Alexei Navalny’s death

Putin’s win came in the backdrop of Alexei Navalny’s death. Navalny was arguably Putin’s fiercest domestic critic and political opponent died in February while being incarcerated at the Ik-3 “Polar Wolf” Arctic penal colony.

Although US President Joe Biden blamed Navalny’s death on Russian authorities, Putin to be precise, Moscow categorically dismissed the allegations.

Mexico gets first woman president

The US wasn’t the only country aiming for a woman head of state in 2024 as its neighbouring Mexico also got its first woman president in the June elections with Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, securing a landslide victory against opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez.

Building up on the political capital of her mentor and outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum, as per a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority, managed to secure 58.3% to 60.7% of the vote. Whereas Galvez bagged between 26.6% to 28.6% of the vote.

Furthermore, Sheinbaum’s Morena party and its allies managed to secure a super-majority in the lower house of Congress but fell short in the race for Senate supremacy.

The president faces an uphill battle with various challenges including but not limited to, relations with the US, issues such as migration, drug trafficking as well has domestic economic, political and law and order situation.

EU elections

The right-wing trend that the world has seen in recent months was also reflected in this year’s elections for the European Parliament with 720 seats up for grabs. The four-day polls saw EPP — group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) securing 26.11% of the votes to secure 188 seats.

They were followed by S&D — group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament — in the second place with 18.89% of votes which brought them 136 seats. 

Meanwhile, PfE (Patriots for Europe) and ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists Group) got 84 and 78 seats, respectively.

The turnout remained 50.74%.

South Africa

Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress (ANF), although weakened after losing its parliamentary majority in May, survived the South African presidential polls with President Cyril Ramaphosa winning a second five-year term.

The ANC managed to win a little over 40% of vote (159 seats out of the total 400) and had to reach a power-sharing agreement with other parties, to form a government — the first time the party had to do so in 30 years.

As well as the DA, the ANC’s partners in the coalition government include the socially conservative Inkatha Freedom Party and right-wing Patriotic Alliance, reported Reuters.

Under the arrangement, a DA candidate was made deputy speaker, whereas an ANC member was elected as parliament speaker.

India — Narendra Modi’s hat-trick

India — the world’s largest democracy by terms of sheer numbers — also went to the polls in 2024 with more than 600 million voters casting their ballots in general elections, the largest in history, conducted in seven phases over a period of six weeks with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contesting for 500+ Lok Sabha — lower house of India’s parliament — against the Indian National Congress (INC) led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

Although the BJP fell short of what it achieved in the 2019 elections, it still managed to win 240 constituencies against the INC’s 99. Together with its allies, the BJP’s numbers went up to 293 — pushing it past the 272-seats mark that it needed to form a government.

Meanwhile, the INC-led INDIA numbers totalled at 230.

This victory, though diminished compared to previous years, paved the way for PM Modi to become the country’s prime minister for a record third time.

With the right-wing Hindutva-oriented BJP at New Delhi’s helm once again for five years, it would be intriguing to see whether we would see the continuation of similar policies, both internal and external, as in the past 10 years of BJP rule or would this time things be different — which again can go either way.

Iran — Raisi’s death, advent of reformist Pezeshkian

The Iranian leadership in 2024 suffered a major blow due to untimely death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in mountains due to bad weather near the Azerbaijan border. Among the victims were the-then foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other high officials.

The incident prompted elections in the country which weren’t due until 2025.

Several candidates participated in the ensuing closely contested July presidential polls, however, the primary contest was between reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and conservative Saeed Jalili.

Pezeshkian nevertheless emerged victorious in the second round of elections by securing 53.7% of the votes against Jalili’s 44.3%. Sworn in as Iran’s 9th president on July 30, the 69-year-old heart surgeon faces multi-prong challenges ranging from economy to geopolitics.

UK — Sun sets on Tory’s 14-year rule

The outgoing year ended up bringing major change at the 10th Downing Street with Britons ending the Conservative’s (Tory) 14-year rule in the United Kingdom. 

From the political turmoil that was set in motion in the aftermath of the Brexit which essentially ended up costing five Tory leaders their prime ministership — David Cameron (2010-16), Theresa May (2016-19), Boris Johnson (2019-22), Elizabeth Truss (2022-22) and Rishi Sunak (2022-24) — coupled with socio-economic turbulence led to the voters giving an overwhelming majority to the Labour party in the general elections.

On July 4, voting was held in 650 constituencies across the UK — 543 in England, 57 in Scotland, 32 in Wales and 18 in Northern Ireland — which saw Keir Starmer-led Labour winning 411 seats by bagging 33.7% — 1.6% more from 2019 — of the votes against the Conservative’s 121 seats via their share of 23.7% votes — reflecting a 20% less from 2019 polls.

The Liberal Democrat party came in third with 72 seats (12.22% of votes).

