By Naira Davlashyan  & translated by Alice Tidey | EuroNews.Com

Russia’s ruling party has seen its majority decrease dramatically in Moscow’s city legislature after a summer of protests.

Candidates from United Russia, which supports President Vladimir Putin, were on course to claim 26 seats of the City Duma’s 45 seats, according to RIA news agency, citing nearly-complete election data.

This is down 16 from the 40 the party previously held, while the Communist Party was reportedly going to win 13 seats, the centre-left A Just Russia three seats and liberal party Yabloko three seats, coming back from its leader, Sergei Mitrokhin, initially being banned from standing.

It suggested a tactical voting strategy pushed by Putin’s opponents may have worked — prominent opposition politician Alexei Navalny advised his supporters to vote tactically across Russia for the candidate with the best chance of defeating United Russia.

Several regional and local elections took place across Russia on Sunday following two months of intense protest in the capital to denounce the authorities’ decision to ban opposition and independent candidates from running.

Most of the attention has been focused on Moscow, where rallies calling for free and fair election were organised every weekend throughout July and August, gathering tens of thousands in the biggest social unrest movement to rock the country in years.

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BBC.Com

Russia’s ruling United Russia party has suffered major losses in Sunday’s election to the Moscow city parliament, nearly complete results show.

The party lost nearly a third of the seats in the 45-member parliament, but remains on course to retain its majority with about 26 seats.

With most opposition candidates disqualified, the Communists, independents and others gained seats.

The exclusion of the opposition candidates triggered mass protests.

• The woman driving Russia’s opposition protests
• Moscow crackdown in pictures

Thousands of people have been detained, and riot police have been accused of a brutal crackdown on demonstrators.

What’s the latest from Moscow?

With nearly all the results in, United Russia is predicted to get 26 seats in the city parliament (Mosgorduma).

The party’s brand has become so toxic lately that all its members ran as independents, the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford in Moscow reports.

In a major upset, the party’s leader in the Russian capital, Andrei Metelsky, was not re-elected.

The Communist Party is expected to get 13 seats, while the liberal Yabloko party and left-leaning Just Russia will each have three seats.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny promoted a strategy of “smart voting” after his own allies were all barred from running in this election.

Mr Navalny’s team exposed what they called “undercover” United Russia candidates, and campaigned for those best placed to defeat them. He described the result as “fantastic”.

State media are mostly presenting the results in Moscow as a win for the governing party in any case, our correspondent says.

But the Kremlin will certainly be studying the real picture, and what it says about the public mood in the Russian capital, she adds.

Turnout in Sunday’s election was about 22%.

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April 11, 2019 | BBC.Com

Indians have begun voting in the first phase of a general election that is being seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Tens of millions of Indians across 20 states and union territories will cast their votes in 91 constituencies.

The seven-phase vote to elect a new lower house of parliament will continue until 19 May. Counting day is 23 May.

With 900 million eligible voters across the country, this is the largest election ever seen.

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Agence France-Presse in Bratislava

Vocal government critic and anti-corruption activist Zuzana Čaputová was set to become Slovakia’s first female president after near complete results showed her winning Saturday’s runoff election.

The environmental lawyer got 58.01% of the ballot after results from more than 90% of polling stations were counted, while the EU energy commissioner Maroš Šefčovič garnered 41.98, the Slovak statistics office said.

“No need to worry, all will be fine,” Čaputová had said on Facebook after the first results began rolling in.

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Argyll Cyrus Geducos | Manila Bulletin

February 23, 2019

President Duterte has chosen former Interior Secretary Raffy Alunan as the candidate to complete his senatorial line-up for the upcoming May 2019 midterm polls.

This was confirmed as Alunan attended PDP-Laban’s campaign in Biñan, Laguna Saturday. He is PDP-Laban’s seventh guest candidate.

“Malaking karangalan (It’s a huge honor) to be part of the President’s team for May 2019,” he told the crowd.

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