| Opinion/Commentary |
Caste plays dominant role in Pak elections -
Sameer Arshad, Times of India
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a four-time Pakistan Muslim League (N) parliamentarian, downplays the importance of biradari (caste) factor in the May 11 elections and counts on his party's popularity to see him through. Yet as a hardnosed politician, he has the biradari breakup of his Murree-Kahuta constituency near Islamabad at his fingertips - Rajputs 30% and the rest Jats, Arians, Gujjars etc. |
How will Imran Khan's fall affect Pakistan's election? -
Lyse Doucet, BBC
In an election called the most unpredictable in Pakistan's history, the campaign took a turn no-one expected. Imran Khan, a rising political star, took a fall. Images of the country's former cricket captain tumbling from a wooden lift next to a stage played over and over again on Pakistan's many 24-hour channels. |
Karnataka poll: Parties hope for EVMs to spit out positive outcome -
Business Standard
Political parties and punters are keenly awaiting the result of the May 5 Assembly elections in Karnataka with the votes to be counted on Wednesday. The Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for counting at 36 centres across the state. Widespread betting is reported in several key constituencies of Mysore, Mandya and Bangalore districts on the outcome. |
Pakistan elections: why feudal ties no longer bind for voters -
Jason Burke, Guardian
The sun is setting when Makhdoom Shahabuddin's SUV rolls into yet another scruffy, dirt-poor agricultural community in his constituency in the deep south of Punjab province. In sonorous Saraiki, a minority language spoken locally, the former cabinet minister and veteran politician talks of the achievements of the Pakistan Peoples party (PPP) and of future plans. "This country should be great, not plundered by its own people," Shahabuddin, a PPP grandee and a local landowner, tells the few-score peasant farmers gathered before the low stage. |
Wild card in the polls -
Frederic Grare, Indian Express
Could young voters prove to be a driver of change in Pakistan? On May 11, Pakistan will choose its representatives for the next five years. Two hundred and seventy two National Assembly seats will be contested, and the parties themselves will allocate an additional 60 seats reserved for women and 10 reserved for non-Muslims. Few elections in Pakistan have generated so much speculation, both domestically and abroad. Parties across the political spectrum celebrated the fact that a democratically-elected government has finally completed a full term in office in Pakistan...
|
UPA II will be felled by people's anger -
Sandeep Bamzai, Mail Today
|
Pakistan election violence forces candidates behind high walls -
Katharine Houreld, Reuters
Mian Hussain is fighting for his political life from a deserted party headquarters, where two telephones sit silently beside him and the footsteps of a tea boy echo down the corridor. One of Pakistan's most high-profile anti-Taliban politicians, Hussain hasn't been to a single public event since campaigning for the May 11 election kicked off. A fiery orator who once electrified big rallies, he now makes short speeches by telephone to small huddles of supporters meeting in secret. |
Pakistan election: the 4m votes no one wants -
Jon Boone, Guardian
As Pakistan's election campaign enters its dying days, no town has escaped the attention of the country's politicians as they crisscross the country, plastering every spare billboard, lamp-post and shop-front with posters bearing their heavily airbrushed faces. Except Rabwah, a sleepy riverside settlement in the critical battleground province of Punjab. It is home to 40,000 potential voters who could safely be relied upon to vote whichever way the town's elders recommend – a particularly large and reliable example of what Pakistani politicians call "vote banks". And yet, in a constituency where the result could go either way, not a single party banner flutters anywhere in the town. |
Malaysia's election result exposes divided country -
CBC News
Malaysia's long-governing coalition has won national elections with a weakened majority to extend its unbroken, 56-year rule, fending off the strongest opposition it has ever faced but exposing vulnerabilities in the process. Wearing a bright blue shirt and a grim expression, Prime Minister Najib Razak appeared before the media early Monday to sombrely acknowledge that his coalition had won general elections for the 13th time in a row. |
A tawdry victory -
Economist
IT IS more of the same in Malaysia as the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition has been re-elected in the country’s 13th general election. Voting on May 5th, with a record turnout of 80%, gave Barisan a majority of seats in parliament of 133 out of 222, probably a slightly bigger margin of victory than many had predicted. It means that the same government that has ruled Malaysia ever since the country became independent from Britain in 1957 gets yet another five-year term in office. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Election Calendar 2012
|
|
By-Elections June 2
|
|
Assembly Constituencies
|
|
Neyyanttinkara
|
Kerala
|
|
Cortalim
|
Goa
|
|
By-Elections June 12
|
|
Parliamentary
Constituency
|
|
Nellore
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
|
|
Assembly Constituencies
|
|
Maheshwar (SC)
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
|
Nalchar (SC)
|
Tripura
|
|
Daspur
|
West Bengal
|
|
Bankura
|
West Bengal
|
|
Mant
|
Uttar Pradesh
|
|
Pudukkottai
|
Tamil Nadu
|
|
Tirupati
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Allagadda
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Rajampet
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Rayachoti
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Parkal
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Ongole
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Narasannapeta
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Payakaraopet (SC)
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Anantapur Urban
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Yemmiganur
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Rayadurg
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Kodur (SC)
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Udayagiri
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Narasapuram
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Prathipadu (SC)
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Ramachandrapuram
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Macherla
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Polavaram (ST)
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
|
Kaij (SC)
|
Maharashtra
|
|
Hatia
|
Jharkhand
|
|
Presidential Election:
|
To be held before July
24
|
|
Vice- Presidential
Election:
|
To be held before August
10
|
|
International Elections
|
|
Egypt
|
Presidential 1st Round
|
23-May
|
|
Presidential 2nd Round
|
16-Jun
|
|
Mexico
|
Presidential
|
1-Jul
|
|
Venezuela
|
Presidential
|
7-Oct
|
|
United States
|
Presidential
|
6-Nov
|
|
South Korea
|
Presidential
|
Dec
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
