On 9 October Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru dissolved parliament just eight days into his term of office. He called the general election in a climate of low public trust in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) stemming from a series of “money and politics” scandals (Nippon.com 2024; Miyake 2024).

On 27 November 2024, Namibia held general elections for both the president and the parliament. Namibia uses a two-round system for the presidential election in which a runoff round will occur if no one candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the vote. The presidential term is five years. 96 MPs are elected via closed list proportional representation, while eight are appointed by the president (AU 2024).

On 30 November 2024, Iceland  held snap parliamentary election after the Prime Minister dissolved parliament on 13 October 2024 (Reuters 2024). Members of Iceland’s unicameral parliament are elected using a multi-seat constituency system of proportional representation. Any political party must have at least 5 per cent of the vote to gain a seat in parliament.

The Union of Comoros held presidential and gubernatorial (governor) elections on 14 January 2024. The President is directly elected by plurality vote in up to two rounds. In accordance with a controversial 2018  constitutional referendum, the presidency rotates between the islands of Comoros, but now a president’s five-year term is renewable once (consecutive) (IFES 2024; International IDEA n.d.).