Global Election Watch
Foreign Policy Brief #149 | By: Ibrahim Castro | July 13, 2024
Featured Photo: latimes.com
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The election delivered a chaotic result, with no party taking enough seats for a majority in parliament, plunging French politics into turmoil that could last months. | Carl Court/Getty Images
French Elections
After the shock of the European parliamentary elections that saw far-right parties top polls in several European countries, including France, where the far-right National Rally won 31.5% of the vote, more than twice that of the ruling Renaissance party. President Emmanuel Macron made the decision to call snap parlimentary elections last month. After the voting ended, all parties fell well below the 289 seats needed to control the 577 seat National Assembly. A coalition of the French left won the most seats, beating back a far-right surge but failing to win an outright majority.
The results have left France facing the prospect of a hung parliament and political stagnation. The results showed that in first place, with just over 180 seats, was the New Popular Front leftist coalition; then came the centrist Renaissance party of French President Emmanuel Macron, with more than 160 seats. Finally, the far-right National Rally party and its allies won third place, with more than 140 seats in parliament. Later that day, centrist Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced his resignation. President Macron said he would not step down and will stay president until his term ends in 2027. Still, the far-right has made considerable gains in France over the years, increasing its seats in parliament from seven in 2017 to over 140 today, and is unlikely to give up its attempt to come to power in the coming years.

Britain’s incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer and leader of the Labour Party, and his wife Victoria pose on the steps of 10 Downing Street in London on July 5, 2024.
UK Elections
The United Kingdom general elections on July 5, 2024, provided the center left Labour Party with a landslide election victory, bringing the party to power for the first time in 19 years. With far-right parties ascendant elsewhere in Europe, the UK has swung in the opposite direction. For the Conservatives (the Tories) under outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, it was the worst defeat in their party’s nearly 200-year history. Smaller parties also made gains in this election.
The environmentalist Green Party had its most successful election night winning a record four seats, up from only one in the last parliamentary election in 2019. The far-right, anti-immigrant Reform UK party will enter Parliament for the first time, with five seats and among them, its leader and far-right politician, Nigel Farage, who ran and lost seven times previously. The results represent one of the largest swings in British political history, and a huge defeat for the Conservative Party.

Iranian reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian reacts after casting his ballot during the presidential runoff in Shareh Qods, west of Tehran on Friday July 6 2024 Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images
Iranian Elections
On July 6, 2024 reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran’s presidential election, besting hard-liner Saeed Jalili. Pezeshkian ran on a platform promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country’s mandatory headscarf law. After years of sanctions and protests squeezing the country the Iranian population sought to keep a hardliner conservative candidate out of the presidency.
Iranian officials estimate about 30 million people turned out in Friday’s vote, or about 49% of eligible voters, which is considered low for presidential elections in the country. Pezeshkian will face an uphill battle implementing reforms as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the final arbiter of all matters of state in the country.

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, greets supporters at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters during election results night in New Delhi, India, on June 4, 2024. Prakash Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Indian Elections
Early last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared victory for his governing alliance in India’s general election. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party lost seats to a stronger than expected opposition. The results demonstrate a push back against his mixed economic record, and polarizing nationalist-ethno-religious politics. For the first time since his Hindu nationalist party swept to power in 2014, it did not secure a majority on its own. It instead won 240 seats, far short of the record 303 it won in the 2019 election. That means Modi will need the support of other parties in a coalition. More than 640 million votes were cast in the marathon election held over a span of six weeks in what is referred to as the world’s largest democratic exercise.

Claudia Sheinbaum waves to supporters in Mexico City on June 3. Raquel Cunha/Reuters
Mexican Elections
Mexico on June 2, 2024 elected Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of the capital, as the country’s first female president in the country’s 200 year history. The 61 year old environmental scientist-turned-politician was a protege of Mexico’s outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and will replace him as head of the ruling MORENA party. In October, she will assume leadership of a nation confronting a range of challenges with security issues at its forefront. Sheinbaum’s Morena party also held its majorities in both chambers of Congress.
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