Almost half of the world’s population will hold elections in 2024

About half of the world population, 49% according to AFP calculations, will celebrate elections in 2024.

Some thirty countries will elect their president, including El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela, and legislative elections are planned in twenty of them.

These elections will take place in an international context disturbed by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the war of Gaza Strip between the Palestinian movement Hamas and Israel.

They face the risk, more or less important depending on the country, of disinformation and manipulations related to artificial intelligence (AI)according to observers.

A look at the most significant elections:

United States: the revenge match?

On November 5, tens of millions of Americans will go to the polls to nominate their “great voters”, in charge of choosing the tenant of the White House.

This 60th US presidential election will have an air of something already seen, with a revenge match expected between the outgoing Democratic president Joe Biden81, and his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, 77 years old today.

This possible confrontation between veterans will be scrutinized with the perspective of the controversies and false information that surrounded the 2020 presidential election.

Trump never acknowledged his defeat and some Americans remain convinced that it was his turn “stolen” your vote.

Mexico: two women for the presidency

A woman could become president of Mexico for the first time in June, an important symbol in that country that registers thousands of femicides per year.

Two women are the favorites to succeed the outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador: the former mayor of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum, from the ruling party Morena (left), which widely leads the polls, and senator Xóchitl Gálvez, for a Front that brings together three opposition parties.

Venezuela: will the opposition be able to challenge the Chavista regime?

In Venezuela, affected by a serious political and economic crisis that led more than seven million people into exile, the socialist Nicolas Madurosuccessor to Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), seeks a third term in the second half of 2024.

His re-election in 2018, considered fraudulent, was not recognized by many countries, including the United States.

A large part of the opposition, long divided, united behind the liberal Maria Corina Machadoeven though he is not eligible.

The United States, which in October eased for six months the oil embargo it applies to Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves, is demanding the lifting of the ineligibility of opponents, including Maria Corina Machado.

Russia: the opposition muzzled

Although he has not officially announced it, there is no doubt according to observers that Vladimir Putin He will be a candidate for his succession in the presidential election scheduled for March.

Putin, who has led Russia for 23 years, had the Constitution modified in 2020, theoretically authorizing him to remain in power until 2036, which would lead him to surpass Stalin in terms of time in the Kremlin.

In recent years, the opposition and civil society have been muzzled in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.

The main political opponents are either exiled or imprisoned, as Alexei Navalny, enemy number one of the Kremlin; and others dead or physically reduced to silence.

India: almost 1 billion voters

Some 945 million Indians are called to the polls in May for the general elections in this country that in 2023 became the most populous in the world.

The BJP, the Prime Minister’s party Narendra Modiin power since 2014, is seen as the clear winner according to polls, since his nationalism seduces the Hindu majority.

This election will take place in a context of regression of political rights and civil liberties, according to the NGO Freedom House.

Led by Rahul Gandhi, the once dominant but now weakened Congress party sought to form a grand coalition with regional opposition parties of various stripes to challenge Modi.

EU: gigantic transnational election

More than 400 million voters from 27 European countries are called at the beginning of June to elect 720 MEPs, in a gigantic transnational election.

The elections could be characterized by a new advance of Eurosceptic forces, as shown by the victory of the far-right Islamophobic party PVV in the legislative elections in the Netherlands.

This election occurs when immigration is the subject of lively debates in several of the 27 countries and that the pockets of Europeans have been affected by the inflation.

Iran: 18 months after the death of Mahsa Amini

Legislative elections will be held in Iran on March 1, 18 months after the death of Mahsa Amini.

The death of this young Kurdish woman, after her arrest by the police for wearing an ill-fitting veil, triggered months of massive demonstrations against political and religious leaders.

A very repressed movement, with hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests.

The previous 2020 election was characterized by the massive disqualification of reformist and moderate candidates, in practice reducing the election to a competition between conservatives and ultra-conservatives.

Senegal: election under tension?

When about ten presidential elections are expected in Africa In 2024, the scene of eight coups d’état in three years, the election in Senegal, scheduled for February 25, could take place amid tensions.

President Macky Sall, in power since 2012, appointed his Prime Minister Amadou Ba as a candidate for his camp in September, which has been questioned internally.

On the opposition side, the candidacy of Ousmane Sonko, third in the presidential race, remains on hold, since on November 17 the Supreme Court invalidated a trial that placed the opponent back in the electoral game, which will be the subject of a new trial.