polls

The vote is taking place in a highly polarised climate, with the US backing the right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura.

Hondurans are heading to the polls to elect a new president in a tightly contested race that is taking place amid concerns over voter fraud in the impoverished Central American country.

Polls opened on Sunday at 7am local time (13:00 GMT) for 10 hours of voting, with the first results expected late Sunday night.

Most polls show a virtual tie between three of the five contenders: former Defence Minister Rixi Moncada of the governing leftist Liberty and Refoundation (LIBRE) party; former Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura of the right-wing National Party; and television host Salvador Nasralla of the centrist Liberal Party.

The elections, in which the 128 members of Congress, hundreds of mayors, and thousands of other public officials will also be chosen, are taking place in a highly polarised climate, with the three top candidates accusing each other of plotting fraud. Moncada has suggested that she will not recognise the official results.

Incumbent President Xiomara Castro of the LIBRE party is limited by law to one term in office.

Honduras’s Attorney General’s Office, aligned with the ruling party, has accused the opposition parties of planning to commit voter fraud, a claim they deny.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into audio recordings that allegedly show a high-ranking National Party politician discussing plans with an unidentified military officer to influence the election.

The alleged recordings, which the National Party says were created using artificial intelligence, have become central to Moncada’s campaign.

Public distrust

Political tensions have contributed to a growing public distrust of the electoral authorities and the electoral process in general. There have also been delays in the provision of voting materials.

“We are hoping that there will be no fraud and that the elections will be peaceful,” said Jennifer Lopez, a 22-year-old law student in Tegucigalpa. “This would be a huge step forward for democracy in our country.”

Amid the heated atmosphere, 6.5 million Hondurans will decide between continuing with Castro’s left-wing social and economic agenda or shifting towards a conservative agenda by supporting the Liberal or National parties.

Castro, the first woman to govern Honduras, has increased public investment and social spending. The economy has grown moderately, and poverty and inequality have decreased, although both remain high. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised her government’s prudent fiscal management.

The country’s homicide rate has also fallen to its lowest level in recent history, but violence persists.

US stance

The Organization of American States has expressed concerns about the electoral process, and the majority of its members in an extraordinary session this week called for the government to conduct elections free of intimidation, fraud and political interference.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau also warned on X that the United States will respond “swiftly and decisively to anyone who undermines the integrity of the democratic process in Honduras”.

US President Donald Trump has backed Asfura, posting on social media that “if he doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad”.

Honduras, where six out of every 10 citizens live in poverty, experienced a coup in 2009 when an alliance of right-wing military figures, politicians and businessmen overthrew Manuel Zelaya, the husband of the current president.

In 2021, Honduran voters gave Castro a landslide victory, ending decades of rule by the National and Liberal parties.

On Monday, Egyptians will head to the polls in the first of a two-phase process aimed at electing a new House of Representatives. Expatriates already voted on November 7 and 8.

Egypt has taken an increasingly proactive role regionally as of late, joining Qatar as a key negotiator for the ceasefire in Gaza. The country has also deployed Foreign Ministry representatives to Lebanon in recent weeks.

The elections for the House come on the back of last year’s Senate elections and are expected to be the final elections in President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s third term.

So why is this significant? Read on, and find out.

What is happening?

Monday will see the start of voting for the 596-member House of Representatives.

Of those seats, 284 are individual seats, while another 284 are filled via a closed party list system. Twenty-eight more members are appointed by presidential decree. A quarter of the seats must be held by women.

There are 70 counting committees, and voting will be conducted across 5,606 polling stations, according to Egyptian media. Fourteen governorates vote in the first phase and 13 vote in the second.

Results for the voting may not be fully known before the end of December.

Phase one includes the governorates of Alexandria, Assiut, Aswan, Beheira, Beni Suef, Fayoum, Giza, Luxor, Matrouh, Minya, New Valley, Qena, Red Sea, and Sohag.

Phase two includes Cairo, Daqahlia, Damietta, Gharbia, Ismailia, Kafr El-Sheikh, Menoufia, North Sinai, Port Said, Qalyubia, Sharqia, South Sinai, and Suez.

Phase one results will be announced on November 18.

If phase one requires run-offs, voting will be held internationally over the first two days of December and then in Egypt on December 3 and 4, with results announced on December 11.

Phase-two voting for Egyptians abroad will take place on November 21 and 22. Voting inside Egypt will take place on November 24 and 25, with results announced on December 2.

In case of phase-two run-offs, voting will take place on December 15 and 16 abroad and 17 and 18 inside Egypt, with the final results announced on December 25.

Who is running?

First, voting has to be broken down by “party-list constituencies” and individual candidates. Each group is competing for 284 seats.

The party-list constituencies in Egypt divide the country into four areas. Cairo and the Central and Southern Delta has 102 seats. North, Central, and South Upper Egypt has 102 seats. The Eastern Delta and Western Delta have 40 seats apiece.

Then, individual candidates are running for another 284 across 143 constituencies.

The electoral lists are closed, meaning that parties must be approved to run.

