World

How the world voted in 2024

Published

1 year ago

December 30, 2024

A significant number of countries brought back incumbent leaders, of whom some, like South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and India’s Modi, came back to power with reduced numbers and coalitions rather than the larger majorities that they had previously.

Incumbents:

Algeria: Algerian leader, Abdelmadjid Tebboune was re-elected as president with a 94.7 percent vote in September.

Azerbaijan: President Ilham Aliyev secured a fifth term in office in February after a heavy crackdown on media and in the absence of any real opposition.

Belarus: President Aleksandr Lukashenko retained power in the legislature in parliamentary elections in February. A staunch ally of Russia, Lukashenko has been accused of manipulating previous elections and stamping out political opposition. The presidential vote will be held in January 2025.

Bulgaria: The centre-right party GERB took the lead, but didn’t manage to win the majority vote, in the country’s seventh snap elections in four years in October.

Chad: Mahamat Idriss Deby was confirmed as the winner of the May presidential election after dismissing challenges by two losing candidates – extending his family’s decades-long rule. The country held parliamentary elections on Sunday, December 29. Results have not yet been declared.

Comoros: President Azali Assoumani won a fourth five-year term in the island nation. He was declared the winner against five opponents, with 62.97 percent of the vote. Protests rocked the country, and a curfew was imposed by the army after the results were announced.

Croatia: Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) formed a coalition to continue ruling after the April vote.

Dominican Republic: Luis Abinader won a second term in May, with 58.5 percent of the vote, after a tough stance on migration from neighbouring Haiti secured support for him.

Georgia: The ruling Georgian Dream party of billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili won more than 54 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections. The results are seen as a blow to pro-Western Georgians, who had cast the election as a choice between a governing party that has deepened ties with Russia, and an opposition that had hoped to fast-track integration with the European Union.

India: Narendra Modi’s BJP won a third term, but not with a majority – unlike previous terms. Modi was forced to form a coalition to govern, against an opposition led by Rahul Gandhi that gained seats and visibility across the country.

Lithuania: Gintautas Paluckas assumed office as prime minister in December, as the Social Democrats formed a government a coalition with the Nemunas Dawn and For Lithuania parties with control of 86 seats in the 141-member parliament.

Pakistan: In February, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif returned to power after controversial elections that saw his family-led political party, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) fail to secure the numbers on its own. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party was disqualified before the vote, but its candidates contested as independents, winning more seats than any other party. Sharif formed a government in coalition with the Pakistan People’s Party. The PTI alleges electoral malpractice in the vote, which the government denies.

Russia: Vladimir Putin won his fifth presidential election with 87 percent of the vote, the highest-ever result in Russia’s post-Soviet history.

Rwanda: Paul Kagame won his fourth term in office with 99 percent of the vote. His critics accuse him of a crackdown on opponents. His supporters claim his critics are little more than Western puppets unwilling to accept his popularity.

South Africa: Cyril Ramaphosa from the African National Congress was re-elected as South Africa’s president for a second term. After having lost a majority in the parliament for the first time since 1994, the governing African National Congress formed an unwieldy coalition with political rivals to stay in power.

Taiwan: In January, Lai Ching-te – also known as William Lai – from the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won Taiwan’s presidential election, despite warnings from China not to vote for him. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and views Lai, a staunch critic of Beijing, as a separatist. Lai was Taiwan’s vice president under the outgoing president, Tsai Ing-wen.

Togo: Togo’s ruling UNIR party, led by President Faure Gnassingbe, won 108 out of 113 seats in parliament. The sweeping majority follows the approval of controversial constitutional reforms by the outgoing parliament that could extend the Gnassingbe family’s 57-year rule.

Tunisia: In October, President Kais Saied won a second term in the presidential election. Several other presidential contenders were imprisoned. In 2021, Saied dissolved the elected parliament and rewrote the constitution in a move that the opposition called a coup.

Venezuela: In July, Nicholas Maduro won re-election with 51 percent of the vote – his third win since he first took over as president in 2013 after the death of his mentor and former President Hugo Chavez. The United Socialist Party has been in power for 25 years. Protests erupted, demanding the release of election results by individual polling stations as the opposition said the results of the July 28 election were rigged. Maduro’s government has cracked down on opposition protesters and leaders, forcing many to take refuge in foreign embassies.

