Tanzanian activists say graphic videos offer proof government forces killed dozens of people protesting over alleged election rigging. Incumbent President Samia Suluhu was named the winner of the October 29 vote in controversial circumstances.
Published On 4 Nov 20254 Nov 2025
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On Tuesday, voters in the largest city of the United States, New York, will choose a new mayor in a race that has stirred debate across the country and drawn global interest.
Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assembly democratic socialist who surprised many with his June win in the Democratic Party’s primary, is facing former Governor Andrew Cuomo, now running as an independent after losing the Democratic nomination. Republican Curtis Sliwa is among the other candidates in the race.
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Here is what we know:
Voters on both coasts of the US will cast ballots in a series of elections: gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia, the New York City mayoral race, and a vote in California on a redistricting measure.
But of these electoral battles, it is the New York mayoral vote that has grabbed the most attention .
The three leading candidates are Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa.
The Democratic nominee is running on a platform focused on affordability, calling for rent freezes, universal childcare, cheaper public transport, and a raise in the hourly minimum wage to $30. An immigrant, Muslim, and democratic socialist, his popularity has surged during the campaign, with nearly 370,000 early ballots already cast, and appealing strongly to young voters.
Mamdani, whose parents have Indian roots, was born in Uganda. If elected, he will be the city’s first Muslim mayor, the first to be born in Africa, and the first of South Asian descent.
Cuomo served as New York state’s governor from 2011 to 2021 and resigned after a state inquiry confirmed sexual harassment allegations by 13 women. He lost the Democratic primary to Mamdani (56 percent to 44 percent), but stayed in the race as an independent.
At 71, Sliwa has resisted pressure to withdraw from the race amid concerns he could split the anti-Mamdani vote. Known for his trademark red beret, he rose to prominence as the leader of the Guardian Angels, a volunteer crime-fighting group that became famous for its patrols of the New York subway system.
The latest RealClearPolitics average shows Democratic nominee Mamdani leading the mayoral race with 46.1 percent , giving him a 14.3-point edge over Cuomo (31.8 percent ) and a 29.8-point lead over Sliwa (16.3 percent ).
US President Donald Trump and businessman Elon Musk backed Cuomo late on Monday. Whether that high-profile, last-minute support will shift voter sentiment remains uncertain.
Polling stations across the city will open on November 4 at 6am local time (11:00 GMT) and voting will continue till 9pm (02:00 GMT on November 5).
Early voting took place from October 25 to November 2.
In New York, mayoral races are usually called quickly.
This time, however, with two candidates vying for the support of the city’s mostly Democratic voters, it may take longer to determine the outcome.
The 2021 mayoral race ended quickly – Democrat Eric Adams was declared the winner soon after the polls closed.
Being the US’s most diverse city, known around the world for its business and culture, makes picking a new mayor an especially important occasion.
New York’s election campaigns have mirrored the bigger national debates in the US, over identity, religion, political beliefs, and the country’s future.
Some of the key issues include:
Cost of living: The city is facing one of its tightest housing markets in decades. In 2023 the city had a vacancy rate of 1.41 percent , which means that only 14 out of every 1,000 housing units were unoccupied; 9.2 percent of all rental housing was described by city authorities as “overcrowded”. The number of new housing permits issued fell in 2024 compared with 2023.
This has made housing cost and availability a dominant issue. After a slate of California cities, New York is the costliest urban hub in the US to live in.
“Most of us are working multiple jobs, can’t make rent or rents are going up,” Tom Grabher, a city voter, told Al Jazeera.
Law and order: Serious crimes in the city, including murder, have gone down from their 17-year high in 2023. However, lower-level offences, such as shoplifting, remain higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic, adding to public worries about safety and disorder.
Migration: The city has long been a magnet for people from around the world, from its historic role as a gateway for immigrants to the recent influx of asylum seekers that critics say has placed new strains on the city’s resources.
Israel and Gaza: The ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict and the city’s large Jewish and Muslim populations have made foreign policy a key issue in this race.
A former New Yorker, Trump has loomed over the mayoral race for months, threatening to arrest Mamdani, deport him, and take control of the city if he wins.
