A year of unprecedented change: How the world voted in 2024

Over 1.7 billion people cast their votes in over 70 countries in 2024. This "super year" of elections saw a remarkable voter turnout of 61%, with Rwanda leading at an impressive 98.2% and Tunisia at the lower end with 28%.

Below are some key highlights of global elections in 2024:

Left vs. Right

This year, many countries surprisingly voted massively for both left and right-leaning candidates.

Left wins

In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party secured a win in the July 4 general elections with 33.7%.

Ghana saw a left-leaning shift with NDC's John Mahama’s 56.3% vote win.

South Korea's Democratic Party’s dominance with 175 seats marked a pivotal victory.

Frente Amplio won Uruguay's October 27 elections with 43.93%.

Botswana's Democratic Change won the October 30 election with 37.22%.

Right wins

Portugal's Democratic Alliance led the January 21 elections with 28.02%.

In the United States, on the other hand, Republicans represented by Donald Trump made a comeback with 49.9% of the vote on November 5.

In Slovakia, incumbent Peter Pellegrini's Hlas achieved a commanding victory with 53.12%.

Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia secured 58.59% in the February 14 election to become president.

Austria's PfE party emerged as a leader with 25.4%.

Incumbent vs. Opposition successes

Voters around the world tried their best to maintain ruling leaders or parties while others significantly changed the hands of power to the opposition.

Incumbents Retained

Vladimir Putin was in March retained by Russia with 87.29% of the vote.

Egypt's incumbent, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi secured victory in December with 89.6% of the votes.

Although so many controversies trailed Venezuela's July 28 elections, sitting President Nicolas Maduro won with 51.2% of the vote.

Mexico's Morena party retained its grip on power after Claudia Sheinbaum, Lopez Obrador's successor claimed victory with 59.4% of the votes cast.

Finland was not left out as the National Coalition Party narrowly retained power with 51.6% against the Green League's 48.4%.

Opposition Victories

Ghana's opposition candidate John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won with 56.3% on December 7.

Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) opposition won the January 13 elections, earning 33.49%.

Namibia's Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, from the governing South West Africa People's Organisation (Swapo), won more than 57% of the vote.