PM Starmer now faces an uphill battle on various governance fronts with immigration, health sector, and worrying economic indicators along with various foreign policy challenges.

France — Left pulls through against right-wing

Prompted by several domestic factors, French President Emmanuel Macron in June announced shock snap legislative elections with the far-right eyeing major win the polls. However, the French voters had other plans as they provided a left with a win in the July polls.

In the aftermath of the elections, the left-wing New Popular Front managed to bag 182 seats compared to 168 secured by President Macron-led centrist coalition Ensemble. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally got 143 seats — therefore leaving the French with a hung parliament as the (NFP) needed 289 seats for majority.

The political uncertainty that usually arises in such situations didn’t spare France as the its far-right and left-wing lawmakers in December joined hands to successfully pass a no confidence motion with a majority 331 votes against Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

Barnier then resigned with President Macron appointing Francois Bayrou as the new premier, who like his predecessor faces an uncertain future and it would have to be seen whether the political uncertainty in Paris subsides or would continue to mar the French politics in the coming year.

Bangladesh — students’ uprising and Hasina’s fall

Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina, who has been in power for the last 15 years, swept the general elections — with a low turnout of about 40% compared to 80% of the 2018 poll — in January to win a fourth straight term in office by securing around 75% of the seats.

Hasina’s ruling Awami League won 222 seats out of the total 298 amid a boycott by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in what the US termed as not a free and fair election.

Her victory was short-lived as the outgoing year brought unforeseeable changes in Bangladeshi politics which saw PM Hasina fleeing to neighbouring India in the wake of deadly nationwide student-led protests, despite a brutal crackdown by the government.

What began as a movement against government policies regarding job quotas quickly spiralled into much broader movement fuelled by underlying sociopolitical discontent among the masses.

After the dust settled following weeks of violence which — as per the incumbent interim government resulted in around 1,500 deaths coupled with around 3,500 forced abductions — saw Bangladesh’s Nobel Peace Prize winning economist Muhammad Yunus being sworn in as the head of the caretaker government.

Yunus has said that the elections in the country could be held by the end of 2025 provided that due electoral reforms are implemented before it.

Sri Lanka gets Marxist president

Millions of Sri Lankans went to the ballot multiple times in a short time span, first in September wherein the Island nation elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake as its president. 

However, the newly-elected president announced to hold a snap parliamentary election in less than two months in a bid to strengthen his position.

In November, the Dissanayaka, 55, bagged a thumping win securing greater legislative power to pursue policies to cater country’s financial and economic woes, corruption and other pressing issues.

His Marxist-leaning coalition, the National People’s Power (NPP) which only had mere three seats in the 225-seat parliament, managed to win 159 seats via 6.8 million votes (61.56%) in the November polls.

The polls saw a total of 11.8 million ballots being cast of which 11.14 million were deemed valid.

US — Donald Trump’s return to White House 

In what one might term as arguably the most consequential elections of the year; the US presidential polls saw Republican candidate and the country’s 45th president Donald Trump beating his Democratic rival and incumbent Vice-President Kamala Harris in a stunning political comeback.

The President-elect — with tech billionaire Elon Musk emerging as a key supporter — managed to secure 312 (49.9%) electoral college votes against Harris’s 226 (48.3%).

By securing over 77.1 million votes, compared to democratic candidate’s 74.7 million, Trump is set to bring back his “Make America Great Again” approach to the White House after he is sworn-in as the country’s 47th president in January.

Ever since winning the elections, Trump has confirmed adopting a tariff-heavy approach regarding his foreign and economic policy. 

In November, the Republican said that he would impose 25% tariff on all products from China, Mexico and Canada whereas China would face an additional 10% tariff — above any additional Tariffs — for failure to tackle fentanyl smuggling.

With Trump at the helm in Washington with his “America first” approach, it would be interesting to see how the US relations with China, Russia and Iran pan out, especially in the light of ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine the tensions revolving around the South China Sea and Beijing’s attitude towards Taiwan.

Trump in crosshairs

If the US presidential polls were already not charged enough, the election campaign saw now-President-elect Trump narrowly escaping an assassination bid during a rally in Pennsylvania.

The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Cook, managed to graze Trump’s year using a semiautomatic rifle before being gunned down by the Secret Service personnel.

The incident seemingly failed to rattle Trump who, after being swarmed by security personnel, emerged with his fist in the air saying “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

In September, another assassination attempt was made on Trump’s life in West Palm Beach, Florida when Secret Service agents saw a gunman, later identified as Ryan Routh, pointing a rifle through a fence while the-then Republican candidate was playing golf.

The suspect was apprehended and later indicted.

Climate change — hottest year

Climate change also remained a key point of concern throughout 2024 as the year, according to EU scientists is set t be the word’s warmest since records began. 

The data from EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) for January-November showed that the ongoing year is the first one during which average global temperatures exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.

