 "2024 was a massive year for elections around the world. Here's what happened and what we learned")
In 2024, as many as 70 countries across the world went to the polls.
And when voters got their chance to render their verdict, the answer was often “you’re fired” — most notably in the United States.
But it wasn’t just the US alone.
India, Japan, Britain and France went to the polls too — as did 27 European Union members in the EU parliamentary elections.
In all, it was a tumultuous year for global democracy.
While major protests erupted in Mozambique and Georgia, Romania witnessed an election being nullified.
South Korea, on the other hand, faced an attempt to implement martial law.
A staggering number of 1.7 billion people around the world voted this year.
The global average voter turnout was at 61 per cent, reported news website Al Jazeera.
While the lowest turnout was in Tunisia at 28.8 per cent, the highest was witnessed in Rwanda at 98.20 per cent.
According to Cas Mudde, a professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia who studies extremism and democracy, 2024 was “a great year for the far-right, a terrible year for incumbents and a troublesome year for democracy around the world.”
A look at the elections and results held in 2024.
A difficult year for incumbents
Voters made sure to let their governments know that they are fed up.
From high inflation and social and economic disruptions to lingering pandemic-related health issues, voters offered several reasons for their dissatisfaction with their leaders.
University of Manchester political scientist Rob Ford attributed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and mass displacement from the war and conflicts in the West Asia and Africa as some of the reasons for global unease.
India, the largest democracy in the world, saw the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led the Bharatiya Janata Party return to power in the general elections — albeit with a smaller margin.
The Opposition, meanwhile, increased its numbers in Parliament.
South Africa saw the collapse of the African National Congress, the party that had governed the nation since the end of apartheid. The party once led by Nelson Mandela lost its political dominance in May’s election and was forced into a coalition with opposition parties.
Incumbents also were defeated in Senegal, Ghana and Botswana, where voters ousted the party that had been in power for 58 years since independence from Britain. Namibia’s ruling SWAPO party extended its 34 years in power in December, but only by a whisker.
Uruguay’s leftist opposition candidate, Yamandú Orsi, became the country’s new president in a November runoff that delivered another rebuke to incumbents.
Japanese politics entered a new era of uncertainty after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s governing Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled almost without interruption since 1955, suffered a major loss in October amid voter anger at party financial scandals.
It now leads a minority government.
The UK’s July election saw the right-of-centre Conservatives ousted after 14 years in office as the centre-left Labour Party swept to power in a landslide. But the results also revealed growing fragmentation: Support for the two big parties that have dominated British politics for a century, shrank as voters turned to smaller parties, including the hard-right party Reform UK led by Nigel Farage.
Authoritarians gain ground
Several nations including France and Britain among others saw the far-right emerge victorious this election season.
June’s parliamentary elections in the 27-member European Union witnessed conservative populists and far-right factions challenging the ruling parties in France and Germany, the bloc’s most prominent and influential nations.
The anti-immigration National Rally party won the first round of France’s parliamentary election in June, but alliances and tactical voting by the centre and left knocked it down to third place in the second round, producing a divided legislature and a fragile government that collapsed in a December 4 no-confidence vote.
In Austria, the conservative governing People’s Party was beaten by the far-right, pro-Russia Freedom Party in September, though other parties allied to keep it out of a coalition government.
Nepotism and political dynasties continued to exert influence -– and to be challenged. After messy elections in February, Pakistan elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of three-time leader Nawaz Sharif.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest democracy, elected President Prabowo Subianto, son-in-law of the late dictator Suharto.
In a shocking turn of events, Bangladesh witnessed one of the most aggressive political upheaval in its history.
Sheikh Hasina, the longest-serving woman leader of government in the world, was ousted in August following months of mass student protests.
Hasina fled to India after her 15-year rule came to an end.
In Sri Lanka, voters also rejected the old guard. Voters elected the Marxist Anura Kumara Dissanayake as president in September, two years after an island-wide public movement by an engaged middle class removed the long-ruling Rajapaksa clan.
Allegations of meddling
Covert meddling and online disinformation were growing concerns in 2024. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said that this year it took down 20 election-related “covert influence operations around the world, including in the West Asia, Asia, Europe and the US”. It said Russia was the top source of such meddling, followed by Iran and China.
In Romania, far-right candidate Călin Georgescu came from nowhere to win the first round of the presidential election in November, aided in part by a flood of TikTok videos promoting his campaign. Amid allegations of Russian meddling, Romania’s Constitutional Court cancelled the presidential election runoff two days before it was due to take place after a trove of declassified intelligence alleged Russia organised a sprawling campaign across social media to promote Georgescu.
No date has yet been set for a rerun.
Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu won a November runoff against her Moscow-friendly rival in an election seen as pivotal to the future of one of Europe’s poorest nations.
Georgia has seen huge protests since an election in October was won by the pro-Moscow Georgian Dream party, which suspended negotiations on joining the European Union. The opposition and the pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, have accused the governing party of rigging the vote with Russia’s help.
Uncertainty still looms at large
One of the most earth-shaking results occurred in the United States with Donald Trump being voted back to power. Now, both allies and opponents of the US are bracing themselves for what lies ahead.
This, even as instability reigns on several continents as the year ends.
Venezuela has been in a political crisis since a July election marred by serious fraud allegations which both President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition claim to have won. Amid opposition protests and a harsh crackdown, opposition candidate Edmundo González went into exile in Spain.
In Mozambique, the Frelimo party which has ruled for half a century was declared the winner of an October election that the opposition called rigged. Weeks of ongoing street protests across the country have left more than 100 dead.
South Korea’s conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol — weakened after the liberal opposition retained control in an April election -– astonished the country by declaring martial law in a late-night announcement on December 3. Parliament voted to overturn the decision six hours later, and within days voted to impeach Yoon.
The crisis in the deeply divided country is far from over with Han Duck-soo, who stepped in to fill Yoon’s shoes, also having been impeached.
Democracy’s bumpy ride looks likely to continue in 2025 with embattled incumbents facing challenges.
This includes Germany where Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote on December 16, triggering an early election likely in February.
Canada will also vote in 2025, with the governing Liberals widely unpopular and increasingly divided after almost a decade in power.
Seema Shah, head of democracy assessment at the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, said global surveys suggest support for the concept of democracy remains strong, but the numbers plummet “when you ask people how satisfied they are with their own democracy.”
“People want democracy. They like the theory of it," she said. “But when they see it actually play out, it’s not living up to their expectations.”
With inputs from AP
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