Page 12 - Elections

Highlights: Will have your back, says Labour's Keir Starmer after victory

United Kingdom Labour Party highlights: Keir Starmer's Labour Party bagged the victory the UK general election by passing the magic number. Incumbent Prime Minister Rishi Sunak retained his seat

Iran holds runoff presidential election to replace late President Raisi

Iranians began voting on Friday in a runoff election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last month, as public apathy has become pervasive in the Islamic Republic after years of economic woes, mass protests and tensions in the Middle East. Voters face a choice between the hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and longtime parliament member who has allied himself with moderates and reformists within Iran's Shiite theocracy. An initial round of voting June 28 saw no candidate get over 50 per cent of the vote, forcing the runoff. It also saw the lowest turnout ever for an Iranian election, leaving turnout Friday a major question. There have been calls for a boycott, including from imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, though potential voters in Iran appear to have made the decision not to participate last week on their own as there's no widely accepted opposition movement operating

Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon, running to be Iran's next president

After the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, Iranian lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian wrote that it was unacceptable in the Islamic Republic to arrest a girl for her hijab and then hand over her dead body to her family. Days later as nationwide protests and a bloody crackdown on all dissent took hold, he warned that those insulting the supreme leader ... will create nothing except long-lasting anger and hatred in the society." The stances by Pezeshkian, now a 69-year-old candidate for Iran's next president, highlight the dualities of being a reformist politician within Iran's Shiite theocracy always pushing for change but never radically challenging the system overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. After Iran's June 28 presidential election saw the lowest turnout in history, Pezeshkian now must convince a public angered by years of economic pain and bloody crackdowns to go vote in a runoff poll on Friday even though a majority of them earlier decided not to cast ballots at all. We

Taiwan accuses China of influencing elections, interfering with media

The methods used by China included underground financial institutions demanding confidential military data as a form of debt repayment by military officers

Saeed Jalili, hard-line former negotiator, seeks Iran's presidency

Hard-line Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili may have been Tehran's top nuclear negotiator for years, but he won no plaudits from Western diplomats sitting across the table as he repeatedly lectured them on everything while offering nothing. As the weaving of Iranian carpets progresses in millimeter, precise, delicate and durable manner, God willing, this diplomatic process will also proceed in the same way, Jalili said then. Those hours of lecturing in 2008 stalled talks as hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei advanced the country's nuclear programme. That put pressure on the West that eventually eased with Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Now Jalili, 58, stands on the precipice of being elected as Iran's next president as he faces a runoff election Friday against the little-known reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon. With Iran's nuclear programme enriching urani

Iran's presidential candidates spar over lack of solutions before runoff

Iran's presidential candidates on Monday accused each other of having no solution for the country's problems ahead of Friday's runoff election aimed at choosing a successor for the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died last month in a helicopter crash. During a more than two-hour debate on public TV, reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian attacked his competitor, Saeed Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, for his lack of experience, saying: Tell me, what single company have you ever managed to make you capable of running the country? Jalili, who is known as the Living Martyr after losing a leg in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and is famous among Western diplomats for his haranguing lectures and hard-line stances, defended himself highlighting his career and several positions held, including that of top nuclear negotiator. Pezeshkian further questioned his opponent on what plans he would have for reaching a nuclear deal, with Jalili responding he would approach it "based on ...

New projects in April-June down over 90% to lowest on record, shows data

Election quarter also marked by lower project completions

French polls: France may see its first Far-Right govt since World War II

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party and its allies secured about one-third of France's national vote on Sunday, according to projections by French polling agencies

UK's landmark postwar elections: When Thatcher became 1st female PM in 1979

Britain's upcoming general election is widely expected to lead to a change of government for the first time in 14 years. Many analysts believe it will be one of the country's most consequential elections since the end of World War II. Ahead of the July 4 vote, The Associated Press takes a look back at other landmark UK elections since the war. Britain's general election in 1979 is without doubt the most significant since 1945, with Margaret Thatcher becoming the country's first female prime minister on a radical Conservative economic agenda. At its heart, Thatcherism represented a total rethink over the role of the state. Since Labour's big victory in 1945, a so-called postwar consensus on the economy existed between the two main parties, Labour and the Conservatives. Despite the changes in power, their economic approaches aligned. Governments targeted full employment and would intervene in the economy to pursue that goal through tax and spending policies. That consensus was getti

France at crossroads: Macron's gamble with snap polls amid far-right surge

As Macron calls for early legislative elections, France faces a pivotal moment with the far-right poised for unprecedented gains, challenging the nation's political future and EU relationships

No order from Raj Thackeray to back any party in council polls: MNS leader

MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande on Wednesday said there was no order for them from party chief Raj Thackeray to vote for any particular party in the polls underway on Wednesday for four seats of the Maharashtra legislative council. Notably, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) supported the ruling Mahayuti in the state, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the NCP headed by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections. Polling was being held on Wednesday in the Mumbai Graduates, Mumbai Teachers, Nashik Teachers and Konkan Graduates constituencies of the state legislative council, as the terms of their sitting members are expiring in July. In the Konkan Graduates constituency, there is a direct fight between sitting BJP MLC Niranjan Davkhare and Congress candidate Ramesh Keer. Last month, the MNS fielded filmmaker Abhijit Panse from the Konkan Graduates seat but he later withdrew from the fray. Asked about the MNS stand for the M

