2019 Batangas local elections
Batangas held its local elections on May 13, 2019 as part of the 2019 general election. Voters will select candidates for all local positions: a town mayor, vice mayor and town councilors, as well as members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, the vice-governor, governor and for the six districts of Batangas.


2019 Batangas local elections, Provincial elections, Vice Governor
Incumbent Sofronio Ona, Jr. ran for Mayor of Calaca, Batangas. Running for the position were Reynan Bool and former Vice Governors Jose Antonio Leviste II and Richard Recto.


2019 Batangas local elections, Provincial elections, Congressional Elections, 1st District
Eileen Ermita-Buhain was the incumbent. Her opponent was former congressman Conrado Apacible


2019 Batangas local elections, Provincial elections, Congressional Elections, 3rd District
Incumbent Ma. Theresa Collantes ran for reelection. Her main opponents were Nestor Burgos, former Board Member Ma. Chona Dimayuga and Jose Gabriel Reyes. Collantes and Dimayuga ran under two factions of PDP-Laban. Collantes ran under the Pimentel Wing while Dimayuga was under the Garcia Wing.


2019 Batangas local elections, Provincial elections, Congressional Elections, 4th District
Lianda Bolilia was the incumbent. Her opponent was former representative Mark Llandro Mendoza.


2019 Batangas local elections, Provincial elections, Congressional Elections, 6th District (Lipa City)
Incumbent Vilma Santos-Recto ran for reelection. Her main opponent was incumbent Lipa Mayor Meynardo Sabili.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections
All municipalities of Batangas, Batangas City, Lipa City and Tanauan City will elect mayor and vice-mayor this election. The candidates for mayor and vice mayor with the highest number of votes wins the seat; they are voted separately, therefore, they may be of different parties when elected. Below is the list of mayoralty and vice-mayoralty candidates of each city and municipalities per district


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 1st District, Balayan
Incumbent Emmanuel Salvador Fronda II is running for reelection. His opponent is incumbent Vice Mayor Joel Arada.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 1st District, Balayan
Incumbent Joel Arada is running for mayor. His party nominated Francisco Ramos. His opponent is Rita Abiad.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 1st District, Calaca
Incumbent Sofronio Manuel Ona is not running. His brother, incumbent Vice Governor Sofronio Ona, Jr. is his party's nominee.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 1st District, Tuy
Incumbent Mayor Jose Jecerell Cerrado is term-limited and is running for Vice Mayor.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 2nd District, Bauan
Mayor Julian Casapao who elevates the Mayorship after the death of Mayor Herminigildo Dolor is opted to run as Vice Mayor.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 2nd District, Bauan
Vice Mayor Ronald Cruzat who elevates the Vice Mayorship after the death of Mayor Herminigildo Dolor is opted to run as councilor.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 2nd District, Lobo
Incumbent Gaudioso Manalo is running for reelection. His opponent is former Mayor Efren Diona.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 2nd District, San Luis
Incumbent Samuel Noel Ocampo is running for reelection. However, Mayor Samuel Noel Ocampo died on June 17, 2019, days before he was about to take oath. The winning Vice Mayor Danilo Medina will assume as Mayor.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 2nd District, San Luis
Incumbent Danilo Medina is running for reelection. However, due to the death of the winning Mayor Samuel Noel Ocampo, the winning Vice Mayor Danilo Medina will assume as Mayor. The winning first councilor Oscarlito Hernandez will assume the post of Vice Mayor.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 3rd District, Tanauan City
Incumbent Mayor Jhoanna Corona-Villamor, who assumed office following the assassination of Mayor Antonio Halili, is running for Provincial Board Member, switching places with his father, incumbent Board Member Alfredo Corona. His opponents are former Mayor Sonia Torres-Aquino, former DFA Lipa Director Jesusa "Nancy" Garcia, Mary Angeline Halili, the daughter of the slain Mayor Antonio Halili, and Marcos Valdez. Pedrito Carandang withdrew from the race.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 3rd District, Tanauan City
Incumbent Vice Mayor Benedicto Corona, who assumed office following the assassination of Mayor Antonio Halili, is running for City Councilor. His party nominated former Vice Mayor Julius Caesar Platon II, the son of slain former Mayor Cesar Platon; however, Platon died due to heart attack on November 19, 2018. Marissa Tabing, wife of incumbent councilor Lim Tabing, withdrew her candidacy for councilor to become Platon's substitute. Her opponents are former City Administrator Herminigildo Trinidad, Jr., Mary Jane Reyes, and Salvador Quimo.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 3rd District, Balete
Incumbent Wilson Maralit assumed office after the assassination of former Mayor Leovino Hidalgo.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 3rd District, Laurel
Incumbent Randy James Amo is term-limited and is running for Board Member.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 3rd District, Malvar
Incumbent Cristeta Reyes is running for reelection. Her opponent is incumbent Vice Mayor Alberto Lat. Lat assumed office after the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed Mayor Cristeta Reyes. Former Mayor Carlito Reyes originally ran for the position since Reyes was perpetually disqualified from holding public office. But, he withdrew from his candidacy and substituted by his wife who reassumed the mayorship.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 3rd District, Malvar
Incumbent Alberto Lat is running for Mayor. He assumed the mayorship after the dismissal of Mayor Cristeta Reyes. But he reassumed the position of Vice Mayor. His party nominated incumbent Senior Councilor Matt Louie Aranda.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 3rd District, Mataasnakahoy
Incumbent Janet Ilagan is running for Mayor. Her husband, former Mayor Jay Ilagan is her party's nominee.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 3rd District, Santa Teresita
Incumbent Ma. Aurea Segunial is term-limited and is running for Vice Mayor. Her husband, Norberto is her party's nominee. His opponent is incumbent Vice Mayor Carlos Bathan.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 3rd District, Santa Teresita
Incumbent Carlos Bathan is term-limited and is running for Mayor.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 4th District, Ibaan
Incumbent Mayor Juan Toreja is term-limited. His party nominated former Mayor Artemio Chua. His main opponent is incumbent Vice Mayor Edralyn Joy Salvame.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 4th District, Ibaan
Incumbent Edralyn Joy Salvame is running for Mayor. Her party nominated incumbent Councilor Juvy Mendoza. Her opponents are incumbent councilors Socrates Arellano, Cesar Marasigan and Pio Roberto.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 4th District, Padre Garcia
Incumbent Michael Angelo Rivera is not running. His wife, Celsa is his party's nominee. Her opponent is former ABC President Nicetas Amante.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 4th District, Rosario
Both Mayor Manuel Alvarez and Vice Mayor Leovigildo Morpe will stand unopposed for reelection.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 4th District, San Juan
Incumbent Mayor Rodolfo Manalo is term-limited. His wife, Teresita is his party's nominee. Her opponents are Pastor Noel Castillo and incumbent Vice Mayor Ildebrando Salud.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 4th District, San Juan
Incumbent Ildebrando Salud is running for Mayor. His party nominated incumbent councilor Florencio De Chavez. His opponents are Ruel Carandang and former Vice Mayor Octavio Antonio Marasigan.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 4th District, Taysan
Incumbent Grande Gutierrez is running for reelection. His opponent is former Mayor Victor Portugal, Jr.


