|
15 April 2021 Benin
Patrice Talon was declared the overwhelming victor of a presidential election held on 11 April, securing a second term as head of state. According to provisional results released by the Constitutional Court, Talon took 86.3% of the valid votes cast, while his two challengers, Alassane Soumanou and Corentin Kohoué, were attributed 11.4% and 2.3%, respectively. The rate of voter participation was officially recorded at 50.6% of the registered electorate.
11 April 2021 Ecuador
According to results from the Consejo Nacional Electoral, after more than 98% of the votes had been counted, Guillermo Lasso of the right-wing Movimiento CREO won the second round of the presidential election. Lasso attracted 52.4% of the valid votes cast, while Andrés Arauz of the left-wing Unión por la Esperanza won 47.6% of the ballot. Arauz, the protegé of former President Rafael Correa, conceded defeat following the release of the results. Lasso, contesting the presidency for a third time, had pledged if elected to maintain the financing agreement with the International Monetary Fund agreed by outgoing President Lení Moreno, which had imposed unpopular austerity measures on the population in order to reduce the fiscal deficit. Lasso also promised to accelerate the country’s lacklustre COVID-19 vaccination programme. The new President was scheduled to take office on 24 May.
11 April 2021 Peru
In the first round of the presidential election, left-wing candidate Pedro Castillo of the Perú Libre party attracted the most votes. According to official preliminary results, after 98.2% of the votes had been counted, Castillo won 19.1% of the ballot. Keiko Fujimori, representing Fuerza Popular, came second with 13.4% of the votes. Yonhy Lescano of the centrist liberal Acción Popular, who had been expected to be placed first, came fifth with 9.1%. The two leading candidates were to contest a run-off ballot on 6 June. In concurrently held legislative polls, no party won a majority of the 130 seats.
10 April 2021 Djibouti
According to provisional results of the presidential election held on 9 April released by the Ministry of the Interior, the incumbent head of state, Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, was decisively re-elected for a fifth term of office with 97.4% of the valid votes cast. His sole challenger, Zakaria Ismaèl Farah, took 2.6%. Some 82.2% of the eligible electorate participated in the ballot.
|
 |
5 April 2021 Viet Nam
The National Assembly (parliament) elected Pham Minh Chinh as Prime Minister, replacing Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who was elected to the largely ceremonial role of President. Nguyen Phu Trong had been elected for an unprecedented third term as General Secretary of the Communist Party at the 13th National Congress in January 2021. The fourth pillar of Viet Nam’s leadership is the Chairman of the National Assembly; Vuong Dinh Hue was appointed to this position at the end of March.
1 April 2021 Bhutan
Minister of Home Affairs Sherub Gyeltshen resigned after the Supreme Court upheld a High Court judgement against him. In March 2021 the High Court had sentenced Gyeltshen to two months’ imprisonment following his conviction on charges of submitting a false vehicle insurance claim in 2016.
31 March 2021 Hong Kong
Changes to two annexes to the Basic Law (constitution) of Hong Kong took effect, amending the selection of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council (LegCo). The amendments to the electoral system were unanimously adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China on 30 March. The Election Committee, which selects the Chief Executive, was expanded from 1,200 to 1,500 members and positions on the Committee that had been held by directly elected district councillors were abolished. Its remit was extended to returning 40 members of the enlarged (from 70 to 90) LegCo and it was also to participate in the nominations of all LegCo candidates, who will, in addition, be vetted by a new screening committee to ensure that only ‘patriots’ contest elections. The number of members directly elected by geographical constituencies was reduced from 35 to 20 and the remaining 30 members were to be determined by functional constituencies (comprising professional and special interest groups).
23 March 2021 Israel
Elections to the 120-seat Knesset took place. According to preliminary results published by the Central Election Committee on 25 January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud again secured the largest representation, winning 30 seats. Yesh Atid increased its presence in parliament, with 17 seats, while the ultra-Orthodox Shas party took nine seats. Kahol Lavan—led by Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz—took only eight seats (down from 33 at the previous elections). Israel Beytenu, Labour, United Torah Judaism and Yemina each secured seven seats. An alliance of ultra-right-wing parties, Religious Zionism, secured six seats, as did New Hope—a centre-right party a new, centre-right party formed by defectors from Likud. Meretz and the Israeli Arab Joint List alliance also won six seats each. The remaining four seats were allocated to Ra‘am, an Islamist party representing Israeli Arabs. Voter turnout was recorded at 67.4%.
|
