Transitions Online_Around the Bloc-Czech Election Favorite Faces Fraud Charge
Mogul Andrej Babis accuses political rivals of setting him up to derail his swift rise to power.
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Mogul Andrej Babis accuses political rivals of setting him up to derail his swift rise to power.
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Some Kyrgyz claim Kazakhstan is hampering border traffic in retaliation for their president’s verbal assaults on the Kazakh leader.
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Observers note procedural problems, praise orderly transfer of power.
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Victories in constituencies across the country put the government in a favorable position for presidential elections next year.
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The celebrity’s presidential campaign picks up speed, although few give her or anyone else a chance to unseat Putin.
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Ban on RT and Sputnik comes as researchers claim Twitter ignored evidence that Russia was using the platform to influence elections.
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Poll is another blow to former ruling party VMRO-DPMNE, which says it won’t recognize the results.
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Unexpected wins – and losses – in Slovak regional elections reverse a Central European trend.
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Around the world we can face with a big diversity in the voting systems. Within certain limits governments have the right to determine how many votes a single citizen is allowed to cast, and how. Therefore we can also find majority-, proportional- and preferenital electoral systems even only in Europe. Single- and multiple-vote systems are neither unfamiliar. While the vote-transfer system is currently employed in Malata and Ireland, until then Germany applies the personalised PR-system. Electoral system in Hungary have changed over time. According to Act XXXIV of 1989, until 2010, the electoral system was an archetype of mixed voting systems: in it, it is possible to gain a mandate both in a single district and through party lists. The Parliament operates with 386 representatives. In 2010 the system was changed under the Act CCIII of 2011. It is still a mixed system, but there are only 199 mandates can be won: 106 in relative majority single constituencies and 93 on a national list. Since it provides compensation after the votes cast in single districts, it is also, essentially, a compensational system.
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In the context of the testimony of ancient legislature traditions, particular attention should be paid to the legislative branch and the development of parliamentarism as an invaluable asset of the Albanian people. This paper’s goal is to consider the law-making institutions from the historical-juridical perspective as a special form of social and political organization. These institutes are shaped in a manner that is conducive to the development and consolidation of the Albanian state. From time to time they have remained solid in relation to the international jurisprudence, thus enabling the development of an original parliamentary tradition whose roots are deeply rooted in Albanian customary law.In this paper, the stages through which the Albanian parliamentarism has passed constitute an important part. The Albanian historiography considers the Vlora Assembly of 1912 as the embryonic stage of the contemporary Albanian parliamentary system. The author believes that the Congress of Lushnja, the legislative power in the Albanian Kingdom’s Constitution and the contemporary period of political pluralism are of the same importance.In particular, this paper writing will duly consider with the deserved attention the modern Albanian electoral legislation and its specifics.
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The introduction marks the basic concepts and functions of political parties. The transition of the Bulgarian State from totalitarian one-party regime to the creation of democratic principles that ensure the emergence of a multiparty political system is under consideration. The key documents as well as the constitutional amendments and laws that set the basis for political pluralism are also described. The paper addresses the main text adopted by the VII Grand National Assembly Constitution of Bulgaria concerning political parties and key decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding: ‘The right of association as a fundamental right of the individual’; interpretation of Art. 11 paragraph 4 of the Constitution, which provides the prohibition of parties on ethnic or religious grounds; the announcement to unconstitutional party the one that declared part of the territory of Bulgaria for foreign and show actions for its secession; interpretation of the term political pluralism. Subject to analysis is the regulation of the three Political Parties Acts, and amendments and supplements thereof. The main issues that the study focuses on are: the requirement for the formation and activities of political parties; assets of political parties; the sources of funding of political parties; dissolution of political parties; financial control over the moneyand property of the parties; election laws. In conclusion, some proposals are made for legislative changes concerning the regime of the political parties to limit the cost of government subsidies for political parties, as well as some proposals with regard to their modernization.
