Exilian
Art, Writing, and Learning: The Clerisy Quarter => Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza => Topic started by: Jubal on January 08, 2015, 02:18:01 PM
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This is for discussion of elections in parts of the world where we're very much lacking in local correspondents. :)
First up for this year, Sri Lanka's Presidential Election.
Millions of Sri Lankans have voted in an unexpectedly close election that pits President Mahinda Rajapaksa against one of his former allies.
Mr Rajapaksa, in office since 2005, called the election two years early with analysts predicting an easy win.
But many voters have since rallied behind the challenger, former health minister Maithripala Sirisena.
There were armed policemen at every polling station because of concerns the vote would not be peaceful and free.
Mr Rajapaksa rode a wave of popularity after the civil war ended in 2009 but he now faces claims of cronyism.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30715792
It's not obvious how this one will turn out - I just hope Rajapaksa accepts the result if he loses...
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I just hope Rajapaksa accepts the result if he loses...
The BBC is currently reporting (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30738671) that he has. The full results aren't in yet, but Rajapaka has already conceded, and tweeted that he hopes for a peaceful transition of power.
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Yes - it does actually look like people are going to be somewhat grown-up about the whole thing, which is always a pleasant surprise in politics anywhere.
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Today's election is a general election in Greece, called at short notice after the Greek parliament was unable to agree on who should be the next President. Voting has now ended, and exit polls suggest that the far-left party Syriza has the largest single slice of the vote: 35% - 39%. It's not yet clear whether this will give them a majority of seats in the parliament.
There's more coverage on BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30975437), or, no doubt, many other places.
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It sure will be interesting! Whatever happened to Golden Dawn? They used to be huge?
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They were never huge; they got a lot of hype just because a) they entered parliament and b) even Marine Le Pen considers them too racist to work with. But they've never had support much above, say, 5-10%. Which is a terrifying amount in itself for a party of literal nazis, but they've never been likely to win an election.
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BBC have pretty much called it for Syriza, suggest they may be as few as 150 seats short of a majority. Golden Dawn in joint third with a centrist group called The River. Full results expected 8am GMT
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-30975663
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Yup - it's a 300 seat chamber and it looks like Syriza will have 149 of 'em.
So, possible allies?
- New Democracy are the opposition, and they won't work with Golden Dawn, so those two are out.
- PASOK is possible but perhaps unlikely as the party is tainted with the bailout
- To Potami might be a good bet but would pull the coalition hard to the centre and wouldn't accept deals that might mean breaking with Europe
- The KKE aren't generally much a fan of coalitions from what I've heard
- Independent Greeks are perhaps the obvious bet as they're also anti-austerity - but their right wing stances on other issues will clash with SYRIZA wanting a strongly left of centre platform.
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BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30981950) is now reporting that Syriza has formed a coalition with Greek Independents. I'll be interested to see how this works - another general election in the near future wouldn't surprise me.
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I'm not sure - looking at the Independent Greeks, it seems like they should be able to work with Syriza as long as they never mention social policy at all. That may be more plausible than it would normally be at present, given the nature of the current crisis...
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Also, isn't there a point that on something that their coalition partners disagree with, they only need to gain 2 non-government votes to pass legislation?
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Also true - I imagine that PASOK will reliably vote with the government on many social issues.
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Also, isn't there a point that on something that their coalition partners disagree with, they only need to gain 2 non-government votes to pass legislation?
Yes - Syriza have 149 seats; in a 300-seat parliament, they only need 151 votes get legislation passed. So if the Independent Greeks don't vote with them, then some of the KKE (communists) or maybe Pasok (socialists) would. It's not a very stable basis for a government, though, having the junior coalition partner voting against the government.
For those interested, an updated BBC News article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30981950) has a diagram with the party numbers for the current and previous parliaments about 2/3 of the way down.
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A story twist for gaming fans:
http://www.pcgamer.com/valves-former-economist-is-now-greeces-finance-minister/
Yup, the new finance minister in Greece was formerly employed by Valve. Make what you will of what that means for their new economic policy.
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A story twist for gaming fans:
http://www.pcgamer.com/valves-former-economist-is-now-greeces-finance-minister/ (http://www.pcgamer.com/valves-former-economist-is-now-greeces-finance-minister/)
Yup, the new finance minister in Greece was formerly employed by Valve. Make what you will of what that means for their new economic policy.
I think they'll be steaming ahead! (Sorry)
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News from Turkey now. They had a general election yesterday; according to this BBC article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33042284), the previously ruling AKP has failed to gain a majority. It's not clear what happens next as regards forming a government (AKP minority government or coalition, or coalition of the former opposition parties), but it seems to have killed off any chance of AKP leader Erdogan gaining any more power as President. Also good news: the pro-Kurdish HDP has gained seats in parliament for the first time, so there's hope of policy-making on Kurdish matters becoming more rational.
