Category Archives: Elections 2021

Gabriel Boric’s triumph puts wind in the sails of Latin America’s resurgent left

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The decisive victory reflects Chileans’ revolt against a threadbare welfare system and a society systematically stacked in the favour of the rich

At the age of 14, Gabriel Boric – the great-grandson of a Croatian migrant and an avid reader of Marx and Hegel – formed a city-wide student union in the Chilean city of Punta Arenas.

At 21, and by then a law student, he led a campus sit-in for 44 days in Santiago, Chile’s capital, to oust a senior professor accused of plagiarism and corruption. Two years later, in 2011, he was elected figurehead of a massive student rebellion against profiteering private universities, and in 2013 became a congressman for his remote home region.

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Chile’s right rejoices after pro-Pinochet candidate wins presidential first round

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José Antonio Kast will face progressive former student leader Gabriel Boric in runoff election next month

Chile’s right wing have claimed a jubilant victory after José Antonio Kast, a former congressman with a history of defending the Pinochet dictatorship, secured a surprise win in the first round of the country’s presidential election.

Kast, who campaigned on a platform of public order, migration controls and conservative social values, confounded expectations to take 28% of the vote and beat the progressive former student leader Gabriel Boric by two percentage points.

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Turnout at Iraqi national election as low as 25% as many boycott polls

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Disillusioned youth and middle classes stay home rather than vote for system they believe has failed

Iraqis have turned out in low numbers in a national election, with many boycotting a poll that people feared could reinforce a political system that had failed them.

Nationwide turnout at the sixth ballot since the ousting of Saddam Hussein in 2003 was thought to be as low as 25%, with the country’s disillusioned youth and middle classes largely staying home.

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Police commissioner candidate withdraws over drink-driving conviction

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Tory Jonathon Seed, who was running in Wiltshire, was told 30-year-old offence debarred him, contradicting earlier assurances

A Tory candidate to be a police and crime commissioner (PCC) has withdrawn on the eve of counting after it emerged he had a 30-year-old conviction for drink-driving.

Jonathon Seed has been debarred from becoming a PCC due to a historical driving offence that had come to light, the Conservative party said in a statement.

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SNP election win: Johnson sets up summit as Sturgeon pledges second referendum

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First minister says there is ‘no democratic justification’ for No 10 denying second vote

Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to press ahead with plans for a second independence referendum after the Scottish National party won its fourth consecutive Holyrood election, triggering a constitutional battle with Boris Johnson.

In a letter issued before the final results were declared, Johnson attempted to blunt Sturgeon’s attack by urging the first minister and her opposite numbers in Wales and Northern Ireland to join a UK-wide Covid recovery summit involving all four governments.

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Elections 2021: Labour wins mayoral races in Greater Manchester and West of England, holds Welsh Senedd – live

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All the latest news and results as counts continue in England and Scotland after Thursday’s elections

Scotland’s first list results are out, with Central Scotland declaring the following:

First list declaration out - for Central Scotland, it's Leonard (Lab) Kerr (Con), Lennon (Lab), Simpson (Con), Griffin (Lab), Gallacher (Con), Mackay (Green). So three Labour, three Tory, and one Green.

Asked whether it was realistic to have a referendum in the first half of parliament, Nicola Sturgeon said that while getting through the pandemic has to come first, it looks as though it is “beyond any doubt that there will be a pro-independence majority in Scottish parliament”.

She told BBC News: “By any normal standard of democracy that majority should have the commitments it made to the people honoured.

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Keir Starmer concedes Labour has lost the trust of working people

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Leader says party considering moving HQ out of London to show it represents the whole country after May election defeats

The Conservatives inflicted a historic byelection defeat on Labour and regained the Tees Valley mayoralty by a landslide as Keir Starmer conceded his party had lost the trust of working people across England.

The Labour leader, who called the local election results “bitterly disappointing”, is considering moving his party’s headquarters out of London to reflect Labour’s determination to show that it represents the whole country, party sources told the Guardian.

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