Voters

Exclusief: Poging om niet-gebonden partij te registreren met identieke naam als grassroots-groep volgt op plan van Avi Yemini om 'Free Palestine party' te gebruiken om stemmen naar One Nation te sluizen Krijg onze breaking news e-mail, gratis app of dagelijkse nieuwspodcast Muslim Votes Matter (MVM) heeft een klacht ingediend bij de Victorian Electoral Commission over een anonieme poging om een politieke partij onder dezelfde naam te registreren voorafgaand aan de staatsverkiezingen, waarbij de groep beschuldigt de kiezers doelbewust te misleiden. MVM werd vóór de federale verkiezingen van 2025 opgericht als een grassroots-belangenbehartigings- en lobbybeweging, als reactie op zorgen over het gebrek aan politieke vertegenwoordiging voor moslims en minderheidsgroepen in Australië. Lees verder...

• Focusgroep is sceptisch dat het vervangen van Keir Starmer de positie van de partij zou verbeteren, waarbij sommigen zich aangetrokken voelen tot Reform of de Greens. • Terwijl Keir Starmer voorstaat dat hij geconfronteerd wordt met een uitdaging voor het leiderschap, voelden voormalige Labour-stemmers in een kiesdistrict in Birmingham vorige week zich nerveus over wat er zou kunnen volgen. • Een maand geleden had de groep uit Birmingham Yardley erg weinig goeds te zeggen over de premier, waarbij ze hem vergeleken met een rat of een ezel. Ze gaven aan dat hij hen in de steek had gelaten.

De voormalige leider van de Liberale Partij trad terug als lid voor Farrer nadat ze was afgezet als oppositieleider. Volg de updates live

De onverschilligheid van de Britse Labour-partij en haperende openbare diensten zijn slechts enkele van de redenen achter de 'verbazingwekkende' instorting.

European observers have seen incidents of confusion over ID requirements but problem is not regarded as widespreadInstances of voters being turned away from polling stations due to confusion over photo ID requirements have been recorded by European election observers watching voting in England on Thursday.While the problem is not regarded as widespread, it has been noted by the delegation from the Council of Europe, which will issue a report on the local elections in England as well as the Scottish and Welsh government elections. Continue reading...

Report using research from senior Blair and Clinton pollster comes as Labour braces for dismal election resultsMay elections: What’s at stake across England, Wales and Scotland?UK politics live – latest updatesProgressive voters have been driven away from Labour by a lack of argument and vision from Keir Starmer, according to a report using research from a senior pollster to Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.Downing Street is understood to have been briefed on the research, which has also been handed to allies of the potential leadership candidates Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Voters remain split on issues critical to EU, such as support for Ukraine and dependence on Russian energyMore than three-quarters of Hungarians who voted for Péter Magyar in last month’s election want his government to do more to address the climate crisis, and more than 70% want him to protect LGBTQ+ rights, a poll has found.Magyar’s opposition Tisza party won a supermajority in the vote, bringing an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power. The new prime minister will be sworn in on Saturday, weeks after the results set off celebrations in Budapest and Brussels. Continue reading...

• Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) defeated the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala assembly elections, unseating the Communist government that had ruled since 2016. • LDF, in power continuously since 2016, lost key seats amid anti-incumbency, marking India's first Communist-free state landscape since 1977. • The shift eliminates the last Communist-led state government in India, reshaping southern politics and boosting opposition momentum post other regional upsets.

As Labour faces record-breaking losses in Thursday’s local elections, prime minister says rivals are unfit to leadLabour is braced for record-breaking losses in Thursday’s local elections in England, which could be decisive for Keir Starmer’s future as prime minister.In a message to voters on Thursday, Starmer said Reform’s Nigel Farage and the Greens’ Zack Polanski were “not fit to meet this moment of great global instability” and that only Labour was putting the national interest first. Continue reading...

As Reform vows to block solar and windfarms, energy leaders say renewables offer most secure future, insulating UK from hostile forcesUK politics live – latest updates• May elections: What’s at stake across England, Wales and Scotland?The defining issue of Thursday’s local elections, feedback from doorsteps suggests, will be the UK’s soaring cost of living. But voters should be told about the links between inflation and the affects of fossil fuels and the climate crisis – or the remedies they choose – may make the situation worse, green campaigners have warned.Ami McCarthy, the head of politics at Greenpeace UK, said: “With people’s bills and prices soaring from yet another fossil fuel crisis, these local elections have a global context – driven by the Iran war. Continue reading...