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Huge Liberal win in Canada, ending a decade of Conservative rule and booting out Stephen Harper as Prime Minister. :)
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Probably whoop whoop.
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Are there any circumstances where you wouldn't vote liberal, Joob?
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It would depend on the country and circumstances hugely.
In the UK, I'd usually vote Lib Dem but would consider voting Labour or Green if it was necessary to keep the Conservatives, Scots Nationalists, or UKIP out of a seat. I'd also stop voting Lib Dem if the party swung heavily enough to the right that there definitely wasn't a place for people like me in it (basically if it just became a "centre party" rather than supporting liberal ideals that I care about). I have voted Labour in the past, though that was when the Lib Dems suspended their candidate in a council election.
As for other countries... in Canada I think I'd be in a similar position to the UK, though I'd probably be a little happier voting NDP there than Labour here. In the US, I think I'd usually vote Democrat, though I'd consider the Greens if they had a chance at winning something or possibly the Libertarians if I was in a GOP seat where only the Libs had a chance of breaking through (but I'm really quite a long way from the US Libertarians ideologically, so that would be purely a tactical vote, and I'm not sure any such seats exist). In Australia I'd never vote Liberal, given that I don't find their Liberal party, well, particularly liberal. Not sure who I would vote for.
I don't think there are many circumstances at all in which I'd consider casting a vote for a conservative or rightist party. Possibly if I was convinced they were the only way to vote to stop a straight-up fascist winning a seat, or if there was an extremely authoritarian pro-surveillance anti-human rights type leftist party versus a libertarian centre-right party I might be a bit split.
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I'm liking Dr. Ben Carson. He seems like an intelligent, down to earth guy. And as a black conservative he really, REALLY pisses off the left. ;D
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I'm surprised, given his views are a long long way from libertarian - by which I mean his religious beliefs are pretty much off the wall nuts, he's got the full suite of opposition to libertarian positions on most social issues, and moreover he supports federal monitoring of the political views being expressed in universities, which is textbook illiberal-end conservatism.
People like him do confuse me: he clearly is bright, given his excellent neuroscience career, but he's also in many cases someone who's clearly very willing to put unsubstantiated belief first and science second (he doesn't believe in evolution and thinks the world was literally created in seven days).
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There isn't going to be any candidate who isn't a complete moron about something. :)
But I don't go blindly libertarian on everything. The Libertarian Party itself is pretty nuts. I am just myself.
Edit: Or should I say: "RACIST!"? The Dems kept pulling that card every time someone disagreed with Barama. ;D
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I appreciate not going Libertarian on everything, I just assumed you would do on things like free speech because that's really bloody important.
Also how many instances can you find of the Democrats actually calling someone a racist who wasn't being racist? Citation needed.
(I appreciate you were joking and I'm being a miserable git, but I'm feeling grim and rather bitter about politics generally at the moment so wrong moment to needle me.)
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:'(
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As a reminder, we already have a US Presidential Election 2016 thread (http://www.exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3906.0), wherein the merits and sanity of the declared candidates, potential candidates, undecideds and the rest of the population may be debated to your hearts' content.
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I hate politics. Remind me to never bring it up again.
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Ditto earlier apologies :/
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Meanwhile and on a lighter note, in Ukraine:
Emperor Palpatine takes City Council seat in Ukraine’s Odessa
This is neither a joke nor a Star Wars sequel: The series' villain, Emperor Palpatine, is set to continue his political career in Ukraine. Following Sunday’s nationwide elections, Darth Sidious secured a seat on Odessa City Council.
This is according to Odessa mayoral candidate Aleksandr Borovik, who shared the news, as well as his extreme bewilderment, on Facebook.
“A cartoon comrade of Darth Vader – Palpatine – received 54.4 percent of votes in Poselok Kotovskogo [one of Odessa’s neighborhoods]. Palpatin Dmitry, born in 1990, who works as an emperor at ‘LLC Palpatine Finance Group’ makes it to the city council on the Trust Affairs party list,” Borovik said.
“This is beyond my understanding,” the politician added, saying that he nevertheless respected the choice of those who voted. “People, what’s wrong with you?” Borovik wondered, rhetorically.
https://www.rt.com/news/319792-star-wars-elections-ukraine/
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The conservatives have gained the Argentine presidency, in other news, which is a major shift from the populist centre-leftists who've tended to hold power for quite a lot of years.