Zelensky is named in the Pandora Papers for offshore accounts set up *before* the election. You have to feel bad for Ukrainians, who trusted him enough to give him 73% of the vote... after he spent the campaign railing against the exact same thing theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/…
The question is where do Ukrainians even go after being betrayed by the politicians who engaged in corruption and the comedian who hammered politicians for engaging in corruption
It's not like Zelensky's government has been smooth sailing until this point, and he's still polling first. Not sure to what degree this news will take hold either. Polls and his approval rating remain important indicators here
The next election is also in 2024, which is a really long time in politics. Zelensky has also pledged to serve only one term, which pollsters don't seem to think he'll stick to, but that's an easy out for him if things truly go south with his numbers
For context, two polls from last month had Zelensky doing about as well or better in the first round compared to 2019. That's before this news dropped of course, but after a very rocky tenure in office
His party (obligatory note: named after his TV show) is not in nearly as good shape, getting sliced by half or more in polls. They've also dropped well beneath first place at times. And Zelensky's standing in second round polls has been reduced as well
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Today's Activa poll for the Chilean presidential election shows pro-Pinochet candidate José Antonio Kast in second place, which would put him in the run-off
However at the moment, the same poll shows left-wing candidate Boric is expected to crush Kast in a second round
I like how the standard polisci argument for why the American electoral system is unfair under FPTP but will never change is just that legislators will never vote against their own interests. As if that isn't terrible
To some degree it's true but it's a mistake to think that's something set in iron, and effective mass movements could have a lot of influence here
Hard mode: A third party (I know Yang wants this but anyone really famous could run as a "reformer" and sweep Congress in 2/3 cycles if they're popular enough and truly cut across demographics. That's a *huge* lift)
Easy mode: Run someone in the major parties committed to reform
South Africa's former finance minister wants discussion of a referendum on autonomy or independence for the Cape region to be halted, saying "We are one united country" (via @Ellibec) citizen.co.za/news/south-afr…
A recent poll showed that 48% of voters in the province of Western Cape said yes to the idea of becoming independent
Even the ANC has had to comment on this apparently. This recent press release (yesterday) from the Cape Independence Advocacy Group says the ANC might be open to a referendum but they'd want all of South Africa to vote on the issue capeindependence.org/post/watershed…
Also running and losing can arguably help your next campaign by shoring you up in terms of name recognition. Which is why we know who Zephyr Teachout is, and why she's able to mount these kinds of high profile campaigns, because she challenged Cuomo despite incredibly long odds
This is pretty much what it comes down to in any situation, no matter how annoying "oh, they're trying AGAIN" might seem
Rome is about to hold its mayoral election. On the ballot is Sergio Iacomoni AKA Nero, running with his "Nero List" ("Lista Nerone").
Iacomoni is a well-known Roman Empire reenactor who has traveled the world with his historical society and says he wants to "resurrect Rome"
Hardcore
The platform for the Nero List (Full name: "Roman Historical Movement - Nero List") involves heavy subsidizing of traditional Roman festivals and music, as well as a promise to "sponsor bagpipers in each municipality" movimentostoricoromano.it/programma
In Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, there's a mayoral election on November 14th. After the incumbent right-wing mayor derided his opponent Edu Nakayama (from a centrist party) simply for being Japanese, this is how Edu responded
Small correction, he was the incumbent until July, the acting mayor who took over in 2019. He resigned because it was required by the law in order to run for a full term I believe
This election could be really interesting because up until now that mayor, Óscar "Nenecho" Rodríguez, was polling pretty well. The most recently released polls show him beating Nakayama easily, but that comment was made on the 23rd