This year, we saw a huge number of elections, so many that calling 2024 the 'year of the elections' would not be unmerited. From India's ruling party Bhartiya Janata Party barely managing to hang onto its reign to US President-elect Donald Trump's triumphant return to the White House, these are the most substantial elections the world witnessed in the year 2024.

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India

In the world's largest democracy, elections are quite literally the festival of democracy. 

2024 saw the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) humbled as the citizens of the nation made apparent their misgivings, forcing him to seek help from other parties and form a coalition, that too after two terms (or 10 years) of straight majorities.

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This year, Narendra Modi managed to hold on to his position as the Indian PM, albeit with some help. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won, but the BJP only contributed 44.20 per cent votes to the coalition, a far call from the absolute majorities it achieved in 2014 and 2019 General Elections.

United States

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The United States this year saw an epic election race, full of twists and turns. The entertaining event had everything one can ask from an election: no hold-back presidential debates, controversial statements and one of the two main candidates — Joe Biden stepping down from the race, that too with the end of the race to the White House in sight. It even had straight out of the movies moments, with the hero (or the winner) of this story emerging bloody but victorious (literally! Remember the assassination attempt?).

At the end of it all, Republican Donald Trump (a convicted felon, no less), defeated the final Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris and won by 312 votes (he only needed 270 to win).

Pakistan

2024 was the year of turbulence for Pakistan. With the nation's popular leader, former prime minister Imran Khan lodged in jail, and barred from contesting, the nation held the 16th Pakistani General Elections, after almost two years of political unrest. 

Also read | From tragedy to triumph: Five personalities who defined 2024

The election result declaration was nothing short of controversial. Initial predictions by television channels showed Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf in the lead in at least 127 of the 266 national seats. However, when the results were declared, independent candidates backed by PTI got 103 seats. Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N) or PML-N got 75 seats, which, along with 54 seats won by Pakistan's People's Party, gave it the majority needed to form a government. With the win, Shehbaz Sharif was established as the Pakistani Prime Minister, and Imran Khan stays in prison over 1.5 years since his arrest in May 2023. 

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom this year, after almost two decades in opposition, the Labour Party returned to power, and what a comeback it was. Defeating the Conservative Party (with its 14-years in power record), Keir Starmer in a landslide victory left Rishi Sunak in the dust. Starmer's party won a whopping 411 of 650 seats in the House of Commons.

To a certain extent, the Labour Party had conservatives to thank for this decisive win. From the Boris Johnson administration's record in (mis)handling the coronavirus pandemic to Liz Truss's embarrassingly short 49-day stint as the UK PM and finally Rishi Sunak's dipping popularity, all helped Starmer gain the resounding lead.