Rather, it follows from the inner logic of modern progressivism, which blends neoliberal-friendly identity politics with the worst forms of sectarian leftism. On Wednesday, Jorge was unmasked by the Guardian and its media partners as Tal Hanan, a hacking and disinformation specialist operating from an industrial park 20 miles outside Tel Aviv. He calls his group “Team Jorge”, and claims it has worked covertly on more than 33 “presidential-level” election campaigns on behalf of clients. The way Mr Kishor works offers a glimpse into how political consultancy works in a country like India. His firm Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) – which has up to 4,000 people working during campaigns – embeds itself in the party they are hired to work for. Since 2011, Mr Kishor and his political consultancy firm have struck success with eight of nine elections in which they have run campaigns for different parties. He has had offers from Disney, Netflix and even Bollywood’s Shah Rukh Khan for biopics – all of which he has refused.
FIRST IN SCORE — ENDORSEMENT CORNER — Democrats Serve, which supports Democratic candidates with public service backgrounds, announced a slate of congressional endorsements. All of these districts (with the exception of RI-01) are targets for either the NRCC or DCCC. 2024 WATCH — Republican North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson announced his bid for governor. Last week, political campaign professionals gathered in California for the annual American Association of Political Consultants’ Pollies conference, where they discussed the challenges and opportunities facing the industry heading into the 2024 cycle. Read more about Election Consultancy here. In an annual report, the political risk consultancy said that the November 5 election “will test American democracy to a degree the nation hasn’t experienced in 150 years,” a reference to the country’s civil war. Jodhpur and Jaipur districts were the ones where the party’s campaign managers focused a lot on, as the latter was Ashok Gehlot’s stronghold and was splattered with hoardings and banners. But Congress lost eight out of 10 seats in Jodhpur, and Gehlot fell behind in his polling booth.
A week after he conceded, Jammeh rejected the election results and requested a fresh vote. This disjuncture—exacerbated by the calamitous war in Gaza—suggests progressivism is no longer equipped to resolve the coalition question, if it ever was. Between its failure to broaden the geographic reach of the Democratic Party and its inability to revive labor politics at the national level, progressivism has retreated from the pursuit of national realignment that many progressives, both liberal and socialist, once thought was possible. On this score, Bidenomics seems to be operating on an entirely different plane than the nexus of professionals, social-media influencers, and elite donors who have crafted the progressive brand over the last 15 years.
“Every election in Taiwan is significant because of the potential for Beijing reacting in a way that could contribute to further instability in the region,” Taipei-based political analyst Michael Cole told CBS News. Please list any fees and grants from, employment by, consultancy for, shared ownership in or any close relationship with, at any time over the preceding 36 months, any organisation whose interests may be affected by the publication of the response.
Where the candidates stand, and China’s warning
The Guardian and Observer have partnered with an international consortium of reporters to investigate global disinformation. Our project, Disinfo black ops, is exposing how false information is deliberately spread by powerful states and private operatives who sell their covert services to political campaigns, companies and wealthy individuals. It also reveals how inconvenient truths can be erased from the internet by those who are rich enough to pay. The investigation is part of Story killers, a collaboration led by Forbidden Stories, a French nonprofit whose mission is to pursue the work of assassinated, threatened or jailed reporters. Four weeks before a pivotal presidential election in Nigeria, an Israeli private operative specialising in political “black ops” was preparing his trip to the country. On 17 January 2015 the man, who used the alias “Jorge”, emailed Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy he was coordinating with on a covert plan to manipulate Africa’s largest democracy.
Taiwan’s election was a vote for continuity, but adds uncertainty in ties with China
On Feb. 25, the country is expected to hold its first parliamentary election since Lukashenko’s government crushed protests against the Putin ally’s disputed 2020 reelection. The ANC has held the presidency and a majority in parliament since the end of the country’s racist apartheid system in 1994, but the previously revered organization won less than half the vote in 2021 local elections. In former EU member Britain, populism found expression in the 2016 Brexit referendum and the turbulent term of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. General election this year will pit the governing Conservatives against the center-left Labour Party, which is firmly ahead in opinion polls as it seeks to regain power after 14 years. Mujtaba Rahman of political consultancy Eurasia Group predicted that the upcoming European Parliament races won’t produce a populist majority but “the center will lose ground compared to the last vote” in 2019.
EVMs helped tackle this risk by incorporating an important feature—registering only five votes per minute. Committing electoral fraud would require capturing polling booths for longer periods. Further, the study also finds a significant decline in electoral fraud in politically sensitive states where electoral rigging led to frequent re-polls. Our research study [1] published in 2017 measured the impact of using EVMs on electoral fraud, democracy, and development in India. The phased roll-out of the EVMs in state assembly elections in India and the timing of the assembly elections (the Constitution of India mandates that state elections be held every five years) allowed us to determine the causal impact of EVMs on electoral fraud and democracy. As world leaders gather this week for the annual Davos meeting in Switzerland, the concern will be that last year’s downward march for inflation will be halted by rising geopolitical tensions. Since the last mountaintop bash, conflict has spread from eastern Europe to the Middle East, while the risk of a new cold war is mounting – not least highlighted by China’s frosty response to the election of Taiwan’s new pro-sovereignty president last week.
Ultimately, no matter what Gehlot or Designboxed did, the narrative stuck – that their government was youth virodhi as well as mahila virodhi,” BJP’s Shehzad Poonawalla says. The BJP, on the other hand, had gone much the old-school way, depending on its spokespersons and the karyakartas on the ground to develop its narrative against the Gehlot government. It was a fight between what the BJP now describes as a ‘corporate-style’ campaign in the Congress camp where a lot of money was spent, and a worker-driven campaign in the BJP camp that started in 2019. It was a surprise press conference on the last day of campaigning by then chief minister Ashok Gehlot. No one knew the agenda till Gehlot unveiled an announcement that his ‘7 Guarantees’ campaign had seen 1 crore families sign up for it.
“No matter what, we’re going to be described as a neo-colonial institution by individuals who have a vested interest in staying in power,” Smith says, even if “we aren’t doing anything that the people aren’t clamoring for themselves.” On January 21, after West African troops rolled into Gambia to ensure a peaceful transition, Jammeh relented, going into exile in Equatorial Guinea. Though Jammeh was reportedly allowed to keep his luxury car collection—to the chagrin of some Gambians—it was, at least, Gambia’s first peaceful transition of power since the country gained independence from the British in 1965.
