In some respects, the Armenian parliamentary election scheduled for May 12 may prove to be very similar to the 2003 vote that returned to power the incumbent three-party coalition headed by Prime Minister Markarian's Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).

The United States and the European Union have said they do not recognize the legitimacy of March 4 parliamentary elections in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region.

Officials in Georgia's separatist Abkhazia region have announced the first preliminary results from the March 4 legislative elections.

Voters in the southern African nation of Lesotho choose a parliament Saturday in elections that were called early after 18 parliament members split from the ruling party to form a new opposition party.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned today of the threat of extremism and ethnic and religious intolerance in the months before parliamentary elections later this year.

First official results are due today from Serbia's parliamentary election.

Controversial parliamentary elections in Bangladesh have been postponed indefinitely by the president, who has also stepped aside as head of the caretaker administration and imposed a state of emergency. Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, the decision has calmed tensions in a country paralyzed by opposition strikes, but political uncertainty remains.

The Kyrgyz government resigned today, which Prime Minister Feliks Kulov said after was done to help smooth the adoption of a new constitution, but also because of worsening ties between the executive and legislative branches of power.

The European Commission will deploy an EU Election Observation Mission (EOM) for the Parliamentary elections in Bangladesh scheduled to take place on 23 January 2007. The EU EOM will be led by Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Member of the European Parliament. The EOM is a further contribution by the European Commission to supporting democracy in Bangladesh.

William Taylor was appointed U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in May, two months after the country's parliamentary elections saw the political resurrection of Viktor Yanukovych, now Ukrainian prime minister. Taylor spoke to Marianna Dratch of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on November 27 ahead of Yanukovych's official visit to the United States on December 3-7.