Articles by Charles Richardson

The Iranian presidential election next week (June 14) doesn’t look like being much of a contest. There were 686 nominees, but the Guardian Council has disqualified all but eight of them (see previous report here). In particular it ruled out Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president who had hoped to mobilise reformist support, and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who is […]

The Syrian conflict is beginning to look a lot like a proxy war between Russia and the West. Is this a return to the Cold War?

The opinion polls proved wrong in British Columbia, where the incumbent Liberals won in a major upset. But their first-past-the-post voting system doesn’t give much hope to Julia Gillard.

Unions NSW is taking the government to court, claiming that restricting political donations to individuals is an infringement of the implied constitutional right of freedom of political speech.

Maryland’s legislature voted last week to become the 18th state of the United States to abolish capital punishment. The legislation was passed 82-56 on Friday in the House of Delegates, having passed the Senate the previous week 27-20. It now goes to the governor, a strong opponent of capital punishment, who will sign it into law. The US […]

Ted Baillieu might now be regretting his decision to preference Labor ahead of the Greens. In Western Australia, the Liberals and Greens have come to terms. Denis Napthine should consider doing the same.

Some Liberals may want optional preferential voting to freeze out Labor and the Greens, but history shows the National Party will again stand in the way. It can’t do without it.

The school shootings in Connecticut have revived a stalled debate on gun control. But history is against any meaningful action to limit gun ownership.

Will it President Obama be plagued by the same legislative gridlock that has characterised the last two years, or willhe find himself with a more co-operative Congress?

Tomorrow is the day the United States goes to the polls. For those unsure of what to look for, Crikey provides a guide of all the paths to the White House.

Election results in Sydney, Melbourne and the ACT point to moderately good news for Labor — and the Greens will take some comfort from their inner-city results. Is the anti-incumbency vibe waning?

Kofi Annan has thrown in the towel on Syria, recognising his “peace plan” is a dead letter. In our devotion to peaceful outcomes we lose sight of the fact that sometimes there is only fighting.

Democracy in the Middle East continues to be something of a hard slog. But Libya this week looks like a good news story.

In their very different ways, the voters of Mexico and the education bureaucrats of Victoria seem to have reached the same conclusion.

With the Gillard government being consistently outgunned and just plain monstered in public debate, it has more cause than ever to regret the departure of former finance minister Lindsay Tanner.