Posts Tagged ‘Elections’

Should US revoke right of American citizenship to foreigners born here?

Friday, July 30th, 2010

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

A bill in the House of Representatives would change the 14th amendment to the US Constitution that grants anyone who is born on US soil the right of American citizenship. Efforts to revoke birthright citizenship could make it the new flashpoint in the debate over immigration. The bill, if passed, would bring the US more into line with current European birthright policies. But in the wake of the controversy over Arizona’s new immigration policy, any changes to the 14th amendment would likely become another flashpoint in the debate over illegal immigrants. What do you think?

Australian Federal Election August 21st

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

UPDATE AUGUST 2ND In our Poll the Coalition is well ahead of Labor 32% to 21% and the Greens are a stand out 23% and the Demorats are 15% BUT we are too early in our development to get a meaningful response on a poll like this. One day we will have the numbers to really weigh in. The ABC has a good Poll of Polls at campaignpulse.abc.net.au which shows all the individual polls plus the average which is running 50:50 Labor v Coalition so a very tight race at present.

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

Australia Federal Election August 21st
Australia goes to the polls to elect a new leader on Saturday August 21st. Australia’s first female PM Julia Gillard, leader of the Australian Labor Party, who ousted Kevin Rudd, has called the election to seek a mandate to govern in her own right. Tony Abbot who leads the Liberal/National Coalition is fighting to be PM. Australia does not have direct presidential style elections so leader of the party with most seats in the lower house becomes PM. Which party gets your vote? Vote here.

Election Preview: (from ABC)
It is only three years since Kevin Rudd led Labor to victory at the 2007 election, but the pace of events in recent months makes it seem further ago in time. Who could have predicted three years ago that the 2010 election would be fought between Labor’s second Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and third-turn Liberal Leader Tony Abbott? Indeed, who would have predicted this turn of events twelve months ago when Kevin Rudd had a commanding opinion poll lead over Malcolm Turnbull? The pace of leadership change in the last three years has been breath taking. Labor’s sweep to victory in 2007 was historic. It came after the Howard government had twice bucked the usual rule of Australian politics for governments to lose support over time. The Coalition’s vote and parliamentary majority increased at both the 2001 and 2004 elections, the latter election seeing Labor’s support collapse in critical mortgage belt seats. The 2004 result left the Labor Party needing a swing of 5% to achieve government at the 2007 election. Read the full article here.

Wikipedia entry here.

Asylum Seekers and their entry to Australia by boat is shaping up to be a major election issue as it has been in the past.

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

Australian PM Julia Gillard has announced a new tougher stance on blocking the arrival of asylum seekers by boat. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott also announced new hard measures – vowing to send home asylum seekers who destroyed their identification papers – ensuring “border protection” will be a central campaign battleground.What is your view?

Obama right to fire McChrystal?

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

A new Politics poll has been created.

The top US military commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, has been dismissed by President Barack Obama after critical comments about senior US officials in a magazine.

He will be replaced by Gen David Petraeus, who led the “surge” strategy in Iraq.

What do you think? Was Obama right to fire him? Vote here

Rudd – Continue as PM?

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

UPDATE June 24th Kevin Rudd stood down rather than face defeat thus allowing Julia Gillard to be elected unopposed as the new Labor Party Leader, thus becoming the first female Prime Minister of Australia. Read more from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation or the BBC.

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

CANBERRA, Australia A surprise revolt forced Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday to call a party leadership vote that he will struggle to win just months away from national elections. Australia’s government was thrown into turmoil Wednesday, June 23, 2010 when Rudd was challenged by Julia Gillard for the leadership just months before national elections. Do you have confidence in his leadership?

Gaza Blockade Illegal?

Monday, June 14th, 2010

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has described Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip as a violation of the Geneva Conventions and called on the Israeli government to lift it. Do you think the blockade is illegal? Do you support it’s continued implementation?

Belgium – Two Countries?

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

Belgium is holding parliamentary elections which could bring the country closer to a constitutional split. The Flemish separatist party, the New Flemish Alliance (NVA), is expected to do well in the vote. Belgium is in effect two separate communities held together by a bi-lingual political system: 4 million French speakers in Wallonia, 6.5 million Dutch speakers in Flanders for a total of just 7.7 million voters. What do you think – would you support a vote for two separate countries? Vote in the poll here.

From the BBC at 01:02 GMT, Monday, 14 June 2010: Belgium’s Flemish separatist party, the New Flemish Alliance (NVA), has emerged as the largest force in parliament, near-complete election results show. The NVA took 27 seats in the 150-member assembly, bringing the country closer to a split. The party, led by Bart De Wever, wants to more fully divide the country between Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia. But the NVA would have to form a coalition with Wallonian parties. Click here for full article.

Israel Navy raid on aid flotilla. Right or wrong?