New leaders:

Austria: In September, Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) emerged victorious after the country’s parliamentary election. While the FPO won the most votes, it did not win with a large enough margin to govern alone. The coalition talks will continue into the new year as the three centrist parties are under pressure to reach a deal, with none of the parties wanting to join hands with the FPO.

Botswana: In November, Duma Boko was declared the election winner over incumbent President Mokgweetsi Masisi in a seismic change that ended the ruling party’s 58 years in power since independence from Britain in 1960.

Bhutan: Tshering Tobgay returned as prime minister, with his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) winning the most seats in Bhutan’s parliamentary election in January and defeating the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT).

Iceland: In December, Iceland’s centre-left Social Democratic Alliance won the most votes in snap elections prompted by the collapse of the coalition in power for the past seven years. Kristrun Frostadottir assumed her role as prime minister on December 21. Earlier, in June, Halla Tómasdóttir was elected president of Iceland, defeating incumbent Gudni Johannesson with 55 percent of the vote.

Indonesia: The former general, Prabowo Subianto, became president of the third-most populous country in the world, with running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the son of former President Joko Widodo.

Iran: Masoud Pezeshkian won the presidential elections in July. A reformist, Pezeshkian assumed the role of president amid the ongoing war waged by Israel on Palestine and its fallout on the broader Middle East, and after the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi.

Mexico: Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, became Mexico’s first female president after a landslide victory in June, taking over from her Morena party’s leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Portugal: In March, a centre-right alliance led by the Social Democratic Party won Portugal’s general election by a slender margin and formed a minority government. The hard-right Chega party made major gains and demanded a place in the cabinet, but the centre-right alliance formed a cabinet without them.

Senegal: In March, opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye won 54 percent of votes in the presidential election. His victory came just 10 days after he was freed from prison.

Sri Lanka: In November, Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s leftist coalition achieved a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections, delivering the self-described Marxist leader a powerful mandate to fight poverty and corruption in the crisis-stricken nation.

Tuvalu: The former attorney general, Feleti Teo, was named new prime minister after a general election that removed the island’s pro-Taiwan leader. Teo’s elevation to prime minister came after his pro-Taiwan predecessor, Kausea Natano, lost his seat in the January 26 election.

United Kingdom: In the lowest voter turnout in 20 years, UK voters ended 14 years of Conservative Party rule in a snap election that brought Keir Starmer and the Labour Party back into Downing Street.

Amidst an economic and healthcare crisis, there was a surge in support for the populist right-wing Reform UK party.

United States: Donald Trump emerged victorious in November after defeating Kamala Harris in the Electoral College by a comfortable margin, as many states that previously voted for Democrats fell to the Republicans.

Removed leaders:

Bangladesh: Sheikh Hasina was re-elected in January 2024 for her fifth term as the prime minister. In June, protests erupted against a quota policy that quickly expanded into a movement against her increasingly authoritarian rule. After days of deadly clashes between protesters and security forces, Hasina resigned and fled to India in early August. At least 280 people were killed and thousands were injured.

Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed as the head of an interim government until elections are held.

Syria: Bashar al-Assad held parliamentary elections in July, in which all 250 seats went to his Baathist party. But five months later, he was out of power. Opposition forces took Damascus in the early hours of December 8 after a lightning assault, ending the al-Assad family’s 50-year reign in a surprise offensive.

A 13-year civil war in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed, thousands disappeared and six million fled the country finally came to an end.

The offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, has installed an interim administration that will establish the new constitution and a new government.

Related Topics:africa asia Elections europe Featured latin america middle east news Politics US & Canada

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World

What Middle Powers Fear from the Trump-Xi Summit

Published

5 hours ago

May 11, 2026

Press Room

What Middle Powers Fear from the Trump-Xi Summit

Poland will soon host production lines for South Korean tanks. Australia is buying warships from Japan. Canada will send uranium to India, while India offers cruise missiles to Vietnam, and Brazil builds military transport planes for the United Arab Emirates.

All of these deals were sealed in the past few weeks. Each one represents an attempt by middle powers to protect themselves as the conflict in Iran throttles global energy supplies, and as a high-stakes summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping of China looms.

