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Election Results in Canada and Russia

Justin Trudeau has been elected to a third term as Canada’s prime minister, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s party has swept to victory in Russia’s parliamentary elections. Today, NFK takes a look at these recent elections.

Trudeau Remains in Power in Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shocked many people when he called a snap election in mid-August – two years earlier than expected.

Mr. Trudeau leads Canada’s Liberal party. He may have believed his government’s handling of the coronavirus  pandemic would help strengthen his position in Parliament. It’s likely that he hoped Liberals would earn enough seats in Parliament to form a majority government.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shocked many people when he called an election two years early. He may have thought his government’s handling of the coronavirus would strengthen his position in Parliament. Above, people waiting to vote in Monday’s election.

Canada’s Elections
     In Canada, people don’t vote for a single leader. Instead, voters elect people to represent them in Canada’s 338-seat House of Commons. If a political party wins more than half of the seats (a majority), its leader will be made prime minister and allowed to form a government.
     If no political party wins a majority, the party with the most seats can try to form a “minority” government. This is much more difficult. Minority governments usually don’t last too long.

Calling the election in the middle of the pandemic upset a lot of people. Many people saw the election as unnecessary, and Mr. Trudeau’s opponents strongly criticized him for it.

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Calling the election in the middle of the pandemic upset a lot of people. Mr. Trudeau’s opponents strongly criticized him for it. Above, Mr. Trudeau (left), the New Democratic Party’s Jagmeet Singh (center), and Conservative Erin O’Toole (right) in a debate.

As it turned out, the election didn’t really change the political situation very much. Each political party still has roughly the same numbers in Parliament as before the election.

That means Mr. Trudeau will remain prime minister. Though Conservative leader Erin O’Toole seemed to have strong support earlier in the race, his party wound up losing two seats in Parliament.

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The election didn’t change much. Each political party still has roughly the same numbers in Parliament as before the election. That means Mr. Trudeau will remain prime minister. Above, Mr. Trudeau waves to supporters on election night.

In some ways, Mr. Trudeau is in a more difficult position than before. Three of his cabinet ministers didn’t win re-election. And, of course, the Liberals now need to join with other parties to form a minority government.

Jagmeet Singh’s New Democratic Party is the party most likely to form a government with the Liberals. Mr. Singh is hoping that in exchange for supporting Mr. Trudeau’s government, he will earn Mr. Trudeau’s support for many of his own plans.

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Jagmeet Singh’s New Democratic Party is the party most likely to form a government with the Liberals. Mr. Singh (shown with his wife on election night) is hoping that supporting Mr. Trudeau’s government will earn Mr. Trudeau’s support for many of his own plans.

Putin’s Party Easily Wins Parliament in Questioned Election

Last weekend, Russia held elections for the 450 seats in its Duma (the lower house of Russia’s Parliament). Only 47% of Russia’s voters took part in the 3-day election.

The results aren’t final yet, but the election is being reported as a solid victory for United Russia. United Russia is Russia’s ruling political party, which supports President Vladimir Putin. Though the results show a drop in support for United Russia compared to the 2016 election, the party has once again won a large majority in the Duma.

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Last weekend, Russia held elections for the 450 seats in its Duma (the lower house of Russia’s Parliament). Only 47% of Russia’s voters took part in the 3-day election. Above, voters prepare to put their ballots in the ballot boxes.

There have been many complaints about the election’s fairness. Several of United Russia’s strongest opponents were kept from running. Alexei Navalny, Mr. Putin’s greatest critic, is in jail. His allies weren’t allowed to run. The government blocked smartphone apps which supported Mr. Navalny’s “smart voting” idea – a voting plan designed to weaken United Russia.

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Alexei Navalny, Mr. Putin’s greatest critic, is in jail. His allies weren’t allowed to run. The government blocked smartphone apps (above) which supported Mr. Navalny’s “smart voting” idea – a voting plan designed to weaken United Russia.

Thousands of problems with the voting process were reported across the country. Complaints included opposition candidates being attacked, election monitors being kicked out, and many cases of “ballot stuffing” – people putting lots of ballots into ballot boxes instead of just one. There are also serious questions about online voting results, especially those from Moscow.

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Thousands of problems with the voting process were reported across the country. Russia’s election commission says it only found 12 cases of ballot stuffing and has thrown out those votes. Above, Mr. Putin speaks with the head of the election commission on Monday.

Russia’s election commission says it only found 12 cases of ballot stuffing and has thrown out those votes. Because of Mr. Putin’s tight control of the country and its court system, no one expects the election results to be seriously challenged.


Did You Know…?
In St. Petersburg, a popular opposition candidate, Boris Vishnevsky, was challenged by several opponents in a local election. Two of the other candidates had each changed his own name to “Boris Vishnevsky” to confuse voters and to draw support away from the real Mr. Vishnevsky. The plan appears to have worked. Mr. Vishnevsky lost the election to Sergei Solovyov of United Russia.

(Front page image source adapted from work by: AwOc [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)

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