A total of 262 candidates are competing for 131 seats from Tunisia's 161-member legislature, which was largely stripped of its powers following a series of extraordinary measures launched by President Kais Saied on July 25, 2021.

"We slept here, and we hope that today will bring new hope to Lebanon," said lawmaker Najat Saliba in a video posted on social media on Friday. Fellow MP Melhem Khalaf said it was urgent to elect a president "who can save Lebanon", in an online message posted the night before.

The opposition's campaign "appears abstract and distant" to voters, especially in a country where the media is heavily controlled by the government, he wrote last month.

Tunis, Tunisia--Tunisians on Saturday overwhelmingly boycotted an election for a new parliament which will have virtually no authority following a power grab by President Kais Saied in the birthplace of the Arab Spring. Electoral board president Farouk Bouasker said that by close of polls at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT), just...

The November 1 election put former premier Netanyahu in a position to form a stable, right-wing government, ending an unprecedented period of political deadlock that forced five elections in less than four years. Netanyahu's 28-day mandate expires at midnight (2200 GMT) Sunday, but late Thursday he asked Herzog for more...

With 32 members of Netanyahu's Likud party and seven Religious Zionism lawmakers in Israel's 120-seat parliament, the former premier still needs to bring two ultra-Orthodox parties into his future government to secure a majority. The deal with Religious Zionism will see the faction receiving the finance ministry in a rotation...

Press advocates say the new law could allow authorities to shut down the internet, preventing the public from hearing about exiled Turkish mob boss Sedat Peker's claims about the government's alleged dirty affairs. Or, they say, the government could restrict access to social media as they did after a November...

Trump, who had more than 88 million users when his accounted was suspended, reveled in using Twitter as a mouthpiece during his presidency, posting policy announcements, attacking political rivals and communicating with supporters.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reaffirmed Washington's commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a phone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the State Department said. The move came as Israel's former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has not endorsed the two-state idea, is set to...

Blinken voiced "his deep concern over the situation in the West Bank, including heightened tensions, violence and loss of both Israeli and Palestinian lives, and underscored the need for all parties to urgently de-escalate the situation." The West Bank has seen near-daily army raids and an increase in clashes and...

Elected to parliament in April 2021, Ben-Gvir heads the Jewish Power party and has spent years campaigning for the extreme right. His platform includes supporting the Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, home to 2.8 million Palestinians, and the forcible transfer of some of the country's Arab-Israeli population.

Israel, with its turbulent politics, heads back to the polls next Tuesday, for the fifth general election in less than four years. Historically, Israeli voting patterns have been shaped by religious and ethnic affiliation and, most importantly, views on the Palestinian conflict. But this time, ahead of the November 1...

Sunday's announcements came after a week-long Congress of 2,300 hand-picked party delegates during which they endorsed Xi's "core position" in the leadership and approved a sweeping reshuffle that saw Li and other former Xi rivals relegated.

Weeks after leaving office, former prime minister Boris Johnson, who returned from a Caribbean holiday, aimed to launch an audacious political comeback. Johnson met with Rishi Sunak to discuss the race, as the feuding pair who once headed Britain's government were poised to battle for the leadership of their fractured...

Stormy US-Saudi relations have seen new strain over Riyadh's recent support for oil production cuts, with Biden warning of unspecified "consequences." The move last week by OPEC+ -- composed of the Riyadh-led OPEC cartel and a group of 10 exporters headed by Russia -- would reduce global output by up...

Most Turkish newspapers and television channels fell under the control of government officials and their business allies during a sweeping crackdown that followed a failed coup in 2016. But social networks and internet-based media remained largely free of oversight -- much to the growing annoyance of Erdogan.

Frankfurt, Germany— Germans in the coastal state of Lower Saxony vote in a closely-watched regional election Sunday, seen as a key test for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats amid an acute energy crisis. Polls open at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) and close at 18:00, with latest surveys putting Scholz's centre-left SPD...

During the session, Jordanian MP Khalil Attia was elected as second deputy speaker of the parliament, Iraqi MP Shaalan Abdul-Jabbar Al-Karim as third deputy speaker, and Egyptian MP Alaa Abed as fourth deputy speaker.

Several opposition MPs had been on strike in protest at delays to parliamentary sessions and the failure to form a new government. A core source of friction is MPs’ demand for ministers from the royal family to be held accountable for corruption.

The 47-year-old won an internal ballot of Tory members on Monday, securing 57 percent of the vote, after a grueling contest against former finance minister Rishi Sunak that began in July.

She faces a daunting to-do list, with the UK in the grip of its worst economic crisis in decades, with double-digit inflation and skyrocketing gas and electricity bills. Truss, who touts herself as a free-market liberal, has promised tax cuts to stimulate growth, despite warnings that greater borrowing could make...

