Tag: Elections

Democrats rev abortion advertising back up for next round of elections

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The ad will run on digital platforms in the swing region of Hampton Roads in southeast Virginia. It is backed by a buy of about $150,000 over six weeks, the organization said.
The ads from the Democratic-aligned group are a sign that strategists for the party believe abortion will remain a major motivating factor for voters.
“This is obviously top of mind for a lot of people right now,” said Kate Stoner, the new executive director of State Democracy Action Fund, which is affiliated with the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. “And this is happening in Virginia right now. We want to make sure that folks in the state know what is going on.”
Democratic campaigns across the country hammered Republicans on abortion policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. The decision — and Democrats’ subsequent focus on it in many races — was credited with helping the party notch an unexpectedly successful midterm election, expanding its Senate majority and reelecting a number of governors even while narrowly losing the House.
And on the state legislative level, Democrats notched some of their greatest successes in a generation. They did not lose control of a chamber in 2022, and flipped four away from Republicans: both chambers in Michigan, the Pennsylvania state House and Minnesota state Senate.
It was a notable reversal of fortune from just one year earlier in Virginia. There, Democratic gubernatorial nominee and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe relentlessly attacked then-candidate Youngkin on abortion, warning that Youngkin would try to institute a ban in the state.
“It will be a huge motivator for individuals to come out and vote,” McAuliffe predicted in an interview in September 2021. But despite that focus, Youngkin stormed past McAuliffe for an upset victory, with Republicans also flipping the state House in the process.
A special election earlier this year in Virginia suggested that the potency of abortion as a deciding issue for voters has stuck past the midterms. In early January, Democrat Aaron Rouse flipped a GOP-held state Senate seat in the Hampton Roads region. That came after a significant focus on abortion rights in the race, both from Rouse’s campaign and from national organizations.

Stoner, SDAF’s executive director, said that the group would also focus on issues like voting rights and health care in addition to abortion rights.
She declined to name other specific states that it would be running programs in, but noted that several legislative chambers flipped last year. New Jersey, Mississippi and Louisiana are the other three states with legislative elections in 2023, with Democrats controlling both chambers in the former and Republicans the latter two. Virginia is widely considered to have the most competitive state legislative elections this year.
SDAF’s mission will not be to suggest model legislation, Stoner said, but to “educate” voters about what legislators are proposing. Nonprofit groups like SDAF — which are common in both parties — are technically nonpartisan and in most cases do not have to disclose their donors.
“Washington is going to be a bit in gridlock for the foreseeable future,” she said. “And so what’s happening in your state legislature always impacts your day to day life in such a large way, but even more so now.”
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#Democrats #rev #abortion #advertising #elections
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 30, 2023
Petr Pavel to become next Czech president

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Petr Pavel, a former NATO general, will become the next president of the Czech Republic after resoundingly beating his opponent, billionaire and former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, in elections that culminated on Saturday.
Pavel secured 58 percent of the votes cast, compared to 42 percent for Babiš, according to the official tally.
Current Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala congratulated the former general and staunch ally of Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia, calling Pavel a “civic candidate.”
“The values that he represented won — and that’s a very important message in these internally and economically complicated times,” Fiala told a press conference in Prague, according to local media reports.
The 61-year-old incoming president ran as a political independent and promised to reduce polarization in an Eastern European country that has been split along increasingly cultural and political dividing lines.
“Values such as truth, dignity, respect and humility won,” Pavel told supporters and media in Prague. “I am convinced that these values are shared by the vast majority of us; it is worth us trying make them part of our lives and also return them to the Prague Castle and our politics.”
While most of the political power resides with the Czech prime minister, Pavel has been a vocal supporter of closer ties with the European Union, including the adoption of the euro.
Before diving into domestic politics, he was chief of the Czech army’s general staff between 2012 and 2015, and then served as chairman of NATO’s military committee from 2015 to 2018.