On Monday, Trump urged the city’s voters on his Truth Social platform to back Cuomo, saying they had “no choice” but to vote for the former governor.
When the federal government shut down in October, Trump put on hold roughly $18bn in federal funds, although $187m from New York’s security funding has since been restored. Trump has threatened to withhold more federal aid for the city if Mamdani wins.
All eyes are on Virginia, a state next to Washington, DC, that has been directly affected by Trump’s spending cuts and the recent government shutdown.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger is facing off against Republican Lieutenant-Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.
In New Jersey, the governor’s race has centred on concerns about affordability. Although Democrats hold a voter advantage, Republicans are optimistic that Trump’s rising popularity in the state could lead to a surprise win. Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill is up against Republican Jack Ciattarelli , a former state assemblyman.
In California, a proposed ballot measure would redraw congressional districts in a way that could benefit Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections. Governor Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers say they introduced the plan in response to Trump’s earlier push for Texas to reshape its districts to give Republicans an advantage in five seats currently held by Democrats. If approved, the measure would effectively eliminate five Republican-held districts in California.
At his final rally on Monday New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani vowed to resist US President Donald Trump’s threat to withhold federal funds if the 34-year-old wins, framing the vote as a stand against intimidation and political bullying.
Published On 4 Nov 20254 Nov 2025
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EPA/ShutterstockIt’s Election Day in the US.
This so-called “off year” election doesn’t feature presidential or congressional races, but there are still several critical votes to watch tonight.
New York City will choose its next mayor, in a battle that has pitted a younger, progressive Democrat against a member of the party’s old guard. The states of Virginia and New Jersey will elect new governors, and the outcome of these contests could be bellwethers for next year’s congressional midterm elections.
Californians also will decide whether to redraw their US House district maps in a rare mid-decade redistricting, as Democrats try to counter Republicans’ efforts to give their party an advantage in next year’s midterm elections.
Here’s what you need to know.
All eyes will be on the Big Apple as Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblyman, attempts a political upset in his bid to become New York City’s youngest mayor in over a century.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, shocked the political establishment when he bested former governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary this summer. Cuomo, undeterred, has continued to campaign as an independent. Meanwhile, Republican Curtis Sliwa has resisted pressure to drop out of the race to clear a path for Cuomo.
If Mamdani wins, he will become the city’s first Muslim mayor. Democrats around the country will be watching to see if his laser-focus on cost-of-living issues like rent, groceries and wages could serve as effective messaging in future races.
Though Mamdani heads into election night with a suggested polling lead, the gap between him and Cuomo has narrowed. In the final stretch of the campaign, Cuomo has hammered Mamdani on crime and public safety, and said the young politician lacks the experience to lead America’s biggest city.
California’s Democratic leadership is asking voters for permission to redraw the state’s congressional districts in the middle of the decade. That’s unusual in California, which by law relies on a nonpartisan committee to draw its congressional maps once every decade, based on census data.
However, as Republican-led states like Texas and Missouri seek to hastily redraw their congressional maps to give their party an advantage in the 2026 midterm elections, California Governor Gavin Newsom wants to counter the losses with redistricting in his own state.
California’s Proposition 50 would allow the temporary use of new congressional district maps through 2030. The campaign has drawn $158 million in donations, according to the Los Angeles Times, with Democratic proponents vastly outraising the Republican opposition effort.
Republicans in California, who hold only nine of the state’s 52 US House seats, staunchly oppose the plan.
A University of California Berkeley/IGS Poll suggests 60% of likely California voters support Proposition 50, while 38% oppose it. The breakdown was highly partisan, with 93% of Democrats saying they would choose “yes” and 91% of Republicans choosing “no.”
New Jersey is considered a blue state, but polls indicate a close race between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli. It’s one of the two governor’s races this year that could indicate how Americans feel about the current political climate.
Sherrill currently represents New Jersey’s 11th District in Congress, and Ciattarelli is a former state assemblyman.
New Jersey is considered a Democratic-leaning state, but has had Republican governors. The last one, Chris Christie, served two terms between 2010 and 2018.
Rhetoric in the race has been heated. Ciattarelli and his supporters have run political advertisements featuring clips of Sherrill giving halting answers in interviews about her policies.