Global polls show the world has little trust in the United States and China. Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi have both used their enormous leverage over trade and security to coerce or punish. And in response, smaller nations are behaving as if they are stuck in “Godzilla” or “Dune” — moving quietly in small groups, trying not to provoke the wrath of petulant giants.

“It’s fifty shades of hedging,” said Richard Heydarian, a Filipino political scientist at Oxford University. Or, as Ja Ian Chong, a security analyst in Singapore put it, “No party wants to cross Beijing and now Washington, too.”

For countries watching from afar, dread and hope hover over the Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, which is scheduled for this week. In Asia, which has been hit hardest and fastest by oil shortages caused by the war and China’s tight control of oil-product exports, the mood is particularly grim. Interviews with officials, and statements from leaders traveling the globe to secure trade and defense deals, suggest that most middle powers feel overwhelmed by the deteriorating world order.

Many believe the summit carries more potential for harm than help. And Mr. Trump’s gut-driven approach to complex issues is the main source of anxiety.

For months, officials in Asia have worried that the president might be too eager to make a deal with Mr. Xi, ending weapons sales to Taiwan or agreeing to softened policy language that could make it easier for China to undermine the democratic island.

“That would be the biggest nightmare,” said one Taiwanese official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal government matters. He insisted that reduced support from the U.S. was unlikely.

But any concession on Taiwan could lead other American partners to fear abandonment. Beijing’s push for compliance on contested territory elsewhere would be bolstered, from the border with India to the South China Sea.

Vietnamese officials said that if President Trump makes a conciliatory gesture or flatters Xi, even without bigger compromises, China will gain leeway to press harder on smaller countries.

Another concern being discussed across the region: that Mr. Trump might alter long-term security plans in exchange for better economic terms with China.

Mr. Trump’s decision to redirect a carrier strike group from the Pacific and munitions from South Korea for the war in Iran may have created momentum for broader redeployments. When the Pentagon announced it would pull at least 5,000 troops from Germany after Mr. Trump expressed annoyance with the German chancellor, allies in Asia were again reminded how quickly collective deterrence can be weakened.

Mr. Trump has threatened in the past to make troop withdrawals from Japan, which hosts around 53,000 American military personnel — more than any other country — and South Korea, where another 24,000 Americans are stationed. If he could get something big from Mr. Xi for a drawdown, would he turn down the deal?

Analysts noted that plans opposed by China, such as AUKUS, a pact between Australia, England and the U.S. designed to counter Beijing’s influence by equipping Australia with nuclear-powered submarines and advanced technology, could also be suddenly canceled.

“The sense that U.S. allies have to look to one another because they can no longer look to America is very real,” said Hugh White, a former Australian intelligence official who teaches strategic studies at the Australia National University.

That sentiment is much stronger than “the cautious public language” of national leaders might suggest, he added.

European and Asian officials often talk privately in frank terms about giving up their faith in America, prompting a no-turning-back effort to diversify away from the United States. In casual discussions with reporters, they can sound a lot like Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, who received a standing ovation in Davos this year for a speech that declared, “We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.”

But in public, they’re more circumspect. Some officials admit their countries are trying to buy time and evade Mr. Trump’s fits of pique, while continuing the performance of imperial fealty.

South Korean officials have simply expressed resignation over American military diversions, after making clear they felt betrayed in 2004, when President George W. Bush announced plans to move troops from Asia to the war in Iraq. Australia, Taiwan and Japan publicly and repeatedly stress the value of American leadership without caveats — even as U.S. tariffs and the war Mr. Trump started with Iran kneecap their economies.

Walking with Caution

No one wants to be seen stepping out of line.

Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has been bolder than most in trying to foster stronger relationships with other countries. Yet even as she crisscrossed the region promoting military cooperation, officials in Tokyo worried about how Washington would view her efforts.

“The Japanese don’t want Takaichi’s security cooperation and tour, especially to Australia, to be seen as a version of Mark Carney,” said Michael J. Green, the author of several books on Japan, and chief executive of the United States Study Centre at the University of Sydney.

Others have apparently reached the same conclusion. Mr. Carney’s recent visits to India and Australia did not yield strong statements from their leaders echoing his criticism of great power rivalry or his warning that if middle powers are “not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

At the same time, many countries — including some that are benefiting from the thickening of middle-power bonds — have been careful not to anger the world’s other hegemon, China.

Nations managing their own disputes with Beijing, such as Indonesia, have done less to rally around Japan than some in Tokyo would have liked, since Ms. Takaichi became embroiled in a diplomatic crisis after telling her Parliament that if China attacked Taiwan, Japan could respond militarily.

Vietnamese officials even pressed Ms. Takaichi to avoid directly criticizing China in her speech at a university on May 2 in Hanoi, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. It is not clear if adjustments were made. Chinese officials later condemned her diplomatic efforts as “war preparation.”

And yet, in a sign of how middle powers are still doing more while saying less, the two countries signed six cooperation agreements, including one on satellite data sharing and another to secure deliveries for Vietnam’s largest oil refinery, potentially easing shortages.

“The U.S. has become more unreliable, so it makes sense to try to develop alternatives,” said Robert O. Keohane, an international relations professor at Princeton University. Even if what’s been formed so far is insufficient, he added, “having a weak alternative is better than having no alternative at all.”

Reporting was contributed by Tung Ngo from Hanoi, Vietnam; Javier C. Hernández from Tokyo; Amy Chang Chien from Taipei, Taiwan; Jim Tankersley from Berlin; Ian Austen from Ottawa; and Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Toronto.

World

Remains recovered of US soldier who went missing in military exercises in Morocco, 2nd soldier still missing

Published

6 hours ago

May 11, 2026

Press Room

Remains recovered of US soldier who went missing in military exercises in Morocco, 2nd soldier still missing

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The remains of a U.S. Army officer who went missing during military exercises in Morocco were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, while the search continues for a second missing soldier, according to military officials.

The remains of 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., 27, of Richmond, Virginia, were recovered Saturday, U.S. Army Europe and Africa announced Sunday. Key, a 14A Air Defense Artillery officer, was one of two U.S. soldiers who reportedly fell from a cliff during an off-duty recreational hike near the Cap Draa Training Area on May 2.

A Moroccan military search team found Key in the water along the shoreline at about 8:55 a.m. local time Saturday, roughly one mile from where both soldiers reportedly entered the ocean, the Army said.

“Today, we mourn the loss of 1st Lt. Kendrick Key, whose remains were recovered in Morocco,” Brig. Gen Curtis King, commanding general of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, said in a statement. “Our hearts are with his Family, friends, teammates, and all who knew and served alongside him. The 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command Family is grieving, and we will continue to support one another and 1st Lt. Key’s Family as we honor his life and service.”

LONG-LOST SOLDIER’S GRAVE DISCOVERED AT REMOTE US NATIONAL PARK AFTER 150 YEARS

The remains of 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr. were recovered. (U.S. Army Europe and Africa)

Key and the second soldier were reported missing on May 2 after participating in African Lion, an annual multinational military exercise hosted across Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal.

The two were reported missing around 9 p.m. near the Cap Draa Training Area outside Tan-Tan, a terrain featuring mountains, desert and semi-desert plains, the Moroccan military said.

The disappearance of the two soldiers led to a search-and-rescue mission involving more than 600 personnel from the U.S., Morocco and other military partners. Ships, helicopters and drones were deployed as part of this operation.

Search efforts will continue for the second missing soldier.

PENTAGON HONORS AMERICAN TROOPS KILLED IN OPERATION EPIC FURY: ‘NEVER BE FORGOTTEN’

The two soldiers were reported missing after participating in African Lion, an annual multinational military exercise held in Morocco. (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy)

A U.S. contingent remained in Morocco after the military exercises ended on Friday to provide command and control and to support the ongoing search and rescue mission.

Key was assigned to Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, according to the Army.

His decorations include the Army Achievement Medal and Army Service Ribbon.

He entered military service in 2023 as an officer candidate and earned his commission through Officer Candidate School the following year as an Air Defense Artillery officer. He later completed the Basic Officer Leader Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Key is survived by his parents, his sister and his brother-in-law.

Search efforts will continue for the second missing soldier. (Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP via Getty Images)

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African Lion 26 is a U.S.-led exercise that began in April across Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal, with more than 5,600 civilian and military personnel from more than 40 nations.

For more than 20 years, it has been the largest U.S. joint military exercise in Africa.

In 2012, two U.S. Marines were killed, and two others injured during an MV-22 Osprey crash near Cap Draa while participating in Exercise African Lion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.