Politcal Events to Watch for in 2026

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2025 was indeed a tumultuous one. Everyone who expected it to be like any other year was proven wrong. Thus, everyone expects 2026 to be as good as 2023 or at least 2024. Politically speaking, 2026 will be one of the most important years for world politics. Not because we have key elections coming up, but because of the political and international turmoil the world is undergoing. Thus, there are a lot of things you should be watching out for this year. 

Additionally, given that we focus a lot on elections, we will equally consider the elections in 2026 along with other political events as well. Besides elections, there are major conflicts happening- the Russia-Ukraine War, the Venezuela issue, the Iranian issue, and the Israel-Hamas conflict. There are other minor issues affecting people’s lives as well, such as the refugee crisis, climate change, economic issues, civil wars, and a lot more. We will discuss important political events to watch for in detail in this article. 

India

The world’s largest democracy and the world’s most populous country will have key state elections. The 2026 elections will have the elections of the Rajya Sabha, 4 states, and 1 union territory legislative assemblies, several bye-elections, and local body elections.

For more than a decade, Indian politics have been single-handedly run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party of Centre-Right in India, which follows the ideology of Hindutva, unabashed nationalism, and a strong central government. But on the contrary, we will have elections largely in those areas where opposition parties have an upper hand. 

Kerala has had Communist Party of India (Marxist) led rule for the past decade. Here, the man challenger here is the Indian National Congress-led UDF. It is also a state where the BJP is trying its best to win more than 20% vote share and win several seats. In Tamil Nadu, the fight is between the ruling DMK and AIADMK. For the first time, DMK is looking to win back. The party of actor Vijay is also trying its best to open the account. 

The Opposition parties comprise a mix of National and Regional Parties. Congress Party is the largest opposition party, but has 10% of the seat share despite having 20% of the votes. The newly formed INDIA alliance is the only hope, but statistics and strategies do not run in its favour. So who will win and by how many seats is what everyone is waiting for? West Bengal is another state where the party TMC is overwhelmingly strong. BJP is directly aiming for nothing short of a victory. The only state where the BJP is more formidable is Assam, where it is ruling and defending the state. The opposition led by Congress is trying to take back the state after a gap of 10 years. The UT of Puduchery is seeing a strong support for the BJP-led NDA. 

Apart from the state elections, several states that are heading for legislative elections, there are a lot of local elections. Firstly, you have elections to Urban Local Bodies- Mumbai and other corporations. The INDIA alliance is no more in Maharashtra as Congress to contest alone in the big cities. Both factions of NCP have units in the contesting Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad corporation. Shiv Sena UBT and MNS have united to contest in the Mumbai elections. Similarly, there will be an election to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, the first election to the corporation after the revival of the Congress party. Then there is the election to the urban bodies of Karnataka, notably the bifurcated municipal corporations of Bengaluru. 

Hence, this year will be highly politically powered and packed as always. 

USA 

The third largest country and the world’s oldest democracy in the world will have its mid-term elections. The fight between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, whose candidates will be finalized in the coming weeks through primaries. This will be a big referendum on Trump, who is currently one of the most unpopular Presidents in US history. The Democratic Party has been quite formidable and has seen a lot of victories in the past year, and they expect to take back the House from Republicans, which has been a narrow margin. The Republican Party is divided on whether to back Trump or not, despite losing consistently in the past few years. Apart from the House race, the US will vote for the Senate, Gubernatorial elections, and statewide races. In a nutshell, this will be a top-notch election year. 

This year will also decide the future of the second half of Trump 2.0's Presidency. He is unpopular, involved in Venezuela, threatening Greenland, and much more. 

Bangladesh 

One of the most important countries in India’s neighbourhood. It has been one of the most unstable regimes in the world for the past 18 months after the ousting of the President, Sheikh Hasina. In the last election, which was held two years ago, the Centre-Left Party Awami League won the election in a landslide. The landslide outcome is not a surprise as the main opposition party, BNP, had boycotted it. Now that both Sheikh Hasina and Khalida Zia have passed away, the country is set to have regular elections as well as a constitutional referendum, both of which will be held in the month of February. The current interim govt. is led by Nobel laureate Muhammed Younis. 

China 

This is not a democracy hence expect no election this year. 2023 was the year when Xi Jinping entered his ground-breaking third term. Also, 2023 saw a mix of political controversies and geopolitical challenges. Unlike before, China has withdrawn from its strict neutrality in 2022 to a slightly more pro-Russia and softer on Putin’s actions. Both countries have proactively collaborated together in multiple forums and still continue to do so. 

Taiwan may be the next flashpoint for China. In the APEC summit, Xi told Biden that China will never allow Taiwan to secede. This was amidst the most anti-China government and President in power. Although the factors that favour an annexation are not yet there for China. Geopolitically, China has acted smarter than Russia and many of its allies. It uses more peaceful methods and diplomacy in getting deals done. Hence, people refuse to believe that it will take a knee-jerk reaction on Taiwan. Domestically, Xi is cracking down on dissent and also replacing old leaders in his cabinet with loyalists. This is amidst economic slowdown, demographic decline, and a possible cold war with the United States. 

