Washington praises Ukraine vote as boost for democracy

Washington on Tuesday praised Ukraine’s presidential elections, saying the polls were another step in the consolidation of the country’s democracy.

“The United States commends the Ukrainian people on the conduct of the February 7 second round of presidential elections,” the US embassy said in a statement.

“We welcome the high turnout of voters. The conduct of both the first and second rounds reflect another step in the consolidation of Ukraine?s democracy,” it added.

The brief statement however made no mention of the winner of the elections, Viktor Yanukovych.

Yanukovych was accused of rigging the last elections in 2004 that led to the Orange Revolution and is generally seen as a pro-Kremlin figure.

Costa Rica elects first woman president

Costa Rica has elected its first ever woman president, Laura Chinchilla, who received 47% of the votes from Sunday’s election.

Fifty year old Chinchilla is a member of the National Liberation Party (PLN) and beat her two main rivals, Otton Solis and Otto Guevara to win the election. She has previously served as vice-president under her predecessor Oscar Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987.

A social conservative, Chinchilla is against gay marriage and abortion. In her acceptance speech, she said: “I have been handed a mandate to fight criminals and drug traffickers with firmness and intelligence.”

She went on to thank: “those who shepherded through the cause of equal opportunities for women…and opened up spaces for women in the government; those who today work double and triple shifts, dream much and sleep little, as mothers, as wives, as workers, continuing to overcome barriers and creating a grander Costa Rica.”

Costa Rica – meaning ‘Rich Coast’ – is very pro-environment and it is expected that Chinchilla will continue the country’s environmental and free trade work. With no army, Costa Rica has enjoyed many decades of political stability and the country was ranked 1st in the 2009 ‘Happy Planet Index’ by the New Economics Foundation, in terms of its people living long and fulfilling lives.

Chinchilla will join two other Latin America female leaders – both Chile and Argentina currently have woman leaders. She will take office on 8 May 2010.

Sri Lanka’s opposition candidate rejects results showing he lost presidential election

Sri Lanka’s opposition candidate says he will challenge reported results showing the president has won re-election.

In a letter to the election commission, Sarath Fonseka said Wednesday that the results showing President Mahinda Rajapaksa won 58 per cent of the vote were not valid.

Rajapaksa wins Lankan Presidential polls

Incumbent Mahinda Rajapska on Wednesday emerged victorious in the bitterly-fought first post-LTTE era Presidential elections against former army chief Sarath Fonseka after counting showed that he had secured nearly 60 per cent of the total votes polled, according to his office.

64-year-old Rajapaksa polled 60 lakh votes or 58.8 per cent of the total ballots cast while Fonseka, the joint opposition candidate, secured 41 lakh or 40.8 per cent, sources in the President’s office said.

Fonseka’s credentials questioned in Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan government has objected to retired general Sarath Fonseka’s candidacy in the presidential election.

The government has said Fonseka may not have been a legal candidate in this week’s elections and has said it will take its case to court.

After polling stations closed on Tuesday, the government alleged Mr Fonseka’s name was not on his local electoral register, therefore he was not allowed to vote.

Out of war’s shadow, Sri Lankans vote for president

Two former allies who led Sri Lanka to victory in a 25-year civil war dueled at the ballot box on Tuesday after a bitter, personal campaign for the country’s first peacetime presidential vote in nearly three decades.

More than 14 million people registered to vote, and polling began amid heavy security and fears that election day would be as bloody as a campaign in which five people were killed and more than 800 violent incidents were recorded.

The Hague welcomes Antilles PAR victory

Deputy Minister Anke Bijleveld for Kingdom Relations has welcomed news that the governing PAR party of the Netherlands Antilles has won Friday’s parliamentary elections, paving the way for territorial reform.

Ms Bijleveld has congratulated PAR leader Emily de Jongh-Elhage on her victory. PAR favours a Dutch government plan to break up the Antilles as a separate political entity on 10 October.

Dutch Antilles go to polls

The Dutch Antilles is choosing a new parliament today – perhaps for the last time.

Father Ramiro Richards calls them the five “immoral laws” the Netherlands wants to introduce in Bonaire: “gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia, legalised drugs and legalised prostitution”. And that is not all. “The arrival of large numbers of European Dutch has led to moral decay amongst the island’s populace,” the pastor told NRC Handelsblad recently. Even his church is no longer safe. He slipped a key into the heavy locks guarding the doors. He had recently been the victim of a couple of break-ins. “Bonaire has changed,” he said, by way of welcome.

Netherlands Antilles gears up for final election

The people of the Netherlands Antilles go to the polls today to elect a new parliament. It is the final ballot before the Antilles ceases to exist as a political entity on 10 October.

From that date, the Caribbean islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten will become autonomous territories within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius will become special municipalities of the Netherlands.

Tamil vote crucial in Sri Lanka election

The two main contenders in next Tuesday’s presidential election in Sri Lanka were given the most credit by their majority Sinhalese people for ending the civil war for a separate Tamil homeland, but as the polling date approaches, it may be the minority Tamil vote that decides the final outcome.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced the Jan. 26 election seeking another term although he had two more years remaining in his current one.