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23 February 2021 Niger
The Commission Electorale Nationale Indépendante announced provisional results of the second round of the presidential election, held on 21 February. The candidate of the ruling Parti Nigérien pour la Démocratie et le Socialisme (PNDS—Tarayya), Mohamed Bazoum, was pronounced the winner with 55.8% of the votes cast. The rate of participation by voters was 62.9% of the eligible electorate. At the first round, contested by 30 candidates on 27 December 2020, Bazoum had taken 39.3% of votes cast, while Mahamane Ousmane, who was defeated in the run-off, took 17.0%.
21 February 2021 Ecuador
The Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) confirmed that Andrés Arauz of the left-wing Unión por la Esperanza and Guillermo Lasso, representing the right-wing Movimiento CREO, would contest the run-off ballot in the presidential election on 11 April. Arauz, the protegé of former President Rafael Correa, attracted the most votes in the first round ballot on 7 February, with 32.7% of the valid ballot, while right-wing Lasso, contesting the presidency for a third time, garnered 19.7% of the votes. The declaration by the CNE followed a partial recount after Yaku Pérez of the indigenous Pachakutik movement had been initially placed second, but later moved down to third place, prompting accusations of electoral malpractice. Pérez, who according to final results received 19.4% of the ballot, affirmed he would challenge the CNE’s announcement.
13 February 2021 Italy
A new Government comprising technocrats and members of parties from across the political spectrum, including the MoVimento 5 Stelle, Partito Democratico, Lega, Italia Viva (IV) and Forza Italia, was sworn in under Mario Draghi. Former President of the European Central Bank Draghi had been asked to form a viable coalition by President Sergio Mattarella following the collapse of Giuseppe Conte’s administration. Conte had tendered his resignation on 26 January after former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s party, IV, withdrew its two ministers over disagreements surrounding the handling of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Italy and the allocation of the country’s share of European Union COVID-19 recovery funding. According to World Health Organization figures, more than 2.6m. confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Italy by 7 February, with 91,003 fatalities (the second highest death toll in Europe, after the United Kingdom), and the pandemic had had a devastating effect on the country’s economy.
8 February 2021 Haiti
Protests took place in the capital, Port-au-Prince, to demand that President Jovenel Moïse leave office. The demonstrators asserted that Moïse’s five-year term in office ended on 7 February 2021; however, Moïse insisted that, although the previous election was held in 2016, repeated delays meant that he had not taken office until 2017 and, as such, his presidential term did not end until February 2022. He claimed that a ‘coup’ was being carried out against him and issued 23 arrest warrants for those involved, including a supreme court judge. In response to an opposition request, the Conseil Supérieur du Pouvoir Judiciaire designated supreme court judge Joseph Mécène Jean-Louis interim President until elections could be held.
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1 February 2021 Myanmar
The military seized power in a coup on the day that the new Parliament, which was elected on 8 November 2020, was due to convene, citing voter fraud at the election. The de facto head of the civilian Government, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, was detained, as well as President Win Myint and other senior officials from the National League for Democracy, which had won a majority of seats in November. First Vice-President Myint Swe was appointed Acting President and signed an order granting Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing authority to run the country and declaring a state of emergency for one year. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party’s allegations of electoral irregularities had been dismissed by the Union Election Commission on 28 January 2021.
31 January 2021 Viet Nam
The Party Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party of Viet Nam re-elected Nguyen Phu Trong for a third five-year term as General Secretary at the five-yearly Party Congress. Trong has also held the largely ceremonial post of President since 2018. The PCC, which had itself been elected by delegates the previous day, also elected the new 18-member Politburo and the Secretariat.
27 January 2021 Mongolia
Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene of the ruling Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) was confirmed as the new Prime Minister by the legislature, following the resignation of his predecessor, fellow MPP member Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, on 21 January. Khurelsukh stepped down amid public protests that began over the treatment of a new mother and baby who had tested positive for COVID-19, and grew to encompass the Government’s approach to the pandemic and more longstanding grievances about governance, notably perceived attacks on freedom of expression. Deputy Prime Minister Yangug Sodbaatar and Minister of Health Togtmol Munkhsaikhan had also tendered their resignations on 21 January. Eight new members of the Cabinet were sworn in on 30 January, while eight others were reappointed.
20 January 2021 USA
Joe Biden of the Democratic Party was inaugurated as President, having been elected to that position by the Electoral College on 7 January, confirming the results of popular voting on 3 November 2020. On the same date two members of the Senate elected in Georgia on 5 January assumed office, as a result of which the Republican Party lost its majority in the chamber, although any Democratic majority would be dependent upon the support of two nominally independent senators and the casting vote of the new Vice President, Kamala Harris. The outgoing President, Donald Trump of the Republican Party, did not attend the inauguration of Biden, having previously claimed that the results of the popular election in several states had been falsified, despite a number of court cases having dismissed Trump’s accusations. Trump’s refusal to accept the legitimacy of the election results appeared to be one of the prime motivations for the storming of the US Capitol buildings on 6 January 2021 by several thousand of his supporters, during which five people (four protesters and one police officer) had died, while at least 100 police officers had been injured in clashes. These events led to Trump’s impeachment, for the second time, by the House of Representatives on 13 January, with a trial of the former President expected to follow in the Senate in due course.
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