The EU stops people being blown up in their beds. It prevents them from cowering in fear as foreign armies roll across their country, averts human rights abuses on a scale our minds simply can’t contemplate. It thwarts, in a word, war, writes psephologist Stephen Luntz.
Elections
Europeans go to the polls
This week, the second-largest democratic election in the world takes place: an election across the 27 countries of the EU for the 736 members of the European parliament.
Iranian government blocks Facebook
Critics of the Iranian government are up in arms over the apparent blocking of social networking site Facebook just weeks before the country heads to the polls.
Indonesia comes down with election fever
The seven-week race for the Indonsian Presidency has kicked off.
Pressure for India’s Congress to do more with more
The Congress Party has achieved its best result since 1991. What will it do with its victory?
Five big challenges for Manmohan Singh
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is about to enter his second term in office with a strong mandate. TIME suggests five ways he can really make a difference.
India shows the GFC having impact on global voting
It seems that the global financial crisis has not had the devastating effect on the world’s governments that many were expecting six months ago.
Political snippets: Budget 09, quelle bore! And more
ABS cuts mean that labour force stat sample is reduced, Indian voting reaches final stages, Budget was boring.
Political snippets: Wayne Swan won’t get his Budget wish
Presenting the government wish list for Budget 09 (not that they’ll get it), astrology v polls in India and the increasing lobbying power of animal liberation groups.
South Africa desperately needs a viable Opposition
South Africa faces major challenges, and they can can only be surmounted by the emergence of a strong opposition.
Irish opt for paper ballots over e-voting
Chalk one up for AEC-style old skool pen-and-paper voting: Ireland are scrapping their e-voting system and going back to paper ballots.
Prospects of a united Cyprus look dim
The prospects of a united Cyprus receded when a nationalist party won the parliamentary election recently.
Tasmanian upper house elections
On Saturday week, one fifth of Tasmanian voters go to the polls to perform some reupholstering on the state’s 15-members Legislative Council.
weird 
Indian voters hurl abuse, and dinner, at their pollies
Inspired by the Iraqi shoethrower, this election Indians are registering their dissatisfaction by throwing dinner at their politicians.
India: The biggest election in the whole wide world
In a process will run for another month, voting begins today in India, the world’s largest democracy.
Letter from...: Bali
A Hindu ceremony and archipelago-wide feeling of apathy towards a democratic system had many project a very low voter turn out in Bali over the weekend, writes Morgan Harrington.
Letter from...: Banda Aceh
The morning was eerily silent as people made their way to the polling stations on Thursday, but by afternoon, the city of Banda Aceh was back to business as usual, writes Eleanor Kennedy.
Amid dreams of independence, Indonesia goes to the polls
Indonesia goes to the polls to elect its national and local legislatures today, in what many see as a foretaste of the presidential polls in July, writes Damien Kingsbury.
BC-STV vs MMP: a psephological case study
The old British dominions of Australia, New Zealand and Canada make for an interesting psephological compare/contrast exercise, writes Malcolm Mackerras.
NZ election 2: Will Kiwis get change as well?
Whatever the system’s defects, New Zealanders at least will get the parliament that they vote for - which doesn’t, of course, mean that they’ll like it. But that’s politics for you, writes Charles Richardson.
Recall NSW parliament, please
The last state election in NSW presented its voters with arguably the worst choice of governments anywhere in Australia in at least the last 50 years, writes Michael Gordon Smith.
The NT: the election we didn’t have to have
This weekend Northern Territorians get to go to an early election. But how about some responsible governing to go with that? NT correspondent Anthony Fraser reports.
Despite a shaky election, the signs are good for Cambodia
The ruling CPP’s big election win on the weekend is not all bad news for Cambodians, writes Andrew Nette.
Comitatus: the climate age puts Liberals in a bind
Pandering the the Liberal party base is nothing more than palliative care, writes Possum Comitatus.
Notes on life in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, part 1
Zimbabwen blogger Bev Clarke tells Crikey of her experience of Mugabe’s violence.