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This article strives to begin an academic discussion about the impact of the 2016 parliamentary elections on the Lithuanian party system. It was previously argued by political scientists that stabilization could be observed around the 2012 parliamentary elections. On the basis of renewed measures of electoral volatility (total volatility, party replacement and external volatility), the following is argued: the observed party system stabilization was more an exception than a trend. In 2016, the party system returned to the usual track: despite the deceptively small success of new parties, an increase in total and especially external volatility (signifying a weak institutionalization of the party system) was observed. If compared to the Western countries, such levels of electoral volatility point to an inchoate party system at best: 2016 was not that special, since earthquakes in Lithuanian elections are very common. Moreover, an updated map of party competition (based on the voters’ evaluations of the parties) space raises another challenge for previous research. It was previously accepted that traditional parties in Lithuania are quite successful in the integration of newcomers: hence, the party system sustains its patterns of competition from election to election, despite the high levels of volatility. However, the 2016 elections bring back the second dimension of competition, which now divides not only the newcomers and the surviving parties, but also the older populist parties vs. the election winner, the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union. Resting on these preliminary findings, the need to further investigate electoral behavior in Lithuania is obvious. The second part of the article discusses what questions are (again) raised for the electoral research after the 2016 elections. It is not an exhaustive list, but there is a clear need to advance knowledge in these aspects: the logic of electoral volatility at the voter’s level, the (changing?) role of the electoral system, the impact of the electoral campaign, the divide between voters and politicians. In the context of these unknowns, the current possibilities of both the party system stabilization and electoral forecasting (political scientists in Lithuania are sometimes criticized for their inability to do this successfully) are viewed critically. There is a parallel between seismologists and Lithuanian political scientists, as both an earthquake and earthquake elections are hard to predict. There is a three-body problem in Lithuanian elections: unstable interactions between the supply, demand and the electoral system lead to unpredictable election results. But precisely because of this there is a need for continuing research.
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Our study is directed toward the examination of attitudinal grounds of political decision-making among young (≤ 24 years old) Lithuanian voters in the national parliamentary elections. The focus is on their attitudes regarding politically specific evaluative dimensions (competence, honesty and leadership). To estimate the prognostic values of explicit/implicit attitudes toward different Lithuanian political parties, we asked participants to fill out a questionnaire and to perform three sets of ST-IATs respectively. Due to the low voting diversity among participants, an elaborate data analysis could only be conducted regarding two Lithuanian parties: the Liberal Movement (LRLS) and Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD). The results of our study suggest that explicit attitudes are more important than implicit attitudes in predicting voting behavior. We found that positive explicit and positive implicit attitudes toward the LRLS competence and leadership, respectively, predicted the decision to vote for this party (reference group: non-voters). On the same note, our findings suggest that positive explicit and implicit attitudes toward the TS-LKD honesty predicted the decision to vote for this party (reference group: non-voters). Positive implicit attitudes toward the party’s competence also predicted this decision. Finally, we found that political sophistication was an important factor by only considering explicit attitudes toward TS-LKD. Namely, the increase of explicit attitudes’ prognostic power on the decision to vote for TS-LKD was associated with the decrease of voters’ political sophistication (reference group: non-voters).
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The political opposition which is primarily organized in political parties, is a condition for existence оf democratic political system. Special attention should be paid to guaranties of the position of political opposition in states which have renewed their multiparty system, or just initiated it. This guaranty means protection of oppositional political parties with rights and legal mechanism, enables the same legal treatment and real equality with ruling parties. This implies constitutional, statutory and executive rights and procedures through which opposition operates. The constitutional position of opposition in the Republic of Serbia was built just with the given order. Oppositional political parties have an equal legal status and, apropos, possibility to criticize, control and change the government through the election. However, a really low level of a political culture, lack of consistency of the political ideology, readiness for all kinds of coalitions, inferiority of the underdeveloped public opinion, makes so that the political opposition has slightly worse position in the relation to position of government.
