Elections

I met the Head of the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation (TÜRKONFED) Tarkan Kadooğlu. 

TÜRKONFED is publishing striking research in recent years and I follow all of it with great interest.

They presented their last report last week, in Izmir—"City-region: New dynamics in local development: From cities of Turkey to a Turkey of cities."

Plans to change the laws that govern the way trade unions operate - as outlined in a letter of intent sent this week by the government to the International Monetary Fund in order to persuade it to join the Greek bailout program - will, arguably, be a very positive development for the country.

In a democratic country, opposition counts. Democratic systems function with checks and balances. They also rely on transparency, accountability and responsibility. In parliamentary democracies, the legislative body is the reassurance of checks and balances.

Ancient Greece is considered to be the crucible of western civilisation. With the invention of the earliest form of democracy, the adoption of philosophy, theatre and the arts their contribution to what we take for granted today can not be underestimated. But they also did some things no so widely known things that we might see as pretty crazy from modern-day standards.

The ruling Socialist Party in Albania has won the parliamentary elections and will have between 45 and 49 percent of the vote.

According to exit polls conducted by the Italian agency IPR Marketing, the opposition Democratic Party will have up to 34 percent of the votes.

Albania's ruling Socialist Party is winning the parliamentary election, held on Sunday, gaining about 50 percent of votes, the country's Central Election Commission said after a relatively small amount of bulletins were counted.

According to the Commission, the Democratic Party has gained about 27 percent of votes.

Politics in Europe continues to surprise. Two important elections showed results which were not predicted by public opinion polls. In the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party has lost its majority and Prime Minister Theresa May has now been forced to form a minority government.

According to the tally count so far, DAP-ND, the youth party affiliated to major Greek opposition party New Democracy, prevailed in the university student elections across the country’s institutions winning 45.97% of the votes. PKS has won 16.94% of the votes, followed by EAAK with 16.14% and 11.62% by PAASP.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron has recorded a landslide victory against far-right populist opponent Marine Le Pen to become the President of the French Republic. Macron won 65% of the vote, according to the Ispos/Sopra Steria for French state TV estimate. The turnout at 5pm was estimated at 65.3% of the 47 million registered voters.

Turkey's Supreme Election Board (YSK) published the official results of the April 16 referendum on constitutional amendments in the Official Gazette on late April 27.     

Voters went to the polls on April 16 to decide whether to approve changes to the country's constitution, which also includes a shift from the current parliamentary system to an executive presidency.