An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
The politics of Kyrgyzstan, officially known as the Kyrgyz Republic, takes place in the framework of a presidential system representative democratic republic, whereby the President is head of state and the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers is head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Kyrgyzstan an "authoritarian regime" in 2022.
A protest vote is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms and reflects numerous voter motivations, including political apathy. Where voting is compulsory, casting a blank vote is available for those who do not wish to choose a candidate, or to protest. Unlike abstention elsewhere, blank votes are counted.
Elections in Venezuela are held at a national level for the President of Venezuela as head of state and head of government, and for a unicameral legislature. The President of Venezuela is elected for a six-year term by direct election plurality voting, and is eligible for re-election. The National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional) has 277 members (diputados), elected for five-year terms using a mixed-member majoritarian representation system. Elections also take place at state level and local level.
Elections in Egypt are held for the president and a bicameral legislature. The president of Egypt is elected for a six-year term by popular vote after draft amendments to the 2013 constitution altered the presidential term limits from the original four years to six years.
Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by marking it wrongly or by not marking anything at all. A "blank voter" has voted, although their vote may be considered a spoilt vote, depending on each legislation, while an abstaining voter has not voted. Both forms may or may not, depending on the circumstances, be considered to be a protest vote. Abstention is related to political apathy and low voter turnout.
Presidential elections were held in Egypt on September 7, 2005, the first to feature more than one candidate. Incumbent president Hosni Mubarak was re-elected for a fifth consecutive six-year term in office, with official results showing he won 88.6% of the vote. Mubarak's main opponent, Ayman Nour, of the El-Ghad Party, is estimated to have received 7.3% of the vote and Numan Gumaa received 2.8%, however, Nour claimed that prior polling results showed over 30%. Criticism of the election process has centred on the process of selecting the eligible candidates, and on alleged election-law violations during voting. Mubarak was sworn in for his new term on September 27.
The 1981 Philippine presidential election and national referendum was held on June 16, 1981. President Ferdinand E. Marcos of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) defeated retired general and World War II veteran Alejo Santos of the Nacionalista Party in a landslide victory. Most opposition parties boycotted the election as a sign of protest over the 1978 election for the Interim Batasang Pambansa, which they condemned as fraudulent. At the same time, a national referendum was held on the question in holding elections for barangay elections in 1982.
General elections were held in South Africa on 22 April 2009 to elect members of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures. These were the fourth general elections held since the end of the apartheid era.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 7 May 1986. A total of 1,527 candidates contested the election. The result was a victory for the Jatiya Party, which won 153 of the 300 directly elected seats. Voter turnout was 61%. Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the winner of the previous elections, boycotted the election.
Presidential elections were held in the Republic of the Congo on 12 July 2009. Long-time President Denis Sassou Nguesso won another seven-year term with a large majority of the vote, but the elections were marred by accusations of irregularities and fraud from the opposition; six opposition candidates chose to boycott the elections.
A constitutional referendum was held in Egypt on 25 May 2005. Voters were asked to approve or reject an amendment to the constitution that would introduce direct elections for the presidency. Opposition parties called for a boycott of the vote, which was passed by a large majority.
No Land! No House! No Vote! is the name of a campaign by a number of poor people's movements in South Africa that calls for the boycotting of the vote and a general rejection of party politics and vote banking. The name is meant to imply that if government does not deliver on issues important to affected communities these movements will not vote.
Parliamentary elections were held in Mali on 23 February 1992 and 8 March 1992, the first after the March 1991 military coup that overthrew President Moussa Traoré. Following the coup, the Comité Transitoire de Salut du Peuple (CTSP) was created to manage the democratic transition. This body established a transitional government headed by Amadou Toumani Touré, the leader of the military group responsible for overthrowing Traoré. The transitional government oversaw a constitutional referendum and municipal elections in January 1992, the parliamentary elections in February and March, and the April 1992 presidential elections.
Presidential elections were held in Bangladesh on 15 October 1986. The result was a victory for incumbent Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who had assumed the office in 1983 following a military coup. Ershad reportedly won 84.1% of the vote with a voter turnout of 54.9%. However the elections were controversial as they were boycotted by all major opposition candidates and there were reports of irregularities.
General elections were held in Serbia, a constituent federal unit of SFR Yugoslavia, in December 1990 to elect the president of Serbia and members of the National Assembly. The presidential election and the first round of the parliamentary elections were held on 9 December, with the second round of the parliamentary elections taking place on 23 December. The elections were scheduled after the ratification of a new constitution on 28 September, which was approved by voters in a referendum held in July. These were Serbia's first multi-party elections, and the parliamentary election was the only one to be held using a first-past-the-post, two-round voting system with single-member constituencies; all future elections used proportional representation.
Parliamentary elections were held in Cuba on 26 March 2023 to elect members of the National Assembly of People's Power.
Women's suffrage in Francoist Spain and the democratic transition was constrained by age limits, definitions around heads of household and a lack of elections. Women got the right to vote in Spain in 1933 as a result of legal changes made during the Second Spanish Republic. Women lost most of their rights after Franco came to power in 1939 at the end of the Spanish Civil War, with the major exception that women did not universally lose their right to vote. Repression of the women's vote occurred nevertheless as the dictatorship held no national democratic elections between 1939 and 1977.
Parliamentary elections were held in Tunisia on 17 December 2022 to elect the third Assembly of the Representatives of the People. Run-offs were held on 29 January 2023 in the vast majority of constituencies after only 21 candidates were elected in the first round.
Parliamentary elections were held in Belarus on 25 February 2024. The country elected 110 deputies to the lower house of parliament and about 12,000 representatives of local councils.
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