The current lists include 12 political parties plus the Coordination Committee of Parties’ Youth Leaders and Politicians, who will compete for the 284 party-list seats. The National List for Egypt, the Generation List, the Popular List, Your Voice for Egypt List, and the Egypt Call List are seen as some of the bigger parties running.

How did expat voting go?

Ahram Online reported that it went smoothly.

A total 139 electoral committees were set up in 117 countries. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry also set up 24-hour operation rooms in every mission to coordinate with the National Elections Authority in Cairo.

The round two vote is still set to take place in late November.

How long will House members serve?

Members of the House of Representatives serve five-year terms.

The current House was elected in late 2020 for a five-year term that expires in January 2026.

Why is this vote important?

President el-Sisi is in his third and, constitutionally, final term. In 2019, the Parliament of Egypt changed the constitution to allow him to serve until 2030, and there’s a widely held belief that Parliament could once again amend the constitution, allowing el-Sisi to extend his mandate.

In recent years, el-Sisi has worked to reshape Egypt by liberalising the economy, but many Egyptians are struggling with a rising cost of living and will likely be heading to the polls with the economy in mind.

Other important issues expressed by Egyptians include health and medical care, and a new rental law that threatens to evict millions living in rent-controlled properties.

Analysts say these elections could play a significant role in the country’s future, especially after the end of el-Sisi’s term.

“[T]he 2025 parliament will serve as both a legal and political instrument through which the Egyptian authorities channel key post-2030 decisions,” Halem Henish, a legal associate at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, wrote in October. “The composition of that parliament will directly reflect the Egyptian authorities’ intentions for the future.”

Nearly 1.3 million members of the security forces and more than 26,500 internally displaced people are eligible to vote ahead of Tuesday’s polls.

Members of Iraq’s security forces and its internally displaced population have begun casting their ballots in the parliamentary elections – the sixth since a United States-led invasion toppled longtime ruler Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Polls opened at 7am (04:00 GMT) on Sunday for 1.3 million members of the security forces at 809 polling centres and will close at 6pm (15:00 GMT) before they are deployed for security purposes on the election day on Tuesday.

More than 26,500 internally displaced people are also eligible for early voting on Sunday across 97 polling stations at 27 places in Iraq, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) said.

Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari told INA that the special voting process is advancing “smoothly and in an organised manner”.

Nearly 21 million Iraqis are eligible to vote on Tuesday across 4,501 polling stations nationwide, the INA said.

More than 7,750 candidates, nearly a third of them women, are running for the 329-seat parliament. Under the law, 25 percent of the seats are reserved for women, while nine are allocated for religious minorities.

The current parliament began its term on January 9, 2022, and will last four years, ending on January 8, 2026.

An old electoral law, revived in 2023, will apply to the ongoing elections, with many seeing it as favouring larger parties. While about 70 independents won in the 2021 vote, only 75 independents are contesting this year.

Observers also fear that turnout might dip below the record low of 41 percent in 2021, reflecting voters’ apathy and scepticism in a country marked by entrenched leadership and allegations of mismanagement and endemic corruption.

There were widespread accusations of corruption and vote-buying before the elections, and 848 candidates were disqualified by election officials, sometimes for obscure reasons, including insulting religious rituals or members of the armed forces.

Past elections in Iraq have been marred by violence, including assassinations of candidates, attacks on polling stations, and clashes between the supporters of different blocs. While overall levels of violence have subsided, a candidate was assassinated in the run-up to this year’s election.

Influential Shia leader Moqtada Sadr urged his followers to boycott what he described as a “flawed election”.

Al-Sadr’s bloc won the largest number of seats in 2021, but later withdrew after failed negotiations over forming the government amid a standoff with rival Shia parties. He has since boycotted the political system.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, elected in 2022 with the backing of pro-Iran parties, is seeking a second term and is expected to secure a sizeable bloc.

Among the other frontrunners are influential Shia figures, including former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Muslim scholar Ammar al-Hakim.

By convention in post-invasion Iraq, a Shia Muslim holds the powerful post of the prime minister and a Sunni of the parliament’s speaker, while the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd.

Results expected shortly after polling stations close at 9pm on Tuesday (02:00 GMT on Wednesday). 

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.

Here is what we know:

What’s happening on Tuesday?

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 .

Who are the candidates in NYC?

The three leading candidates are Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa.

Zohran Mamdani

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.

Andrew Cuomo

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.

Curtis Sliwa

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.

Who is leading in the polls?

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.

What time do polls open and close in New York?

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.

When will we know results?

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.

What are the main issues and what’s at stake?

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.

What has Trump said about the 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.

What other elections are taking place?

Virginia governor

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.

New Jersey governor

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.

California

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.

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.

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.

How accurate are the polls?

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.

How does polling work?

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.

How the voting works

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:

• Be a citizen of the United States
• Have been a New York City resident for at least 30 days
• Be at least 18 years old (you may preregister at 16 or 17, but can’t vote until you’re 18)
• Not be in prison for a felony conviction
• Not have been judged mentally incompetent by a court
• Not be registered to vote elsewhere

When do polls open and close?

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.