Bertie Ahern and the Fianna Fáil win their third successive general election victory in Ireland

Pratibha Patil is elected President of India, the first woman to hold the post

After eight years abroad, Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan to contest a coming election

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner wins the presidential election in Argentina, becoming the first woman to do so

The Labor Party, led by Kevin Rudd, wins the federal election in Australia, defeating John Howard's Liberal Party

Jacob Zuma is elected president of the African National Congress in South Africa, in place of Thabo Mbeki

Incumbent president Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of Kenya's election - a doubtful result rejected by his opponent Raila Odinga

Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly bring the same result as in 2003, with extremist rivals DUP and Sinn Fein the dominant parties

Long-term enemies Ian Paisley (DUP) and Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein) agree to share power in a reconvened Northern Ireland Assembly

Tribal violence against Kikuyu supporters of Kibaki follows his insistence, against independent evidence, that he has won Kenya's presidential election

President Musharraf's party is heavily defeated. with Opposition parties winning more than half the seats in Pakistan's general election

John McCain claims the Republican presidential nomination in a victory speech in Dallas

Vladimir Putin's hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is elected President of Russia

In Bhutan's first general election, the Peace and Prosperity Party wins 45 of the 47 seats in the National Assemby

Evidence suggests that Tsvangirai has won Zimbabwe's presidential election, but after a delay of more than a month it is announced that a second round run-off is required

A coalition led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi wins the general election in Italy

After being in power for 62 years (from 1946) the Colorado Party is defeated in Paraguay's presidential election

After a long drawn out contest, Barack Obama defeats Hillary Clinton to win the nomination as presidential candidate for the Democratic party

In a referendum in Ireland voters reject the Treaty of Lisbon, which has the effect of halting ratification throughout the European Union

Robert Mugabe wins the second round in Zimbabwe's presidential election after Morgan Tsvangirai has withdrawn from the contest due to widespread violence against his supporters

Asif Ali Zardari, widower of the assassinated Benazir Bhutto, is elected president of Pakistan

Democratic candidate Barack Obama defeats John McCain to become the first African-American to be elected President of the USA

Amid unprecedented international enthusiasm Barack Obama is inaugurated as the fourteenth President of the USA

Iran's declaration that its presidential election has been a landslide victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brings vast crowds of protesters onto the streets

Iran's Guardian Council decrees that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election was valid, amid increasingly strong crackdown on any sign of dissent