Half the World to Vote in 2024, With Global Ramifications

A man casts his ballot at a polling station during Bangladesh's general elections in Dhaka on Jan. 7, 2024. Bangladesh, where Sheikh Hasina won a fifth term as prime minister, kicked off a year in which billions of people will vote in national elections.

2024 will pose a major test of democratic rule as an estimated 4 billion people in more than 50 nations — almost half the world’s population — are set to vote in national elections, with the outcomes likely to shape global politics for years or decades to come.