid the path to civil war. Hello, and welcome to episode 3 of the History of Elections podcast. This month we will be exploring the 1940 general election in Costa Rica, held during a transformative period in the Central American country’s history that would define its poli...

In 1989, Taiwan held its last supplementary election under a somewhat strange constitutional system that still operated as if it controlled the entirety of China, and the election marked a step towards the island’s gradual democratisation under President Lee Teng-hui. Transcript: Hello, and welcome to the second episode of the History of Elections podcast, where we will be exploring the 1989 suppl...

In 1969, West Germany held its sixth federal election since the end of the Allied occupation. The election produced Germany's first social democratic Chancellor in 40 years. Transcript:Hello and welcome to the first full episode of the History of Elections podcast, where we will be exploring the 1969 federal election in West Germany. The sixth election held in West Germany since the end of the All...

The 1822-3 United States House of Representatives election has hardly been remembered as the most exciting election in the country’s history. However, it represented an important moment in the transition between the first and second US party systems at the tail-end of the ‘Era of Good Feelings,’ and the representatives elected in these years would assume unexpected importance as kingmakers in the...