Independent politician

Ipso: 73% of Democrats & 91% of independents believe this to be the case

Ilias Kasidiaris, the former MP for the far-right Golden Dawn party, cannot stand as a candidate in the June 25 election, Greece's Supreme Court has ruled.

Kasidiaris and the party he founded, National Party-Greeks, had been banned from taking part in the previous national election, on May 21, because of a law targeting convicted Golden Dawn ex-MPs.

A constitutional lawyer dismissed on Thursday a claim by jailed former Golden Dawn deputy leader Ilias Kasidiaris that he could run in the next elections with a coalition of independent candidates, saying it is another effort to bypass a court ban on his party and candidacy. 

Ljubljana – Today is the first day when candidates vying to become Slovenia’s new president in the 23 October election can submit their candidacy, and voters can formally support their candidates with signatures.

The candidates have until 28 September to submit their candidacy with the National Electoral Commission.

Speaker's corner

The opposition held its breath until the last minute on Tuesday evening to see whether its candidate, Tomasz Grodzki, would get the speaker seat in the Senate.

Still smarting from losing the Senate by a whisker earlier this month, Poland's governing populists are contesting the result.

Opposition parties won 48 seats in the upper house, helped by a strategy of not fielding candidates against each other. Combined with the votes of three independents who support them, that gives the opposition just enough clout to control the chamber.

26 independent candidates enter the local parliament of Moscow. Yesterday local government elections were held in 85 regions of Russia.

Turnout in Moscow was 21.6%, slightly more than the vote in 2014. In addition to the independent candidates, representatives of the Communist Party and the Yabloko and Just Russia formations will enter the local parliament.

It looks as if the presidential system and the writing of a civilian constitution will be at the top of the agenda in the upcoming period.

Indeed, it will be discussed. Of course, different views and systems based on needs will be suggested. Of course, everybody will express their ideas. I am on the side of the presidential system; the closest to me is a single-member constituency. 

New Democracy saw the number of its MPs in Greece's 300-seat Parliament rise to 129 after two independents joined the conservative party on Tuesday.