REUTERS/Santiago Arcos A presidential runoff in Ecuador is among votes this weekend kicking off a year of momentous elections worldwide. The vote, which has been marred by violence including the assassination of a candidate, comes alongside parliamentary polls in New Zealand, in which the incumbent Labour Party is projected to lose to a right-wing bloc, and neck-and-neck legislative elections in Poland. In the coming year or so, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine, the European Parliament, and possibly the U.K. — along with many others — will hold parliamentary or presidential elections, to say nothing of the U.S. presidential election which, despite campaigning already seeming to be in full swing, remains 13 months away. |