It also has drawn the attention of nationally known names from both parties. Democratic stars like former president Barack Obama and former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg have campaigned with Sherrill. President Donald Trump attended a virtual rally for Ciattarelli, and conservative activist Jack Posobiec has backed him.
Virginia’s leadership usually swings between Democrats and Republicans, meaning the outcome of this year’s gubernatorial election might serve as a bellwether for the electorate’s mood.
No matter which candidate succeeds, the state will elect its first female governor this year. Voters will choose between Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a US congresswoman, and Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, the state’s current lieutenant governor.
If Earle-Sears wins, she will become the first black woman elected to lead a US state in the nation’s history.
Virginia is bordered by the liberal-leaning Washington, DC to the north where many residents work in the nation’s capitol or for the federal government. But the state also has deep pockets of conservative voters throughout its rural districts, and swing voters.
Spanberger has highlighted the economic impact of Trump’s cuts to the federal government, which have impacted Virginia’s employment. Earle-Sears has touted Virginia’s economy under Republican leadership. But she also has leaned into cultural topics like transgender issues, which Republicans used successfully as a wedge issue in last year’s presidential election.
Though he’s not on the ballot, Trump’s name looms over this election.
The New York City mayor’s race is how the next leader of the city will deal with the Trump administration, which has meddled in the city’s politics. Cuomo is pitching his experience as governor dealing with the first administration as a reason for voters to choose him.
The president has implied that he will penalize the city if voters choose Mamdani.
“It’s gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York, because if you have a communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there,” Trump said in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday. (Mamdani is not a communist.)
Trump kicked off the redistricting battle that led California to put Proposition 50 on the ballot, and has endorsed Ciattarelli in the New Jersey governor’s race.
New York City – For Zohran Mamdani, it starts and ends in Astoria, the Queens neighbourhood he has represented as a state assemblyman for five years, and where he made his first public address following a shock victory in the June Democratic primary for mayor.
On Monday, the 34-year-old made his final appearance before Tuesday’s election day, standing at a playground at dusk, with children laughing in the background.
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His message to his army of volunteers, which the campaign has said is made up of more than 100,000: “Leave everything out there on the field”.
“These are the hands that have brought us to this point of making history in this city”, he said, “making history to show that when you focus and fight for working people, you can, in fact, remake the politics of the place that you call home”.
While US President Donald Trump may have gained from deep disquiet over an affordability crisis in the country to win the 2024 presidential vote, Mamdani has argued that it is he and his mayoral campaign that can actually address those challenges in the biggest city of the United States.
Indeed, Trump loomed large on Monday as Mamdani stood before a cadre of cheering canvassers, some clad in the campaign’s ubiquitous yellow beanies, and an equally large horde of local, national and international media.
Just hours earlier, the US president had explicitly endorsed former Governor Andrew Cuomo, saying New Yorkers must choose the “bad democrat” over the “communist”, a false label he has repeatedly applied to democratic socialist Mamdani.
Soon after, billionaire Elon Musk also threw his support behind Cuomo, a Democrat who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic Party’s primary.
The most recent polls showed Mamdani maintaining a commanding, if shrinking, lead over Cuomo. The late endorsements for the former governor, who has explicitly called on conservatives to jump ship from Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and support him instead, could also further destabilise an already volatile race.
Still, Mamdani’s supporters on Monday said they hoped their candidate’s speech will be a coda on a campaign that has been widely considered as a rebuke to the entrenched, donor-dominated Democratic establishment that Cuomo is seen to represent.
“I feel amazing right now,” said Tasnuva Khan, who was among the canvassers on Monday, adding that the race had revealed both the power of Muslim voters and the city’s fast-growing Bangladeshi community.
Mamdani would be the first Muslim, first person of South Asian descent, and the first person born in Africa to lead the city, if he wins.
“But I’m trying to stay balanced. What wins elections are votes. As long as we kind of stay focused and reach out to our community members, keep canvassing, knocking on doors, then I think we can definitely deliver,” she told Al Jazeera.
But Shabnam Salehezadehi, a dentist from Long Island City, Queens, and a Mamdani supporter, said she feared the mayoral candidate’s real challenges would begin after the election.