The strategically important developing nation lurched into its latest economic crisis when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched an unorthodox experiment that attempted to fight inflation by lowering the main interest rate.

Tensions have soared in Iraq amid a political crisis that has left the country without a new government, prime minister or president for months, and escalated sharply after Sadr's supporters stormed the government palace following their leader's announcement. At least seven shells fell in the high-security Green Zone, which houses...

The only Gulf state with a fully elected legislature, the key oil producer has been hit by regular feuding between the ruling Al-Sabah family and the assembly. The current government was formed at the start of August after the previous cabinet resigned in April, just three months after being sworn...

Several hundred supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr launched a sit-in outside Iraq's top judicial body on Tuesday, ratcheting up tensions in a showdown with a rival Shiite alliance.

Cohen, who headed the Council of Torah Sages, the highest body in the Shas party, had been at the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem when his health deteriorated on Sunday evening, according to his family. "On behalf of the Israeli government and all the Israeli people, I send my condolences to...

Jordan won the direct election to become a member of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to End Plastic Pollution, which is expected to produce an agreement by 2024.

Sadr justified his calls for judicial action by noting that constitutional deadlines for appointing a new president and prime minister have been missed following last year's legislative elections.

Nuri al-Maliki said, "Neither the dissolution of parliament nor the change of the regime nor early elections will be possible without the resumption of parliamentary sessions."

Nomination of former cabinet minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as prime minister angered the Sadrists and triggered their occupation of parliament.

A top official from Iraq's Sadrist movement called Tuesday on followers who have occupied parliament for four days to move their protest outside, as calls mount for dialogue between political rivals. Supporters of powerful preacher Moqtada Sadr -- whose political bloc in October won the largest share of seats in...

Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad Monday in counter-protests as rival supporters of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr extended their occupation of parliament into a third day. Almost 10 months after Iraqis went to the polls, a political standoff pits two key factions of the Shiite political...

The vote just over two years after he won a landslide general election victory was brought after a string of scandals that have left the Tory party's standing in tatters.

Iraq's financial reserves are expected to reach $40 billion in case the current fiscal year ends without enacting a budget law, according to Mazhar Muhammad Salih, advisor to Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Local media reports quoted Salih as saying that "it is not possible to pass any law by...

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison conceded election defeat Saturday, hours after voters issued a stinging rebuke of his party's inaction on climate change. The balance of power could yet rest with a string of climate-focused independent candidates who routed Morrison's Liberals in a string of once-safe conservative urban seats.

The reformists, who campaigned on the legacy of a 2019 anti-establishment protest movement, could yet obtain the support of several other independent and non-aligned lawmakers in the 128-member assembly.

Official results later Monday will show whether Hezbollah, a political and military movement seen as a state within a state, and its allies can keep an actionable majority in Lebanon's 128-seat parliament. Election turnout was just 41 percent -- eight points lower than in 2018.

For many voters, the election was a chance to vent their anger at the entire ruling elite.

The likes of TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and even Apple now vie with Meta for people's online attention as Facebook social network is increasingly seen as a place for older people.

Somali lawmakers gathered in Mogadishu Sunday to vote in the country's long-overdue presidential election, with 35 candidates vying for the top job in the troubled Horn of Africa nation as it battles an Islamist insurgency and the threat of famine.

Here’s a look at the challenges that await incoming lawmakers in a country where there is little consensus on a roadmap for financial recovery.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday pledged that Turkey would not drive Syrian refugees back to their home country despite pressure from opposition parties. Turkey is today home to more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees who fled after civil war broke out in 2011.

Lebanese expatriates in 48 countries including France and the United Arab Emirates voted Sunday ahead of the May 15 parliamentary elections, state media reported.

The election is expected to be a referendum on the country’s ruling class, which is widely blamed for the economic crisis that has moved more than four out of the country’s five families into poverty.

Expatriates began voting at 7 am (0500 GMT) Beirut time on Friday in nine Arab countries and in Iran, while the rest will vote in 48 other countries on Sunday.

President Emmanuel Macron is the favorite to win re-election in the run-off ballot on Sunday, and there are indications he bolstered his advantage with a combative performance in the one-off election debate against a somewhat defensive far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.

Central Elections Commission chief Hanna Nasser said a number of candidates had been arrested for political reasons.

On Thursday, the US ambassador in Libya, Richard Norland, also expressed fears over an escalation.

The emergence of the new government once again gives Libya two prime ministers, as was the case between unrest-plagued 2014 and 2020.

Libya's prospective prime minister, appointed by the war-torn country's parliament as it seeks to oust interim premier Abdulhamid Dbeibah, said Thursday his cabinet line-up was ready.