Election Watch

Election Results
(March-June 2001)

Albania: Parliamentary elections were scheduled for June 24. Results will be reported in a future issue.

Benin: In presidential balloting on March 4, incumbent president and former Marxist military ruler Mathieu Kérékou, running as an independent, won more than 39 percent of the vote; former president and Benin Renaissance Party leader Nicéphore Soglo came in second with 30 percent. Since no candidate won a majority of the vote, a runoff between Kérékou and Soglo was scheduled for March 22. Soglo, however, withdrew from the second round, citing voting irregularities in the first. The third-place finisher, parliamentary speaker Adrien Houngbedji of the Party of Democratic Renewal, also withdrew, leaving fourth-place candidate Bruno Amoussou of the Social Democratic Party (who had already thrown his support to Kérékou) to run against the incumbent. In the runoff, Kérékou won 83.6 percent of the vote, while Amoussou trailed with 16.4 percent.

Bulgaria: Parliamentary elections were scheduled for June 17. Results will be reported in a future issue.

Chad: In the May 20 presidential election, incumbent Lt. Gen. Idriss Deby of the governing Patriotic Salvation Movement was reelected in a seven-candidate race with 67 percent of the vote. His closest competitor, Yorongar Ngarledjy of the Front of Action Forces, who won 13.9 percent of the vote, refused to concede defeat, accusing Deby of electoral irregularities. Deby's opponents have since threatened to contest the election results in Chad's constitutional court.

Guyana: In parliamentary elections on March 19, the ruling People's Progressive Party of President Bharrat Jagdeo, supported mainly by ethnic East Indians, won 34 seats in the 65-member National Assembly, the same number as in the last election. The People's National Congress, backed primarily by voters of African descent, won 27 seats, one more than it had previously held. Three smaller parties split the remaining 4 seats.

Iran: In a landslide victory on June 8, President Mohammad Khatami won reelection with 77 percent of the vote, beating out nine other candidates. His closest competitor, Ahmad Tavakoli, an economist and former labor minister, trailed with 16.5 percent of the vote. All candidates ran as independents, as there are no formal political parties in Iran.

Micronesia: In the March 6 legislative elections, the 10 two-year-term seats in the 14-member Congress were in contest. Because formal parties do not exist, all candidates ran as independents. With the exception of Senator Nishima Yleizah, who passed away, all sitting members were reelected.

Mongolia: In the May 20 presidential election, former communist party official and incumbent president Natsagiyn Bagabandi of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party was reelected with 58 percent of the vote. Former speaker of parliament Radnaasümbereliyn Gonchigdorj of the Mongolian National Democratic Party came in second, with 37 percent.

Peru: Presidential and legislative elections were held on April 8. In the first round of the presidential race, Alejandro Toledo of Peru Possible won 36.5 percent of the vote; former president Alan García Pérez of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) won 25.8 percent; and former congresswoman Lourdes Flores of the National Unity Party won 24.3 percent. (Interim president Valentín Paniagua, who had succeeded the ousted Alberto Fujimori on November 22, chose not to run.) Toledo emerged victorious in the June 3 runoff, capturing 52.2 percent of the vote to García's 47.8 percent. In the legislative elections, Toledo's Peru Possible won 41 seats, APRA gained 29, and the conservative National Unity Party won 15 of the 120 contested seats. Change 90-New Majority, the party originally created to back Fujimori, fell from 52 to 4 seats.

Philippines: Legislative elections were held on May 14. In the 24-seat Senate, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's People Power Coalition won 8 of the 13 seats being contested--the number it needed for a simple majority--while the party of ousted president Joseph Estrada, Struggle of the Filipino Masses...