2024: The Super Election Year

According to the Anchor Change Election Cycle Tracker and additional research from Statista, 2024 is seeing national elections in more than 60 countries worldwide.

Around 2 billion voters – approximately a quarter of the world’s population – are expected to be heading to the polls this year.

As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, 2024 has been dubbed a super election year or even the biggest election year in history – aided by closely watched elections in populous countries like United States, Mexico, India and Indonesia, among others, that will be going ahead this year.

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Two widely reported elections have already happened in January. 

Taiwan elected a new president, Lai Ching-te, but stuck with the party formerly in power, the center-left Democratic Progressive Party. 

Bangladesh, where President Sheikh Hasina was reelected, was criticized for irregularities on election day and and the previous arrests of thousands of opposition members, leading to the conclusion that the elections were not free and fair. According to Anchor Change, only 38 percent of elections listed for 2024 carry this label. 75 percent are classified as free or partially free.

The narrative-shapers of the world have proclaimed that some countries with upcoming elections are also at risk from misinformation and disminformation (the latter referring to the deliberate spreading of false information for political or other gain). The issue was voted the biggest threat for India out of 34 risks by a panel of more than 1,000 experts surveyed by the World Economic Forum.

It was identified as the 6th biggest risk out of 34 in the U.S., and the 11th highest in Mexico and the U.K., where elections are scheduled for 2025 but would be brought forward to this year.

Other elections are at risk altogether.

In Burkina Faso, recent coups have called into question if the planned general election will go ahead.

Parliamentary elections in Chad have already been rescheduled several times before the current date was set for October 2024. The accompanying presidential election would see the son of deceased President Idriss Deby Itno – who had come to power in a coup – face off against opponents.

Mali’s presidential election is also on its second attempt and has again been postponed slightly. 

While parliamentary elections didn’t place last year as planned, a new constitution passed via a referendum.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he would not hold elections as admissible by martial law which the country has been under since the Russian invasion.

Also going to the polls in a supranational election this summer are residents of the 27 European Union countries to pick a new European Parliament.

A notable subnational election is taking place in Somaliland, a autonomous and relatively stable part of Somalia.