2024: سنة سيئة لشاغلي المناصب الانتخابية
December 18, 2024 - واجهت الحكومات من اليسار واليمين ظروفاً اقتصادية وجيوسياسية معادية، إذ واجهت كل منها انتخابات في دولة متقدمة هذا العام وخسرت حصتها من الأصوات لأول مرة.
Around two billion people voted in elections in 2024, in countries home to almost half the world’s population. But it was resoundingly a vote of no confidence for the incumbent parties, with even those who managed to hold onto the reins of power struggling to win a clear mandate as they suffered often record low turnout.
Former President Donald Trump comfortably beat incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris despite criminal convictions and a string of court cases hanging over him. Populists, often far-right, made gains as a protest vote and with clear, often simplistic messages, often exacerbated by Russian interference including misinformation and even cyber attacks as cited in the annulment of the Romanian election in December. In Russia itself, Vladimir Putin won by a landslide, having removed all potential opposition.
In the UK, politics swung in the other direction, with the Conservative Party suffering the biggest drop in vote share since Canada’s Progressive Party were all but wiped out with a 26.7% fall in 1993.
There were a few shining examples of democracy in action: Narendra Modi, having dominated India’s politics for a decade, lost his majority and was forced to form a coalition; in Senegal, a relative outsider and anti-corruption candidate brought a surprise end to the decades-long domination of the country’s ruling coalition, and in Uruguay the contenders to replace popular President Luis Lacalle Pou carried out civil and intelligent campaigns to replace him, staking a claim to be one of the strongest democracies in the world.