Full Coverage: Democracy

28.02.2006 Portia Simpson Miller is being called "a firebrand type of politician who has really hit home when it comes to the majority of people--especially women, the poor, and the unemployed."

28.02.2006 The head of Swaziland's oldest political party has pledged to officially register his organisation, testing whether the country's new constitution has really marked the end of decades of a royal decree prohibiting political opposition.

27.02.2006 The US President should press his Pakistani counterpart, General Pervez Musharraf, to step down as army chief, hold elections, and restore civilian rule, a leading rights group said ahead of Bush's scheduled to visit Pakistan this week.

26.02.2006 As Philippines democracy activists prepared to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the toppling of the authoritarian Marcos regime Friday--hoping to "reinvigorate people with the spirit of 1986"--President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo laid down a stifling State of Emergency.

24.02.2006 Bolivia's new president is pushing for a new body politic that would ensure the representation of the country's two-thirds majority indigenous population. A minimum of one-third of the seats would be held by women too.

24.02.2006 In Europe, Africa, and South America, women have just taken top posts. But the bigger picture is not so rosy for women, which is surprising, because studies show that when women hold power the quality of governance rises, corruption sinks, and citizens are better represented.

24.02.2006 Ever stricter border patrols only seem to be causing more death and danger for Latin Americans looking for a better life up north, reports Diego Cevallos.

24.02.2006 Ballots were being counted across Uganda on Friday after the country’s first multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections in 26 years ended peacefully, election officials said.
* Yoweri Museveni: running on empty

24.02.2006 Corruption in Kenya is driven by neo-liberal policies imposed by the West as well as by a lack of democratic institutions, argues Onyango Oloo, a political activist and former political prisoner.

23.02.2006 American companies are under attack from Congress for helping the Chinese government suppress free speech but it's the U.S. government that really has the power to affect change, argues former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

23.02.2006 Chile made waves recently when it elected Latin America’s first woman President, Michelle Bachelet of the Socialist Party, single mother of three, paediatrician turned politician, political prisoner of the dreaded Pinochet regime. It made waves again when Bachelet nominated a gender-balanced cabinet with 50 per cent women, as she had promised in her election campaign. Arati R Jerath interviews Senator Jaime Gazmuri for DNA World.

22.02.2006 The European Centre for Minority Issues – ECPM presented its proposal for changes in the Election Law, with recommendations to develop and promote realistic and just multiethnic society. The proposal was prepared by the expert group for citizen rights working under the “Roma Expert Groups for Roma Integration”, established by ECMI.

20.02.2006 NEW YORK, Feb 20 (OneWorld) - Celebrations of Rene Preval's election as Haiti's new president could prove short-lived in the face of political restlessness and doubts about whether the international community will help heal poverty's open sores in the western hemisphere's poorest and most unequal society, analysts have warned.

17.02.2006 Rene Preval won the election, but in a letter to the U.N. special envoy in Haiti, the Haiti Support Group asks about the charges of fraud and vote-rigging that have not yet been addressed. The group calls for a thorough and transparent investigation into the allegations before confidence in the electoral authorities can be resotred.

16.02.2006 Students from NYC discuss their reactions to last month's State of the Union speech. Find out how they feel about America's future and what they think about immigration, foreign policy, free market failures and, of course, education.

15.02.2006 Costa Rica is a small Central American country of four million people that - unlike its neighbors El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua during their bloody civil wars - has never attracted much attention in the United States, except as a destination for tourists and retirees. But last Sunday's election there should serve as another wake-up call for Washington.

15.02.2006 Despite achieving remarkable growth in the last decade, tribal nations continue to lack resources, said National Congress of American Indians president Joe Garcia recently, noting that their success still depends on U.S. government investment as well as its respect for tribal rights.

14.02.2006 New Delhi: An unprecedented public appeal by a top Nepalese Maoist leader to Indian Maoists to embrace multiparty democracy is sure to further intensify an ideological struggle among the extreme leftists in this country.

14.02.2006 For three days in a row supporters of presidential candidate Rene Preval have taken to the streets of Port-au-Prince demanding that he be declared the winner of Haiti's election. With 90% of the election tally sheets counted, Preval is in the lead with 48% of the tabulated vote and full results are expected today.

13.02.2006 Bush’s proposed fiscal year 2007 budget, released last week, calls for increasing military expenditures to fight the continuing war in Iraq. Top officials are quickly renaming it the “Long War”, signaling the realization that the war on terror is nowhere near complete, says openDemocracy.