Saudi Arabia has approved the National Transformation programme, a challenging strategy to move the kingdom’s economy beyond oil, with the intention of proceeding to diversification, privatisation of substantial state assets such as the energy giant Aramco, tax increases and spending cuts. King Salman bin Abdulaziz assured the cabinet backing for the Saudi Vision 2030 plan in a short announcement on television on Monday, in which he enjoined his subjects to cooperate together to ensure future success. Mohammed bin Salman, the king’s son and deputy crown prince, gave details of the economic reforms he’s mostly in charge of. It includes the creation of a 2tn dollars sovereign wealth fund, and at the same time tactical economic reforms. Bin Salman confirmed that the kingdom would sell approximately 5% of Aramco, which will become a holding company with subsidiaries listed through an initial public offering. According to him, the country could live without oil by 2020. 

Despite the fact the elections were scheduled originally to 2018, a general election took place on 24 April 2016. Though no suspicion was raised in regards to a crisis or instability of the Parliament, the Prime Minister Aleksander Vučić initiated elections. It was not the first time elections were held ahead of time; on average, Serbian citizens are asked to vote in the parliamentary elections once every 1.6 years. The incumbent pro-EU party maintained its dominant position and left pro-Russian party following it. Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party won 48% of the votes, the Socialist coalition SPS-JS-ZS-KP, including Tito’s grandson Josip Broz, ranked second with 11%, and the Serbian Radical Party gained 8% of the votes. Four other parties passed the threshold of 5%, and the new government is scheduled to be formed by early June this year.

Although the election was scheduled for 24 April, Haiti postponed the presidential runoff as violent protests erupted after the opposition candidate vowed to boycott the vote over alleged fraud. On Friday, Pierre Louis Opont, President of Haiti's electoral council, said the vote scheduled for Sunday was being pushed back for security reasons. A new date for the runoff has not been set. Opposition candidate Jude Celestin vowed to boycott the election, alleging a first round vote in October was rigged to favor the ruling party candidate.

On Sunday 24 April voters went to the polls in Austria to elect the President of the country for the next 6 years. Surprisingly, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) won the first round, receiving about 36% of the vote, followed by independents Alexander Van der Bellen - formerly member of the Greens party - and Irmgard Griss - a former President of the Supreme Court, that had won about 20 and 19% of the votes respectively. While the right wing Hofer presented himself as the anti-refugee and eurosceptic candidate, Van der Bellen presented himself as the pro-refugee and pro-EU candidate. The outcome has broken the two-party system, and unprecedented, as presidential elections had always led to either a victory for the Social Democrats (SPÖ) or the People's Party (ÖVP). While the role is large ceremonial of the President, he does have the power to dissolve the Parliament, something which Hofer has hinted on going to do if he would win. Van der Bellen on the other hand has sworn he would never install a FPÖ government, in case they would win in new elections. Voters will head to the polls again next month during the second round of the presidential elections, on 22 May.

In the week following the highly contested parliamentary elections in Syria, the peace talks that took place in Geneva have slowed down tremendously due to renewed fighting on the ground and unbridgeable positions between the opposition and the government forces. On 18 April, the main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HCN) had stated to be pulling out of the current negotiations until renewed violence would end and humanitarian help and resources would be allowed to enter certain cities. The HCN claims to remain committed to a political solution, however no negotiation will be possible while the cessation of hostilities is being violated. Another factor that plays a large role in the negotiations is the issue of removing President Assad from his political platform. The opposition in Syria has accused the regime of President Assad of more than 2000 violation of the ceasefire agreement since it was initiated end February.

After a referendum held between 11 and 13 April, the people of Sudan have voted to keep the region of conflict-torn Darfur divided into five states. Rebel and opposition groups in the region have claimed that the splitting-up has led to a tactic of divide-and-rule for the Khartoum based government and would additionally have led to the renewed fighting in 2003. The state referendum commission nevertheless stated that 97% of voters were in favour of the multi-state system with a turnout of 93% of the registered voters which amounted to less than half the population of Darfur. The opposition groups have claimed these figures to be false and analysts have stated that the government opposes unification of Darfur because it would give rebels more legitimacy power to push for independence.