Even in a busy election year around the world, the next few days stand out.
Over the next week, voters go to the polls in fledgling democracies such as Mauritania and Mongolia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in robust democracies – former imperial powers – Britain and France.
While US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump were due to hold on Thursday the first of two TV debates Before the expected impasse in November, other countries face difficult choices.
Votes could reorient the world at a time of war in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; mutual suspicion between some great powers; and growing public anxiety about things like jobs, climate change, taxesinflation and the rise of AI.
National elections take place in more than 50 countries this year. India, Mexico It is South Africa ushered in political changes or surprises at the polls. Russia did not.
Here’s a look at the election unrest in the coming days in countries that are collectively home to about 225 million people across Europe, Africa and Asia:
In Will on Friday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is looking for a successor to his hard-line protégé, President Ebrahim Raisi, who died last month in a helicopter accident.
Two hardliners – former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and parliamentary president Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf – are among candidates who include Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon seen as a reformist who has aligned himself with supporters of relatively moderate former president Hassan Rouhani.
Amid signs of widespread voter apathy, Khamenei called for maximum participation and issued a veiled warning to Pezeshkian and his allies about trusting the USA
Iran faced economic problems, in part due to international sanctions, after Trump in 2018 destroyed Iran’s nuclear deal has been reached three times before with world powers. Since then, Iran has increased uranium enrichment and now has enough to be able to produce several nuclear weapons.
The Islamic Republic has sought to position itself as a leader of the Muslim world’s resentment against the West and Israel, which Iran attacked directly for the first time this year. For years, Iran has supported a range of militant groups, including Palestinian Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
France should not hold national elections this year.
But a defeat for his moderate, pro-business party in EU elections this month prompted President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve the National Assembly It is call early parliamentary electionswhich will take place in two rounds over the next two Sundays.
The result could send the nuclear-armed nation into uncharted political territory at a turbulent time for Europe: a victory for the anti-immigration National Rally party could produce the first far-right government in France since the Nazi occupation in World War II .
The National Rally came first among French parties in the EU vote, and polls suggest it could win the largest bloc of seats in the Assembly. If he obtains an absolute majority, he will be able to appoint 28-year-old president of the party Jordan Bardella as Prime Minister.
Macron, whose term ends in 2027, would retain his role but would have to share power with a party with historical links to racism and anti-Semitism that firmly opposes many of his positions, including military support for Ukraine.
The outcome of the French vote remains very uncertain due to the complex two-round system and the alliances that parties could form between the two rounds.
Western Europe’s other nuclear power, Britain, will hold parliamentary elections on Thursday.
Like their neighbors across the English Channel in France, the British appear ready to topple the ruling party: polls suggest the Conservatives are headed for a historic defeat in the House of Commons after 14 years in power.
On Wednesday, the conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak It is Labor Party Leader Keir Starmer fought for receive your messages among protesters stifled their responses at the start of a heated TV debate. They traded criticisms and barbs on issues of ethics, taxes and migration.
Britain, under the Conservatives, has been one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine in its national defense against Russia and a potential Labor government is not expected to waver in that support for Kiev.
Starmer may be inclined to improve the UK’s relationship with the EU after Brexit more than four years ago, but he has been adamant that a Labor government will not try to reverse the will of the people in the referendum.
Nearly 2 million people will go to the polls on Saturday in Mauritania, a vast desert nation in West Africa that positions itself as a strategic ally of the West but has been denounced for rights violations.
President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, the former army chief who came to power in the country’s first democratic transition in 2019, faces seven rivals. They include Biram Dah Abeid, an anti-slavery activist and third-time candidate, and several opposition party leaders, as well as a neurosurgeon.
One of the most stable countries in Africa’s arid Sahel region, Mauritania has seen some of its neighbors shaken by military coups and jihadist violence.
The European Union this year announced financing help Mauritania crack down on human smugglers and dissuade migrants from embarking on dangerous Atlantic crossings from West Africa to Europe — the numbers of which have risen sharply — and patrol its border with restive forces Mali.
In the 1980s, Mauritania became the last country in the world to ban slavery. But nearly 150,000 people — in a country with fewer than 5 million people — remain affected by modern slavery, according to the 2023 Global Slavery Index.
Also on Friday is the vote for parliament in Mongoliaa country of 3.4 million people that emerged from around six decades of communist rule to become a democracy in 1990, and is wedged between two much larger authoritarian states: Russia and China.
Voters will choose representatives for a body that has been expanded to 126 seats, 50 more than in the current legislature.
The ruling Mongolian People’s Party, which ruled the country during the communist era but has transformed into a left-leaning centrist party, is the favorite to win.
But other parties could make gains, possibly even enough to force the People’s Party to form a coalition government with the Democratic Party or the HUN Party, an emerging player in Mongolian politics.
Discontent with the government was fueled by accusations of corruption and large protests It broke out two years ago.
The Mongolian government sought keep ties with China and Russia, while building new ones with the US and their democratic allies — a delicate task, as the two sides are increasingly at odds.
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Associated Press writers Ken Moritsugu in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Monika Pronczuk in Dakar, Senegal; Angela Charlton in Paris and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
