Argentina
In the country’s October 22 presidential election, Sergio Massa of Unity for the Homeland (UP) received 36.7 percent of the vote. Javier Milei of the new Freedom Advances (LLA) party received 30 percent. Since neither frontrunner received the necessary 45 percent of the vote (or 40 percent with a ten-point lead), both advanced to a runoff on November 19. Milei won with 55.7 percent of the vote. To learn more about Argentina’s presidential election, read Virginia Oliveros and Emilia Simison’s new essay.
Legislative elections were also held on October 22. At stake were 130 of the 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, as well as 24 of the 72 seats in the Senate. In the Chamber, Massa’s UP won 58 seats, down 10 from the 2021 election; Milei’s LLA won 35 seats; Together for Change (JxC) won 31 seats, down 25; and smaller parties shared the remaining 6 seats. In the Senate, UP secured 12 seats, LLA came away with 8, and JxC with 2.
Ecuador
In the October 15 presidential runoff, 35-year-old banana heir Daniel Noboa Azín of the center-right National Democratic Action (DNA) won with 51.8 percent of the vote. His opponent, leftist candidate Luisa González of the Citizen Revolution Movement (RC), received 48.2 percent of the vote. The snap general election, held in August, had been called by outgoing president Guillermo Lasso to halt impeachment proceedings against him. The runoff campaign was marked by high levels of drug cartel–related violence, including the murder of candidate Fernando Villavicencio. Voter turnout was 82.3 percent.
Gibraltar
Elections for 17 of the 18 seats in the unicameral Gibraltarian Parliament took place on October 12. The alliance of Prime Minister Fabian Picardo’s Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party (GSLP) and the Liberal Party (LP) won 49.9 percent of the vote and 9 seats, down one seat from the last election in 2019. The Gibraltar Social Democrats (GSD) won 48 percent of the vote and the remaining 8 seats. Turnout was 76.4 percent.
Liberia
Presidential and legislative elections were held on October 10. This was the country’s first election to be held without international assistance or financial support since the end of its civil war in 1996. Turnout was high, at 78.9 percent.
In the presidential contest, incumbent George Weah of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) received 43.8 percent of the vote; former vice-president Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party (UP) trailed closely with 43.4 percent. Because no one secured more than 50 percent of votes cast, a runoff was held on November 14. Boakai won by just over a percentage point, and Weah quickly conceded, saying “Liberia has won.”
In the legislative contest, all 73 seats in the House of Representatives and 15 of the 30 seats in the Senate were at stake. The CDC garnered 25 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate. The UP won 11 seats in the House and only 1 in the Senate. Neither of the leading parties received enough seats to hold a majority in either body.
Luxembourg
In the October 8 legislative elections for the 60-seat Chamber of Deputies, the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) emerged on top with 29.2 percent and 21 seats. The Democratic Party (DP) of outgoing prime minister Xavier Bettel secured 18.7 percent of the vote and 14 seats. The Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) won 18.9 percent of the vote and 11 seats in the Chamber. Smaller parties shared the remaining 14 seats. One of these smaller parties, the Green Party, lost five seats from the last election in 2018, leaving it with just 4 seats. As the third leg of the liberal coalition, together with the DP and LSAP, the Greens’ loss prevented the coalition from securing a majority and will end Bettel’s ten years as prime minister. Turnout was 87 percent.
Madagascar
The presidential election was held on November 16. With just over half the votes counted, incumbent Andry Rajoelina appears to have won a third term in office with 62.9 percent of the vote. The election was characterized by protests and boycotts, with ten of the thirteen candidates calling for voters to abstain in objection to Rajoelina’s dual French citizenship. Turnout was only 43.1 percent.
New Zealand
In elections for the 120-seat unicameral House of Representatives held on October 14, the conservative National Party (NAT) won 50 seats, a 17-seat increase from the 2020 election. Its coalition partner, the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (ACT) party, won 11 seats. The right-wing alliance now has the ruling majority in parliament. The Labour Party of Prime Minister Chris Hipkins (and formerly Jacinda Arden, who stepped down in January 2023) garnered only 34 seats, barely more than half its total in the country’s last election. This dramatic shift ends Labour’s six years in office. Smaller parties captured the remaining 26 seats. Turnout was 78.2 percent.
Oman
Voters elected 90 members to the Majlis Al-Shura, the Omani Consultative Council that constitutes its lower house of parliament. The Council serves primarily as an advisory body to the sultan. It can recommend changes to new laws, but has no legislative powers of its own. No political parties exist in this hereditary monarchy. This national election was the country’s first to use app-based polling, and turnout was the second highest on record at 65.9 percent.
Poland
Elections for the 460-seat Sejm and 100-seat Senate took place on October 15. The right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) led by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki won 35.4 percent of vote and 194 seats in the Sejm. This number is down 41 seats from the country’s 2019 election, and not enough for the party to form a majority coalition. The centrist Civic Coalition (KO)—which includes Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform, The Greens, Modern, and Polish Initiative—won 30.7 percent of the vote and 157 seats, up 23 seats from 2019. Together with the centrist Third Way alliance and the New Left, which garnered 65 and 26 seats respectively, the KO has enough seats to form a new coalition government. The remaining 18 Sjem seats went to the hard-right Confederation for Freedom and Independence.
In the Senate, KO emerged with 41 seats, the PiS with 34, and the Third Way with 25. The results of these elections may foreshadow the declining popularity of illiberal populist parties. International observers had warned the election structure advantaged the ruling party. Turnout was around 74 percent, the highest on record for the postcommunist nation.
Switzerland
Parliamentary elections for the 200-seat National Council and the 46-seat Council of States were held on October 22. The conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) won 62 seats in the National Council, an increase of 9 over the previous election in 2019. Rising concerns about migration drove the SVP’s success. The Social Democratic Party (SP) won 41 seats; Mitte, or the Centre Party, won 29; and the Radical-Liberal Party (FDP) won 28. In the Council of States, no party emerged with a strong majority. Mitte emerged with 10 seats, the FDP with 9, the SP with 6, the SVP with 5, and the Green Party with 3. Thirteen seats went to independent candidates. Turnout was 46.6 percent.