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  • 5
    Mar
    2013
    12:29pm, EST

    'Spoiled' ballots could be critical as Kenya anxiously awaits election results

    Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images

    Kenyans listen to a man speaking as residents of the Kibera slum in Nairobi discuss the incoming election results in the Kenyan capital on March 5.

    By Jason Straziuso, Rodney Muhumuza, The Associated Press

    A slow ballot count in Kenya's presidential election raised questions Tuesday about the election process, but it was the more than 325,000 "spoiled ballots" that emerged as a potentially bigger issue.

    More than 325,000 ballots — a number that keeps rising — have been thrown out for not following election rules, raising criticism of the electoral commission's voter education efforts. Those spoiled ballots, as they are called in Kenya, could still play a huge role on the election math and whether a runoff is declared for the top two candidates. Continue reading.

    Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin / AP

    Kenyans watch the provisional results for the presidential candidates as they are announced on television, at a restaurant in downtown Nairobi, Kenya on March 5.

    Follow @NBCNewsPictures

    Slideshow: Kenyans vote in crucial election

    Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

    Five years after more than 1,200 people were killed in election-related violence, Kenyans went to the polls in a nationwide election seen as the most important in the country's 50-year history since independence.

    Launch slideshow

    Related: Kenya braces for elections, Odinga supporters rally


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  • 19
    Dec
    2012
    6:35am, EST

    South Korea elects its first female president

    Kim Hee-chul / EPA

    Park Geun-hye waves to supporters in Yeouido, Seoul after she was declared the winner in South Korea's presidential election on Dec. 19, 2012.

    The Associated Press reports — Ruling-party candidate Park Geun-hye was elected South Korean president Wednesday, becoming the country's first female leader despite the incumbent's unpopularity and her own past as the daughter of a divisive dictator. The victory sets up the possibility of greater engagement with rival North Korea, despite a controversial rocket launch by Pyongyang last week.

    After liberal candidate Moon Jae-in (Moon Jay-in) conceded victory in a close race, Park said she will become "a president of promise."

    Huge crowds lined up throughout the day, braving frigid weather to choose between Park and Moon, the son of North Korean refugees. Read the full story.

    Ha Kyung-min / Newsis via Reuters

    Catholic nuns stand in a line to cast their ballots in the presidential election at a polling station in Busan, South Korea, on Dec. 19, 2012.

    Saenuri Party via Reuters

    Park Geun-hye, center, poses with her father (and then-President) Park Chung-hee and her mother Yuk Young-soo along with her younger brother and sister in Seoul in an undated photo handed out by the Saenuri Party on Dec. 19, 2012.

    Jung Yeon-je / AFP - Getty Images

    Presidential candidate Park Geun-hye, wearing a reindeer antler headband given to her by a campaigner, smiles at a campaign rally in Seoul on Dec. 18, 2012.

    Lee Jae-won / Reuters

    Yoo Bok-yeob, center, a 72-year-old village schoolmaster, casts his ballot with family members at a polling station in Nonsan on Dec. 19, 2012.

    Follow @NBCNewsPictures

     

    Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

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    Explore related topics: asia, election, democracy, south-korea, world-news, park-geun-hye
  • 15
    Dec
    2012
    12:39pm, EST

    Egyptians vote on divisive constitution

    Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

    Soldiers check the identity of voters and monitor flow into a polling station as Egyptian women line-up to cast their vote during a referendum on the new Egyptian constitution on December 15, 2012 in Cairo.

    Khaled Abdullah / Reuters

    People look for their names at a polling station before casting their votes in Cairo on December 15, 2012.

    Andre Pain / EPA

    A woman proudly shows her ink-marked finger after voting for the referendum for a new constitution, at a polling station in Cairo on December 15, 2012.

    Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters

    Men queue outside a polling center in Cairo on December 15, 2012.

    Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images

    A girl waits with relatives queuing to vote at a polling station in central Cairo on December 15, 2012.

