September saw many interesting elections around the world. In many places our liberal brethren made substantial gains or at least managed to shield themselves from losing seats. I’ll go through some of the global elections and give a fairly overall picture on the liberal results. And since this will be a about the results globally, the big guys like Germany and Russia are not given that much spotlight. Also, this is because I don’t know a word of German and there are separate posts on those elections.
Unless mentioned otherwise, all the parties I’m about to talk are centrist(-ish) and liberal parties, not necessarily members, or even observers, of Liberal International or its regional partners. Also, there’s going to be areas that are not independent states but still have local parliaments. In the end, we also take a look at two European referenda. So now that the rules are in place, let’s start.
Morocco
An almost cataclysmic change took place in the Moroccan general election, as the conservatives in power lost over 100 seats (in the lower house of 395 total). Although no single party took all these seats away, one of the biggest winners was the National Rally of Independence (RNI), who gained 65 seats since the last election and now is the biggest party with its 102 seats in the lower house.
Macau
Macau is often called China’s most well-behaving special region. It’s because there’s no visible democracy movement. The city keeps its inhabitants happy by redirecting revenue from the casinos to social programs and even gives out free money for permanent residents, which in 2019 was 10,000 patacas (around 1250 USD).
Before the election, there was a mass disqualification of mostly pro-democracy candidates. The only exception was José Pereira Coutinho, leader of the New Hope party who not only got re-elected but also lifted one more representantive from the party list to the local parliament. This means that the pro-democracy camp of Macau now has 2 out of 33 seats. As well as a Macanese, Coutinho is also a Portuguese citizen, meaning he is one of only a few people with a dual nationality who’s active and successful in Chinese politics. He is also fairly popular among the locals and has campaigned for animal rights and raised awareness on the economy’s great dependence on the gambling industry.
Norway
For a few years, Norway was the only Nordic country not lead by a social-democratic or otherwise left-wing party. Now that is about to change as the Norwegian Labour party became the largest party in the parliament. This was, however, thanks to the fact that the conservative party lost 9 seats. Labour also lost one but with 49 out of 169 seats in the parliament, they’re now the most likely party to nominate the prime minister.
The liberal party’s result was ± 0 seats, but considering they were in the previous government and haven’t lost any, I’d call that an achievement nonetheless. The biggest hits were taken by the conservatives and their more right-wing partners, the Progress Party. The Center Party was a much bigger winner, gaining 9 additional seats and maintaining its position as the third largest party.
The Bahamas
The Bahamian election saw many new parties eying seats in the lower house but none of them managed to get any in the end. Instead, the election was dominated by the Progressive Liberal Party who won 32 out of 39 seats in the parliament, basically decimating their more conservative rivals. The ousted PM was quick to admit his defeat and congratulate his upcoming successor; reminding, however, about the challenges that lay ahead.
Canada
Canada’s election was in no way planned, as Justin Trudeau called for a snap election after only 18 months in office. The campaign period was only 36 days, the shortest allowed by law and it seemingly didn’t help. The Canadian election had no clear winners nor losers: the balance of power is pretty much just the same as before, with very minor changes in seating: the greatest winner were the Liberals but with a mere two more seats. With a total of 159 out of 338 seats, Trudeau failed to secure the majority he wished to gain from calling the early election.
Iceland
Contrary to what you might have read earlier, the majority of the elected parliamentarians in Iceland were not women. As well as in the Bahamas, there were new parties but they didn’t get anyone elected. According to the results, the Progressive Party did well by gaining 5 more seats and with 13 out of 63, it’s now the second largest party in the parliament. The other liberal party, the Reform Party, saw modest gain of one seat and finishing up with 5 in total.
Swiss and Sammarinese referenda
Apart from national elections, there were also two important referenda in Europe held on September 26, so they’re most likely eclipsed by the German election. The Swiss voted overwhelmingly for marriage equality with 64,1 % of the population and all of the cantons supporting a new law that guarantees equal marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples.
Meanwhile in San Marino, 77,3 % of people voted for legalising abortion up until the 12th week and with no time limit if the pregnancy is a risk to the woman’s health. The new law will replace the old one from 1865 (yes, you read that right) and that pulls one more European country away from the list of total abortion ban. Considering where this subject has been a topic of political discussion this year, San Marino’s case is good news indeed.
Final thoughts
It’s hard enough to get your first MPs elected but this seems to be even harder during the pandemic. It could be that voters don’t want a radical change but merely to reward or punish the current parties in accordance with the performance regarding the pandemic.
The liberal thinking and support for an open democracy are not in jeopardy in the places I have presented here. In fact, I would say this month has proven to be quite the victory, since not even the pandemic has wiped out the liberals from the parliaments of the world.