Displaying items by tag: election victory

Luis Abinader has been re-elected for a second term, clinching victory in the first round. The hugely popular president vowed unity and impartial leadership as he declared victory on 19 May, having secured a sufficiently wide margin to win without needing to go to a second-round face-off. His win appears to be an endorsement of his handling of the economy and tough policies towards migration from neighbouring Haiti. ‘Today our country shines with its own light’, Abinader told supporters, pledging to serve as president for all citizens. He called for a country ‘without distinction, without sectarianism, and without party colours’. He also vowed to push through constitutional reform on the continuity of power that would not rely on the ‘personal whim’ of the president in office, and pledged that he would not run again after completing his second term. While opposition parties reported a number of small irregularities, voting in the election largely ran smoothly.

Five year plans are centralised and integrated national economic programmes. India launched its first one in 1951 under Jawaharlal Nehru. Although he has no ‘plan’ for the next five years, a bitterly contested election campaign appears poised to give prime minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist BJP party a resounding mandate for the next five years. For thirty years India was governed by a series of broken, temperamental coalitions. Modi’s election in 2014 broke the pattern, and this victory will exceed even the BJP’s expectations. The primary force for Christian persecution in India is Hindu nationalism, which voices the belief that India belongs to the Hindus and that people of other faiths should find somewhere else to live, work and worship. In 2018 more than 12,000 Christians were attacked, but this number is only the tip of the iceberg, researchers say, as increasing numbers of persecution acts go unreported. See

In Malaysia's national election on 9 May, there has been a stunning victory for the opposition led by former PM Mahathir Mohamad. Aged 92, he came out of a long retirement to take on the current PM Najib Razak and his Barisan National party, who are widely considered to have become terribly corrupted and self-serving. After some Christian leaders were kidnapped (they are still missing), and with laws threatening their religious freedom increasingly being enacted, the churches decided to join together in an all-out initiative of desperate prayer called ‘Light up Malaysia’. It looks as if their prayers are now being answered, thanks be to the Lord! Let us continue to pray with them that the results of the election will be quickly and widely accepted, and that the ruling party will accept the results and relinquish its hold on power gracefully.