Posted by Benjamin Cunningham on November 11, 2010
A Prague Municipal Court has upheld the Oct. 15-16 local election results in the face of a judicial challenge, paving the way for a likely grand coalition in City Hall between the Civic Democrats (ODS) and the Social Democrats (ČSSD). The judgment was released shortly after 1:30 p.m. today. “The Municipal Court concluded that during [...]
Posted by Benjamin Cunningham on November 3, 2010
U.S. President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party suffered a major defeat at the polls Nov. 2, losing control of the lower house of Congress and shedding seats to Republicans in the Senate. Republicans picked up at least 60 seats in the House of Representatives, with several races still too close to call. Ohio Republican John Boehner [...]
Posted by Benjamin Cunningham on October 31, 2010
Equal parts humor and serious message, the “Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear” took place on Washington, D.C.’s famed National Mall Oct. 30. Jon Stewart, host of the satirical Daily Show, and Stephen Colbert, host of the sister show The Colbert Report, took to the stage to lead what have most termed a counter-demonstration against the [...]
Posted by Benjamin Cunningham on October 27, 2010
Check out analysis of the behind the scenes maneuverings to gain control of Prague City Hall including comments from political analysts Jiři Pehe and Bohumil Doležal in today’s print Prague Post, and a report on how the Civic Democrats (ODS) and Social Democrats (ČSSD) may look to form a “grand coalition” between themselves and bypass [...]
Posted by Benjamin Cunningham on October 24, 2010
The second round of Senate elections ended in triumph for the opposition Social Democrats (ČSSD). For full analysis on the implications of the victory on the governing coalition check out the Oct. 27 print edition of the Prague Post, but here is a summary of how things broke down… ČSSD won 12 of [...]
Posted by Benjamin Cunningham on October 17, 2010
Get a full round up and analysis of the local and Senate election results in the Oct. 20 print edition of the Prague Post, but here are some early Sunday morning results. The Civic Democrats (ODS) have lost control of city councils in all of the Czech Republic’s major cities with the exception [...]
Posted by Benjamin Cunningham on October 3, 2010
When was the last time you heard a European leader speak about Bosnia-Herzogovina? Well, today, the state that was created in 1995 on Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio held elections at a time that is as close to becoming failed-state as it has been since the brutal wars of the early 1990s. The [...]
Posted by Benjamin Cunningham on September 29, 2010
Taking your political party into opposition is a good thing for reorganizing and reconstituting yourself after an election defeat. In the case of the Social Democrats (ČSSD), they actually entered opposition after winning an election (though they were unable to find potential coalition partners). ČSSD is still severely disorganized (they don’t even officially have a [...]
Posted by Benjamin Cunningham on September 19, 2010
At least 10 people died Saturday and hundreds of polling stations never opened during voting for Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections, according to The New York Times. The vote came a year after the highly flawed reelection of President Hamid Karzai, and people were choosing among more than 2,500 candidates to fill 249 seats in [...]
Posted by Benjamin Cunningham on September 8, 2010
President Václav Klaus spoke in Parliament Sept. 7 for the first time in seven years. Among those drawing criticism from the President was the Constituional Court. “The trend towards various court bodies usurping more power than what belongs to them that has been evident in this country and the whole of Europe in the past [...]