Content area
Full text
Burkina Faso: It was confirmed on December 1, 2015, that Roch Marc Christian Kaboré of the People's Movement for Progress (MPP) won Burkina Faso's Presidential election of November 29, 2015. Mr Kaboré received 53.49 percent of the vote, hedging out Union for Progress and Reform candidate Zéphirin Diabré, who received 29.65 percent of the vote. Trailing a distant third place was Tahirou Barry of the National Rebirth Party who took 3.09 percent of the vote. Results for the elections to the National Assembly had not yet been announced. Turnout was believed to be around 53 percent. Mr Kaboré had worked for the International Bank of Burkina (BIB) before entering politics in 1989. He also served as Prime Minister from 1994 to 1996. Mr Kaboré founded MPP in 2014 after leaving his rôle as Vice-Pres. of the ruling Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP).
Gambia [The]: The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) announced on December 4, 2015, the dates for its next round of elections. The new round would start with a Presidential election which would take place on December 1, 2016. The la.st election had been held on November 24, 2011, when incumbent Pres. Yahya Jammeh, leader of the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), won with 75.54 percent of the vote. Pres. Jammeh had been the head-of-state since 1994. Parliamentary elections for the country's 53 seat National Assembly would take place on April 6, 2017. The ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction won 43 of the 48 seats contested in the March 29, 2012, election. Local Government elections would be held on April 12, 2018.
Latvia: Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma, of the center-right Unity (Vienotiba) Coalition, announced on December 7, 2015, that she would resign the Premiership. She reportedly was facing pressure to step down by coalition members, aside from a purported feud with her Transport Minister, Anrijs Matis. The Government had already been a shaky coalition between Unity, the centrist Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS), and the right-of-center National Alliance (NA). Prime Minister Straujuma had been appointed in January 2014 after former Prime Minister Val dis Dombrovski stood down. Prime Minister Staujuma was appointed again after the October 4, 2014, general election. Pres. Raimonds Vçjonis would have to nominate a new...