Elections | featured news

DUBLIN, Aug 2 (Reuters) - A gay senator who was the front-runner to win Ireland's figurehead presidency quit the race on Tuesday after admitting he used his office to plead for clemency for a friend convicted of having sex with a minor.

New York's police commissioner is the top choice for the city's next mayor to be elected in 2013, according to a new poll released on Wednesday. Ray Kelly, who has served as police commissioner under both three-term Mayor Michael Bloomberg and David Dinkins, was the choice of 23 percent of voters, including 18 percent of Democrats, in the Quinnipiac University poll.

Two fake Democrats were defeated and four others trailed in early election results Tuesday against Democrats supported by the party in the first recall elections targeting nine Wisconsin state senators.

Three governors are elected in voting Sunday, and PRI hopes electoral victories will strengthen its bid to retake the presidency. Millions of Mexicans voted Sunday to elect governors in three states, but the real focus was on Mexico's presidential race next year.

Many hope today's election will bring an end to years of unrest between two political factions whose differences led to deadly protests last year.

Former army commander Ollanta Humala claimed victory in Peru's presidential election on Sunday as investors worried that his left-wing policies could ruin a long economic boom.

Portugal will elect a new government on Sunday which will lead the country through a period of deep austerity and recession after it received a 78-billion-euro ($114 billion) bailout from the European Union and IMF.

The special election race was dominated by the national debate over a GOP plan to overhaul Medicare. Democrat Kathy Hochul has won a special congressional election in a conservative pocket of western New York, a race dominated by the national debate over House Republicans’ proposal to overhaul Medicare, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The demonstrations have overshadowed regional and municipal elections that were expected to result in a defeat for the governing Socialist Party.

Kentucky Senate president David Williams easily defeated two others to win the GOP primary.