FinPol Digest

 Israel's government has fallen apart, and the Knesset, or parliament, will be dissolved by Wednesday at midnight, in what has come to feel like a familiar tale. This opens the door for the fifth election in three years after the country's most diverse and unusual coalition, which included centrists, right-wingers, left-wingers, and even Islamists, hit a point of impasse after just one year of existence. Israel held four elections over the course of two years before that coalition was established, with each one being close enough to necessitate a second vote. Benjamin Netanyahu, the nation's longest-serving prime minister, was ousted from office after 12 years during Israel's most recent cabinet formation process, which took place almost exactly one year ago. According to some analysts, Israel's current situation shows the growing polarization in the nearly 9 million-person nation in the Middle East as well as sharply divergent perspectives on the country's futu...

 Algeria has urged Libya to hold elections as soon as possible to resolve the country’s crisis. In a press statement on Wednesday, the spokesman for the Algerian foreign ministry urged political parties to avoid escalation and hold a fair election. The Algerian foreign ministry wrote on Twitter, “Algeria has expressed great concern for the resumption of armed clashes in Libya after the recent outbreak of armed clashes in Tripoli.” The ministry also asked Libya’s politicians to put the national interest first.  Fathi Bashagha flees the capital One of Libya’s rival prime ministers, Fathi Bashagha, was forced to leave the capital Tripoli on May 17 after clashes between rival militias. Former Interior Minister Bashagha had arrived in Tripoli with several ministers, but he had to leave the capital city.  His arrival in Tripoli triggered armed confrontations in central Tripoli and elsewhere in the city. He was appointed by the east-based House of Representatives (HoR) in a cha...

 The Mali authorities proposed a five-year extension of the transition period for the formation of the new government. However, a union of political parties rejected the military government's plan of five-year transition before elections. Mali’s military leaders recently released a new timetable for the transition period. The political parties rejected the new timetable. They said that the “unilateral and unreasonable” timetable was in violation of the transition charter. Under the new timetable, the next presidential election was put off until 2026. Presidential election on hold One of the members of the union said that the reason for the extension was not valid. Reportedly, they cited security concerns for putting off the presidential election . However, the security problems steadily declined for a decade in Mali.  Doussouba Konaté, a worker of the Mali office of Accountability Lab, said that there is some truth to the claim that elections cannot be held due to security con...