    By NBC News wire services — Egyptians voted on Saturday on a constitution promoted by its Islamist backers as the way out of a prolonged political crisis and rejected by opponents as a recipe for further divisions in the Arab world's biggest nation.

    ANALYSIS: As Egypt votes, what is at stake?

    Lines formed outside polling stations in Cairo and other cities and soldiers joined police to secure the referendum process after deadly protests during the build-up. Street brawls again erupted on Friday in Alexandria, Egypt's second city. Read the full story. 

    Follow @NBCNewsPictures

    •Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

     

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  • 12
    Sep
    2012
    3:25pm, EDT

    Vincent Jannink / EPA

    Home sweet...voting station?

    Citizens of the village of Marle cast their ballot in the living room of the Westhoff family in the Netherlands, Sept. 12. The Westhoffs' house has been home to the smallest polling station for Dutch general elections since 1948. View more photos from the Netherlands on PhotoBlog.

    Follow @NBCNewsPictures

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  • 24
    May
    2012
    8:13am, EDT

    Caireans wait to vote in historic Egypt election

    Pete Muller / AP

    Egyptians wait to cast their votes in front of an apartment block across from a polling center in the El Hamara neighborhood of Cairo, Egypt, on May 24, 2012.

    In a wide-open race that will define the nation's future political course, Egyptian voted Thursday on the second day of a landmark presidential election that will produce a successor to longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak, The Associated Press reports.

    Related content:

    • PhotoBlog: The best pictures from the first day of voting
    • Egypt's elections: A struggle between secularism and political Islam
    • Photoblog: Egypt prepares for the post-Mubarak presidential era
    • NYT: Egypt votes in historic election as crime wave, not revolution, becomes main topic 
    • Egypt's first televised presidential debate thrills viewers
    • Video: A new role for women in post-Mubarak Egypt

    Follow @msnbc_pictures

    Voters lined up in Cairo to choose from five leading candidates: a socialist, two Islamists, and two with ties to former President Hosni Mubarak. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    2 comments

    Good luck ....

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    Explore related topics: egypt, election, democracy, world-news, north-africa, cairo
  • 23
    May
    2012
    7:52am, EDT

    Egyptians vote in first democratic presidential election

    Pete Muller / AP

    Egyptian voters line up to cast ballots in Basateen, a southern suburb of Cairo, on May 23, 2012, the first of two days of presidential voting after 16 months of interim rule by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces.

    Suhaib Salem / Reuters

    A policeman hangs a list of voters' names outside a polling station in Cairo.

    Ian Johnston, msnbc.com reports — A dying man came "for my children," a college student said he finally felt "like a citizen of this country," and an undecided voter was just happy to take part in "a historic" moment.

    Slideshow: Egypt's revolution and the fall of Mubarak

    Ahmed Youssef / EPA

    18 days of popular protest culminated in the downfall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011.

    Launch slideshow

    Egyptians turned out in droves Wednesday to take part in the country's first-ever democratic election of its leader.

    Fifteen months after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring uprising, BBC News reported lines began growing at many polling stations shortly after they opened at 8 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET).  Read the full story.

    Related content:

    • Egypt's elections: A struggle between secularism and political Islam
    • Photoblog: Egypt prepares for the post-Mubarak presidential era
    • NYT: Egypt votes in historic election as crime wave, not revolution, becomes main topic 
    • Egypt's first televised presidential debate thrills viewers
    • Video: A new role for women in post-Mubarak Egypt

    Follow @msnbc_pictures

    Pete Muller / AP

    Voters argue with a soldier as they wait to cast ballots in Basateen a southern suburb of Cairo.

    Pete Muller / AP

    Ahmed Maher, a co-founder of the April 6 Revolutionary Movement, waits in line to vote at a polling center in Maadi, a southern suburb of Cairo. The April 6 Movement was one of the leading youth protest movements during the uprising against former President Honsi Mubarak last year.

    Suhaib Salem / Reuters

    A woman is assisted outside a polling station in Cairo.

    Suhaib Salem / Reuters

    Women cast their votes at a polling station in Cairo.

     

    1 comment

    This means more than many think ....