According to C3S:

• November 2024 was the second-warmest November ever globally with an average ERA5 surface air temperature of 14.10°C, 0.73°C above the 1991-2020 average for November.
• November 2024 was 1.62°C above the pre-industrial level.
• From January to November 2024, global-average temperature anomaly was recorded to be 0.72°C above the 1991-2020 average — highest on record for this period.
• Average temperature for Europe for November was 5.14°C — 0.78°C above the 1991-2020.
• Mercury was also above average for northern Russia, across northeastern and southwestern Europe.
• Temperatures were also above average in eastern Canada, central and eastern US, most of Mexico, northwest Africa, China, Australia and Pakistan.

At nature’s mercy

Climate change, or better yet its adverse repercussions, highlighted the outgoing year with extreme weather phenomena manifested in fatal natural disasters causing significant economic loss globally.

On one hand where global warming triggered heatwaves, droughts and deadly flooding, with the wet weather proving particularly dramatic, an unusually intense rainy season in West and Central Africa killed more than 1,500 people, according to the International Organisation of Migration (IOM).

The month of September saw Hurricane Helene pounding the southeast US, Typhoon Krathon slamming into Taiwan and Storm Boris bringing floods and devastation to central Europe.

Typhoons Yagi and Bebinca left a trail of destruction in Asia.

Whereas in October, a Mediterranean storm lashed eastern Spain, triggering its worst floods in decades that killed more than 230 people.

In December Cyclone Chido devastated the French overseas territory of Mayotte.

COP29

Leaders, representatives from around the world gathered in Azerbaijan’s Baku in November for the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP) 29 climate summit for addressing inter alia climate financing, transition from fossil fuel, compensation for loss and damage etc.

The moot, after two weeks of intense negotiations, agreed on $300 billion a year climate financing by 2035 — a figure termed significantly low by several developing countries. 

Furthermore, the summit also resulted in a deal allowing countries to start establishing carbon credit to bring in funding to offset their emissions or trade them on a market exchange.

However, COP29 failed to carve out measures for nation to build last year’s (COP28) pledge to transition away from fossil fuels and triple renewable energy capacity this decade.

 G20

Climate change, among other issues, also remained a key point of concern as the Group of 20 major economies converged in Brazil for the G20 summit where leaders from various countries called for cooperation on the aforesaid pressing issue.

Ukraine war, Middle East conflict, poverty and taxation were among the other issues that came under discussion.

Social media scrutiny

The 2024 was also the year of increased social media scrutiny with various platforms feeling the heat in multiple countries. In August, the Russian-born founder of the Telegram app, Pavel Durov, was arrested and charged with failing to curb extremist and illegal content on his network, which has 900 million users.

US tech mogul Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, was banned for 40 days in Brazil in a legal tussle over disinformation with Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes terming the platform a danger to democracy.

The platform eventually became available to users in October after it agreed to pay $5.2 million in fines for flouting court decisions.

Popular video sharing platform TikTok was by the US to divest from from Bytedance, its Chinese owner, by January 19 or be banned. The US Supreme Court will assess the constitutionality of the law.

The platform is also being investigated by the EU over allegations it was used by Russia to sway the result of Romania’s later annulled presidential election first round, won by the far-right candidate Calin Georgescu.

Paris Olympics

Other than this year’s political turmoil, France also gained the world’s attention due to Paris 2024 which broke previous ticket records for both the Olympics and Paralympics selling 12 million tickets in in total.

Around 9.5 million tickets were sold for the Olympics, whereas the number stood at 2.5 million for the Paralympics.

Previously in the 2012 London Games, organisers sold 2.7 million tickets for the Paralympics but only 8.2 million tickets were sold for the Olympics.

The Games saw hosts France securing their best-ever gold tally with 16 medals — surpassing their previous records from Atlanta 1996 (15). 

The country also eclipsed their overall medal tally and ended up bagging 64 medals compared to 43 medals from Beijing 2008.

However, the US — tied with China with 40 golds — topped the medals table in terms of overall success with 126 medals. 

Beijing on the other hand managed to secure 91 medals in total.

Space race — SpaceX’s ‘catch’  

As various companies continue to compete to gain edge against one another in space technology, Elon Musk’s SpaceX reached a key milestone in October as it successfully “caught” its Starship’s first stage booster back to its Texas launch pad for the first time using giant mechanical arms.

As per Reuters, Super Heavy booster re-lit three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its speedy descent back to SpaceX’s launch site, as it targeted the launch pad and tower it had blasted off from. The tower, taller than the Statue of Liberty at over 400 feet, was fitted with two large metal arms at the top.

With its engines roaring, the 233 feet (71 metres)-tall Super Heavy booster fell into the launch tower’s enclosing arms, hooking itself in place by tiny, protruding bars under the four forward grid fins it had used to steer itself through the air.

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Saad Bin Aziz Ahmed is a staffer at Geo.tv. He posts on X@Saadazizahmed

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Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer’s own and don’t necessarily reflect Geo.tv’s editorial policy.

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