Indonesia has voted

President Jokowi wins the election in Indonesia

President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, has won the presidential election clearly with 55.5% of the vote and can now continue to govern the country for another five years. His challenger, ex-General Prabowo Subianto, who came to 44.5% of the vote, does not want to admit his defeat and will appeal against the result at the Constitutional Court for alleged election manipulation. The official election results were announced by the Indonesian Election Commission KPU on the 21th May 2019, one month after the actual Election Day, but one day earlier than the scheduled deadline on 22 May.

Politisches Erdbeben nach Europawahl

Rumänien

In Rumänien hat die Europawahl zusammen mit der am Montag erfolgten und nunmehr rechtskräftigen Verurteilung des Vorsitzenden der Sozialdemokratischen Partei (PSD) und bislang stärksten Politikers im Lande, Liviu Dragnea, ein politisches Erdbeben ausgelöst.

Regierungswechsel nach Europawahl in Reichweite

Die Wähler in Griechenland haben offenbar genug vom Linkspopulismus der Syriza

1,2 Milliarden Euro an Wahlgeschenken haben nicht ausgereicht, um die prognostizierte Niederlage von Premier Tsipras abzuwenden. Fast zehn Punkte liegt er nach Ausgang der Europawahlen hinter der Nea Dimokratia (ND). Auch bei den zeitgleich abgehaltenen Regional- und Kommunalwahlen dominiert die konservative Oppositionspartei, gerade auch in den größten Städten des Landes, Athen und Thessaloniki.

South Africa has voted

ANC loses support – Ramaphosa does not

Despite a significant loss in votes, the African National Congress (ANC) is the clear winner of the 8 May national and provincial elections. President Ramaphosa receives a five-year mandate to pull the country out its economic doldrums. The next months will show whether the 57.5% of votes cast in favour of the ANC grant Ramaphosa enough power to marginalize his party opponents, many of which have an undesirable and corrupt reputation even within their own party. With regards to opposition parties, the radical left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) managed to win over many of the lost ANC voters, while electoral support for the liberal Democratic Alliance (DA) slightly declined for the first time. A low voter turnout of only 66 percent can be read as an expression of voter dissatisfaction in both ruling and opposition parties. Over the longer term, the country will transition to coalition governments, as indicated by the election result in the economic heartland of Gauteng: here, the ANC scraped into a position of absolute majority by only the thinnest of margins.

China’s Techno-Utilitarian Experiments with Artificial Intelligence

In just a very short period of time China has emerged as an important centre for Artificial Intelligence

Dev Lewis examines China’s motivations for becoming a global leader in AI, maps out the size of China’s ecosystem so far and the ways in which the Chinese government and internet companies are building the AI ecosystem.

Ebola in the Congo – A Home-Grown Crisis

The scale of the current crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) does not come close to that of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. However, nine months after the outbreak, it is the second worst case in the history of the Ebola virus. Although there is a vaccine today, it has not been possible to bring the epidemic under control. The problem is the country’s poor security situation. In only a few weeks (end of March to May 2019), the death toll rose from approximately 600 to more than 1,000. Placing faith in the Congo to solve its problems on its own is a dangerous game. International presence in the country strengthens the newly elected president.

Ergebnisse der Europawahl 2019 in Frankreich

34 Listen sind in Frankreich am 26. Mai zur Europawahl angetreten - ein neuer Rekord. Somit haben sich 2607 französische Kandidaten um die insgesamt 79 Sitze im Europäischen Parlament beworben. Es galt die Fünf-Prozent-Hürde, die von insgesamt sechs Parteien erreicht wurde.

Political Thought Nr.56

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Institute for Democracy "Societas Civilis" from Skopje would like to present you the fifty-sixth issue of the journal “Political Thought”.

Secular and Islamist Political Elites: The Role of Inter-Elite Trust and its Impact on Political Transformation in Tunisia and Egypt after the Arab Spring

This article analyses why the political transformations following the Arab Spring took different paths in Egypt and Tunisia. Based on data from field interviews conducted between 2012 and 2018 as well as press analyses, we argue that a strong factor why Tunisia was more successful in establishing democracy is that it had a higher level of inter-elite trust. Moreover, we show that the establishment of inter-elite trust depends on the presence of functioning trust-building arenas during the transition and the early democratic consolidation period. To investigate the role of inter-elite trust, we develop a theoretical-analytical framework, drawing on Arab Spring literature, transition theory, scholarship on democratic consolidation, and research on trust.

Polen vor den Europawahlen

Wahlkampf im Herzen Europas

Nach den Selbstverwaltungswahlen im Herbst 2018 und vor den Parlamentswahlen im Herbst 2019 hat der Wahlmarathon in Polen seine zweite Etappe erreicht: Am 26. Mai 2019 sind die polnischen Wähler - mit 400 Millionen weiteren Europäern - aufgerufen, über die Besetzung des neunten Europäischen Parlaments zu entscheiden. Die Europawahl wird von den Parteien in Polen als Generalprobe für die nationalen Wahlen gesehen, wobei der Sieger mit einem erheblichen Aufwind in den Wahlkampf in der zweiten Jahreshälfte gehen und aus einer gestärkten Position heraus starten könnte. Ein Motivationsschub, den die Opposition dringend benötigt, wenn sie der in Umfragen weiterhin dominierenden PiS im Herbst die Stirn bieten möchte.