The 56th quadrennial United States presidential election was held on November 4, 2008. Democratic party member Barack Obama, the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican Party member John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona. Barack Obama became the 44th president of United States. He is the first African-American president of the United States and the first person of color to govern a country with a white majority. The U.S. Presidential elections had world wide attention as the victory speech of Barack Obama’s inspired many people worldwide and won spontaneous applauses from the crowd. Obama is a person who prioritizes logic over sentiment, discussion over conflicts and awareness over blind belief, which were observed in his campaigning. No president had ever influenced the United States into both an unfair war and financial crisis of the uncontrolled magnitude as done by George W Bush. He did significant harm to his country and the World. So, people of US wished for positive change and elected Barack Obama as their president. The main slogan of his campaigning is ‘CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN’ which influenced people. His Environmental policy, Fuel efficiency policy, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) policies attracted public.
November 17, 2009
Barack Obama wins Historic Election Victory in US
November 12, 2009
Nepal Became Republic After Many Years of Monarchy Rule
Millions of people marched onto the streets demanding an end to the cruel monarchy and the creation of a new Constitution through a Constituent Assembly. The people finally forced the king to give up state control on April 24, 2006. The success of the People’s Movement II left king Gyanendra helpless. The political parties are then engaged in writing a Democratic Constitution through a Constituent Assembly elected by the people. The Maoists became a part of the Parliament. The responsibilities which are authorized to the King are transferred to the Prime Minister. Pushpa Kamal Dahal-Prachanda, chief of Maosits was declared Prime Minister on August 15, 2008. He defeated his opponent, Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba by 465 votes, against 113. He was sworn on August 18, 2008. Nepal’s first-ever Presidential poll is held on July 19 over political arguments. The country failed to reach the 67 percent turnout that was reached for the last general election in 1999. UK is the largest mutual donor to Nepal in 2007/08 as it contributed 86 million dollars. These elections has more importance, because it will be decided whether 240 years of monarchy will be continued or become republic country. The 601-member constituent assembly prepared a new constitution. International observers declared the elections a success, despite of violence that prevailed. Former US president Jimmy Carter along with human rights group helped to supervise the polls in Nepal.
Responses to Kosovo’s declaration of Independence
On 17th February, 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia by the members of the assembly, with no opposition, all 109 in favor. But all the 11 Serb representatives boycotted the proceedings which showed the International reactions towards Kosovo’s declaration of Independence. Among the 4 countries that lie in the borders of Kosovo only Serbia refuses to accept it. Serbia in October 2008 at the International Court of Justice wanted to prove the declaration of independence was illegal and the United Nations General Assembly considered the proposal of Serbia for ICJ advisory opinion on this matter.
Among the 192 sovereign united nations members, 62 have recognized Kosovo as an independent state by 11July 2009. Not only these, majority of European union (22 of 27), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 24 of 28 have accepted Kosovo as Independent state. Many of the countries recognized Kosovo as Independent in the months of February and March itself. But only some countries took time to respond on this issue.
State Politics Change In India
In 2008, 10 states went to the elections and in the early half of the year Left front formed government in Tripura, MPA (Meghalaya Progressive Alliance) came to power in Meghalaya, and DAN (Democratic Alliance of Nagaland) formed Government in Nagaland.
In the next few months Congress was expected to loose some power because of the anti-incumbency wave that resulted from the grown up prices, raging inflation, and also the terrorist attacks. But besides all these congress managed to regain power in Delhi, Rajasthan, and Mizoram.
On the other hand BJP could manage to retain power in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh but they lost Rajasthan to Congress. In the first half of the year BJP also established government in Karnataka.
On 22nd July 2008, UPA government had to face trust vote that is vote of confidence. On 21st July a resolution was passed and on the next day the voting procedure was conducted and UPA government managed to win the voting of confidence by getting 275 votes in favor from a total of 487 valid votes.
The election commission of India decided to conduct elections for the Loksabha and also some state elections in 2009 in 5 phases ranging from April 16th to May 13th. It also started making preparations from 2008.
Russia says Dmitry Medvedev as Putin’s successor
The result of the Presidential elections in Russia which were held on 2nd March, 2008 favored Mr. Dmitry Medvedev and made him the Third President of Russia. Mr. Medvedev was supported by the former president Vladimir Putin and 5 political parties namely United Russia, Fair Russia, Agrarian Party, Civilian Power, and Russian Ecological Party. He got 71% of the total voting percent.
Though some of the official monitoring groups reported that only some candidates had the media coverage and some were treated unfair. But the European Election Monitoring Group (PACE) and Vladimir Churov, the Head of the Election Commission denoted the result as the will of the people.
One of the main reasons for Medvedev’s victory is the support of Putin. On 10th December, 2007 Vladimir Putin announced that his preferred successor was Medvedev. So other parties that supported Putin came forward announcing Medvedev as their candidate for presidential elections on Dec 17th 2007.
After registering his candidature with election commission on 20th Dec, he started his election campaign in January 2008. In his first speech he declared that he would appoint Vladimir Putin as the Prime Minister after becoming President. Putin also accepted this saying that he would be the Prime Minister with Medvedev as President. “Together we will win”, was the slogan on the election posters with both of their photos side by side. The election polls also said Medvedev would be replacing Vladimir Putin.