Courtesy: WTOP
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s siblings last week accused him of putting self-interest before good governance. Yet, his personal popularity remains untarnished. The Singaporean economy may no longer be the powerhouse it was and the country’s cost competitiveness may have declined, but the government has been working to regain its edge
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Iran’s presidential elections have always been unmatched in the unpredictability of their outcome. Will the pro-reform vote be able to hold out against Ebrahim Raisi, the current president’s most serious competitor, with his appeal to the masses and traditional, conformist Iranians?
Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disqualification from contesting the May 2017 presidential election has reduced the number of aspirants to six. The winner may well be a contender for the post of next Supreme Leader too
Courtesy: The Telegraph
Extreme right candidate, Marine Le Pen, and Emmanuel Macron, a centrist, will figure in the first round of presidential elections in France on April 23. In a country that has always voted either Republican or Socialist, a departure to the far right will have an impact the markets and many implications for Europe
Courtesy: Wikipedia
Referendums are a way of mobilising society and bringing in exceptional change. Turkey’s third constitutional referendum in the last 10 years, being held on Sunday, April 16, is the greatest of them in many respects as it puts the country on uncharted waters, having it move from one unbalanced system to another
Courtesy: Channel News Asia
Allegations of corruption brought down erstwhile South Korean president Park Geun-Hye. Now, there are many changes afoot: the new president who will be elected in May will face some crucial dilemmas that may affect the country’s relations with China and North Korea, besides the U.S.
Courtesy: Asia Times
The 26 March 2017 election of the chief executive of Hong Kong is the first since the failure of the 2014 political reform package. It is partly unique because of who is not running, namely current chief executive CY Leung, who has incurred his share of unpopularity. Who will be the victor?
Courtesy: Manjeet Kripalani
There is much dissatisfaction with the status quo in India’s largest state, where bribery and corruption are endemic and leaders with a national identity hard to find. A six-day trip through eastern UP offered insight into the state’s changing mindset
Courtesy: RTL
The French presidential election, which is less than two months away, defies attempts at predicting who the finalists of the two-round tourney will be, what with allegations of corruption being hurled at the contestants and new revelations unfolding on a daily basis.
Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
China’s resurrection of the ancient Silk Road is ambitious, sprawling, hegemonic. Its pre-European origins, though, lay in a criss-crossing of nameless caravan routes on which Indian cotton was traded as vigorously as Chinese silk, tangible proof of the interdependence of two ancient civilisations over two millennia