Six Elections This Year May Wreck Populist Regimes, Analyst Says

In the United States, where campaigns are temporally unbounded and election season seems constant, politicians and observers alike are already fixated on the 2022 midterm legislative elections, to be held in November this year, Allison Meaken reported for Foreign Policy.

Photo Insert: This year’s contests are set to bring populist reckonings, parliamentary headaches, and a possible democratic crisis or two.

And while the midterms can seriously endanger US President Joe Biden’s agenda, particularly as he confronts record-low approval ratings and a democratic system on the precipice, they cannot remove him from office.

That’s not to say they are unimportant: There are significant potential foreign-policy implications of a changed Congress. But, at least next year, US politics will not enjoy a dramatic sea change in executive leadership.

The rest of the world, however, is a different story. From Colombia to Bosnia and Herzegovina to South Korea, 2022 is stacked with presidential and parliamentary elections that could fundamentally reshape their respective countries’ political systems—and destinies.

This year’s contests are set to bring populist reckonings, parliamentary headaches, and a possible democratic crisis or two.

And that’s not even counting what will be the world’s biggest election: not a national contest but legislative elections in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, whose some 200 million residents will decide whether the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party stays in power there for another five years. Although each country’s context is unique, the stakes of each election follow remarkably similar trends.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic