Taking Latin America into consideration, general elections are scheduled to be held in Mexico in the first week of June 2024. Voters will elect a new president to serve a six-year term, all 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies and all 128 members of the Senate of the Republic. The country has almost 100 million voters and for the first time in Mexico’s history, the two leading presidential candidates are women i.e. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, former mayor of Mexico City, and former senator Xóchitl Gálvez. Ballot papers across Mexico will also include votes to fill more than 20,000 public positions, a record for the country. Thus, Mexico’s presidential election is certain to catch the eye when breaking glass ceilings, two women candidates will compete for the top job.
In the UK, the problem is slightly different. Despite priding itself on a long democratic tradition, Britain has endured two unelected Conservative prime ministers in little more than a year. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he expects to call a general election “in the second half” of 2024. There had been speculation it could be held in May when some local elections take place. Ideally speaking, the latest a Parliament can be dissolved for a general election is on the fifth anniversary of the day it first met. For the current Parliament, that date is 17 December 2024. However, 25 working days are then allowed to prepare for the election. That means the next election must be held by January 28th, 2025.
The chain of resignations that began with the Conservative Party member and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet, Rishi Sunak, saw the political turmoil come full circle when Rishi Sunak assumed office as the Tory’s choice for the PM post.
Mexico’s presidential election is certain to catch the eye when breaking glass ceilings.
After Boris Johnson resigned, following the ‘Covid-gate’ accusations, Liz Truss took over only to become the shortest reigning Prime Minister of the UK. Truss’ resignation was followed by Rishi Sunak assuming chair. However, PM Rishi Sunak has lost his favorability with the people of the UK, tipping the scales in favour of the Labour Party, who has been aggressive in their campaign against the PM Rishi Sunak-led government.
In the European Union (EU), 2024 elections for the European Parliament will take place between 6 and 9 June 2024. More than 400 million voters will elect 720 members of the European Parliament across 27 member countries. Because the EU election crosses so many borders, it will be the world’s biggest transnational election.
The most awaited elections will be in the last quarter of this year as the US will head to the polls on 5 November 2024. More than 160 million Americans are registered to vote. They’ll be choosing the 60th US president, who will serve in the White House for four years, from January 2025. Incumbent President Joe Biden hopes to secure a second term in office, while former President Donald Trump is hoping to secure a second, non-consecutive term.
While incumbent President Joe Biden, a Democrat leader, has filed his candidature seeking a second term as the head of the United States, the rather undisciplined Republicans have also upped the ante with impeached former President of the US Donald Trump.
The Republicans rule the Houses in the US, however, the Republicans have seen a major crisis when they were unable to retain a House speaker owing to internal conflicts. Reports of outright Donald Trump supporters marginalizing other republican candidates, fuelled by an inherent lack of coherence within the party have also cast aspersions on the future of Republicans in the White House, giving the Democrats only one brownie point.
As the UK, the US, and India – the world’s most populous nation – are just three of the forty countries set to hold elections in 2024, it will be the first time some of the world’s biggest democracies have held a national vote since generative AI tools, including ChatGPT and image creators like Midjourney, went mainstream.
Think tank institutes around the globe that tend to promote internet safety warned politicians that they are at the top of the pyramid when it comes to AI-driven misinformation. Deep fakes, where high-profile figures are digitally cloned in realistic videos, are of particular concern. US President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy have repeatedly fallen victim to such clips, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s voice was cloned for nefarious purposes. Thus, such misinformation could spread at a much bigger scale in the run-up to 2024’s elections.
Governments are considering how to regulate the technology, but some are moving faster than others. American President, Biden unveiled proposals in October, which included mandating that AI-generated content be watermarked. Moreover, the EU has reached a deal on how to regulate AI, though it won’t take effect until 2025 at the earliest. In the UK, the government has been cautious about the need for regulation, fearing it would stifle innovation.
It is a need of an hour to assert governments to boost public awareness of the dangers of AI fakes to help them recognize fake images and question what they see online.
Likewise, there is a need to put new requirements on social platforms to swiftly remove illegal misinformation and disinformation including where it is AI-generated – as soon as they become aware of it. Social media companies should also legally be directed to take action against misinformation and disinformation where it amounts to a criminal offence or risks a fine.
It should be made compulsory for anyone running political advertising, including AI-generated material, to include an imprint with their name and address. Companies like Meta faced criticism for not doing enough to combat fake news during the 2016 US election and Brexit referendum, and governments are under pressure to introduce guardrails.
In a nutshell, emerging as the most severe global risk anticipated over the next two years, foreign and domestic actors alike will leverage misinformation and disinformation to further widen societal and political divides and there are valid apprehensions that such widespread use of misinformation and disinformation, and tools to disseminate it, may undermine the legitimacy of newly elected governments.
(Concluded)
The writer works at a public policy think tank. He can be reached at saudzafar5@gmail.com