2019 Batangas local elections, City and municipal elections, 5th District, Batangas City
Incumbent Mayor Beverley Rose Dimacuha and Vice Mayor Emilio Francisco Berberabe, Jr. will stand unopposed for reelection.


2019 Bath and North East Somerset Council election
The 2019 Bath and North East Somerset Council election was held on 2 May 2019 to elect members of Bath and North East Somerset Council in England.


2019 Bath and North East Somerset Council election
The Liberal Democrats took control of the council in 2019, winning thirty-seven seats with a working majority of seven.


2019 Bath and North East Somerset Council election, Background
Bath and North East Somerset Council held local elections on 2 May 2019 along with councils across England as part of the 2019 local elections. The council elects its members in all-out elections, with all its councillors up for election every four years. Councillors defending their seats in this election were previously elected in 2015. In that election, thirty-seven Conservative councillors, fifteen Liberal Democrat councillors, six Labour councillors, five independent councillors and two Green councillors were elected. In subsequent by-elections, the Liberal Democrats gained one seat from the Conservatives and one seat from the Green Party. Conservative councillor Martin Veal resigned from his party in March 2019 to run as an independent after his party did not select him as a candidate.


2019 Bath and North East Somerset Council election, Background
Following the 2015 election, the council was controlled by the Conservative Party, although previously the council had been under no overall control since its creation in 1996. In the New Statesman, the journalist Stephen Bush wrote that if the Conservatives maintained control of Bath and North East Somerset in 2019, it would represent a strong national performance for the party. Conservative peer Robert Hayward predicted that the Liberal Democrats would gain several seats on the council from the Conservatives due to a "Brexit penalty".


2019 Bath and North East Somerset Council election, Background
A boundary change in 2018 meant that the number of councillors fell to 59 from the 65 under previous boundaries, and the number of electoral wards reduced from 37 to 33. Most retained electoral wards have their boundaries adjusted so the number of electors per councillor is roughly similar.


2019 Bath and North East Somerset Council election, Background
The election was contested by full slates of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with 49 Labour candidates, 29 Green Party candidates, 12 independent candidates (including one candidate with no description), 11 candidates for the Bath North East Somerset Independent Group, and five UK Independence Party candidates. Two of the independent councillors re-elected in 2019 identified as "No politics, just Peasedown" when elected in 2015.


2019 Bath and North East Somerset Council election, Council composition
After the previous election the composition of the council was:


2019 Bath and North East Somerset Council election, Council composition
Prior to the election the composition of the council was:


2019 Bath and North East Somerset Council election, Ward results
As the wards were newly created, comparisons with previous elections are not possible. All percentages are calculated as the proportion of valid votes won by each councillor.


2019 Bathurst 1000
The 2019 Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the 2019 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000) was a motor racing event for Supercars that was held on the weekend of 10–13 October 2019. It was held at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia and featured a single 1000 kilometre race. The event was the eleventh of fourteen in the 2019 Supercars Championship and incorporates Race 20 of the series. It was also the opening round of the 2019 Enduro Cup.


