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  • Election Watch

Election Results (April–June 2013)

Albania: Parliamentary elections were scheduled for June 23; results will be reported in a future issue.

Bhutan: Elections were held April 23 to choose from a pool of 67 candidates for the 20 elected members of the National Council (5 additional members are appointed by the king). Candidates for the Council are proscribed from political party membership. Turnout was 45 percent.

Bulgaria: In May 12 elections for the 240-seat National Assembly, the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) of Boiko Borisov, the former prime minister who resigned in February amid public protest over austerity measures and corruption scandals, won 31 percent of the vote and 97 seats. The opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) won 27 percent and 84 seats, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) won 11 percent and 36 seats, and the nationalist Ataka won 7 percent and 23 seats. No other party surpassed the 4 percent threshold required to take seats in parliament. After GERB failed to form a government, the BSP formed a governing coalition with the DPS, with former finance minister Plamen Oresharski as prime minister. A preliminary statement by OSCE election observers called the elections “competitive” and “well administered” but noted that “cases of pre-election wiretapping and concerns over last-minute incidents related to ballot security weakened public confidence in the process.”

Equatorial Guinea: Following May 26 elections for the 100-seat Chamber of People’s Representatives and for 55 seats in the newly formed 70-member Senate, the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema announced that its coalition had won all [End Page 178] but one seat in the Chamber and another in the Senate. Plácido Micó, the lone incumbent opposition member of parliament, called the vote “sham elections.” Prior to the elections, Amnesty International criticized the arrest of opposition leaders for organizing protests.

Iran: The presidential election was scheduled to be held on June 14; results will be reported in a future issue.

Kenya: As reported in the April issue, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta won the March 4 presidential election with 50.07 percent of the vote, deafeating Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the first round. In concurrent elections for the 337 directly elected members of the National Assembly, Kenyatta’s The National Alliance (TNA) won 86 seats, including 14 of the 47 seats reserved for women winners of county elections. Its ally in the Jubilee Coalition, the United Republican Party, (URP) won 73 seats, including 10 for women county representatives. Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) won 93 seats, including 15 for women county representatives. Its ally in CORD, the Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM), won 25 seats, including 6 for women county representatives. The rest of the seats went to independents and members of smaller parties. In concurrent elections for the 47-member Senate, TNA won 11 and the URP won 9. The ODM won 11 and the WDM won 4. Independents and members of smaller parties won the remaining 12 seats. For more coverage of Kenya’s elections, see the articles by James Long et al. on pp. 140–55 and Joel D. Barkan on pp. 156–65.

Malaysia: In May 5 elections for the 222-seat House of Representatives, Prime Minister Najib Razak’s National Front won 133 seats with only 47 percent of the vote. The opposition People’s Alliance won 51 percent of the vote but only 89 seats. Following the elections, Anwar Ibrahim of the People’s Alliance alleged fraud, pledged a legal challenge, and conducted a series of protest rallies.

Mongolia: The presidential election was scheduled for June 26; results will be reported in a future issue.

Montenegro: In the April 7 presidential election, incumbent Filip Vujanović of the Democratic Party of Socialists won 51 percent of the vote, defeating Miodrag Lekić of the recently formed Democratic Front, who won 49 percent. The Democratic Front alleged fraud, declared Lekić the true winner, and called for a revote in certain districts, a request denied by the electoral commission. A preliminary statement by OSCE election observers praised the administration of the election but noted with concern a “blurring of the line...

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