Why 2022 is key election year across the globe

THE year 2021 saw a series of big ballots in leading powers from Japan to Germany. However, the election landscape is even more dramatic this year with eye-catching votes in the next 12 months, across every continent, which will not just shape domestic politics and economics, but also international relations well in the 2020s.

In Asia-Pacific, there is an important presidential ballot in South Korea in March that will help determine the outlook for Seoul's engagement with Kim Jong-Un's regime in Pyongyang, a signature policy of outgoing leader Moon Jae-in. With Moon restricted to a single 5-year term, polls currently indicate that his successor is most likely to be from the same left-of-centre Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung.

Lee, the former governor of Gyeonggi province and ex-mayor of Seongnam, has stated that he would broadly continue the efforts of Moon to conduct peace talks with the North. He favours conditional roll-back of sanctions on Pyongyang in attempting to denuclearise, but immediate restoration of these economic measures if Kim fails to deliver on his promises.