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  • Election Watch

ELECTION RESULTS (December 2016–March 2017)

Bulgaria

Elections for the 240-seat National Assembly were scheduled to occur on March 26; results will be reported in a future issue.

Côte d’Ivoire

In December 18 elections for the 255-seat National Assembly, President Alassane Ouattara’s Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace coalition won 50.3 percent of the vote and 167 seats. The Ivorian Popular Front, which had boycotted the 2011 elections, won 5.8 percent and 3 seats; the Union for Democracy and Peace in Côte d’Ivoire, 3 percent and 6 seats; and the Union for Ivory Coast, 1 percent and 3 seats. Independent candidates won the remaining 76 seats.

Ecuador

In presidential elections on February 19, none of the candidates passed the constitutionally mandated 40 percent threshold for winning a first-round victory, setting up a runoff election scheduled for April 2. Former vice-president Lenín Moreno Garcés of incumbent president Rafael Correa’s Alianza PAIS won 39 percent of the vote. Moreno will contest the runoff against Guillermo Lasso Mendoza of the CREO Movement, who won 28.1 percent. Cynthia Viteri of the Social Christian Party (PSC) won 16.3 percent, and five other candidates split the remaining votes. Correa, who has served three terms in office, was ineligible to run for reelection. In concurrent elections for the 137-seat National Assembly, Alianza PAIS won 39.1 percent of the vote and 74 seats; the CREO Movement, 20.1 percent and 34 seats; and the PSC, 15.9 percent and 15 seats. Smaller parties won the remaining seats.

Macedonia

In December 11 parliamentary elections for the 120-seat Assembly, the ruling VMRO-DPMNE, led by Nikola Gruevski, won 39.4 percent of the vote and 51 seats; the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, [End Page 178] led by Zoran Zaev, won 37.9 percent and 49 seats; and the ethnic-Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, led by Ali Ahmeti, 7.5 percent and 10 seats. Smaller parties won the remaining 10 seats. Neither leading party secured enough seats to form a government without the participation of ethnic Albanian parties. Negotiations to form a coalition government were still underway in early March.

Micronesia

Elections for the 14-seat Congress were held on March 7; results will be reported in a future issue.

Romania

In December 11 elections for the bicameral Parliament, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) of Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu won a majority in both houses. In the 136-seat Senate, the PSD won 45.7 percent of the vote and 67 seats; the National Liberal Party (PNL) of President Klaus Iohannis, 20.4 percent and 30 seats; and the Save Romania Union (USR), 8.9 percent and 13 seats. Smaller parties won the remaining seats. In the 329-seat Chamber of Deputies, the PSD won 45.5 percent and 154 seats; the PNL, 20 percent and 69 seats; and the USR, 8.9 percent and 30 seats. Smaller parties split the remaining seats.

Somalia

Somalia’s first national election since the 1969 coup d’état led by Mohamed Siad Barre was conducted by means of a complex indirect electoral system, whereby 135 regional clan elders selected a total of 14,025 delegates to serve on 275 electoral colleges. These electoral colleges then elected the 275 members of the House of the People (the lower house of Parliament). Somalia’s 329-seat bicameral Parliament in turn cast votes for the presidency. When Parliament voted on February 8, none of the candidates secured the necessary two-thirds of the vote to win outright, prompting a second round involving the three top-performing candidates. In this second round, former prime minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed won a surprising victory, taking 184 votes. Mohamed, a dual Somali-U.S. citizen, defeated incumbent president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and former president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Analysts expressed concern over the profound levels of corruption and lack of transparency observed during the election.

Timor-Leste

A presidential election was scheduled for March 20; results will be reported in a future issue.

UPCOMING ELECTIONS (January 2017–March 2018)

  • Albania: parliamentary, 18 June 2017

  • Algeria: legislative, 4...

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