Voters line up to vote at a polling station in Parcelle, a suburb of Dakar, Senegal, on November 17, 2024. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra v @CFR

Numerous countries will hold elections in 2025. Here are ten to watch

Article by James M. Lindsay

December 10, 2024 10:14 am (EST)

Incumbents facing the voters in 2025 must be nervous. Two thousand twenty-four began as the mother of all election years with eighty countries representing four billion people holding elections. It ended as the year of the challenger. Voters across the globe, including in the United States and the United Kingdom, sent incumbent parties packing. Long-governing parties in India, Japan, South Africa, and elsewhere held on to power but saw their political majorities narrow. Regardless of the hemisphere, time zone, or growth rate, voters voted against the status quo.  

We will see if that anti-incumbent mood carries over into 2025. Many fewer countries are voting this year, but the results will still matter to their citizens and possibly for others beyond their borders. What follows are ten elections to watch. In most cases, we know when voters will head to the polls. But in some cases, the precise date remains to be set. And the list of critical elections in 2025 could grow. The collapse of the French government last week could lead France to hold parliamentary elections in the second half of 2025 and possibly even a presidential election. Other unplanned elections could materialize as governments fall, whether because of routine parliamentary maneuvers, protests in the streets, or coups.

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