ELECTION RESULTS (December 1990-March 1991)
Albania: Legislative elections were held 31 March 1991. Results will be published in our next issue.
Bangladesh: The centrist Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Khaleda Zia, won 140 of 300 seats in National Parliament elections on 27 February 1991. The rival Awami League, an eight-party coalition led by Sheik Hasina, gained 84 seats, and outgoing president Ershad’s Jatiya Party won 35 seats.
Barbados: In parliamentary elections held on 22 January 1991, the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) retained its position as the ruling party, garnering 18 of 28 seats. The Barbados Labor Party reduced the DLP’s majority by earning the remaining 10 seats. Prime Minister Erskine Sandiford will remain for a second term. Sixty-two percent of registered voters turned out for the elections.
Benin: None of the 20 parties in Benin emerged with a majority of the 64 parliamentary seats in the 17 February 1991 elections. In the presidential election on March 10, Prime Minister Nicéphore Soglo received 36 percent of the vote while President Mathieu Kérékou captured 26 percent. A runoff election will be held on March 24, results of which will be published in our next issue.
Cape Verde: The opposition party Movement for Democracy won 66.6 percent of the vote and 56 of 79 seats in legislative elections on January 13. On February 17, opposition candidate Antonio Masdarenhas was elected president with 72 percent of the popular vote. [End Page 121]
El Salvador: Unofficial results of the March 10 legislative elections gave the ruling Arena party 47 percent of the vote, the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) 28 percent, and the Democratic Convergence party (CD) 17 percent. In the 84-seat National Assembly, Arena won 43 seats, the PDC 12, and the CD 10, with the rest earned by smaller parties.
Guatemala: In the presidential runoff on January 6, Jorge Serrano drew 66 percent of the vote while Jorge Carpio finished with 32 percent. Only 45 percent of the electorate participated in this runoff, which led to Guatemala’s first transfer of power from one elected president to the next.
Haiti: In the 16 December 1990 presidential elections, the Reverend Jean-Bertrand Aristide, representing the National Front for Change and Democracy (NFCD), garnered an overwhelming majority of the popular vote (67 percent). His closest competitor, Marc Bazin of the Movement for the Establishment of Democracy in Haiti (MIDH), won less than 15 percent. National Assembly elections were also held in December, but legislative runoffs were required on 20 January 1991 for all but two of the seats. The NFCD won 13 of 27 seats in the Senate and 27 of 83 in the lower house.
São Tomé & Príncipe: In the country’s first multiparty elections on 20 January 1991, the opposition Party of Democratic Convergence (PCD) won 33 seats in the 55-seat National Assembly, while the ruling Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé & Príncipe (MLSTP) won 21 seats. The Democratic Coalition earned the final seat. Although the MLSTP asked citizens to refrain from voting in the March 3 presidential election, 65 percent of the voters went to the polls and elected the sole remaining candidate, Miguel Trovoada of the PCD.
Yugoslavia: On 23 December 1990. the second round of elections for the People’s Assembly of Serbia was held. The Socialist Party of Serbia claimed a majority in the parliament, gaining an additional 107 seats for a total of 194 out of 250 possible seats. The opposition candidates earned 56 seats.
UPCOMING ELECTIONS (April 1991-March 1992)
Algeria: legislative, before July 1991*
Bangladesh: presidential, 6 June 1991* [End Page 122]
Bulgaria: parliamentary, May 1991*
Burkina Faso: parliamentary/presidential, November/December 1991
Fiji: parliamentary, November 1991
Guyana: legislative/presidential, summer/fall 1991
Hong Kong: legislative, September 1991
India: parliamentary, May 1991
Kiribati: parliamentary, May 1991
Mexico: legislative, 18 August 1991
Mozambique: legislative/presidential, late 1991 to mid-1992*
Nepal: parliamentary, 12 May 1991
Suriname: presidential/legislative, 25 May 1991
Trinidad & Tobago: parliamentary, by December 1991
Vanuatu: parliamentary, November 1991
Western Samoa: parliamentary, 5 April 1991
Zaire: presidential, by December 1991
Zambia: legislative/presidential, by October 1991
* tentative
Election Watch provides reports of recently decided and upcoming elections in developing nations and the communist world. Elections in nondemocratic nations are included when they exhibit a significant element of genuine competition or, in the case of upcoming elections, when they represent an important test of progress toward democracy. This information is current as we go to press; however, election dates are often moved due .to changing circumstances. The data in Election Watch are provided by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), a private, nonprofit education and research foundation that assists in monitoring, supporting, and strengthening the mechanics of the electoral process worldwide. For additional information, contact: IFES, 1620 1 Street, N.W., Suite 611, Washington, DC 20006; (202) 828-8507. [End Page 123]