Tag: presidential elections

Social Democratic candidate Ivo Josipovic, an international law professor and music composer, emerged as the winner from the first round of presidential elections in Croatia, held on 27 December 2009. He won 32.44% of the vote, with a comfortable 18% lead over the second-placed contender, independent candidate Milan Bandic.

Slovakia's President Ivan Gašparovič won the first round of presidential elections at the weekend (21 March). But with a lead of just 8.7 percentage points over opposition candidate Iveta Radičová, both frontrunners must mobilise more voters ahead of the run-off on 4 April, reports EurActiv Slovakia.

Joint action from the EU and US to address the financial crisis "must inevitably precede global cooperation," argues Tom Spencer, the executive director of the European Centre for Public Affairs, in an interview with EurActiv.

Vladimir Putin's candidate Dmitry Medvedev won an unsurprising victory in Russia's presidential elections on 2 March, with critics saying the vote was a "mockery" marking the country's "retreat from democracy". 

The EU has congratulated the 'peaceful conduct' of the presidential elections in Georgia, but refrained from any further comment until the final results are known. The incumbent President Mikheil Saakashvili is emerging as the winner of Saturday's elections with most of the votes having been counted.

The only presidential candidate, moderate Islamist Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül, has pulled out of the Turkish elections, after the second round of votes failed in the parliament due to a boycott of the secularist opposition. The move comes as another blow to Erdogan's crisis-shaken government.

The EU warned the Turkish military to stay out of politics, following its threats to defend the country's secularist system. The candidate EU member faces a major political crisis, following its failed first round of presidential elections.

Incumbent Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov declared himself winner of the first round of presidential elections on 23 October 2006. Parvanov now faces a run-off with his populist rival due to low turnout.

After the French and Dutch rejection of the EU's constitutional treaty, Finland is not in a hurry to ratify the treaty. The re-election of its president, Tarja Halonen, reconfirms these stands.

On the first of May, just four days before the second round of the presidential elections, more than a million people have demonstrated all over France against the rise of the extreme right Front National.