Joshua Wong and a group of fellow pro-democracy activists were disqualified from Hong Kong's upcoming 2020 Legislative Council elections on Thursday, the Hong Kong government confirmed in a statement.

Belarus suspects that the group of alleged Russian mercenaries it detained on Wednesday of plotting “acts of terrorism” ahead of a presidential election in August and summoned Russia’s ambassador for an explanation, news wires reported. Minsk’s handling of the situation risks worsening relations with traditional ally Russia, which has so far yet to set out its own position, Reuters commented.

More than half a million people have turned up to vote on the second and final day of Hong Kong's primary elections, held by the city’s pro-democracy camp over the weekend. The turnout is reflecting steely support for the movement despite Beijing’s imposition of a national-security law that has curbed public expressions of dissent in recent weeks.

Voters in northern Spain entered polling stations on Sunday, wearing face masks and using hand sanitizer gel before casting their voice. This was the picture as Galicia and the Basque Country held regional elections while fighting localised outbreaks of COVID-19.

Poles vote today in a knife-edge presidential election that may shape the country’s future relations with the European Union, which have been frayed by the bloc’s concerns over the rule of law. The election is a run-off after a first-round on 28 June between incumbent Andrzej Duda, an ally of the ruling nationalists Law and Justice (PiS), and liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski (Civic Platform party(PO).

Thousands of voters turned out to participate in primary elections on Saturday to select democracy candidates to run for seats in Hong Kong's parliamentary elections in September. The poll is set to run over two days and was organised by the group Power for Democracy.

Croatians will go to polls on Sunday to elects new parliament amid rising coronavirus cases, which is putting further pressure on ruling conservatives facing stiff opposition by their traditional centre-left rivals and a new nationalist party, which at the end could become kingmaker, news wires reported. Polls put the two biggest political parties neck-to-neck.

Polish presidential challenger Rafal Trzaskowski tried on Monday to rally voters of other opposition candidates to his centrist cause, vowing to hold the nationalist government to account ahead of what looks set to be a knife-edge run-off vote, news wires reported. “I am directing my words to all those who want change. Without them there will be several more years of a monopoly on power which is not honest and it is not possible to hold it to account because it attacks independent institutions,” he told supporters.

Poland’s incumbent Andrzej Duda won the first round of the presidential election on Sunday but will have to face the liberal mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski in a run-off on 12 July, news wires reported. An exit poll showed Duda winning 41.8% of the ballots, against 30.4% for Trzaskowski from the Civic Platform party. Final results could differ slightly.

Iceland's incumbent president, Gudni Johannesson, has secured a new four-year term in office following a decisive win in Saturday's presidential vote. Johannesson won 92.2% of the vote, while his single challenger, Gudmundur Franklin Jonsson, had just under 8%, tallies showed on Sunday.