2018 Fiji Election Results: Patterns of Voting by Provinces, Rural-Urban Localities, and by Candidates

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haruo Nakagawa

Akin to the previous, 2014 event, with no data on voter ethnicity, no exit polls, and few post-election analyses, the 2018 Fiji election results remain something of a mystery despite the fact that there had been a significant swing in voting in favour of Opposition political parties. There have been several studies about the election results, but most of them have been done without much quantitative analyses. This study examines voting patterns of Fiji’s 2018 election by provinces, and rural-urban localities, as well as by candidates, and also compares the 2018 and 2014 elections by spending a substantial time classifying officially released data by polling stations and individual candidates. Some of the data are then further aggregated according to the political parties to which those candidates belonged. The current electoral system in Fiji is a version of a proportional system, but its use is rare and this study will provide an interesting case study of the Open List Proportional System. At the end of the analyses, this study considers possible reasons for the swing in favour of the Opposition.

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 675-684
Author(s):  
Johannes Krause

Despite the 2020 reform of Germany’s national parliament voting law, the debate about a robust voting system has not ended . Träger and Jacobs have convincingly shown that Naun­dorf’s suggestion to introduce a parallel voting system creates more problems than it solves, and thus more far-reaching approaches have to be considered . One way to stop the Bunde­stag from growing is to reject the two vote-system . Comparable to the system of Thuringia’s local elections, with open lists and three votes per voter, both the standard size of the Bun­destag can be safely adhered to and at the same time a personalized proportional represen­tation can be maintained . Among other advantages, the voters would have greater influence on the personalized composition of the Bundestag . In particular, reservations on the part of the political parties could stand in the way of such a sustainable solution to the ongoing problems with the German electoral system .


Author(s):  
Alenka Krašovec ◽  
Tomaž Krpič

Under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system in Slovenia, after elections, coalition governments have formed. However, the coalition partners have also adopted a ‘dropping out from government’ strategy between elections, which in some cases has led to minority governments. This has occurred despite a frequent use of several conflict-prevention and conflict-resolution mechanisms. One such mechanism, coalition agreements, are mostly understood in terms of policy agreements. After each election in the period 1992–2000, the leading party, the LDS, signed a coalition agreement with each coalition partner. Since 2013, such coalition agreements include a mechanism of explicitly stating in coalition agreements that certain issues are to be avoided. Regardless, governments termination in majority cases happened due to different (policy or personal) conflicts within the government. Early in the period, government coalitions were ideologically mixed. This was characteristic for governments under LDS leadership from 1992 to 2004, while after the 2004 elections, the governmental coalitions were much more ideologically homogenous. Alternation between like-minded ideological coalitions (centre-left or centre-right) took place. Simultaneously, the main lines of conflict changed. In the 1990s, initially a mostly ideological cleavage between ‘transformed’ and ‘newly established’ political parties was present, while after the 2004 elections, the economic cleavage became more salient. All parliamentary parties, except the Slovenian National Party, have at least briefly participated in governments, while the Democratic Party of Retired Persons have been since the mid-1990s the party with the biggest coalition potential. Since 2011, small parties have received pivotal roles in coalition formation. Generally speaking, participation in the government has not been electorally rewarding for the political parties.


Author(s):  
Margaret Arnott ◽  
Richard Kelly

This chapter discusses the role of smaller parties in the law-making process. General elections in the UK are conducted with an electoral system which militates against the representation of smaller political parties, particularly those having no strong support at the regional level. However, events at Westminster over the last decade have increased the prominence of smaller parties in the operation of parliamentary business. The chapter first considers the role of small parties in the UK Parliament, committees and legislation, as well as their participation in backbench debates before examining how the political and electoral context of Parliament, especially in the twenty-first century, has affected the representation of smaller parties and the ways in which reforms to parliamentary procedure since the 1980s have enhanced the role of the second opposition party. It suggests that Parliament today offers more opportunities for smaller political parties to influence debate and policy, but this remains quite limited.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 314-336
Author(s):  
ADEEBA AZIZ KHAN

