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  • Election Watch

Election Results (March–June 2008)

Bhutan: The country’s first-ever elections for the lower house of parliament, the 47-seat National Assembly, were held on March 24. The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT, translated as the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party), led by Jigmi Y. Thinley, won 67 percent of the vote and 45 seats. The People’s Democratic Party, led by Sangay Ngedup, won 33 percent and 2 seats. Voter turnout was 79 percent.

Dominican Republic: On May 16, President Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna of the Dominican Liberation Party was reelected with 53.8 percent of the vote. Miguel Vargas Maldonado of the Dominican Revolutionary Party won 40 percent, and Amable Aristy Castro of the Social Christian Reformist Party won 5 percent.

Equatorial Guinea: In May 4 elections for the 100-seat Chamber of People’s Representatives, the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, together with the Democratic Opposition, a loose alliance of several political organizations with close ties to President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, won 99 seats. The opposition Convergence for a Social Democracy (CPDS) won only one seat. The CPDS accused the government of harassing CPDS representatives and providing insufficient ballot papers.

Georgia: According to preliminary results of the May 21 elections for the 150-seat Parliament, President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement won 59 percent of the vote and 120 seats. The main opposition coalition, the United National Council led by Levan Gachechiladze, won 18 percent; the Christian Democrat Party led by Giorgi Targamadze won 9 percent; and the Labor Party won 7 percent. The OSCE said that although the elections were flawed, progress had been made since the presidential election in January. [End Page 176]

Iran: In parliamentary elections on March 14 and April 25 for the 290- seat Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Unified Principalists’ Front, a coalition of conservative groups including those loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won 117 seats, and the Broad Principalists’ Coalition, a rival conservative grouping opposed to the president, won 53 seats. The pro-liberalization Reformists, inspired by former president Mohammad Khatami, won 46 seats, though many Reformist candidates were barred from running. Unaffiliated candidates won 69 seats. Religious minorities won the remaining 5 seats.

Kuwait: In May 17 elections for the 50 elected seats in the National Assembly, Islamist candidates won 24 seats, while liberal candidates won 7. None of the 27 women who ran won seats.

Macedonia: In June 1 snap elections for the 120-seat Assembly, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization– Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRODPMNE), which ran as part of the “For a Better Macedonia” coalition, won 48 percent of the vote and 64 seats. The opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, which is led by former deputy prime minister Radmila Sekerinska and ran as part of the “A Sun for European Macedonia” coalition, won 23 percent and 28 seats. The ethnic-Albanian Democratic Union of Integration won 11 percent and 13 seats, and the Democratic Party of Albanians won 10 percent and 13 seats. One person was killed in election-related violence, while 22 polling stations were closed by officials due to reports of intimidation and fraud. 193 polling stations were scheduled to hold a revote on June 15.

Malaysia: In March 8 elections for the 222-seat House of Representatives, the National Front coalition, which includes Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s United Malays National Organization (UMNO), won 50 percent of the vote and 140 seats—79 of which are held by UNMO. The opposition People’s Justice Party, led by Anwar Ibrahim, won 19 percent and 31 seats. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party won 14 percent and 23 seats, and the Democratic Action Party won 14 percent and 28 seats. The latter three parties joined to form the opposition coalition People’s Alliance, which controls 82 seats.

Mongolia: Parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held on June 29; results will be reported in a future issue.

Montenegro: In the April 6 presidential election, the first since Montenegro split from Serbia in 2006, Filip Vujanoviæ of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro was reelected with 52 percent of the vote. Andrija Mandiæ of the...

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