ENG 
FRE 
ESP 
KOR 
The Asia-Pacific Greens Federation June 2014 Newsletter
.
Elections
Perspectives from Asia-Pacific Greens on recent and upcoming elections:
Mongolia:
In the previous general election, held in 2012, the Mongolian Green Party received 15,000 votes, 1.36%. The party now has 2,100 members. Read more at: https://www.asiapacificgreens.org/manuals/mongolian-green-party/mongolian-green-party-introduction
October 2013: Philippines village elections
The Philippine Green Party (Partido Kalikasan) wins 28 Village Council seats!
The Philippine Greens developed a Village Eco-Governance Development Framework (VEGDF) to guide the party in village-level Green governance. In this election the Philippine Greens focused their campaigning in Laguna Province, including 20 villages and an average of 7,000 voting population, and the first VEGDF implementation pilot location. Read more at: https://www.asiapacificgreens.org/news/28-partido-kalikasan-greens-ph-candidates-win-village-elections
November 19, 2013: Nepal Constituent Assembly elections
Read about the Nepali Greens at: http://www.greencivilsociety.org/index.php/about-us
March 29, 2014: Sri Lanka provincial council elections
2014 Election Reflection
Sri Lanka’s Southern and Western provincial council elections were held on 29 March 2014. The elections were peaceful and produced the United People’s Freedom Alliance as the leading party; yet The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption received 818 complaints during the election campaign period. The Sri Lanka Green Alliance observed during the election significant paper and ink wastage, campaign practices intended to manipulate the poor – such as distributing meal packets, drinks, Rs.1000 and empty promises – and misuse of government resources to support the campaigns of relatives of government officials.
Read more on Sri Lanka at: https://www.asiapacificgreens.org/country/sri-lanka
April 9, 2014: Indonesia Parliamentary elections. (July 9, 2014, Presidential elections)
Candidates and political parties in this election showed that they still perceive environmental issues at a superficial level and fail to address how the roots of Indonesia’s environmental problems derive from the government’s economic and political policies. Khalisah recommends the national leader promote three important programs in their environmental agenda:
The Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) increased its vote share to 31% and received a simple majority in the lower house (Lok Sabha). The previously ruling Indian National Congress was devastated in this election receiving only 44 seats out of 543 and attaining 19% of the vote. The Communist parties lost significantly. The new Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that rouse from the anti-corruption/pro-democracy movement did very well for a first timer, but fell short of the unrealistic expectations that grew from its success in the Delhi Assembly elections in December (in when the AAP won 28 seats out of 70). The AAP’s national vote share however was only 2%. The voter turn-out increased significantly to 66%, some 540 million citizens went to vote. Though by and large the elections would be rated as free and fair, there were significant number of irregularities and violations of the Model Code of Conduct. Election funding was estimated to be around 5 bn$, three times more than five years ago. Most of corporate funding went to the BJP. Small parties are questioning the first-past-the-post electoral system, but there is no major debate on more democratic/representative alternatives.The Korea Greens received approximately 150,000 votes, 0.7% of the total vote but a 50% increase from the previous election. More updates are forthcoming, stay tuned by subscribing to APGF news and the Korea tags at: https://www.asiapacificgreens.org/search/node/korea
September 20, 2014: New Zealand general elections
“Our goal for the 2014 election is to receive a minimum of 15 percent of the party vote. That would mean we would have 20 MPs.” Read about the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2014 candidates and election platform at: https://www.greens.org.nz/election
November 29, 2014: Taiwan metropolitan elections
Citizens occupying politics: Green Party Taiwan takes root in 2014, and turns Taiwan around in 2016
In 2012, Green Party Taiwan won nearly 230,000 party votes, constituting approximately 1.8% of the vote and a four-fold increase above the Greens’ achievements in Taiwan’s 2008 elections. Since then GPTW has continued activity in Taiwan’s important social movements including the occupy campaign against the “Black Box Cross-strait Agreement on Trade Services” (「反黑箱服貿」) and the “Implementing Democracy, Stop Construction of the 4th Nuclear Power Plant” (「落實民主、停建核四」) campaign. In March 2014, about 500,000 people took to the streets in Taipei in the Occupy Taiwan Legislature (佔領國會事件) movement demonstrating that citizens, especially youth, are eager for political reform.
November-December 2014: Solomon Islands general elections
April 2015: Japan senate elections:
Greens Japan renewal
In February the Greens Japan held an annual general assembly in Tokyo and decided to reorganize the party with smaller budget, more efficient organization, stronger campaigns, and created a new organization constituting local representatives from each block in order to manage the party more efficiently from a bottom-up and local approach. Greens Japan also reorganized all of the departments such as general affairs, social movements, public relations, and international relations to strengthen and broaden their movement for the next step! In April 2015 Greens Japan will have local elections in nearly one third of the country’s municipalities. Currently, there are around 50 Greens Japan city councilors, and the party’s candidates are ready to double it so that we can have enough strength to contest the national elections in July 2016.
Read more about Japan at: https://www.asiapacificgreens.org/search/node/Japan
Community
Community sites have been setup to facilitate relationship building among APGF individuals, information sharing and dialogue. All Greens are welcome to join in these groups:
- Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/117658736017153833839
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJJLdVsYy8I4vrBII1oPzg
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsiaPacificGreens
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/APGF_Greens
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/AsiaPacific-Greens-Federation-APGF-6691935
- Speakerdeck: https://speakerdeck.com/asiapacificgreens
- Blogs, Groups and Forums: https://www.asiapacificgreens.org/engage
• APGF Conversations: The APGF is organising regular teleconference calls among Greens to share information across the community on topics related to our experiences implementing the Global Greens charter. Listen and read the transcript of the 1st call about the Philippine Green Party’s Green governance program: https://www.asiapacificgreens.org/forum/topic/2627
Fundraising:
Fund your Green party projects with crowdfunding! Here is a list of crowdfunding platforms with a Green focus: https://www.asiapacificgreens.org/forum/topic/2606
Climate:
- A goal of net carbon neutrality by 2050;
- The establishment of an independent Climate Commission to provide expert and independent advice to the government on: carbon prices, carbon budgets, and complementary measures to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050;
- The phasing out of the failed Emissions Trading Scheme and an initial price on carbon of: $25 per tonne on CO2 equivalent emissions for all sectors except agriculture. Dairy emissions will pay $12.50 per tonne. Forestry will be credited at $12.50 per tonne;
- The recycling of all revenue raised from a carbon charge back to families and businesses through a $2000 income tax-free band and a one percent company tax cut. The Climate Tax Cut will leave households will be better off;
A suite of complementary measures to support the rapid transition to a carbon neutral economy;
• The Philippine Green Party’s response to typhoon Haiyan, read about it in the:
• Australia will host the G20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane (15-16 November), just six weeks after the UN Climate Summit in New York (23 September 2014) and a couple weeks before the UNFCCC COP 20 meeting in Lima (1-12 December).
The APGF calls on Greens globally and in G20 Asia-Pacific countries (Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, China, Australia, India and New Zealand) to pressure your governments to make real policy progress on climate change.
Global Greens:
- Global Greens is now Registered! Press release.
- The Global Greens climate campaign is being organised for UN Climate Summit in New York (23 September 2014) and the UNFCCC COP 20 meeting in Lima (1-12 December). Contact the Global Greens if you would like to get involved.
- 52 Greens are elected to the European Parliament! Read about it at: http://europeangreens.eu/news/green-result-mandate-change-europe
06/11/2014 – 14:59
