Year of Elections

Donald Trump and JD Vance will be the 47th president and vice president of the US after securing a win in a contentious race with Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. From Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to Georgia, tensions and turnout appeared high as the ballot boxes opened for a historic US election after a fatiguing campaign trail and record early voter turnout. It’s an election...

The US election on November 5 will be historic, as has been the race leading up to it. In the early stages of the campaign, this was the first election between a sitting president and a former president in more than 60 years. In June there was the earliest presidential debate in history between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, soon after which Mr Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed his Vice Pres...

The US election on November 5 will surely be one of the most consequential in recent memory. Former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are competing for the Oval Office in what seems like a rippled reflection of the contest we saw between Mr Trump and Joe Biden in 2020. Still, the race is seeing a lot of the unexpected: Mr Trump courting Arab American voters, and Ms Harris cam...

Elections in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq are a key measure of its capacity for self-governance and democracy.   This year, the parliamentary election takes place amid internal divisions within Kurdish political parties. It comes 10 years since ISIS invaded Iraq, in an ethnically and religiously diverse part of the country where demographic divides are stark and tension runs high....

In 2021, Tunisian President Kais Saied’s name began making headlines in ways it hadn’t before. It was the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. People were making allegations about police brutality, and many were struggling to make ends meet.   So, Tunisians took to the streets in protest.   Mr Saied’s response was to dissolve the government, circumventing ordinary legal procedures. He cited the need t...

American presidential debates are the centrepiece of the US election cycle. They’re a chance for voters to see contenders for the White House face each other, not just the public.   The last time we saw Donald Trump take the debate stage, he was standing across from President Joe Biden. Just weeks after that, Mr Biden dropped out of the race, and his Vice President, Kamala Harris stepped in.   On...

  On Saturday, Algeria will go to the polls again, and this time around the election is expected to be contentious, to say the least. Three candidates are vying for what could be a trajectory-changing term for Algeria.   They are incumbent Mr Abdelmadjid Tebboune, returning to the ticket after rising to his first term following the 2019 Hirak protest movement; Youcef Aouchiche, a former member of...

In our previous Year of Elections episode, we looked ahead to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. A lot has changed since. US Vice President Kamala Harris has moved up the ticket and is now running for the presidency. She will be the one to take on former president Donald Trump for the White House. After all, this is a historic election. Mr Biden is the first sitting president in m...

With less than 120 days until millions of Americans cast their ballots to decide their next president, the 2024 election is shaping up to be one of the most consequential in recent history. Amid the campaign trail, pressing questions are being raised about President Joe Biden’s fitness for office and the high-profile legal challenges facing Republican challenger Donald Trump. For months, the candi...

It is a political gamble that looks to be going badly wrong for French President Emmanuel Macron. On Sunday, millions of voters went to the polls in the first round of a snap general election called by the French leader after a disastrous showing by his centrist alliance in June’s European Parliament elections. Opinion polls strongly suggested that France’s main far-right party, the Eurosceptic an...

The UK's Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer have entered the final straight in the race to Downing Street, with voters going to the polls on July 4. The general election is being fought largely on the issue of the economy. But Mr Sunak’s campaign has been hit by false starts and pitfalls, putting in jeopardy the prospect of his party continuing to govern a...

Iranian voters prepare to head to the polls on June 28, following the sudden death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May.   This coming election is significant because not only will it shape Iran's political landscape, but it promises to influence Tehran’s relationships with the international community. Economic sanctions, the nuclear programme and Iran's role in the wide...

On Thursday June 6, hundreds of millions of Europeans will head to the polls for a unique and significant election. Instead of choosing their national governments, voters will elect representatives to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in the world's only popularly elected multinational legislature. The context of these elections is vastly different from the last European elections in May 2019....

India’s general election, the world’s largest, is now a month in, and a fortnight away from its conclusion on June 4. By the time the last ballot is counted, more than half a billion people will have made their voices heard on the country’s future. The challenge at this stage in the vote has been turnout, as the most recent phase saw only two thirds of eligible voters show up. But while voters may...

Over the next several weeks, about 970 million people in India will cast their ballots in the world’s largest election. The country holds general elections every five years to elect members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. The winning party – or coalition of parties – will be able to form a government and choose the prime minister. But it takes a long time to get to that point – th...

Turks will head to polls for the municipal elections that will take place on Sunday, March 31 in a vote that will direct the country’s political direction.   Less than a year ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a third term in office until 2028. It will likely be his last, unless he pursues a constitutional reform to allow him to run for another term.   The ruling Justice and Developme...

Russia, the largest state in the world and a key player in global geopolitics, is gearing up for its presidential election on March 14 amid international scrutiny and domestic complexities.   Since February, 2022, when it launched an invasion of Ukraine that sparked a brutal war that continues to this day, Russia has reshaped – perhaps forever – the world’s conversations about geopolitics, peace a...

Iranians are getting ready to go to the polls for a vote taking place on March 1 in the 12th legislative election the Islamic Republic will have held since its founding in 1979. A country of nearly 90 million people, Iran’s government is at the centre of several ideological battles at home, in the Middle East and on the international stage. A wave of protests swept Iran from September 2022 and las...

In this week’s episode of Year of Elections podcast series, host Sulaiman Hakemy looks at Indonesia, where 200 million eligible voters will go to the polls on February 14 in the world’s largest single-day election to choose a new president,, vice president and parliamentary and local representatives. Indonesia, a nation of 280 million people, is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country and its...

In the first episode of the Year of Elections podcast series, host Sulaiman Hakemy looks at Pakistan, where 241 million people are about to vote. Pakistan is a nuclear power and one of the most populous countries in Asia, and is mired in a political and economic crisis. The run-up to the elections, scheduled for February 8, has seen one of its leading figures, former prime minister Imran Khan, imp...

The National is launching the Year of Elections, a podcast series on how this is the year when public opinion will – more than any other time in recent history – decide the direction of travel for our world. In each episode, The National’s Opinion Editor Sulaiman Hakemy will speak to a series of experts – diplomats, civil servants, writers and thinkers – to take you through the votes that will sha...