April/May electoral roundup

News of electoral happenings around the world – including Finland, Bulgaria, Paraguay, North Carolina and England.

An upset in Polynesia

French Polynesia elects a pro-independence majority for the first time, although the electoral system played a major role.

An extremely successful election boycott in Northern Kosovo shows that the denial of self-determination is still not working.

Final results from the New South Wales state election show that the new Labor government lacks a majority in both houses.

Recent political stability in French Polynesia seems to be more due to a change in the electoral system than to underlying voter preferences.

Bulgarian voters have stuck to the general pattern seen in the previous four elections, while Montenegro's reformists scored a big victory.

A dead heat in Finland: the Social Democrat-led government loses its majority, but the shape of its likely replacement is far from clear.

Labor's historic victory in the Aston by-election has exposed some deep-seated problems in the opposition.

Sunday's Finnish election looks like producing an outcome similar to the last one, which is good news for the Social Democrat prime minister.

Bulgaria just keeps on having elections without resolving anything. Number five is coming up on Sunday.