AbstractIn this article, by studying the candidate-nomination process of the two major political parties, I show how power is distributed within the political party in Bangladesh. I show that the general acceptance by scholars that political power lies in the hands of the innermost circle of the political-party leadership in Bangladesh is too simplistic. A more nuanced observation of power and influence within the party structure shows that, in the context of Bangladesh's clientelistic political system, which is based on reciprocity between patrons and clients and relies on the ability of middlemen to organize and mobilize (in order to disrupt through hartals and strikes), power is often in the hands of those mid-level leaders who are in charge of mobilizing because their demands cannot be ignored by the topmost leadership. Through studying the candidate-nomination process of the major political parties and using the Narayanganj mayoral election of 2011 as a case study, I answer questions such as whose interests political parties are representing, what channels of influence are being used, and why these channels exist.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-175
Author(s):  
JUDY CHIA YIN WEI

AbstractThis article aims to explore the effects of quasi-SNTV (Single Non-transferable Vote) under the Largest Remainder Proportional Representation (LRPR) in Legislative Council (LegCo) elections in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) after the British handover of 1997. Although the quasi-SNTV results from the inability of political parties to control their candidates, the Democratic Party (DP) and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) can obtain more seats in total than they could by coordinating around one single list if they can successfully control their party label and the political camps can coordinate different parties and candidates. The quasi-SNTV in Hong Kong is notable for the strategic coordination found in its alliances, a key aspect that differentiates it from Colombia's quasi-SNTV. The DP's failure can be attributed to its internal conflicts and the lack of coordination among the pro-democracy alliances. In contrast to the democratic camp, which lacks any overriding authority to coordinate different parties and candidates, the pro-China's united front machinery facilitates coordination and helps the DAB perform better than the DP in quasi-SNTV.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-443
Author(s):  
Myriam Aït-Aoudia

The literature on democratic transitions considers the participation of new parties in the first pluralist election in a post-authoritarian context (founding election) as something to be taken for granted. As such, it is never questioned. Specialists in democratic transitions ignore the research on “new parties,” which is, nonetheless, essential to the understanding of the particular characteristics of a post-authoritarian situation. Using an original qualitative study on Algeria, this article proposes to bring to light the political, organizational, and legal conditions of new political parties’ participation or nonparticipation in a founding election. In particular, this research allows us to grasp the dilemmas and difficulties faced by leaders of new parties and the types of support on which they rely to engage for the first time in an electoral competition. The analytical framework stemming from this “case study” is applicable to other national case studies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray Lee ◽  
Justin R Ellis ◽  
Chloe Keel ◽  
Jonathan Jackson ◽  
Rebecca Wickes

The political economy of crime and insecurity has long been a topic of scholarly work. The leveraging of fear of crime for political capital has been of particular concern. Australia provides an interesting case study in the dynamics of such politics, and this article focuses on the state of Victoria, where prior to the 2018 state election crime became a significant political issue, particularly through racialized discourse about ‘African gangs'. Considering why the politics of law and order failed, we conclude with the idea that the political economy of crime and insecurity needs to be understood in the context of broader individual, community, and social vulnerabilities related to protective factors regarding the fear of crime.