Exit polls loss-making venture, visibility only profit: Axis My India chief

Exit polls is a loss-making business and the only profit a pollster earns is visibility, Axis My India chief Pradeep Gupta has said. Gupta was considered to be the poster boy of exit polls till June 4, when the Lok Sabha poll results dealt a hammer blow to the reputation of pollsters after their predictions proved to be wide off the mark. "Exit polls are a loss-making venture because no media house will pay as much money as that invested on the ground ... the only profit that we make in exit polls is that we get visibility which we do not get while doing market research for corporate clients," he said. In an interaction with PTI editors at the agency's headquarters, Gupta said 70 per cent of his clientele is corporate clients and that is where the main revenue comes from. Gupta said, "Besides the other investments we make on ground ... every surveyor gets Rs 500 for a hitting the bull's eye (for an accurate prediction) and we covered 3,605 assembly constituencies (in this election)

INDIA bloc made mistakes in ticket distribution: Dipankar Bhattacharya

The INDIA bloc's performance in Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls was affected as it made "certain mistakes" there, including in ticket distribution, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya has said. In an interview with PTI editors at the agency's headquarters, the Left party's leader did not rule out the "Nitish Kumar factor" as also being a reason for the bloc's less than expected returns in the polls. Bihar Chief Minister Kumar's Janata Dal (United) was in an alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Left 'Mahagathbandhan' grouping in Bihar and a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, but jumped to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) just before the 2024 general elections. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation general secretary hoped INDIA bloc members the RJD, the Congress and Left parties, including his CPI(ML), will do better in the assembly polls in the state next year. While the BJP and its NDA partners JD(U),

India, UK ministers to address annual IGF at election inflection point

Recently re-appointed Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw will make his first intervention on an international stage at the annual India Global Forum (IGF) in London starting on Monday. His virtual address will outline the Modi 3.0 government's immediate priorities and the opportunities for global partners to participate in the Viksit Bharat initiative of becoming a developed nation by 2047. On the UK side, Foreign Office Minister in charge of South Asia Lord Tariq Ahmad will lay out the Conservative Party led government's highlights of the bilateral partnership. The week-long event comes at an inflection point, soon after the Indian general election and at the peak of the UK's campaign for the July 4 general election. In keeping with the non-partisan outlook of IGF London, Opposition shadow foreign secretary David Lammy is set to lay out his vision for strategic ties between India and the UK under any future Labour Party .

Why PM Narendra Modi should loosen purse strings for his new allies

However deferential Modi's newly vital allies might appear, the fact is that they have plans, projects and constituencies of their own to cultivate

After Maha CM meets Dy CMs, BJP leaders leave for review meet in Delhi

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde held a late night meeting with Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar after which some state BJP leaders left for Delhi for a review meet, sources said on Tuesday. Details of the meeting were not available. It was convened in the backdrop of the ruling Mahayuti's below par performance in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections. "CM Shinde held a meeting with Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar at his official residence 'Varsha'. After Pawar left, Shinde and Fadnavis continued the meeting for some time," a source in the BJP said on Tuesday. BJP's central leadership has called a review meeting with state leaders in connection with the party's performance in the Lok Sabha polls. "It is a routine exercise in the BJP to hold such review meetings with state leaders. (BJP leader) Fadnavis offered to resign some days back after the results were out. He had stated that he wished to work for the party full-time till the state assembly elections. This will

European Union leaders break off talks over top job nominees without result

Leaders of European Union countries reached no final agreement on candidates for the bloc's top jobs Monday, but several praised the record of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and she appeared on track to secure their endorsement later this month for a second term in office. "There is no agreement tonight at this stage," EU Council President Charles Michel said after chairing an informal dinner summit in Brussels. The 27 leaders were weighing the fallout from the recent European elections and how to take those results into account as they nominate candidates for the top posts. "This conversation was today a useful step to prepare the next European Council," Michel said, referring to the next meeting of EU presidents and prime ministers June 27-28. He refused to be drawn out on the chances of von der Leyen and others, saying only: "It will be clarified next week." The June 6-9 elections saw the European Parliament shift to the right and dealt major blows to ...

AJSU Party chief unveils strategy for upcoming Assembly polls in Jharkhand

AJSU Party chief Sudesh Mahto on Monday unveiled the party's strategy for the upcoming Assembly elections in Jharkhand, emphasising their commitment to resonate with people's sentiments in the state. Mahto highlighted the prevailing discontent among people due to what he termed as erroneous policies and governance practices of the current coalition government over the past four-and-a-half years. He declared the party's resolve to amplify the voices of all segments of society against the incumbent administration. He announced that June 22, the party's foundation day, would be commemorated as 'Balidan Diwas' across all 81 assembly constituencies in Jharkhand. Each segment will feature a video presentation highlighting the state's history and sacrifices leading to its formation. Mahto outlined the party's roadmap leading up to the elections, including padyatras, youth gatherings, and recognition programmes for grassroots party workers. Regarding electoral alliances, Mahto confirmed t

Indian Inc faces Q1 revenue uncertainties due to slow govt spending: Icra

Corporates are bracing for revenue uncertainties in the April-June period due to a slowdown in government spending and the onset of the annual monsoon season, domestic rating agency Icra said on Monday. The sequential revenue growth will taper in the first quarter of the fiscal, the agency said in a note, adding that there was a 6.5 per cent growth in revenues in the March quarter compared to the preceding December quarter. "While signs of a revival in rural demand have emerged, headwinds, such as a slowdown in the Government of India's (GoI) spending during the Parliamentary elections and onset of the monsoon period, are likely to weigh on growth in H1FY25," the agency said. "India Inc braces for revenue uncertainties in Q1FY25," it added. Its co-group head for corporate ratings Kinjal Shah said the sequential revenue growth will slow down because of a relatively high base amid a perceived temporary pause in the infrastructural activities for a major part of the quarter due to the

South Africa re-elects Cyril Ramaphosa as president; what happens next?

Two smaller parties, the socially conservative Inkatha Freedom Party and the right-wing Patriotic Alliance, are also part of the pact