Winning is just the bare minimum, she noted, but for Mamdani to enact many of his sweeping pledges – free buses, universal childcare, rent freezes for a large portion of city apartments, paid for by increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy – he must win buy-in from a coalition of both state and city lawmakers.
“I’m really anxious – not so much whether he’ll win or not,” said Salehezadehi, who added she was first drawn to Mamdani for his staunch support of Palestinian rights, a break from the traditional Democratic mainstream.
“I just really hope we have the mandate to show that Zohran Mamdani is the candidate the city vehemently voted for,” she said.
Cuomo also spent the final day of the race cutting across the city, visiting the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn.
In the Fordham neighbourhood of the Bronx, a community representative of some of the minority-dominated working-class areas Cuomo carried in the primary, the former governor stood on a park bench overlooking nearby street vendors.
He decried the “socialist city” New York would become if Mamdani were to win.
“Socialism did not work in Venezuela. Socialism did not work in Cuba. Socialism will not work in New York City,” he said, in what has become a mantra in the final days of the race.
At a subsequent stop in Washington Heights, Manhattan, he replied to a question about the nod from Trump, which comes as Cuomo has already faced scrutiny for sharing many of the same billionaire donors as the Republican president.
“He called me a bad Democrat. First of all, I happen to be a good Democrat and a proud Democrat, and I’m going to stay a proud Democrat. Mamdani is not a communist,” Cuomo said. “He’s a socialist. But we don’t need a socialist mayor either.”
But for Gwendolyn Paige, a 69-year-old special educator from the Bronx, the “socialist label” is not what’s deterring her from voting for Mamdani.
Instead, she pointed to the Cuomo legacy. Cuomo’s father, Mario Cuomo, had also served as governor of the state. The younger Cuomo left his post in 2021 amid sexual misconduct allegations.
“Cuomo is the only person who will stand up to the Trump administration,” Paige told Al Jazeera from the Fordham neighbourhood, even as she dismissed Trump’s endorsement.
“Listen, tomorrow, Trump will say something else,” she said. “So, I don’t put much stock in it”.
At least 735,000 voters have already cast their ballots in early voting, just a portion of the 4.7 million registered voters in the city.
Polls will be open from 6am to 9pm on Tuesday (11:00 GMT, Tuesday to 02:00 GMT, Wednesday), with a winner expected to emerge in the hours after. The victor will take office in January.
With just hours until election day, some votes are still up for grabs.
Lisa Gonzalez, a retired Army veteran, pointed to dire times for low-income residents of the US, including restrictions on food assistance benefits (SNAP) included in a bill passed by Trump and Republicans earlier this year.
Trump has further threatened to cut federal funding for New York City and deploy the National Guard if Mamdani is elected.
“I’m still deciding. The stakes feel really high,” she said. “So I’m just gonna be very careful tomorrow when I vote”.
The most recent polls place Mamdani 14.7 points ahead of Cuomo, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average.
New York City’s mayoral race is entering its final stretch, with early voting now ended and residents among some five million registered voters set to cast their ballots on November 4 to choose the city’s next leader.
According to the New York City Board of Elections, 734,317 early votes have been cast over the past nine days – more than quadruple the total for the 2021 mayoral elections.
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According to the latest RealClearPolitics average, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani leads with 45.8 percent, holding a 14.7-point advantage over independent Andrew Cuomo at 31.1 percent and a 28.5-point lead over Republican Curtis Sliwa at 17.3 percent.
Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), has energised liberal voters, drawn to his proposals for universal, free childcare, free buses, and a rent freeze for New Yorkers living in about one million rent-regulated apartments.
New York City holds mayoral elections every four years, with a two-term limit for any individual. The current mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, who has been in office since January 2022, withdrew his candidacy earlier in the year following several controversies, most notably his federal criminal indictment on bribery and conspiracy charges, which was ultimately dismissed by a judge in April.
This year’s contest is notable for its three-way dynamic, bringing progressive, establishment and conservative forces to face off in the country’s largest city.
The latest polls put Mamdani between three and 25 points ahead of Cuomo, according to a selection of polls from RealClearPolitics.
