The Republic of Ireland is a parliamentary representative democracy. According to The New York Times, “Ireland’s proportional representation balloting, in which voters can rank their preference of candidates, often insulates it from the wild swings seen in other democracies — and in this election, that played out once again. But the fragmentation of the parties, and a restive public, opened the door to an array of fringe candidates.”

On Monday, after three days of counting election ballots, all 174 legislative seats were filled. The Fianna Fail, the centralist party that means solidarity, Micheál Martin had won 48 seats, and the Fine Gael, the central-right party with a socially progressive tilt, Simon Harris won 38.

The government will deal with heavy pressure to help ease homelessness, due to property prices soaring rent, and the number of refugees coming into the country (AP News). Over the next couple of weeks, Ireland will rebuild a new government.

After the Georgia parliament’s election on October 26th, thousands fled to the capital of Tbilisi to protest the results of what they believe was a rigged election, helped by Russia. Georgia sits south of Russia and was once part of the Soviet Union. Waving the Georgian and European Union flags, protesters demanded a new election under international supervision and an investigation of the alleged ballot irregularities.

The Central Election Commission said Georgian Dream – a populist political party in Georgia – which has been in power since 2012, won about 54% of the votes. The party is also more popular known as the Kotsebi, or “The Georgian Nightmare.” President Salome Zourabichvili rejected the official results and said that Georgia has fallen victim to Moscow against joining the European Union. Giorgi Vashadze, leader of the United National Movement Coalition, said that the opposition is urging the West not to recognize the vote and will gather more evidence of violations to push for a new election. He vowed to organize protests not only in the capital but across the country. European election observers said the election took place in a “divisive” atmosphere marked by instances of bribery, double voting, and physical violence. Observers said instances of intimidation and other violations were particularly prevalent in rural areas.

GD promised to continue pushing toward EU succession but it also wants to “reset” ties with Russia, the country’s former imperial master. In 2008, Georgia fought and lost a brief war with Moscow, which then recognized the independence of two breakaway Georgian regions and bolstered its military presence there. Georgia’s prosecutors last week launched an investigation of the alleged vote-rigging. The opposition immediately objected that the Prosecutor’s Office would not conduct an independent investigation because its head was appointed by the Georgian Dream-controlled parliament.

Protests have continued through December 9th (AP News).

On December 3rd, 2024, at 22:27 Korea Standard Time (KST), Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, declared martial law during a televised address. Six hours later, while many slept, the democracy was upheld. Legislators stormed the National Assembly past midnight, live-streaming themselves climbing over fences. Parliament assembled a quorum and voted unanimously to cancel martial law (AP News). According to the Brennan Center for Justice, it “allows the military to take the place of the civilian government and exercise jurisdiction over civilians in a particular area.” As of now, Yoon Suk Yeol is not allowed to leave the country.

France’s minority government met in the finals hours Tuesday as opposition lawmakers, from the left and right, vowed to topple Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s Cabinet and his budget for the next year in a no-confidence vote, the first in France since 1962 (AP News). What does this mean? According to Webster’s Dictionary, “A no-confidence vote is a motion or vote showing that a majority of the government does not support the policy of a leader or governing body”.

This does technically mean that the French government has fallen, but this isn’t the end of France. The country has both a Prime Minister and a President. This means that France’s President Emmanuel Macron will pick a new Prime Minister and hopefully work out a budget for 2025 that and be passed before a December 21 deadline; if that deadline is missed, the government could still legislate a “fiscal continuity law,” which would avoid a shutdown by allowing the government to collect taxes and pay salaries, with spending capped at 2024 levels, according to the S&P Global Ratings credit rating agency (CNN).

Over the weekend, rebels entered Syria’s government buildings and overthrew President Bashar Assad. But there were already signs of the difficulties ahead for the rebel alliance now in control of much of the country, which is led by a former senior al-Qaida militant who severed ties with the extremist group years ago, has promised representative government and religious tolerance. Assad has been granted asylum in Russia. Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali, who remained in his post after Assad and most of his top officials vanished over the weekend, has sought to project normalcy (AP News).