As Great Britain’s Labour Party heads into the July 4th general election, the center-left party is expecting to win back dozens of parliamentary seats. Labour is hoping to retake working class towns in northwest England it lost in 2019 when former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party built an 80-seat parliamentary majority.
(“Working Class ‘Red Wall’ Voters Decided the last UK Election. How Do They Feel Now?” Christian Science Monitor, June 20, 2024)
In late May, Haiti’s new Transitional Council selected former Prime Minister Garry Conille to lead the transitional government through 2026 amid rising gang violence and instability that exploded after the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise. Surprisingly, no women were interviewed for the position — and all seven members of the council are men.
(“Haiti’s Transitional Council Has a Blind Spot,” Foreign Policy, June 19, 2024)
Ranked choice voting is a “small-d” democratic reform hailed by its supporters as a way to increase candidate choice, jump-start higher voter turnout and eliminate the spoiler effect of voting for third-party candidates. In ranked choice voting, voters indicate first, second, third or more choices on the ballot. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the voters’ first choices, the person with the least number of votes drops out of contention, and that candidate’s votes are then distributed to those voters’ second choices for a second round of counting. Votes continue to be redistributed until a candidate wins 50 percent of the ballots.
(“Ranked Choice Voting Draws Bipartisan Ire,” American Prospect, June 21, 2024)
This week’s News Summary was narrated by Anna Manzo.
