Alan's Green Thoughts

Five days ago, the early British Columbian provincial election of 2020, which should not have been called that early given that the coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing, resulted in a landslide for the New Democratic Party, Canada's answer to the Labour Party. Even though the NDP were the party to call the early election, having only had a minority of seats and relying on the Greens for confidence and supply, they benefitted surprisingly well. The NDP gained 14 seats, 13 from the Liberals and one from the Greens; as it happened the provincial NDP MP who gained the seat of Oak Bay-Gordon Head from the Greens, following the retirement of former BC Greens leader Andrew Weaver (who left the BC Green caucus earlier this year) was Murray Rankin, who represented Victoria in the Canadian House of Commons; Mr Rankin was almost defeated by the Greens the first time he stood (in the Victoria by-election of 2012), and Victoria remains a top target for the Canadian Greens. In compensation the ...

The Lithuanian parliamentary election of 2020 concluded yesterday when the 68 of its 71 single member constituencies that had to undergo a second round of voting declared their results, with the proportional representation results having been finalised a fortnight ago. The Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVZS)-led coalition suffered a resounding defeat, even though coronavirus infection rates have been low in Lithuania (10,949 active cases, 136 deaths, with at least 6000 patients having recovered). LVZS only polled 18.07% and won just 32 seats, knocking it down to second place in seat terms as well as regarding vote share, with the conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) once again topping the poll. Given the fragmentation of Baltic politics, it was however unsurprising that their vote share was only 25.77%, representing an increase of just 3.14% on the 2016 elections, and their seat total came to 50, amounting to just 35.5% of the Seimas seats. It was ...

Six days ago, Bolivia held its general and presidential elections, the 2019 elections having been annulled within an ongoing political crisis that resulted in the ousting of Bolivia's popular socialist-inclined president, Evo Morales, linked to the fact there are substantial lithium deposits in Bolivia which corporations want access to for the electric vehicle market; Bolivia rightly wanted to control. These elections were originally scheduled for May 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed them by five months. Progressive parties and voters in Bolivia thoroughly repudiated the US-backed coup d'etat that led Jeanine Anez to become interim President of Bolivia for almost a year; she did not run herself or endorse any other candidate, but called on parties outside the MAS (Movement for Socialism) to ally to stop MAS' presidential candidate, Luis Arce, taking office. This did not happen and in any event Senor Arce polled 55.1% of the vote, guaranteeing him the Presidency in the...

  As predicted, the New Zealand 2020 general election rewarded New Zealand's Labour Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, with a convincing victory and the first single-party majority in the New Zealand Parliament since the introduction of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation in New Zealand elections starting from 1996. Ms Ardern and the New Zealand Labour Party won 64 seats, its highest total ever, winning 43 single member constituencies, or electorates, out of 72 and 21 out of 48 list seats. Its vote share of 49.15% was also its highest since 1946, showing an improvement of as high as 12.26%, although many pollsters believed it would poll over 50% of the vote. Ms Ardern was undoubtedly rewarded for her first-class handling of the coronavirus pandemic in New Zealand, where face masks are not compulsory on public transport and where social distancing is for the most part no longer mandated at present, although under its alert levels system this could potentially change. Prior t...

  Although no local by-elections will be taking place in England and Wales until 2021 (Northern Ireland does not hold local by-elections, except where the vacancy concerns a councillor elected as an Independent), local by-elections have started again in Scotland. The results of these three by-elections are as follows: (1/10/20): Orkney UA, North Isles: Independent (Heather Woodbridge*) 638 (69.9%), Labour 158 (17.3%), Independent (Stevens) 75 (8.2%), Independent (Adams) 42 (4.6%). Independent gain from another Independent. *Ms Woodbridge is the daughter of Kevin Woodbridge, a previous Independent councillor for the ward who died in April. (8/10/20): Eilean Siar UA, Na Hearadh agus Ceann a Deas nan Loch ("Harris and South Lewis"): Independent (Fulton) 536 (74.9%), Independent (MacDonald) 158 (22.1%), Independent (O'Donnell) 22 (3.1%). Independent gain from another Independent. (15/10/20): Aberdeenshire UA, Ellon & District (1st preference votes): SNP 1683 (42.3%, +10.6...

  Yesterday, the state election in the Austrian capital, Vienna, took place, which featured a rather sensational result. The Lithuanian parliamentary election also took place the same day, but as the second round of constituency voting in Lithuania (which uses parallel voting) will not conclude until 25 October, I cannot report on it yet. In Vienna, the Freedom Party of Austria endured its worst ever result in an Austrian state election, falling to 7.7% of the vote and an embarassing fifth place behind NEOS. This is first time the FPO have finished fifth in any Austrian election at state or federal level. Their humiliation came about primarily as a result of the Ibiza affair last year, which resulted in the resignation of Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache (who subsequently formed his own party, Team HC Strache-Alliance for Austria for this election) and the early Austrian parliamentary election of 2019. On current opinion polls in Austria FPO is now languishing in fourth plac...