2012 Elections

By Helen Murphy BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos hinted on Friday that he would seek re-election next year to ensure continuity of his policies - including peace talks with Marxist FARC rebels - though he did not explicitly announce his candidacy. "I want clearly and firmly to see that the government's policies continue after August 7, 2014," Santos said, referring to the date a new administration would take office. "I want the peace policy re-elected, I want the housing policy re-elected, those that have reduced poverty - re-elected," he told reporters in Bogota. ...

By Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI (Reuters) - Some 100 legislators are demanding a ban on two top independent candidates including ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from Iran's June presidential election in what may be a further move to thwart any brewing challenge to the clerical supreme leader. The petition by parliamentarians to Iran's Guardian Council emerged three days after the electoral watchdog said outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may face charges for accompanying former aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, the other high-profile independent, to register on Saturday for the vote. ...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may face charges for accompanying an ally to register for the June presidential vote, the electoral watchdog said, in a possible move by rival conservative hardliners keen to pre-empt any challenge to Iran's clerical supreme leader. After mass protests that followed the 2009 election, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have looked to next month's vote to install a loyal conservative president but the surprise candidacies of two major independents could rewrite that script. ...

By Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - After the huge protests that followed the 2009 election, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have hoped June polls would quietly install a loyal conservative president, but the surprise candidacies of two major independents may scupper that. Both Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, the nationalist protégé of outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and Iran's best known political grandee, are seen as a threat to the leader's authority. ...

By Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - After the huge protests that followed the 2009 election, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have hoped June polls would quietly install a loyal conservative president, but the surprise candidacies of two major independents may scupper that. Both Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, the nationalist protégé of rabble-rousing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and Iran's best known political grandee, are seen as a threat to the leader's authority. ...

By Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani threw himself into Iran's election race on Saturday as a flurry of heavyweight candidates rushed to beat the registration deadline in the most unpredictable contest for decades. Iranian media reported that Rafsanjani - a relative moderate - had registered for the June 14 presidential election with just minutes to spare. His candidacy radically alters what was previously seen as a contest between rival conservative groups. ...

By Rachelle Younglai WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would require the Obama administration to prioritize government debt payments and retirement benefits if Congress fails to reach a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. The legislation is not expected to go anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House has said it will veto the bill, but what is essentially a tactical maneuver will allow the Republicans, who control the House, to argue they have done their best to avoid a potential U.S. credit default. ...

By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Democratic Congressman Ed Markey holds a lead over Republican political newcomer Gabriel Gomez in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race, though a newly released pair of polls differ on how wide his margin is. A MassInc Polling Group/WBUR poll released on Thursday found that Markey, who has spent more than three decades in the House of Representatives, had the firm support of 41 percent of likely voters, with private equity executive Gabriel Gomez having 35 percent. ...

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's Senate passed a court reform law on Wednesday aimed at "democratizing the judiciary," but critics said the move would leave judges vulnerable to political influence. Under the reform, backed by President Cristina Fernandez and passed by 38 votes to 30, members of the board that chooses federal judges will be elected. The measure had already been approved by the lower house of Congress. The National Chamber of Civil Appeals, the main body of appeals court judges, issued a statement saying the new law "violates the principle of judicial independence. ...

By John Whitesides WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fresh off a redemptive win in South Carolina's special election, former Governor Mark Sanford's return to Congress will make him a prominent wild card in an already fractious Republican caucus. Sanford, whose political career was short-circuited in 2009 by an extramarital affair that marred his last 18 months as governor, earned a political rebirth along with a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday by defeating Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch. ...