This past weekend, there were three rather important elections.
First, the Hong Kong Legislative Council Election
Pro-Democracy candidate, Anson Chan, won with a 14% margin. This comes immediately after District Council elections that saw large victories for Pro-Beijing candidates.
Second, the Venezuelan Constitutional referendum
Chavez's proposed amendments were narrowly defeated. His proposals would have paved the way for highly centralized socialist government, granting him a great deal of authority with few checks. Even if you think the proposals were not so bad, the fact that they were even defeated shows that democracy still works in Venezuela.
Third, the Russian Legislative Election
Putin's United Russia Party increased it's share of the vote from 38% to 64% amidst claims of vote-rigging. Of course, the other choices weren't much better. Of the three other "major" parties one is the Communist Party, one is an ultra-nationalist party, and the other more or less supports Putin.
No comments:
Post a Comment