State expected to play major role in deciding whether Republicans maintain control of Congress in his final two yearsVoters in Ohio on Tuesday are selecting candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections. The state is expected to play a major role in deciding whether Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans maintain control of Congress for the final two years of his term.The race with the highest national profile is Ohio’s Senate special election, in which Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, is vying to unseat the Republican incumbent, Jon Husted, and return to the chamber after failing to win re-election in 2024. The winner will serve the final two years of the term JD Vance won in 2022, before he became vice-president last year. Continue reading...

Party leader says vote for Labour or Greens in closely run seats will result in Reform victory at local electionsVoters in the home counties will “regret it for a long time” if they do not back the Liberal Democrats and wake up to a Reform-led council, Ed Davey has said.The Lib Dems leader has identified five councils – East Surrey, West Surrey, Hampshire, West Sussex and Huntingdonshire – where his party could win overall control, as well as swathes of the former “blue wall” where Davey said it was a “straight fight” between his party and Reform at the English local elections. Continue reading...

Database could be used to regulate opponents, from ‘shutting off bank accounts’ to healthcare, official warnsDonald Trump is attempting to select his own citizenry and control who can vote by gathering the personal details of all Americans, Arizona’s top election official has warned.Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, fears that the Trump administration’s active efforts to forcibly extract voter files from 30 states including Fontes’s own are part of a bigger plan to gather vital information on all US citizens into a centralised database. “Trump is trying to amass a master list that will allow him to declare someone an enemy of the state,” he said. Continue reading...

• Virginia voters narrowly approved a Democratic-backed congressional redistricting plan that endangers several Republican incumbents. • The measure redraws lines to favor Democrats in key districts, shifting the balance for 2026 midterm races. • This coastal redistricting battle highlights national tensions over fair maps and partisan advantage.

Exclusive: Investigation into campaigning materials for local polls in May challenges tactical voting claims Election leaflets are providing “grotesque” information about how to vote tactically in the May elections, using national polling data, “dodgy” bar charts and doorstep surveys to support claims about parties’ chances of winning.Leaflets distributed by local politicians across England are claiming that either only their party can win, or another party “can’t win here” when “there is no good evidence to show that’s true”, a Full Fact investigation for the Guardian has revealed. Continue reading...

YouGov survey shows cross-party consensus – but that many fear abortion access could be reduced New polling has found that whatever their party political leanings, an overwhelming majority of people support the right to access an abortion – although young people, in particular, fear reproductive rights may be reduced.The YouGov polling, commissioned by MSI Reproductive Choices to mark its 50th anniversary, found nine in 10 people support the right to access an abortion. Continue reading...

Governor called referendum after president urged GOP-led states to redraw maps to protect House majorityVoters in Virginia on Tuesday approved new congressional maps intended to boost Democrats’ chances of retaking the House of Representatives, in the latest blow to Donald Trump’s effort to use mid-decade redistricting to preserve his control of Congress.The tit-for-tat redistricting battle began last year after Trump pressed Texas’s Republican-controlled legislature to redraw that state’s congressional maps in a bid to oust as many as five Democratic House lawmakers in the November midterm elections. Continue reading...

With a reshuffled cabinet, the premier is hoping to quell leadership rumblings as her party seeks an unprecedented fourth termGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAs the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, stood alongside the fresh faces in her reshuffled cabinet on Wednesday, she attempted to send her increasingly jaded electorate a blunt message: despite its 12 years in power, her government is – apparently – new.In her opening four-minute preamble to reporters, Allan - whose Labor government will in November seek an unprecedented fourth term - repeated the word 17 times. In one sentence alone, she referred to her “new cabinet”, “new portfolios”, “new solutions” and “new areas that are going to drive this government forward”.Benita Kolovos is Guardian Australia’s Victorian state correspondent Continue reading...

Bipartisan backing for special relationship is fraying as Middle East conflicts turn public opinionIsrael’s conflicts in the Middle East have driven a sea change in US public opinion, threatening a bipartisan consensus of support for military aid for Israel that has been the status quo for decades.In public opinion polling of Americans, among likely candidates for president, and even in pro-Israel lobbying circles, the special relationship enjoyed by Israel with the US is now under fire as human rights concerns from the left and a new “America First” foreign policy groundswell on the right could impact coming elections – including the 2028 presidential elections. Continue reading...

