Tag: election

Chairman Jerry Nadler holds a press conference ahead of Attorney General Barr release of Mueller report. Barr and Rosenstein will hold a press conference tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. ET. Click this link to set a reminder: https://youtu.be/Pmcc0fLF4AQ FOX News…

More than 190 million Indonesian voters are heading to the polls for an election that will test the country's democracy. Read more: Indonesia election puts Islam on the ballot The all-important presidential vote is a remake of the 2014 contest, with incumbent Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, once again going up against former general Prabowo Subianto. Jokowi won the 2014 election with 53% of the votes, and ran his campaign by promoting Indonesia's social plurality, while promising to boost the economy and improve infrastructure. This time around, Subianto hopes to edge off Jokowi by running on a platform of law and order, combined with conservative Islamic values. Jokowi hopes Amin can help bring in more conservative, traditional, and rural voters. "Religious regulations are used as political tools, especially in local areas, to strengthen support among an incumbent leader's constituency prior to an election," Ray Rangkuti, from the Indonesian politics watchdog Lingkar Madani, told DW. However, the parliament is decisive in creating the field for presidential elections. Sixteen parties are competing in the 2019 parliamentary elections, but Indonesian voters are also somewhat forced into voting for establishment parties. And once in parliament, parities who want to put a candidate on the ballot must have at least 20% support in the current parliament, or alternatively have won at least 25% of the vote in the latest election. Jokowi's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) won 19% of the vote in 2014, the largest party in parliament, but still under the threshold to field a candidate without a coalition.

In 2013 the Constitutional Court ruled that beginning in 2019 the legislative and presidential elections were to be held simultaneously on the same day to reduce “horse trading” or transactional alliances made among parties following the legislative elections. Time will tell if the simultaneous elections fulfill their purpose of reducing transactional politics. However, some legislative candidates aren’t waiting for the election outcome, with candidates in areas hostile to their party’s presidential candidate going against their party’s alliance and openly supporting the opposing candidate. It is vitally important to understand what other potential effects holding the elections simultaneously has on the campaign and Indonesian politics more broadly. Open list voting has led to more personalized and less party policy-based political campaigning, as candidates from not only opposing parties but also from within the same party compete for votes. So, what are some of the unintended effects of the simultaneous elections? One of the expected effects is that the two presidential parties will make gains in the legislative elections, riding the “coat-tail” effect of the popularity and attention the presidential candidates garner. People don’t know what parties think about different issues.” Puteri Komarudin, a Golkar candidate running for the House in West Java VII, said she is often contacted by the media for comment on the presidential election despite not being officially in the presidential campaign team, and that “only a few media ask questions about the legislative campaign, the rest are very presidential election centric.” This lack of media attention is mirrored in the voting public. Buky Wibawa, regional council candidate and senior figure of Gerindra’s West Java provincial chapter, said these elections may not only be the world’s largest, but also “the most complicated election in the world.” Stephani Dania, running for the council in Bandung on the National Democratic (NasDem) ticket, said campaigning was not just a matter of gaining support from voters, but that a large portion of her time was spent educating voters on the voting process for the different levels of government. This money saved would be well spent on a significant education campaign to inform voters on how the different levels of government work and how to fully participate in the biggest election day the world has ever witnessed.

FULL REMARKS: While meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House, President Trump answers reporters' questions on his relationship with North Korea, the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Attorney General Bill Barr's testimony that there…

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, police announced. #CNN #News

2020 hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Kirsten Gillibrand introduce 'Medicare-for-all 2019.' Sanders will be participating in a Fox News Town Hall on April 15th. FOX News operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Radio, FOX News…

Barr admits to suspecting spying in the 2016 election, while defending the FBI and instead choosing to lay blame with past DOJ officials. FOX News operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Radio, FOX News…

In case anyone watching Gov. First came something of an extended victory lap over what he’s done already. Edwards pointed to the fact that, for the first time in his term, he wasn’t there to talk budgetary doom and gloom. “Unlike in the past, today, we have the opportunity to put our names on a budget we can all be proud of. That last line was meant for an audience of one, House Speaker Taylor Barras, who has used his position on the Revenue Estimating Conference to unilaterally block money in economists’ forecasts from being spent. Also on Edwards’ “done” list were Medicaid expansion, impressive strides in foster care and adoption, economic development wins and criminal justice reform. Edwards pushed the teacher pay raise that he and many legislators support, starting at $1,000 this year for teachers and $500 for support staff, as well as a potentially more controversial increase in direct aid to schools. He talked up efforts to protect people with pre-existing conditions from losing their health coverage, now that a lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act — backed by Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry over Edwards’ strenuous objection — is working its way through the courts. “And we should have a robust discussion about why that coverage is now at risk.” Also on the governor’s agenda are two long-stalled items, a minimum wage hike and efforts to overcome Louisiana’s wage gap between men and women. But as Monday's proceeding hinted, this legislative session could be as divisive as usual.

The Conservative party has told potential local election candidates it is preparing to fight in the European elections in May, and asked potential MEPs to put themselves forward. Conservative MEPs were warned in a meeting last week that they faced “annihilation” in European polls, igniting fury among some at the prospect of having to spend money and time on standing again to either lose their seats or spend an unclear length of time in post, with a number considering whether they want to bother at all. A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said that it remained the intention to pass the necessary legislation so the UK did not need to participate in European parliamentary elections. The Lib Dem Brexit spokesman, Tom Brake, said: “We are raring to go to the polls with a clear offer; every Liberal Democrat elected is another voice fighting for our country’s place in the European Union.” Don't dread the European elections – they could fix our broken politics | Maya Goodfellow Read more The Conservative party has been repeatedly warned it could face a looming grassroots meltdown because of Brexit, yet new data ahead of next month’s local elections suggests the party is fielding candidates in more than 96% of the 8,374 English council seats being contested on 2 May. The Conservatives could also receive a “Brexit benefit” if May agreed a departure deal before the local elections, according to Hayward, who is a Conservative peer as well as being a noted psephologist. Labour is fielding people in 77% of seats – many of the contested areas are Tory heartlands – and the Lib Dems 53%. “Considering there is this general perception that the grassroots of the Tory party are in total despair, and immobile, 96% is the highest figure in this four-year cycle that’s ever been achieved,” Hayward said. But divining the possible impact of Brexit was very tricky, he said: “The problem is that these things are so fluid at the moment. I have no doubt in my own mind that there is a Brexit benefit to the government if there is a deal. The corollary of that is that there is clearly a dis-benefit to the Tory party to not having a deal.