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  • 16
    Apr
    2012
    6:45am, EDT

    Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

    A woman waits in line to vote in the run-off presidential elections on April 16, 2012 in Dili, East Timor.

    Veterans of independence struggle vie for presidency in East Timor, Asia's poorest nation

    Reuters reports — Two veterans of East Timor's long struggle for independence vied for the presidency on Monday in the second round of an election in which voters said they were most concerned about stability and improving the economy of Asia's poorest state.

    Former independence fighter Francisco Guterres "Lu Olo", from the opposition Fretilin party, narrowly won the first round in March 17 polls. He faces Jose Maria de Vasconcelos, known as Taur Matan Ruak, a former army chief and guerrilla.

    1 comment

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  • 1
    Feb
    2012
    9:49am, EST

    China rebel village takes halting democratic step

    Bobby Yip / Reuters

    A villager, 2nd right, checks with an election worker beside a ballot box at a school turned into a polling station in Wukan village in Lufeng, Guangdong province, China, on Feb. 1, 2012.

    Reuters reports from WUKAN, China: 

    Residents of a restive village in southern China held a symbolic election on Wednesday in what is being seen as a small step towards grassroots rights.

    The rebellion last year against abuse of power and the illegal sale of hundreds of hectares of farmland in coastal Wukan have become a benchmark of rural defiance against land grabs and corruption that blight villages nation-wide.

    Bobby Yip / Reuters

    An election worker, left, looks out from inside a classroom guarded by police officers during vote counting at a school turned into a polling station in Wukan on Feb. 1, 2012.

    More than 6,000 villagers streamed into a school amid brilliant sunshine, with turnout well over 80 percent.

    "This far exceeded our expectations," said Yang Semao, a village elder who helped officiate. "It shows our passion for democracy." Read the full story.

    Bobby Yip / Reuters

    Villagers voting in Wukan on Feb. 1, 2012.

    Related content: 

    • A contagion of conflict in China?
    • Villagers defiant as government creates new narrative
    • Chinese villagers defy government in standoff over land rights
    • Rebellious Chinese village under siege by police

    Follow @msnbc_pictures

    2 comments

    I think we are seeing the very first part of what China has brought on it's self, in that they let to many of their people have an education. You can talk about freedom and shairing the fruits of their labors but when you have only a few who can have it then the rest will want it to. Power to the pe …

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    Explore related topics: china, asia, election, democracy, world-news, rural, land-rights, wukan
  • 30
    Jan
    2012
    6:37am, EST

    Altaf Qadri / AP

    Indian voters wait to cast their ballots at a polling station near the India-Pakistan border for the Punjab State Assembly elections in the village of Bachiwind, some 25 miles from Amritsar, India, on Jan. 30. More than 20 million people in two northern states went to the polls in key elections expected to reflect on the popularity of India's ruling Congress party.

    Punjab, bread basket of India, hungers for change

    While much of India has galloped ahead in recent years on the back of a reform drive that began two decades ago, Punjab has been left straggling behind, Reuters reports.

    The state of 27 million people offers a snapshot of the ills that are putting the brakes on India's economic expansion, from chronic power shortages to tussles between industry and farmers over land and policy decisions held hostage by political compulsions. Read the full story.

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  • 14
    Dec
    2011
    12:48pm, EST

    Heavy voter turnout as parlimentary elections continue in Egypt

    Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

    A policeman tries to control the crowds as they gather outside a polling station during the second day of parliamentary elections in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, December 14. Egyptians voted on Wednesday in the second round of a parliamentary election, part of a lengthy transition to civilian rule after generals took charge following Hosni Mubarak's removal from office in February.

    Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

    Egyptians wait to vote for the second round of parliamentary elections, during the second round of parliamentary elections, at polling station in Giza Egypt, on Dec. 14. According to media reports, polling stations in Egypt opened on 14 December in the second round of voting in parliamentary elections, the first since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. About 18.7 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots in nine of the country's 27 districts, where 3,387 candidates are contesting 180 seats, according to government figures. Islamist parties, all of which were officially licensed after Mubarak's exit, made notable gains in the first round that saw a voter turnout of some 60 per cent.

