2024 Elections

In 2024, more than half the planet will vote in elections. However not all elections are equal and whilst the better ones can completely change the course of a country or even the world, others are little more than a farcical sham.

The dark burgundy circles represent good and almost ideal democracies despite the best efforts of the evil Boris, Rishi and Oliver Dowdens Conservatives. Many of the other similarly colour circles are to be found in Western Europe.

At the other end of the scale, nobody can really believe that the Russian election will be free, fair or change the government in anyway shape or form.

Obviously two of the most important countries in the world are having elections too in the shape of India and the USA. Their classification is that their elections still matter and to varying degrees may even be free and fair but that related aspects such as voter participation or quality of governance may be flawed.

76 countries are scheduled to hold elections in which all voters have the chance to cast a ballot in 2024. Of the 71 covered by eiu’s Democracy Index, 43 will enjoy fully free and fair votes (27 of which are EU members); the other 28 do not meet the essential conditions for a democratic vote. Eight of the ten most populous countries in the world—Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia and the United States—will hold elections in 2024. In half of these, elections are neither free nor fair and many other prerequisites of democracy, such as freedom of speech and association, are absent. Elections in Bangladesh, Mexico, Pakistan and Turkey (all hybrid regimes, which combine elements of democracy and authoritarianism) and Russia (an authoritarian one) are almost certain not to bring regime change.

Of course not everyone is voting and a huge chunk of the planet has never voted including the billion or so in that big circle China, the one even more tyrannical than Russia is.

I was actually approached to stand for election but to be honest since being #Excluded, every single major political party in Britain has either blatantly betrayed me or merely broken serious manifesto promises as soon as they got into office. For that reason I’m not sure I will be voting this year at all or any come to that.