Opposition loses place in Hong Kong politics

Significance The election was a triumph for Hong Kong’s Beijing-friendly politicians, with only one of 90 seats won by a non-establishment candidate. Most opposition politicians did not take part in the election. The few independent candidates that did performed badly due to low turnout among pro-democracy voters. Impacts Major development projects are likely to remain on hold as long as pandemic-related border restrictions continue. Political engagement by the generally pro-democracy middle and professional classes may wane, weakening some of the city's institutions. Emigration may continue in the next year due to continued disillusionment.

Sabah State Election 2020: Victory of Alias Haji Sani (WARISAN) at DUN 53 Sekong

The Sabah state assembly was dissolved on 30 July 2020 by the Chief Minister Shafie Apdal to prevent a coup by the previous Chief Minister Musa Aman through his “Group 33”. The 2020 Sabah State election was held on 26 September 2020 involved a record total of 447 candidates vying for 73 state seats. The main contest was between the WARISAN-PLUS of 5 political parties and a group of 9 political parties under the coalition of the newly minted Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS). GRS managed to wrest the state government by comfortably winning 38 out of 73 seats with additional 3 seat came from pro-GRS independent candidates. Nevertheless, WARISAN managed to retain N53 Sekong even as the incumbent have been dropped after 26 months at the helm. This article studied on issues surrounding the victory of Alias Haji Sani during the election. The findings of this articles uses primary data, secondary data, online sources dan participative observation findings. The victory of Alias Haji Sani shows that the influence of people-centric and “Gentlemen Politics Budiman” identification is stronger than political affiliation.

Analýza volieb do orgánov samosprávnych krajov v Slovenskej republike

Elections are an essential part of any democratic country. With the establishment of self-governing regions, the first elections to the bodies of higher territorial units took place in Slovakia in 2001. Through them, voters can influence decisions at the regional level and be fully involved in decision-making processes. Only through elections is it possible to ensure the full participation of the population in decision-making on regional policy, which is ensured by the second level of regional self-government. The aim of the article is to analyze the constitutional regulation of regional elections in the Slovak Republic, to analyze all regional elections held since 2001 with a focus on voters participation, causes of non-participation and certain specifics that result from individual elections. Last but not least, the aim is to assess the participation of independent candidates and their growing popularity among voters. URL: https://vsas.fvs.upjs.sk/

Practical implications for the electoral system: New Nation Movement NPC v President of the Republic of South Africa

In New Nation Movement NPC v President of the Republic of South Africa, the Constitutional Court declared parts of the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 unconstitutional in so far as the Act does not provide for independent candidates to stand for political office in the national and provincial legislatures. The court has given the National Assembly two years to redesign the electoral system. Given the constitutional and logistical constraints, the legislature will probably not be able to avoid a major electoral reform. It will be very hard to justify that voters may select a candidate of their choice only when such a candidate runs as an independent but not when a candidate elects to run on a party ticket. The best option would therefore be to introduce a mixed electoral system which combines constituency-based elections with proportional representation of political parties. To keep ballots manageable it would be appropriate to use other electoral design tools such as an entrance hurdle for political parties and deposits and/or nominations by registered voters supporting independent candidates as well. Such a reform might contribute to weed out candidates tainted by corruption because the capacity of political parties to shield them from the electorate in closed lists where the voters have no say about which candidates get elected will be constrained.

Show issue Year 12/2012 Volume 2020 Issue 34 Regional Correction of The Flis-Słomczyński-Stolicki Formula: The Case of Turkish Elections

This paper proposes a correction to the Flis-Słomczyński-Stolicki (2019, 2020) formula for countries with large variation among their districts in terms of political divisions. The Flis-Słomczyński-Stolicki formula (FSS formula) estimates seat allocations under the Jefferson-D’Hondt method by using national vote shares, as well as other parameters that are often readily available. However, the FSS formula does not yield precise estimates in those countries where there are independent candidates, special rights assigned to minority parties, signifi cant variation in district sizes, or an unequal distribution of votes due to ethnic or other regional divisions. Hence, I propose dividing the national distribution of votes into regions that satisfy the assumptions of the FSS formula within their district borders. By applying the FSS formula to regions consisting of historically and politically homogenous districts, I demonstrate that the formula’s estimates become signifi cantly more precise. For instance, by applying the regional correction to the 2018 Turkish Parliamentary elections, as well as other Turkish elections between 2007 and 2015, I show that the formula with the correction in three separate regions improves the Loosemore-Hanby goodness of fi t estimates from 2.1 to 3.41 percentage points (95% CI). Thus, the correction might signifi cantly improve the estimates of the FSS formula in various countries, including Spain, Peru, and Belgium.

Characterising Independent Candidates in Indonesian Local Politics

This article examines the phenomenon of independent candidates ( calon perseorangan) in Indonesia’s regional executive elections (Pilkada) to better understand why candidates run as independents and whether independent candidacy has reduced political inequality in the electoral system. In this study, we compiled candidate information using Indonesia’s General Election Commission’s (Komisi Pemilihan Umum, KPU) database as well as structured open-source searches to develop a data set and profiles of independents over three election cycles. Using this data set, we distinguished three categories of independents – partisan, non-partisan, and underdog independents – by analysing differences in power resources and motivations among the candidates. We found that contrary to public perceptions in Indonesia, independent candidacy has not helped to alleviate unequal access to political office. Successful independents are predominantly political insiders and local notables. This finding has important implications for democracy in Indonesia – we show how the inability for political outsiders to win political office harms democratic representation.

Federal and Regional Aspects of the Moscow City Duma Elections

The author focuses on one of the most resonant events of the last electoral cycle: the election of deputies of the Moscow city Duma, their Federal and purely local features using comparative and system methods. The author in most cases relied on open sources, widely attracting media materials. The article states the image damage suffered by “United Russia” in the capital, whose representatives were nominated as independent candidates. At the same time, reputational costs, taking into account the results of elections in other regions, paradoxically contribute to the fact that the project of “United Russia”, as the party in power, will continue.