Thailand

The country of Thailand will vote for its legislators as well, and a constitutional amendment will happen in February. Next, there will be gubernatorial elections as well as local elections in Bangkok as well. Currently, Thailand is facing a massive conflict with neighboring Cambodia; hence, we should have eyes on that as well. 

Russia 

It will have its legislative elections, where the Duma or the Parliament will be elected. Russia is facing a crisis on its external borders with Ukraine, as well as facing economic crisis due to war and the sanctions. This will unlikely change anything politically in Russia and beyond. Additionally, most of its allies are now gone- Nicolas Maduro and Bashar Al Assad. 

Ukraine 

This country is facing massive challenges like no other country in recent times. The country is reeling for support and resilience. US support has declined under Trump. Also, even European allies are confused about what is happening. Currently, Ukraine will need more help from all sides, not just its allies. Will Ukraine head to elections soon? There won’t be an election this time due to the war and the martial law being imposed. It has been seven years since an election was held, but unlikely that Volodymyr Zelensky will even face a defeat. Currently, Ukraine is bargaining for a favourable end to the war, but you know that is not happening. 

Israel 

Ever since the October 7 Attack in 2023, Israel had the upperhand in the narratives. Since then, Israel has been conducting a revenge military operation in the Gaza Strip, which people have criticised for its disproportionate response and for war crimes. The Western support for Israel went down, and PM Netanyahu became less popular each day. Ever since Trump came up, there was up and downs in the issue. Currently, we have a ceasefire as per the Trump 20 Point Peace Plan. For the first time, Iranian attacks hit the heart of Israel- Tel Aviv, Yafo, and Jerusalem for the first time ever. Thus, Israel has gone through a lot in 2025. This year will have Legislative elections in the country, which will decide the future of the PM Netanyahu as well as the Israeli engagement in the neighbourhood. 

Lebanon

This is another country facing a lot of difficulties and internal turmoil. Just like how Israel decided to wage war in Gaza in a revenge mode. There was a similar one in Southern Lebanon as well. This ended in a ceasefire. But Lebanon continues to undergo a lot of the crisis.  This year, Lebanon will have a full-fledged General Election. 

Brazil 

Is one of the most important countries in South America. Everyone saw Brazil as a great country trying to be a developed country, but that is yet to come. The US under Trump has been very hard on Brazil as he imposed 50% tariffs on the country. The only reason is that former President Jair Bolsonaro was arrested for insurrection. Hence, this year, Brazil will see a very polarising election. 

UK

It will have local elections after a big gap. The ruling Labour Party is getting more unpopular every day. The Reform Party is challenging both the traditional parties after a long time. 

Various state elections

Federal countries Australia, Germany, Pakistan, and Canada will have their respective state elections. There will be Dutch local elections as well. 

FIFA 2026

Rarely would a FIFA WC 2026 come under politics. This is so because the host this time is the USA, Canada, and Mexico. President Trump has been delighted and too interested in the same. To complement the same, you have FIFA cosing too much towards the Administration so that they won't create any roadblocks to the events. FIFA even gave its first Peace Prize to Donald Trump largely as a form of compensation for his not receiving a Nobel Prize. 

What are the main political concerns? Human Rights, Visa policies,  Declining Tourist, tickets of the travellers, diplomatic issues between Host countries, and much more. Social media has been calling for boycotts of the event. The US has formed a task force to look after the hosting of the event. 

ICC WC T20
 
Unlike football, Cricket has always been politicised. The political fight between the countries is the major reason. Pakistan will not play cricket in India, and India will not play cricket in India. Now, Bangladesh has joined the fray, where it has decided not to play the matches in India. The issues of visas for plaers has also created a lot of issues for various players. Players of Pakistani origin are playing for teams such as the UK, the USA, the UAE, and many more. Bangladesh has decided to stop the telecast of IPL in the country. 

Conclusion

Looking back at 2025, we have different regions having contrasting experiences. Starting with Asia, where the nuclear powers India and Pakistan came close to a war, to Thailand and Cambodia, which already had a brief war. All these conflicts will keep popping up. So are the Middle Eastern events of Iran, Israel-Palestine, Yemen, and much more. 

We are reaching a situation where dictatorial regimes are getting stronger while democratic regimes are getting more or less unpopular. This phenomenon is prevalent in Western democracies- the UK, France, Germany, the USA, etc. Additionally, the US has been threatening the EU and NATO through issues such as Greenland and tariffs. Russia continues to be one of the biggest security threats to them. Canada, the US, and Mexico aren't the neighbours anymore as they used to be. China and Taiwan are the one which everyone is trying to see what will happen.  

Added with sports, movies, nfrastructure and much more, 2026 will be a very interesting year to watch out for. In short politics is not just elections but much more than that. If you have any more doubts on that, check cricket and football. 

References 

CFR- https://www.cfr.org/article/ten-elections-watch-2026

Aljazeera- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/1/all-the-big-elections-to-look-out-for-in-2026

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