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#Petr #Pavel #Czech #president
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

January 24, 2023
Judges don’t face elections or public scrutiny: Law Minister Kiren Rijiju

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New Delhi: In the latest, amid the ongoing row between Centre and judiciary over appointment of judges, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said judges do not contest elections or face public scrutiny.
Addressing an event of the Delhi Bar Association, Rijiju, in Hindi, said: “Every citizen asks questions to the government and questions should be asked. If the public would not ask questions to the elected government, then who would they ask questions to… we do not step away from questions, we face it because we are elected representatives.”
Rijiju said he had participated in many events which include Supreme Court Chief Justice and Supreme Court judges and high courts, even there he had emphasised that today he is working as Law Minister but tomorrow if people do not elect his government, then they would sit in the Opposition, and they will question the ruling government.
“But, when a judge becomes a judge, he does not have to face an election. There is also no public scrutiny for judges. That is why I say, people do not elect judges and this is why the public cannot change judges. But people are watching you. Your judgment and the working of judges and the way judges dispense justice, people are watching it and assess… They form opinions. In the age of social media, nothing can be hidden,” he said to loud applause.
He further added that the Chief Justice had sought his help in connection with the abuse judges face on social media. “How to control that? Now, judges cannot respond to it on social media. The government was requested to take a firm step… I have taken note of it,” he added.
Rijiju has been vocal in the criticism of the collegium system for appointment of judges, and even termed it alien to the Constitution. The Central government is seeking to have a larger role in the appointment of judges.
The Law Minister on Sunday cited comments by a retired high court judge, saying the Supreme Court “hijacked” the Constitution by deciding to appoint judges itself – and said he considered the former judge’s view “sane”. The Law Minister said the majority of the people have similar sane views.A
Sharing the interview of justice R S Sodhi (retd), a former judge of the Delhi High Court, Rijiju tweeted: “Voice of a judge…Real beauty of Indian Democracy is- it’s success. People rule themselves through their representatives. Elected representatives represent the interests of the people & make laws. Our Judiciary is independent and our Constitution is Supreme”.

In an interview, Justice Sodhi (retd) said the right to frame laws lies with the Parliament and added that the Supreme Court cannot frame laws as it does not have the right to do so. Sodhi, speaking in Hindi, said: “Whether you can amend the Constitution? Only Parliament will amend the Constitution. But here I feel the Supreme Court for the first time ‘hijacked’ the Constitution.”
He further added that after the ‘hijacking’, they (the apex court) said that we will appoint (judges) ourselves and the government will have no role in it. Sodhi said high courts are not subservient to the Supreme Court but high court judges start looking at the Supreme Court and become subservient.
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#Judges #dont #face #elections #public #scrutiny #Law #Minister #Kiren #Rijiju
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 23, 2023
Turkey’s Prez Erdogan announces elections to be held on May 14

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Ankara: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday announced that elections will be held on May 14, a month earlier than scheduled, according to a video shared by his office Sunday.
Erdogan, who plans to seek re-election, made the announcement during a Saturday youth conference in northwestern Bursa province. A video of the event was released on Sunday.
“I thank God that we are destined to share our path with you, our valued youth, who will vote for the first time in the elections that will be held on May 14,” said Erdogan.
“This is not an early election but bringing it forward,” Erdogan said in a video from his meeting with young people in Bursa, shared by the presidency.
Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held on June 18 but President Erdogan previously signalled that the vote could be brought forward, reported Khaleej Times.
An official of his AK Party has previously said that an election in June would coincide with the summer holiday season when people travel.
This year’s elections were supposed to take place in June. Still, ruling party members said that month would coincide with summer and religious holidays, prompting an earlier date, reported The Washington Post.
If no candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the vote, a second round of voting would be held on May 28, reported The Washington Post.

