Same same but different: After last week’s general election in Thailand, chances are high that the distribution of political power in the country follows this popular saying. The junta stays in charge but can repackage its authority with democratic labels: same authority, different disguise.
Continue Reading →In December 2018, the Italian Constitutional Court found the national 4% threshold for elections to the European Parliament to be constitutional. Unlike the Bundesverfassungsgericht, which focused in-depth on the European state of affairs at a given stage, the Corte costituzionale has pointed to a gradual evolutionary development towards “a rationalisation of the representation of political forces within the European parliamentary assembly”. According to this interpretation, both the national parliaments and the European Parliament face similar challenges.
Continue Reading →On October 7th, general elections were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its Constitution was meant to be an interim solution, setting up a complex structure of division of power between the three major ethnic groups leading to political paralysis. Constitutional reform is thus a pressing issue but the recent elections appear to reinforce the deadlock situation instead of paving the way for much needed change.
Continue Reading →Will the elections tomorrow change the course of the country in an equally abrupt and infinitely more dramatic manner? Is the seemingly limitless power of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party) about to crumble? It’s too early to say. But it is definitely possible.
Continue Reading →The European Parliament has called for he creation of a European cross-border constituency, a transnational list of candidates from across the continent. This idea, recently popularised by French president Emmanuel Macron, has been gutted by the European People’s Party, though – a move which could itself be seen as a powerful manifestation of the importance of transnational partisanship in the EU.
Continue Reading →Only a good Muslim makes a parliamentarian. That seems to be the line the Pakistani Supreme Court has taken in disqualifying the disgraced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as president of his own party and person entitled to nominate candidates for the upcoming Senate elections.
Continue Reading →Hamid Karzai ist ein Präsident, der eins der ärmsten und gewalttätigsten Länder der Erde regiert und die Demokratie eine prima Sache findet, weil er als Präsident eine Menge Möglichkeiten hat, seine Wiederwahl durch gefälschte Stimmen abzusichern. Das ist soweit gar nichts besonderes. Davon gibt es – das kann man sagen, ohne zynisch zu sein – […]
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