CARACUS – The opposition has won 112 seats in the parliamentary elections – enough to challenge the Presidency of Socialist Nicolas Madura. Venezuela has been hit by the plunging oil price and rising inflation. The opposition want an end to ‘wasteful’ spending – including programmes aiding the county’s poor.
VENEZUELA – Coalition has taken 99 out of 167 parliamentary seats. This means they have a simple majority in parliament – short of a qualified majority of 102. An absolute majority of 112 would have given them the power to call a referendum on the future of socialist president Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela’s export led economy has been hit hard by the plunging oil price. Rising inflation has meant queues outside supermarkets. John Kerry has welcomed the result. The Coalition is expected to call an end to wasteful spending – including a halt to programmes helping the poor.
POLLS for Tuesday’s election suggest an end to Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloody six-year term in office, and here’s a look at some of the characters waiting to take his place..
When Gamal Abdel-Nasser seized power of Egypt through an army coup, he immediately threw the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna into a concentration camp.
It did not matter that the Brotherhood had backed his struggle, he just did not want to see Islam playing a role in governing his people.
So, he is probably turning in his grave as crowds in Tahrer Square and elsewhere greet Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood as the country’s first ever democratically elected President.
Sunday’s momentous declaration has of course to be treated with caution.
Egypt’s army has seized on a court ruling to curtail the outcome of parliamentary elections that had given the Muslim Brotherhood the majority share of the vote.
Of course, the whole system was designed by Hosni Mubarak to ensure that the Muslim Brotherhood would never rule.
So, getting as far as they have is incredible.
Those who say that the ‘Arab’ Spring did not have this outcome in mind, may be right.
Yes, this is a vote for reactionaries, and yes it would be great to see a truly secular party born of the Islamic tradition being elected into both seats of power.
However, this result is also a consequence of the actions of Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak, all of whom were of course strong figures backed by a ruthless military. the very military that is now showing no sign of allowing the country’s first democratically elected President any room to rule.
And until that happens, the dreams and ambitions of the protesters will never be realised.
Conservative Party Chairman Baroness Warsi said it’s ‘going to be a bad night’ on BBC News, as Labour look likely to make gains in 2012 Local Elections.
Warsi says Labour could make up to a thousand council seat gains.
The jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has written in today’s Guardian newspaper arguing the Arab spring had inspired peoples everywhere including Russians. He called on voters to reject Vladimir Putin in next weekend’s Presidential elections. He also claimed that the middle class who it is said will be in a majority in ten years time will no longer accept Putin’s ‘managed democracy.’
According to The Guardian, Khodorkovsky has emerged as “a siren voice of freedom and democratic change”, though it adds for balance that he has also become a divisive figure for ordinary Russians who remember him as a billionaire oligarch.
All this may be true, but when Vladimir Putin came to power Russia which had been a superpower had just defaulted, it was also within the iron grip of a number of business men who appeared to have no other interest than amassing more wealth for themselves and it was of course ordinary Russians who suffered as a consequence.
So, if someone like Khodorkovsky appears to be a divisive figure to the not so well-heeled, they may have a point.
The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the main force in Egyptian politics after the first round of the country’s first ever free elections.
The results mean that the military which has been in power since overthrowing the British appointed monarch in the fifties may be finally releasing its hold on power.
The large turn out indicates that many Egyptians think so.
As democracy appears to be winning in one part of the world it is failing in another, namely that of Russia, where Vladmir Putin’s United Russia party won the parliamentary elections with a scaled back majority.
State-run RussiaToday was trying to put a positive spin on the results which are seen as a test of Putin’s popularity ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
However, an angry crowd in Moscow – some of whom were attacked by Russian police – were clearly not impressed by reports of widespread vote rigging and a clampdown on any independent monitoring.
Despite a heavy police presence today, people were still out to voice their anger.
On the surface, there is a gulf between both elections.
However, a closer look at the outcomes reveal that perhaps the choices of the people are not that different though.
Egyptians have followed the lead in Tunisia and Iraq, by voting for Islamists.
Could Russians vent their frustrations through a return to Communism – the emergence of the Communist Party during the parlimentary elections suggests so.
Either way, this appears to be a victory for reactionaries, not progressives.
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