Every poll carries a degree of uncertainty. While pollsters aim to capture a representative sample and mirror the wider electorate, there are margins of error. As such, actual levels of support fall within a few points of reported figures, with each surveyor using differing wording in issues such as how to treat undecided voters.
Aggregating different results helps to reduce bias.
Polling organisations, such as Emerson College, Marist College, and Quinnipiac University, regularly conduct public opinion surveys to gauge voter sentiment leading up to the primaries and general election.
Surveys use random sampling, including contacting voters by phone, text, or online, and ask respondents about their candidate preferences, key issues influencing their vote, and approval ratings.
Poll results include margins of error and sample sizes, which aid in interpreting accuracy and the fidelity of findings.
Unlike the primaries, which used ranked choice voting (RCV), the general election uses a first-past-the-post system, so whoever gets the most votes wins.
As of February, there were 5.1 million registered voters in New York City, of whom 65 percent were Democrats and 11 percent were Republicans. About 1.1 million voters were not registered with any party, and voter registration closed on October 25, one week before the November 4 election.
In the last New York City mayoral election, just more than 1.1 million voters cast ballots – about 21 percent of registered voters.
To be eligible to vote, residents of New York must:
Polling stations will be open between 6am (11:00 GMT) and 9pm on November 4 (02:00 GMT on November 5).
Timings vary from location to location in the city, but polling stations open between 8am and 10am and close between 4pm and 9pm.
Early voting began on October 25 and ended on November 2.
A full list of polling stations open for early voting is available on the website of the New York City Board of Elections.
Nov. 2 (UPI) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday renewed his call for support of a ballot initiative that would redraw congressional voting maps in the state.
Proposition 50 would change district boundaries to potentially favor Democrats, a reaction, Newsom has said, to a similar move by Texas Republicans that would benefit the GOP.
In an interview on NBC’s Meet The Press, Newsom said “the rules of the game have changed,” criticizing President Donald Trump for pushing the Texas initiative and accused him of “rigging” the 2026 midterm elections.
Newsom said he is “deeply confident” that California voters will approve Proposition 50 at the polls in a Nov. special election.
Democrats have moved away from a pledge by former first lady Michelle Obama, who said in 2016 that “when they go low, we go high,” in response to aggressive campaign rhetoric by then presidential candidate Donald Trump that leveled personal attacks against Democrats.
“I would love to go back to that,” Newsom said in the interview. “But politics has changed. The world has changed. The rules of the game have changed.”
“We want to go back to some semblance of normalcy, but you have to deal with the crisis at hand,” he said.
Newsom, who has said he is considering a bid for the White House in 2028, has also been critical of Trump’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in big cities across the country, including in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Portland.
Trump has claimed illegal immigration is responsible for rampant crime in those cities, despite a lack of evidence to back up his assertions.
Newsom signed on to an Oregon lawsuit to stop National Guard troops from patrolling Portland and has described the deployments as a “breathtaking abuse of power.”
He has also predicted the outcome of the Proposition 50 vote could shape the 2026 midterm elections.
Briahna Joy Gray tells Marc Lamont Hill why New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is ‘too good’ for the US Democratic Party.
As inequality deepens and dissent is punished, many are looking to new voices like Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist running for New York City mayor on a platform of rent freezes, free public transit, and taxing the rich. Can candidates like him revive the Democratic Party in the United States, or is real reform from within impossible?
This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks with journalist and former Bernie Sanders Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray.
Published On 2 Nov 20252 Nov 2025
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President Samia Suluhu Hassan has been re-elected in a landslide, as the government denies that hundreds were killed.
Tanzania’s incumbent president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, has been re-elected with 98 percent of the vote in an election denounced by the opposition as a sham.
The government has denied that hundreds of people have been killed in a police crackdown.
So, what’s behind this crisis, and what’s next?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan
Guests:
Tito Magoti – independent human rights lawyer and activist
Nicodemus Minde – researcher with the East Africa Peace and Security Governance Program at the Institute for Security Studies in Nairobi
Fergus Kell – research fellow with the Africa Programme at London’s Chatham House
Published On 1 Nov 20251 Nov 2025
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