Erdogan has been in office since 2003 — first as prime minister and as president since 2014.
This will be the most challenging election for the Turkish strongman who has been in power for two decades shaping the predominantly Muslim but officially secular country’s politics.
Opinion polls show the parliamentary and presidential elections will be tight and will mark Erdogan’s biggest test in his two decades at the reins of the regional military power, NATO member and major emerging market economy, reported Khaleej Times.
The May 14 election date was also supported by the opposition alliance still arguing over the choice of a united candidate against the 68-year-old leader.
A six-party opposition alliance has yet to put forth a presidential candidate. A pro-Kurdish party that is the third-largest in parliament has so far been excluded from the alliance and said it might field its own candidate, reported The Washington Post.
Erdogan, 68, introduced a system of governance in 2018 that abolished the office of the prime minister and concentrated most powers in the hands of the president. The office of the president was primarily a ceremonial post before then. Under the new system, presidential and parliamentary elections are held on the same day.
The opposition has blamed Turkey’s economic downturn and an erosion of civil rights and freedoms on Erdogan, saying the revised government system amounts to “one-man rule.”
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 23, 2023
Coming presidential elections in Turkey will be the toughest test for Erdogan’s rule

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Nicosia: Last week Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled that the country’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections scheduled for June would be held on May 14.
This immediately stirred a debate about whether he can legitimately run for office, as the Constitution envisages that the President’s term of office is five years renewable only once, and Erdogan has been President since 2014. However, the big question is not whether he is entitled to be a candidate for President but, after 20 years in power, there is a real possibility that Erdogan may lose.
Repeated polls show that this time the Turkish elections will be tight and Erdogan faces the possibility of being unseated by the so-called “Table of Six” -a six-party opposition alliance led by the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Erdogan announced his intention to move the elections one month earlier in a speech on January 18 when he said:
“Now, we ask for the support of our nation in 2023 by saying, ‘Enough! The decision and the future belong to the nation. In the 100th anniversary of our Republic, we have achieved the goals that we wanted our country and our nation to reach, to a great extent… 2023 is both the symbol of our 20 years of work, as well as the beginning of our new vision, the Century of Turkey. This is what makes the upcoming election important and historic.”
Some constitutional experts express doubts if Erdogan can legitimately contest the elections, in the light of article 110 of the Constitution “that a person may be elected as the President of the Republic for two terms at most.”
However, Article 116 says “If the Assembly decides to renew the elections during the second term of the President of the Republic, he/she may once again be a candidate.”
Erdogan became president for the first time in the presidential elections held in 2014. He later took office as the first president of the new executive presidential system in the elections held in June 2018. Under the new system, a person can be elected president at most two times.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag on January 19 claimed that there is no obstacle for Erdogan to be a candidate again, saying: “Our President is a candidate running for the second president of the Presidential Government System and it is his second candidacy. There are no constitutional obstacles.”
But the question of whether Erdogan has the right to contest the elections or not is a moot point, as it is the Parliament and the Election Council that will approve the new election date and as Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the opposition Republican Party, said that he has no objection if Erdogan stands as a candidate.
What opposition parties are really concerned about is the fact that the election campaign would take place on a highly uneven playing field, given that Erdogan’s party has a near monopoly on public broadcasting and the mass media.
Furthermore, Erdogan’s Executive Presidency has managed to control the judiciary, the Army, the Police and almost all institutions in Turkey and hollowed democracy in Turkey turning it effectively into a “one man’s rule.”
Berk Esen, an international relations expert at Sabanci University in Istanbul, says: “Erdogan has transformed Turkey’s democratic government into a hyper-presidential system, in which parliament is no longer that powerful.”
This view is shared by the mass media, many scholars, journalists, newspapers and magazines in many countries, which express concern at the great power Erdogan exercises on all institutions in Turkey and his harmful influence on Turkish democracy.
Last week’s issue of the British magazine “The Economist” claims that Erdogan as a leader has taken his country “to the brink of disaster,” and adds: “Approaching his third decade in power, he sits in a vast palace snapping orders at courtiers too frightened to tell him when he is wrong. His increasingly eccentric beliefs swiftly become public policy…
Mr Erdogan’s behaviour as the election approaches could push what is today a deeply flawed democracy over the edge into a full-blown dictatorship.”
Reacting to the article, Turkey’s Communications Director Fahrettin Altun harshly accused The Economist of making “cheap propaganda” and disinformation on Turkey and wrote on Twitter: “The Economist recycles its intellectually lazy, dull, and purposefully ignorant depiction of Turkiye (Turkey). It seems like they feel obligated to announce the end of Turkish democracy through regurgitating cliches, misinformation and blatant propaganda.”
Speaking to reporters following Friday prayers in Istanbul, Erdogan said: “Does a British magazine determine Turkey’s fate? It is my nation that decides. Whatever my nation says happens in Turkey.”
A big currency crisis, mainly created as a result of Erdogan’s misguided insistence on lowering the interest rates, high inflation which is currently standing at 65 percent and high unemployment have eroded popular support for AKP and Erdogan, particularly among workers and the lower classes, who a few years ago were their ardent supporters.
President Erdogan in January raised the salaries of public servants by 30 per cent and restored to some extent their purchasing power, but what about people working in the private sector who find that they cannot buy even the basic things they need? So, discontent keeps rising.
For the first time in 20 years, the opposition parties have a chance to remove Erdogan. Last year six opposition parties – The Republican People’s Party (CHP), the right-wing Iyi Party, the Conservative Felicity Party, the Democrat Party (DP), DEVA (Democracy and Progress) Party and the Future (Gelecek) Party- formed a platform called the Table of Six and announced a constitutional package for restoring democracy, the rule of law and a parliamentary system if they win elections in 2023 against President Erdogan.
But they have a chance to win the elections only if they manage to agree and set aside even temporarily the political ambitions of their respective leaders and manage to field a single strong candidate who will be able to convince the Turkish people to vote for him and put an end to the one-man rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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#Coming #presidential #elections #Turkey #toughest #test #Erdogans #rule
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 23, 2023
New Zealand gets new leader as Chris Hipkins confirmed to succeed Jacinda Ardern

