contributors

Articles by Sofie Bedford

1. The Tsikhanauskaya Effect: How an Accidental Heroine Transformed the Belarusian 2020 Presidential Election.

   While in the past there has generally been an atmosphere of resigned acceptance after the election, this time countless Belarusians went out on the streets to contest the results. The dynamics of the protest clearly illustrate its main goal is not to ensure Svitlana Tsikhanauskaya becomes the head of state, but rather to guarantee Lukashenka does not stay in this position. One factor that played a particularly important role was the way that President Lukashenka was handling the COVID-19 crisis. Nonetheless, it was Tsikhanauskaya’s campaign that made people actually vote – because it gave them hope they could influence political affairs.

2. The Covid-19 Pandemic in Belarus: Wither the Social Contract?

   As the citizens in this time of crisis have found they have to take responsibility for their own and others wellbeing the social contract could potentially be considered broken, or at least breaking. Perhaps this in fact the reason the Belarusian authorities have found themselves faced with a unique volatile situation as the general frustration over how they handled the Covid-19 situation is spilling over to the ongoing presidential election campaign.

3. Azerbaijan’s Snap Parliamentary Election: One Step Forward Two Steps Back

   On February 9 elections to the National Parliament – Milli Məclis  – were held in Azerbaijan, nine months early. The […]

4. Azerbaijan’s Mysterious Snap Presidential Election

   The proposition that a Presidential Election was held early because it was simply better to ‘get it out of the way’ in order to be able to focus on time consuming other events might appear far-fetched in other contexts. When considering the history of elections in Azerbaijan it appears to make sense. In fact, it is almost more puzzling why elections are held at all – when everybody knows who will win. But, in difference to the predictable result, the rumors and speculations preceding the election are intriguing and do tell us a lot about what is going on in Azerbaijan.

5. The Belarusian Maidan A new social movement

   Vasil Navumau, The Belarusian Maidan in 2006: A New Social Movement Approach to the Tent Camp Protest in Minsk, Polish Studies in Culture, Nations and Politics, vol. 5, edited by Joanna Kurczewska and Yasuko Shibata, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2016, 260 pages.

6. “Everybody knows who will win”. Presidential election in Azerbaijan

   On October 9 presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan. As a result of the criticized 2009 amendment to the constitution the two-term limit for the presidency was removedand the incumbent, President Ilham Aliyev, could stand as candidate fora third time. Nobody was surprised when he won again.

7. Consolidating the Democratic Process: Parliamentary Elections in Kyrgyzstan

   On October 10 the people of Kyrgyzstan elected a new national parliament (Jogorku Kenesh) in an election that has been described as the most free and fair ever in a post-Soviet Central Asian republic. A closer look at the elections as well as their results indicates certain obstacles on the road to a prosperous parliamentary system.