Elections

Former Kosovar parliament speaker Vjosa Osmani was elected the country's new president on Sunday. 71 lawmakers out of the 120-seat parliament voted in favour of Osmani. The 38-year-old is the second female president of Kosovo.

Former presidential candidate, entreprenuer and longtime New York resident Andrew Yang has filed paperwork to run for mayor of New York City, the city's Campaign Finance Board confirmed on Wednesday.

Côte d'Ivoire President Alassane Outtara said he will run for re-election in October. Outtara has already served the maximum of two terms. Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly was supposed to be his successor for the upcoming election, but he died earlier this month.

Outtara went on television and said: "Faced with this case of force majeure and out of civic duty, I have decided to respond favourably to the call of my fellow citizens asking me to be a candidate in the presidential election of 31 October 2020."

The opposition has condemned this move and pointed out that the constitution forbids a third term.

Thousands of Bolivians, from different parts of the country marched this Tuesday in the municipality of El Alto, adjacent to La Paz, against the postponement of the elections ordered last week by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). Smaller mobilizations were carried out in other cities of the country.

"Elections now", "democracy, yes; dictatorship, no " and "outside Áñez ” were chanted by the protesters called by the Bolivian Workers Central and the Unity Pact, the coalition of unions affiliated to the Movement to Socialism (MAS), the party of former President Evo Morales.

The elections, initially scheduled for September 6, were postponed to October 20 due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

According to exit polls, Yuriko Koike, Tokyo’s first female governor has been re-elected with 60 percent of the vote. Koike has stated that she wants "to manage an effective response to Covid-19" as the numbers have been over 100 new cases per day for the fourth day in a row and added that she'll do her "best with this second term". According to additional questions in the exit polls, Koike has gotten positive ratings for the fight of the Covid-19 pandemic in Tokyo as she pushed for stronger actions than the national government.

The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is the probable winner of the parliamentary election on Sunday. According to an exit poll from Ipsos agency, HDZ was set to win 61 out of 151 parliamentary seats, with the top opposition party the Social Democrats (SDP) and its smaller allies which grabbing 44 seats.

Neither of the two main parties will be able to form a government without going into coalition, and Deutsche Welle reports Prime Minister Plenkovic, from HDZ, may have a better chance of finding allies to form the next government.

The Central Election Commission has announced that the Russians have voted in favor of adopting the proposed constitutional changes. According to the commission, 77.9 percent of the voters were in favor and 21 percent against. With the changes, Putin will be able to run for two more six-year terms after 2024, thus being able to stay as the head of the country until 2036. Multiple countries have called for Russia to investigate possible irregularities with the voting process.

A spokesperson for the United States state department stated that "We are troubled by reports of Russian government efforts to manipulate the result of the recent votes on constitutional amendments, including reports of voter coercion, pressure on opponents of the amendments and restrictions of independent observers of the vote".

Ethiopia postponed its August elections due to the coronavirus. Parliament voted 114:1, approving PM Abiy Ahmed to stay in office until a new date is found. New elections are recommended to be held in 9-12 months "after the coronavirus is deemed not to be a public health concern".