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This paper explores the legal problem of determining individual’s membership of a national minority and voting right for the election of the minority representatives and bodies of non-territorial autonomy in the case of their direct election. In international and comparative law, the most important criteria for determining membership of a national minority is self-identification, but some countries have also regulated objective criteria that most often include learning, or knowledge of a minority language, the existence of family relationships with persons belonging to the community, or knowledge of minority culture and/or tradition and care for their preservation. Direct elections and special electoral right for the election of minority representatives and bodies, with the establishment of objective criteria for identifying the electoral basis, mask the potential conflict between two constitutional values - the need for democratic legitimacy of such minority bodies and representatives and the protection of freedom of expression, including the freedom to change, one’s national identity. This conflict can be pacified by the participation of the group in the assessment of the one’s national affiliation, while it’s solution may depend on the role and scope of the powers of such minority bodies and representatives.
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Tenth elections for the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia since the reestablishment of a multiparty system were held on March 16th, 2014, under a proportional electoral system. Electoral model essentially established in 2000 also included a single electoral district, closed party lists, five percent electoral threshold for non-minority parties and a use of D'Hondt formula for distribution of seats. Most important results of the March elections include: the lowest voter turnout and close to half of the votes won by the Serbian Progressive Party (which, in turn, gave them 63% of parliament members). Moreover, more than 80 percent of the seats was won by lists led by governing parties, i. e. Progressive or Socialist party. Elections were also not just a disaster for Democratic party, but also for Democratic Party of Serbia, Liberal Democratic Party, and United Regions of Serbia, which all lost seats in the National Assembly. Traditional success of the minority parties of most numerous national minorities (i.e. Hungarians, Bosniaks and Albanians) was noted. Also, for the first time, the parliament will convene without so-called sovereignists and opponents of European integration process. Finally, March elections were marked by a large number of squandered votes.
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The mood is anything but cheery going into the final round of presidential elections.
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This paper examines the ways in which presidential candidates utilise social media as a tool in their election campaigns in order to democratise politics and political representation. The study is based on a content analysis of statements published on the official Facebook and Twitter pages of candidates in the 2014/2015 Croatian presidential elections. The results show that candidates did not use social media to reach, engage and form stronger bonds with potential voters. By failing to do so, they have missed an opportunity to bring disenchanted voters back into the political arena and potentially increase the legitimacy of the democratic processes.
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The article is a historical and political analysis of the preparation of the 1952 election to the first-term Sejm of the Polish People’s Republic. The electoral system implemented in Poland at that time was based on the electoral practice of the Soviet Union both in general and in many details. According to the Soviet political patterns, the MPs were nominated long before the voting day by the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party, who carefully planned the Sejm composition, both politically and socially. Each candidate had to be verified and nothing was accidental. In an attempt to secure its undivided power, the Communist Party would not let the citizens choose their political representatives. The way in which the Sejm of the Polish People’s Republic was elected in 1952 and in later years had very little to do, aside from the name, with free elections, which are invariably at the heart of every democratic political system.
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The specific and stable characteristics of Swedish politics and of Swedish Social Democracy are undergoing profound changes today. The period marked by an expansion of the public sector, centralized collective negotiations based on a historical compromise between work and capital, as well as central planning, has come to an end. Various measures of social policy which in the 1960-ties were giving significant impetus to Swedish economic and social development, have now the very opposite function. The exaggerated care on the part of the state which interferes with almost all aspects of human life from birth to death is experienced by Swedish citizens as a danger threatening to socialize their private lives. This care on the part of the system is so great that it has turned into a counterproductive instrument in many o f its aspects. The changes that Swedish society is undergoing have had their effect upon the results of the elections in autumn of 1991 when the Swedish Social Democrats suffered serious losses in getting only 37,6% of the votes, the party’s lowest election result since 1928. After the elections Swedish Social Democrats decided to withdraw and assume the role of parliamentary opposition after dominating the Swedish political scene for more than 55 years.
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