Major Developments Major Developments by Calendar Year

On 17^th 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.

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 22^nd July 2008, UPA government had to face trust vote that is vote of confidence. On 21^st 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 16^th to May 13^th. It also started making preparations from 2008.

The result of the Presidential elections in Russia which were held on 2^nd 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 10^th 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 17^th 2007.

After registering his candidature with election commission on 20^th 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.

Nepal was under monarchy for several years and Kings used to rule in Nepal.But 2008 elections brought the monarchy to an end. For this to happen they conducted elections to form democratic government. The elections for forming a constituent assembly in Nepal were postponed twice and at last they were successfully held on 10th April, 2008.

After the elections the results were announced on May 8th 2008. The highest number of seats were won by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists). The members elected for constituent assembly were sworn in on 27th May, 2008 and the first constituent assembly was conducted on 28th May. In the first meeting of the constituent assembly, Nepal was declared as a Federal Democratic Republic country. With a count of 564 members in the assembly, 560 supported the proposal while only four members rejected it.

The national flag of Nepal was hosted on Narayanahiti palace on 29th May by removing the royal standard. The former king Gyanendra announced that he accepted the constitution on 2nd June. As Gyanendra was asked to leave the Narayanahiti palace , he requested the government to make some sort of arrangement for his residence and he was accepted to stay in Nagarjuna palace. Gyanendra left the Narayanahiti Palace on 11th June after declaring his acceptance and co-operation for the government. The first president Dr. Ram Baran Yadav from Nepali congress was elected on 21st July with a majority of 308 from a total of 590 votes. Later Subash Chandra Nembang of CPN-UML was elected unopposed as the Chairman of Constituent Assembly. The Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda was elected as the first Prime Minister of Nepal with an enormous majority of 464 votes.

As per the statistics given by various organizations worldwide for the 56th Presidential elections of USA which were to be held on Nov 4th 2008 between Barack Obama(democrat) and John McCain (Republican), Obama received 62% votes on an average of different surveys.

The reasons for this public opinion is as follows:
The Americans were waiting for a change in order to face the financial, political crisis, and also the problem of terrorism. Barack Obama was entirely opposing George Bush in his policies and also he presented himself as a person with global outlook and as a leader for change.

Obama also opposed dropping of nuclear bombs on terrorists, his idea was to remove nuclear weapons from the hands of terrorists. For this he also announced to withdraw armies from Iraq from the day he took the power in his hands. He also put forth his policies to end terrorism in front of the people.

His foreign policies on not only Iraq but also on all the countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India, Europe, Africa etc attracted the Americans to vote for Obama. Besides this John McCain supported George bush and his foreign policies. His foreign policies were also not so realistic. This made people think twice before voting to him.