By Shrouq TARIQISLAMABAD, Feb 20, 2024 (AFP) – Social media platform X was disrupted across Pakistan for a third day on Tuesday, after a general election marred by allegations of rigging. The platform was downed on Saturday night when a senior government official made a public admission of vote manipulation in the February 8 polls. “X has been inaccessible in Pakistan (since Saturday), because it is used by the public to protest,” Usama Khilji, a […]
Tag: ELECTIONS
Indonesia’s Prabowo set for sweeping presidential win
JAKARTA, Feb 15, 2024 (AFP) – Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto on Thursday looked set to become the new president of the world’s third-largest democracy, likely avoiding a runoff vote against election rivals who have yet to concede. The ex-general declared victory Wednesday evening after preliminary counts from government-approved pollsters — previously shown to be reliable — indicated he would win high office with a majority in his third attempt. The slower, official count by […]
Indonesia set for presidential vote, ex-general tipped to win
By Jack MOORE JAKARTA, Feb 11, 2024 (AFP) – Indonesians vote in a presidential election Wednesday with Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto the clear favourite after a campaign mixing nationalist rhetoric and pledges to continue the era of popular outgoing leader Joko Widodo. The former general lost to Widodo in 2014 and 2019 but is on course to finally lead the world’s third-largest democracy after rehabilitating his image. Widodo is constitutionally barred from running for a […]
Trump closes in on Republican presidential nomination in New Hampshire
By Frankie TAGGART MANCHESTER, United States, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Donald Trump aims to sew up the Republican presidential nomination after the contest narrowed to a two-horse race with Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s withdrawal less than 48 hours before the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. Short of a defeat in the Granite State, or a close second-place for his remaining rival Nikki Haley, the timeline to Trump’s nomination as the candidate to face President […]
Hong Kong ‘patriots only’ elections see lowest-ever turnout
HONG KONG, Dec 11, 2023 (AFP) – Hong Kong’s first “patriots only” district council elections saw a turnout of 27.5 percent, the government said Monday, a record-low number for a race that had shut out all opposition candidates. The city last held district council elections at the peak of huge, sometimes violent, democracy protests in 2019, recording a historic-high 71 percent turnout that delivered a landslide victory for the democracy camp. But a clampdown on […]
Madagascar President Rajoelina’s re-election contested
ANTANANARIVO, Nov 25, 2023 (AFP) – Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has won another term in office, the election commission said on Saturday, but his victory in a vote boycotted by most opposition candidates is already facing legal challenges. Rajoelina won 58.95 percent of the votes cast in the November 16 presidential election first round, according to the results presented by the poll body which need to be validated by the Constitutional Court. These results must […]
Socialist Paulette Lenert could be Luxembourg’s first woman PM
By Matthieu Demeestere LUXEMBOURG, Oct 6, 2023 (AFP) – Socialist leader Paulette Lenert could become Luxembourg’s first woman prime minister following Sunday’s elections in the country wedged between Belgium, France and Germany. No stranger to a challenge, the 55-year-old rose to prominence during the coronavirus pandemic, steering the country’s response as health minister from February 2020. Lenert remained coy about her ambitions in an interview with AFP, insisting she did not see herself taking over […]
Trump indicted for racketeering over 2020 election interference
ATLANTA, Aug 15, 2023 (AFP) – Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday on charges of racketeering and a string of election crimes after a sprawling, two-year probe into his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden in the US state of Georgia. The case — relying on laws typically used to bring down mobsters — is the fourth targeting the 77-year-old Republican this year and could lead to a watershed moment, the first televised […]
Trump indicted over efforts to overturn 2020 election
WASHINGTON, Aug 1, 2023 (AFP) – Donald Trump was indicted on Tuesday over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election — the most serious legal threat yet to the former president as he campaigns to return to the White House. Trump is charged with three counts of conspiracy and one count of obstruction in the 45-page indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Trump is accused of conspiracy to defraud the United […]
Trump vows to continue presidential campaign if sentenced
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2023 (AFP) – Former US president Donald Trump said Friday he would not end his run for the White House if he were convicted and sentenced in any of the criminal investigations mounting against him. The 77-year-old Republican frontrunner was asked about his reaction to the federal and state charges he faces as he bids for a second term in 2024, a day after federal prosecutors added three felony counts to the […]
Thai election body recommends PM frontrunner’s suspension
BANGKOK, July 12, 2023 (AFP) – Thai election chiefs on Wednesday asked the country’s top court to suspend Pita Limjaroenrat, the frontrunner in the race to become prime minister, over allegations he broke campaign rules as an MP. The recommendation is the latest hurdle thrown into the path of the progressive candidate, whose Move Forward Party (MFP) scored the most votes in May’s election by tapping into Thais’ appetite for change. The Election Commission’s referral […]
Myanmar junta hints may extend state of emergency, delay polls
Myanmar’s junta on Tuesday said the country had “not returned to normalcy” almost two years after its coup, casting doubt over plans for elections and ending a state of emergency. The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since the military toppled democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government, alleging massive fraud during elections her party won in 2020. A junta-imposed state of emergency is due to expire at the end of January, after […]





