An occasional feature. This week, Czechia, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Australia and Catalonia.
Always wait for the postals
Austria's far right does badly on postal votes, shifting the atmospherics a bit from the way they looked on election night.
Another bad night for the centre-left
No surprises in Austria, with the centre-right well in the lead and the centre-left dropping to a new low. It's also been a particularly bad night for the Greens.
Election preview: Austria
Scandal tarnishes the old parties in Austria, but some of the shine has come off the far right as well.
OK, let’s talk about gun control
Stop worrying about the Second Amendment, and worry about the culture that treats violence as acceptable and makes guns seem like a good thing.
Catalonia’s descent into madness
By forcibly attempting to prevent a vote on Catalan independence, the Spanish government plays into the nationalists' hands.
Self-determination, here and there
Catalonia has no chance of getting a credible vote for independence this week. Kurdistan has already got one, but it's not doing it much good.
Merkel winner or Merkel loser?
Why I think Angela Merkel's performance on Sunday was rather better than you'd think from the newspaper headlines.
Merkel wins, Jamaican
The leader of the free world is returned to office in a result that will probably see her in coalition with the Greens for the first time.
Who needs thresholds, anyway?
New Zealand copied its democratic electoral system from Germany, but also copied its least democratic and now pointless feature.
The World is Not Enough 