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Chris Hipkins was confirmed on Sunday as New Zealand’s next prime minister as he received unanimous support from Labour Party lawmakers to succeed Jacinda Ardern.
Hipkins, 44, will be officially sworn in to his new role on Wednesday.
“We will deliver a very solid government that is focused on the bread-and-butter issues that matter to New Zealanders and that are relevant to the times that we are in now,” Hipkins told reporters in Wellington, the Associated Press reported.
Hipkins served as New Zealand’s COVID-19 response manager during the coronavirus pandemic.
Ardern on Thursday said she would resign as prime minister, in a shock announcement. She also confirmed that New Zealand’s national elections will take place on October 14.

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#Zealand #leader #Chris #Hipkins #confirmed #succeed #Jacinda #Ardern
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

January 21, 2023
26 Congress Leaders Join BJP Ahead Of Himachal Pradesh Elections

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Several state and local Congress leaders, including Dharampal Thakur Khand, the former general secretary of the Pradesh Congress Committee, joined the BJP on Monday, just days before the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections.
With four days left before the vote, a total of 26 leaders of the opposition Congress party defected and joined the governing BJP, news agency ANI reported.
With less than a week till voting, this comes as a huge shock to the Congress party.
The leaders left the boat in front of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur and the BJP’s Sudhan Singh, who was in charge of the party’s state elections. Sanjay Sood, a Shimla-based BJP candidate, was also present.
All BJP members were cordially welcomed by Chief Minister Jairam Thakur.
Let’s cooperate to ensure the BJP’s historic win, he urged.
Prior to the Himachal assembly elections, BJP national president JP Nadda professed confidence in the party’s victory and said that the state’s residents have faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He praised Chief Minister Jairam Thakur for leading the election-bound state and said that he put policies into practise.

In his comments to the media in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, he said, “In Solan, we’re running a public outreach programme. People are enthusiastic and trust PM Modi. State policies have been put into practise by CM Jairam Thakur.”
Voting in Himachal will take place on November 12; the results will be tallied on December 8.

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November 8, 2022