Monday, May 31st, 2010

JULY 12TH – HAARETZ Reports Israel’s IDF is to blame the Israeli Navy in scathing report on the Gaza flotilla raid
An Israeli military report to be released today on the Israel Navy’s deadly May raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla is expected to accuse the navy of failing to sufficiently consider the possibility that the commandos would encounter violent resistance when attempting to keep the ships out of Gaza. The report is also expected to criticize the navy for not cooperating sufficiently with the Mossad in gathering information ahead of the flotilla’s arrival and to discuss the process by which the raid was approved. It is not, however, expected to call for disciplinary action against particular officers. Read the full article here.

UPDATE: AS AT 700 GMT ON JUNE 12TH THERE WAS NO CHANGE IN PERCENTAGES WITH 65% VOTING ISRAEL WAS IN THE WRONG AND 33% IT WAS IN THE RIGHT. With 3000 votes cast 25% of the votes are from Turkey (down 2%) and 17% from Israel (down 5%) with 14% from the US (up 3%). People from 74 countries have voted (up 4). VOTE HERE.

UPDATE: AS AT 1200 GMT ON JUNE 5TH 65% SAID ISRAEL WAS IN THE WRONG AND 33% SAID IT WAS IN THE RIGHT. With 2400 votes cast 27% of the votes are from Turkey and 22% from Israel with 11% from the US. People from 70 countries have voted. VOTE HERE.

Quite a few people have also sent us tweets, DMs and emails expressing their point of view or suggesting problems with how we phrased the poll or what stories we Tweet. The Israeli Foreign Ministry did Tweet us to say “The interception of the flotilla followed numerous warnings given to the organizers of the flotilla”

All of this is very psotiitve from our point of view as it brings more interaction and involvement with VoteGlobal and what we are seeking to acheive. As ever we are very conscious to remain neutral and simply provide a platform for the democratic sharing of views by everyone.

UPDATE: AS AT 1200 GMT ON JUNE 4TH 65% SAID ISRAEL WAS IN THE WRONG AND 32% SAID IT WAS IN THE RIGHT. With 2300 votes cast 28% of the votes are from Turkey and 22% from Israel with 10% from the US. People from 69 countries have voted. VOTE HERE.

UPDATE: AS AT 1200 GMT ON JUNE 3RD 65% SAID ISRAEL WAS IN THE WRONG AND 30% SAID IT WAS IN THE RIGHT. With 2200 votes cast 30% of the votes are from Turkey and 23% from Israel with 9% from the US. People from 67 countries have voted. VOTE HERE.

UPDATE: AS AT 1300 GMT ON JUNE 2ND 67% SAID ISRAEL WAS IN THE WRONG AND 30% SAID IT WAS IN THE RIGHT. With nearly 2000 votes cast 32% of the votes are from Turkey and 24% from Israel with 7% from the US. People from 64 countries have voted. VOTE HERE.

UPDATE: AS AT 1300 GMT ON JUNE 1ST 65% SAID ISRAEL WAS IN THE WRONG AND 32% SAID IT WAS IN THE RIGHT. With 1300 votes cast in 24 hours (our Hottest Poll yet) from 54 countries (our best geographic spread for a single poll) it is interesting to note that 33% of the votes are from Turkey and 28% from Israel where clearly the issue has the greatest resonance.

UPDATE: AS AT 2200 GMT ON MAY 31ST 66% SAID ISRAEL WAS IN THE WRONG AND 32% SAID IT WAS IN THE RIGHT.

A new Political poll has been created. Vote here.

Israel says that the organizers of the Gaza aid flotilla have connections to international terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Al-Qaida, and called the aid convoy a violent and provocative attempt to break the blockade on Gaza. Israel says it found weapons aboard the Gaza flotilla, which were used against IDF troops.

The Turkish agency that organized the Turkish ships carrying aid to Gaza, International Humanitarian Relief, or IHH, denied activists onboard attacked Israeli soldiers and says “The ships went through several customs. No one on board was armed,”

“Israel broke all international laws,” said Abdurahman Dilipak, a Turkish intellectual speaking at the press conference on behalf of several NGOs.

What do you think?

Colombia Presidental Election Run-Off June 20th

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

UPDATED June 20th 2300 Bogotá time
Governing party candidate Juan Manuel Santos has won the final round of Colombia’s presidential elections. With almost all the votes counted, Mr Santos had won 69% of the ballots and was more than 40 points ahead of his rival – Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus. Mr Santos shares outgoing President Alvaro Uribe’s tough line on security. Click here for BBC article

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

In the first round of polling on May 30th,2010 Juan Manuel Santos gained a commanding vote with 46.56% however not an outright majority so there will be a run off on June 20th, 2010 against Antanas Mockus who polled 21.49%. Who is your pick?

Colombia Presidential Election 2010

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

Colombian Presidental election