    Khaled Desoukia / AFP via Getty Images

    An Egyptian soldier stands guard as people line up to vote in Giza, southwest Cairo, on Dec. 14, during the second round of parliamentary voting. Islamists who swept to victory in the first stage of Egypt's parliamentary elections were looking to extend their winning streak in a second round of voting.

    Ahmed Ali / AP

    Egyptians stand in line waiting to cast their votes in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Dec. 14. Egyptians turned out in large numbers Wednesday to vote in the second round of parliamentary elections that have become a stiff competition between dominant Islamist parties likely to steer the country in a more religious direction. Arabic writing on the posters read names of election candidates.

     

    Related content:

    • Q + A: How does Egypt's parliamentary election system work?
    • Slideshow: Elections in Egypt

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    Explore related topics: elections, egypt, politics, democracy, world-news, north-africa, giza
  • 14
    Dec
    2011
    6:15am, EST

    Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters

    A man sitting under electoral posters for Salafi political party Al-Nour and the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party outside a polling station during the second round of voting in parliamentary elections at a village in Beheira, 83 miles north of Cairo, Egypt, on Dec. 14, 2011.

    Egyptians weigh up Islamist parties' pros and cons

    The Associated Press reports from CAIRO:

    Egyptians turned out in large numbers Wednesday to vote in the second round of parliamentary elections that have become a stiff competition between dominant Islamist parties likely to steer the country in a more religious direction.

    Two Islamist blocs won an overwhelming majority, close to 70 percent of seats contested, in the first round of voting on Nov. 28-29, according to an AP tally compiled from official results. The secular and liberal forces that largely drove Egypt's uprising failed to turn their achievement into a victory at the polls and were trounced.

    The final two rounds of voting are not expected to dramatically alter the result and could even strengthen the Islamists' hand.

    "We have to try Islamic rule to be able to decide if it's good for us," said 60-year-old voter Hussein Khattab an accountant waiting to vote at a polling station near iconic pyramids in Giza province on the western outskirts of Cairo. "If not, we can go back to Tahrir," he said, referring to the Cairo square that was the focus of the uprising in January and February. Continue reading.

    Related content:

    • Q + A: How does Egypt's parliamentary election system work?
    • Slideshow: Elections in Egypt

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  • 5
    Dec
    2011
    8:30am, EST

    Scenes from the Russian election

    Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters

    A woman reads a ballot during the parliamentary election in the western Russian village of Klukino, some 290 miles from Moscow, on Dec. 4, 2011. Russians voted on Sunday in parliamentary polls seen as a test of Vladimir Putin's personal authority ahead of a planned return to the presidency.

    Pavel Golovkin / AP

    An election official, center, sits inside a car with a ballot box she took to the villagers who were unable to come to the polling station in the village of Arzinka, some 312 miles east of Moscow on Dec. 4, 2011.

    Sergei Grits / AP

    Yuri Zaitsev votes at his home in the village of Oster, 237 miles west of Moscow, Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011, as an election commission official looks on, left.

    By David R Arnott, NBC News

    We featured a few images of the Russian parliamentary elections on PhotoBlog over the weekend, but these scenes of rural voting charmed me enough to warrant another post.

    Vladimir Putin, seen below preparing to cast his own vote, may not be so enamored with the election results. Projections on Monday indicated that Putin's ruling United Russia party saw its parliament majority weaken sharply in Sunday's vote despite allegations of widespread violations. Read the latest news on the results.

    Alexei Nikolsky / Ria Novosti via Reuters

    Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sits to get registered at a polling station in Moscow on Dec. 4, 2011.

    Follow @msnbc_pictures

    2 comments

    WOW! They take the ballot box to the villagers? If they did something like that here, just imagine how many more people would vote...at least like 3 or 4!

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    Explore related topics: russia, europe, election, politics, democracy, world-news, rural, vladimir-putin, featured
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