2018 ◽  
pp. 16-22
Author(s):  
Nataliya Khoma

The process of the formation of the party system of Cyprus was considered. The period from colonial to 1981 is covered. The factors that influenced the evolution of the parties of Cyprus, in particular the internal conflict, were underlined. Emphasizes the importance of the ethnic component of the population of Cyprus. The attention was paid to the role of the Orthodox Church in shaping the political system of Cyprus. The article analyzes the norms of the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus (1960) concerning political parties, in which the focus was on the parliamentary aspect of party activity. The role of Archbishop Makarios III, the first president of Cyprus, for the further evolution of the party system in the 1960–70s was revealed. Presented chronology of the appearance of the main parties of Cyprus and their participation in elections and coalitions. The article emphasizes that after the accession of Cyprus to the EU in 2004, the party system of the state is experiencing the trend of the newest European tendencies on the national party palette: the level of people’s confidence in the parties is decreasing, the party identity is blurred, the voter turnout is gradually decreasing, new types of parties are emerging, Radicalization is notable and so on. The party system of Cyprus is special, even if only within the EU there is a pro-communist party (Progressive Party of the Labor People of Cyprus), represented in the European Parliament, among the leading political forces. It was emphasized that the political parties of Cyprus until 1974 were purely electoral mechanisms. The new stage of development began with the stabilization of the post-colonial political system of Cyprus. At this time, the church lost its past influence, and the majoritarian electoral system alienated itself. This led to a new stage in the development of the party system in the late 1970s. It is noted that the determining factor was the transition to a proportional electoral system and the introduction of mandatory participation of voters in the vote. It was emphasized that these legislative innovations became important factors in the development of the modern party system of Cyprus. Since that time, the Cypriot parties have become more independent and united in the coalition.


Author(s):  
Ardhana Ulfa Azis ◽  
Mia Siscawati

The implementation of affirmative quota policies by political structures, especially political parties as one of the elements of the political infrastructure, has provided the widest possible opportunity for women to be directly involved in the political process, such as becoming members of parliament to carry out over sight, budgeting, and legislative functions: the making and policymaking and political decisions. This research examines how women in the family path of the 2019’s election results, on the one hand, their faces are seen as political representatives of women in parliament, but on the other hand, they are also seen as representatives of the interests of party oligarchy in parliament. We explored the filling of affirmative quotas for female parliamentary candidates from the family line by political parties which allowed us to identify women parliamentarians from the family line as having two faces, namely as women's political representatives as well as party political representatives. In a stronger party oligarchy, we argue that filling the affirmative quota of female parliamentary candidates from the family line apart from being urged by the affirmative quota policy for 30%women's political representation, is also motivated by the interests of party oligarchy. We adopt the thoughts of Anne Phillips (1991) about the politics of presence which sees that women's representation in parliament starts from the number, not from the policies they produce.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Adi Budiman Subiakto ◽  
Nur Kafid

This study aims to find out political strategy used by the Muslim-based political party to exceed the parliamentary threshold (PT) (3.5%) on the national election 2014, with the case study on National Awakening Party (PKB) and National Mandate Party (PAN). Even the survey agency has predicted that those political parties would not be able to reach PT, but the fact showed different. Both of the political parties managed to exceed the specified threshold. Based on the qualitative approach, this study found out that defensive strategy used by PKB, by consolidating and prioritizing the typology of rural voters with ideological approach (nahdliyin), utilizing prominent figures and artist as part of the campaign to achieve success. Meanwhile, by using offensive strategy PAN chose the typology of rural voters, while at the same time also optimizing the typology of urban voters, dialogical and psychological approach, basic societal issues, and the figure of the artist have been successfully gaining the significant voters.Studi ini dilakukan untuk mengungkap strategi politik dari partai politik berbasis massa Islam untuk melampaui angka parliamentary threshold (3.5%) pada Pemilu tahun 2014, dengan studi kasus PKB dan PAN. Meski sebelumnya telah diprediksi oleh lembaga survei bahwa mereka tidak akan mampu mencapai angka tersebut, tapi realitas menunjukkan sebaliknya. Kedua Parpol tersebut justru berhasil melampaui ambang batas yang ditentukan. Dengan pendekatan kualitatif, studi ini menemukan bahwa strategi defensif PKB, dengan mengkonsolidasi dan memprioritaskan tipologi pemilih pedesaan, dengan pendekatan ideologis (nahdliyin), menjadikan tokoh dan figur artis sebagai bagian dari kampanye meraih keberhasilan. Sementara PAN, dengan strategi ofensifnya memilih tipologi pemilih pedesaan dengan tetap mengoptimalkan suara dari tipologi pemilih perkotaan, dengan pendekatan dialogis, psikologis, isu kerakyatan, dan figur artis mampu mendulang perolehan suaranya.


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