Updated: Cost of living in focus as Australia’s election race hits final stretch
Updated: 6:30pm (AEST)Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison criss-crossed the country in a final day of campaigning, insisting he could still win Saturday’s election despite polls pointing to a change of government or hung parliament. Morrison and Labor Opposition leader Anthony Albanese targeted marginal seats in the final 48 hours of the six-week campaign […]
Essay: How does Australia’s voting system work?
In an article first published on The Conversation, MALCOLM MACKERRAS, a Distinguished Fellow at the PM Glynn Institute, Australian Catholic University, explains how Australia’s voting system works – and highlights some issues with it…
Explainer: A guide to the Philippines election
Reuters The Philippines holds an election on Monday to decide thousands of positions across the archipelago, including who will take over from Rodrigo Duterte and become its president for the next six years. Women wearing gowns walk alonng the streets during a Santacruzan-themed house-to-house campaign for Philippine Vice President and presidential candidate Leni Robredo, in […]
Updated: Australian election campaign begins, polls show opposition ahead
Updated: 2pm (AEST)Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government could lose the federal election to be held on 21st May, according to polls on Monday, even as they showed him consolidating his position as the country’s preferred leader on the first day of campaigning. A Newspoll survey conducted for The Australian newspaper showed Morrison […]
Essay: Whose vote counts? Whose doesn’t?
In an article first published on Religion News Service, BRIDGET MOIX, general secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation in the US, says the push for voting rights is a moral imperative and requires the urgent passage of nationwide voting rights legislation…
Asia’s youngest democracy East Timor heads to the polls
Dili, East TimorReuters Voters in East Timor head to the polls on Saturday, as Asia’s youngest democracy holds its fifth presidential elections since independence, with concerns over political stability and economic security at the forefront of the campaign. The 16 presidential hopefuls include former resistance fighter and incumbent President Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres, independence figure […]
Democracy slipping away at record rate, intergovernmental body warns
Brussels, BelgiumReuters A greater number of countries are sliding towards authoritarianism, while the number of established democracies under threat has never been so high, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) said on Monday. Populist politics, the use of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions to silence critics, a tendency of countries to mimic the anti-democratic […]
Texans will vote in November on whether governments can limit religious services
RNS Texas voters will decide on Election Day whether state and local governments can impose limits on religious services, such as the public health orders that shut down houses of worship and businesses earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic. If voters approve the measure, known as Proposition 3, it would add a clause to the Texas Constitution […]
Essay: Global voter turnout has been in decline since the 1960s – we wanted to find out why
FILIP KOSTELKA and ANDRÉ BLAIS investigate, in an article published on The Conversation, the reasons for declining election turnouts around the world…
Essay: New voter bills are a body blow to American democracy
TD JAKES, senior pastor of The Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, says, in an article first published on Religion News Service, that bills which suppress voting – including in his home state – are a “blemish” on US democracy…