Leaders of Poland and Germany hail Péter Magyar’s majority as a turning of the tide – but analysts say there were other reasons for defeat of prime ministerFor Poland’s Donald Tusk, the crushing defeat of Hungary’s illiberal prime minister, Viktor Orbán, after 16 years in office was evidence that the world was “not condemned to authoritarian and corrupt governments”.Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, also believes the two-thirds majority secured by Orbán’s centre-right challenger, Péter Magyar, in Sunday’s elections was “a clear signal against rightwing populism” that showed “the pendulum is swinging back”. Continue reading...

Scottish Labour leader pledges more homes and tax cuts as party tries to reverse slump in support before May electionsUK politics live – latest updatesAnas Sarwar has appealed to voters to give Labour five years “to fix the Scottish National party’s mess” as he pledged more homes, tax cuts and a smaller public sector.The Scottish Labour leader is fighting a last-ditch attempt to reverse a steep slump in support. Recent polls put Sarwar’s party third or fourth behind Reform and the Scottish Greens, dragged down by the UK government’s unpopularity. Continue reading...

Prime minister has been trailing in the polls to Péter Magyar in race that could have repercussions for Europe, the US and RussiaHello from Budapest where Hungarians are voting in a closely contested election that could oust Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power and potentially reshape the central European country’s relations with the EU, Moscow and Washington.Pre-election day polls appeared to suggest that Péter Magyar of the centre-right Tisza party could be on course to win the election, ending Orbán’s era, much criticised for weakening the rule of law and civil liberties, and raising hopes of a more pro-European government in Budapest. Continue reading...

Campaigning in Newcastle before next month’s local elections shows the rise of the far right, the climate and cost of living are concerning voters as much as the Middle EastMohammed Suleman, a self-described “straight-talking Geordie”, doesn’t love politics. The taxi driver and businessman prefers to focus on community initiatives. But when the time came, he voted Labour as the lesser of two evils.Then came the war in Gaza. Continue reading...

Thinktank says algorithms are fuelling isolation and division after analysing posts shown to social media usersReform UK voters are the least likely to see posts from friends and family on social media and most likely to see content from brands and news organisations, a study has found.The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank said algorithms were fuelling isolation and division after its research analysing users’ feeds on Instagram, Facebook, X, Bluesky and TikTok found that only 13% of Reform UK voters saw content from someone they knew, compared with 23% of Green party voters. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Survey published days before election in which anti-EU Viktor Orbán risks being ousted after 16 yearsEurope live – latest updatesHungary elections: what is at stake and who is likely to win?After years of relentless EU-bashing by their nationalist, illiberal prime minister, an overwhelming majority of Hungary’s voters back its membership of the bloc, and most – including many of Viktor Orbán’s voters – now want a new approach to Brussels.Days before elections at which Orbán, who has consistently painted the EU as an enemy of the Hungarian people, risks being ousted after 16 years in power, a poll has shown a huge appetite for a recalibration of the country’s relations with the bloc. Continue reading...

The new head of the Greens Institute will organise thousands of volunteers for a major survey of economic and social life around AustraliaGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastMax Chandler-Mather says the Greens can use “progressive economic populism” to win over Australians deserting the major parties for One Nation as the firebrand former MP accused the political class of thumbing its nose at the concerns of everyday voters.Chandler-Mather has been named the new executive director of the party’s internal thinktank, The Greens Institute, charged with closing capacity gaps exposed at the federal election. One of the Greens’ highest profile losses at the 2025 poll, Chandler-Mather and the former leader Adam Bandt were both defeated by Labor candidates in shock results. Continue reading...

The rightwing populist has been in power for 16 years but a new generation of voters are preparing to vote for his opponent, polls suggestAs he rushed to finish off his cigarette before heading to class, Ákos, 20, confessed that he has more at stake than most as Hungarians prepare to head to the polls in the coming days.“If things remain the same, or get even worse, I can’t see a future here,” said the aspiring teacher. “There are many people who want to try living elsewhere, and that’s totally fine, but I’m not one of them. For so long I’ve dreamed of working and teaching here.” Continue reading...

Reports on English policies seen in Wales as relating to whole of UK contribute to widespread confusion, researchers sayUK media is failing to report properly on devolved issues in Wales, leaving voters ill-informed about May’s Senedd elections, a report has found.A Cardiff University study of more than 3,000 news items found repeated patterns in coverage across different broadcasters and platforms, including not signposting whether an issue was relevant to England or England and Wales only, widespread references to “the government” rather than “the UK government”, and the use of “you” and “your” in contexts that apply only to people living in England. Continue reading...