Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee will lead a six-member Parliamentary delegation to Bulgaria.
During his four-day visit beginning today, Chatterjee will meet leaders of the country besides addressing the students and teachers at Sofia University.
The Speaker and the delegation will also visit the Indira Gandhi School in Liulin and have a meeting with the “Friends of [...]
Parliamentary leaders in the NFP Assembly issued a strong rebuke to CIA Director Michael Hayden who said the US was interested in targeting the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan where the forces of al-Qaeda supposedly maintain bases. Parliamentary leader Pir Sabir Shah said the Hayden remark was an insult to the integrity of Pakistan and [...]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s supporters apparently have gained an overwhelming majority in parliamentary elections. Reformist parties opposed to the president stood scant chance of winnng sinc the Guardian Council, which approves all candidates, wiped off the ballot at least 200 reformists. Reform opponents of Ahmadenijad were only able to run candidates in about 60 of [...]
The BBC is reporting that conservative hardliners are doing well in the released counts of Iran’s parliamentary elections (held yesterday). But there are some subtleties to look for, because there are divisions even amongst the conservatives - especially regarding Ahmedinejad.
Hard-line allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are ahead in Iran’s parliamentary election, partial results suggest.
But conservative critics of Mr Ahmadinejad also appear to be making a strong showing that could undermine his domination of the parliament.
Reformists are said to be struggling after large numbers of their candidates were barred from the race.
The United States says this means the results were “cooked”.
The Associated Press (AP) news agency reports that 144 out of 290 parliame
Today "Parliamentary Roundup Thursday" gains another report. In addition to Sadie's "Westminster Watch" report, today Will Patterson - who writes the J Arthur MacNumpty blog and contributes to the Scottish Roundup - has done the first weekly roundup with news from the Holyrood Parliament.
For now I'm calling the column "Holyrood Herald", but we may come up with a better name (suggestions are welcome).
Over the next several weeks a roundup from the Welsh Parliament ("Senedd Scan"?) will be added, and I'm working on similar roundups from Stormont and Brussels/Strasburg.
The Roundup of the Papers will be out in the early evening today, and will be - shall we say - idiosyncratic.
As a final note, I have added mobile websites to the Scottish Politics and Welsh Politics blog aggregators, and to
Bwah! Ha! Ha! Ha!I could not help but burst into devilish laughter when I read a story published by MalaysiaKini earlier today. It was about how our Dewan Rakyat Speaker had shot down Mr. Lim Kit Siang’s motion to talk about our poor reputation in global press freedom as indicated by Reporters without Borders Dot Org’s Press Freedom Index for the year of 2007.What a blast! Sensational!Folks! We should not be surprised with reports that say we did not have press freedom in this country. Just look at our own Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives). Our Members of Parliament did not even have their Parliamentary Freedom of Speech!Barisan Nasional, you folks are truly the best! You Malaysians out there must go and vote for Barisan Nasional once again in the next general election. Keep up the good work, Malaysians! I’m so damn proud of you all! :-)Dedicated especially for Barisan Nasional!Related Post:Putrajaya bridge is falling down, falling down! Tired of Malaysian politics?Come and
New Delhi, April 30 (IANS) Concerned over declining defence allocations, a parliamentary panel has recommended that this be pegged at three percent of the GDP to enable the armed forces “fulfil their need-based requirements”.
In its 16th report, parliament’s standing committee on defence was “distressed” to note that the five-year plans of the military “have lost their utility for resource planning” due to the delays in their approval, even as work on a long term integrated perspective plan (LTIPP) was being conducted in a “lackadaisical” manner.
“The committee are concerned to note that defence outlay since 2004-05 as a percentage of GDP has been continually declining” and “strongly recommended” that the defence ministry “take up the matter” with the finance ministry for “providing a minimum three percent of GDP for the defence services every year”.
“(This would) ensure a fixed
Samdrup Jongkhar (Bhutan), April 21 (IANS) The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan Saturday created history with its citizens voting for the first time in a mock parliamentary polls, an exercise carried out as a dress rehearsal for the election scheduled for 2008.
“This is a historic vote with polling underway in all the 47 parliamentary constituencies,” Bhutan’s chief election commissioner, Dasho Kunzang Wangdi, told IANS by telephone from the capital Thimphu.
Voting began at 9 a.m. (GMT + 0600 hrs) and ends at 5 p.m. Counting of votes would begin soon after polling is over with results expected late Saturday.
The two-phased mock elections Saturday and May 28 was aimed at familiarizing voters and officials about election procedures ahead of the first general elections in 2008 when the kingdom shifts from monarchy to parliamentary democracy.
“The elections would give us a chance to evaluate our readiness for holding the big elections in 2008,” Wangdi said.
People
As 2008 election season heats up, the discussion in certain camps have begun. Should we switch to a Parliamentary style of government (lack of divided government) or stick to what we know-- the Electoral College? Winning the popular vote does not make you president. Winning the Electoral College does-- the smaller states are on equal footing with larger ones.Voters in large states such as California and New York think they are always shortchanged compared to a Vermont. What do you think?Rough and Tumble of a Campaign --Hillary As Dealt with Evil and Bad Men--- She has made her first trip to an early caucus state, Iowa. The report is things ran quite smoothly on the campaign trail. But does a ambush await to trigger a Stumble?Iran To Expand Military Ties --Is Iran thinking "Empire" or just being neighborly? It seeks to expand its economic and military ties into Iraq. Is this begging for it? Will the big guns collide?The Brightest Star in the Constellation?....GOP candidates throwing the
Watch this slip of tongue made by Jack Layton during an exchange with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the House of Commons. Did Jack Layton say it by accident or did he really want to swear? It's up to you to guess.
Updated March 31, 2008 The majority of Russians still appreciates highly Vladimir Putin and is fully content with his Prime Minister post. But the majority would not like to change the presidential form of government to the parliamentary one in Russia. Such is the result of the last public opinion ...
