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29 June 2008 Zimbabwe
Robert Mugabe was sworn in for a sixth term as President, having secured, according to results released by the Zimbabwe Election Commission, 85.5% of votes cast in the second round of voting in the presidential election, held on 27 June. The rate of participation by voters was officially put at 42.4%. Mugabe had contested the election as the sole candidate following the withdrawal, on 22 June, from the run-off of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). (Tsvangirai had secured 47.9% of votes cast at the first round, conducted on 29 March, and Mugabe 43.2%.) International human rights organizations had endorsed Tsvangirai’s allegations that activists loyal to Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union—Patriotic Front had in the preceding weeks engaged in a sustained campaign of intimidation and violence against the MDC and its supporters, resulting in the deaths of some 80 MDC members. Election monitors from the African Union stated that the second-round vote fell short of the organization’s standards of democratic elections, while a statement issued on behalf of the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, on 30 June asserted that the outcome of the election ‘did not reflect the true and genuine will of the Zimbabwean people or produce a legitimate result’.
15 June 2008 Kosovo
A new Constitution, defining Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state, entered effect. Serbia (from which Kosovo had declared independence in February) continued to reject Kosovo’s independence as illegitimate, and announced that a Serbian legislature was to be established for majority Serb municipalities. While the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (since June 1999 the supreme executive and legal authority) did not withdraw from the country as originally scheduled, principally as a result of continued opposition from Russia within the UN Security Council, it was envisaged that a smaller, restructured UN presence would transfer many authorities to a new European Rule of Law Mission (EULEX).
28 May 2008 Nepal
In accordance with the Interim Constitution promulgated in January 2007, the inaugural session of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of the abolition of the monarchy. The Constituent Assembly, which was to be responsible for drafting a new constitution, had been elected on 10 April 2008. According to official results, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) took the largest number of seats (220) in the 601-member Constituent Assembly, having secured 29.2% of valid votes cast. The Nepali Congress Party and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) also achieved substantial representation, with 110 and 103 seats respectively.
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25 May 2008 Lebanon
The Majlis an-Nuab (National Assembly) elected Gen. Michel Suleiman, hitherto Commander-in-Chief of the Army, as President, thereby ending a six-month period during which presidential duties were temporarily assumed by the Government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. The extended presidential term of Gen. Emile Lahoud had expired on 23 November 2007 without agreement on a suitable successor having been reached by supporters of the pro-Western Government and opposition members led by the militant Shi‘a Hezbollah and its allies. Nineteen postponements of the parliamentary session scheduled to elect a new head of state ensued, amid ongoing disagreement, even after the rival factions had agreed upon Suleiman as a consensus candidate, concerning the composition of a proposed national unity government. Finally, on 21 May 2008 a Qatari-brokered settlement of the political crisis was reached in that country’s capital, Doha, between representatives of the Government and Hezbollah-led opposition, in the immediate aftermath of the worst sectarian violence in Lebanon since the civil war of 1975–90: at least 80 people had died during clashes earlier in May. Under the terms of the power-sharing agreement, Hezbollah was granted its long-standing demand that it possess the right of veto in a future government. The inauguration of Suleiman as President also brought an end to large-scale opposition protests which had been initiated in the capital, Beirut, following the resignation of six government ministers in November 2006, after which time opposition groups had claimed that the Government was unconstitutional.
23 May 2008 Paraguay
Official results were announced of the presidential and legislative elections held on 20 April. Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez, a former Roman Catholic bishop representing the Alianza Patriótica para el Cambio (APC), was declared President-elect, having secured 40.9% of valid votes cast. His closest rivals were Blanca Ovelar de Duarte, of the Asociación Nacional Republicana—Partido Colorado, who obtained 30.6%, and Gen. (retd) Lino César Oviedo Silva, of the Unión Nacional de Ciudadanos Eticos, who took 21.9%. The election of Lugo, whose inauguration as President was scheduled for 15 August, represented an end to the political rule of the Partido Colorado, which had held power continuously since its victory in the civil war of 1947. None the less, the Partido Colorado retained the largest representation in the legislature, winning 30 of the 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 15 of 45 seats in the Senate; the Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico, the principal party constituting the APC coalition, took 27 and 14 seats respectively.
7 May 2008 Russia
Dmitrii Medvedev was inaugurated as President, to which office he had been elected on 2 March. Medvedev succeeded Vladimir Putin, the head of state since 2000, whose nomination as Chairman of the Government was approved by an overwhelming majority in the State Duma on 8 May. Shortly afterwards Putin announced a government reorganization, in which an additional three ministries were created. Viktor Zubkov, Putin’s predecessor as Chairman, became First Deputy Chairman, with particular responsibility for the agricultural sector. A senior presidential aide, Igor Shuvalov, was also accorded the post of First Deputy Chairman. Upon the end of his presidential term, Putin also officially assumed the role of Chairman of the United Russia political grouping.
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