2019 Bathurst 1000
DJR Team Penske drivers Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Prémat won the race from pole position, marking their first Bathurst 1000 win. It was also the first time Dick Johnson Racing—which merged with Team Penske in 2015—won the race since 1994. The Triple Eight Race Engineering pair of Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander finished second, with Walkinshaw Andretti United's James Courtney and Jack Perkins completed the podium in third.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Background
The event was the 62nd running of the Bathurst 1000, which was first held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in 1960 as a 500-mile race for Australian-made standard production sedans, and marks the 59th time that the race was held at Mount Panorama. It was the 23rd running of the Australian 1000 race, which was first held after the organisational split between the Australian Racing Drivers Club and V8 Supercars Australia that saw two "Bathurst 1000" races contested in both 1997 and 1998. It was scheduled as the 21st race held as part of the Supercars Championship and the seventh time it forms part of the Enduro Cup. The defending winners of the race are Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards, who are competing with Jamie Whincup and Mark Winterbottom in 2019 respectively.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Background
Scott McLaughlin lead the Drivers' Championship leading into the event, leading second-placed Shane van Gisbergen by just under two events' worth of points. Chaz Mostert sits in third ahead of McLaughlin's DJR Team Penske team-mate Fabian Coulthard. In the Teams' Championship, DJR Team Penske hold an 855-point lead over Triple Eight Race Engineering.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Entry list
Twenty-six cars were entered in the event – 16 Holden Commodores, 6 Ford Mustangs and 4 Nissan Altimas. In addition to the 24 regular-season entries, there were two 'Wildcards' – one for Super2 Series team Kostecki Brothers Racing with cousins Jake and Brodie Kostecki, and another from Walkinshaw Andretti United for IndyCar drivers Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe. A third wildcard from Team Kiwi Racing, who last appeared in 2008, was also announced, featuring Chris van der Drift and Jaxon Evans as drivers – however this failed to materialise. Six drivers made their debut in the race; all four 'Wildcard' drivers, as well as Super2 Series competitors Thomas Randle and Jack Smith. It was the last start for five-time winner Steven Richards and 2017 winner Luke Youlden.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Entry list
Entries with a grey background are wildcard entries which do not compete in the full championship season.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Thursday and Friday practice
Jamie Whincup topped the opening session with the fastest time for an opening session in Bathurst 1000 history. Macauley Jones had the first incident of the weekend, and the only one of the session, backing his Holden Commodore ZB into the wall at the Cutting. As well as doing damage to the rear bumper and chassis rail, the impact bizarrely popped the rivets out of the roof, which subsequently folded back on the car as the Tim Blanchard Racing driver stopped at Reid Park.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Thursday and Friday practice
The first co-driver session was smattered with incidents, starting with multiple drivers running through the grass at the Chase. Twenty minutes into the session, the Mountain claimed its first major scalp with Luke Youlden hitting the wall at Sulman Park and ripping the front-right suspension out of the car, resigning it to the garage for the rest of the day.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Thursday and Friday practice
Jake Kostecki in the Kostecki Brothers Racing wildcard would make the same error at the end of the session, with Ashley Walsh bringing out the only other red flag of the session having locked up and run into the sandtrap at Murray's Corner. Jack Smith had a baptism of fire, brushing the tyre wall at Griffin's Bend in the Matt Stone Racing entry fifteen minutes in. James Moffat overtook DJR Team Penske's Alexandre Prémat in the dying seconds to set the fastest time in the GT Mustang.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Thursday and Friday practice
Thursday's running ended with an incident-free third session, as championship leader McLaughlin broke his own Top Ten Shootout record by a tenth of a second on the first day of practice. The damaged #9 and #56 Commodores sat out the session, and all six Mustangs finished inside the top seven positions – the top six covered by less than three-tenths of a second.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Thursday and Friday practice
Friday began with a co-driver session, topped by Will Brown in the second Erebus Motorsport Commodore. The session was stopped a matter of seconds after it began with Jake Kostecki running straight into the fence at Griffins' Bend after a steering rack stop was left in the car, for which the team received an AU$5,000 fine. Debutant Thomas Randle ran wide at Forrest's Elbow and lightly brushed the outside wall, but did not bring out the red flags. Garth Tander in Shane van Gisbergen's Triple Eight Race Engineering Commodore also ran wide at the first corner, nearly rejoining into the path of Moffat.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Thursday and Friday practice
The final practice session before qualifying saw another big-name driver in strife, with Whincup crashing at the Esses in an attempt to avoid the already stranded Richie Stanaway. Elsewhere it was a struggle for the international drivers, as both Simona de Silvestro and Alexander Rossi found the sandtrap at Hell Corner in separate incidents. McLaughlin once again lowered the lap record by 0.3sec, with Andre Heimgartner producing the first sub 2:04 time for a Nissan Altima to finish second.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Provisional qualifying
The weather turned against crews ahead of the forty-minute qualifying session, and the circuit remained wet throughout. McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert traded fastest times, with the New Zealander ending the session on top. Van Gisbergen finished the session third ahead of Will Davison, with both Brad Jones Racing entries of Tim Slade and Nick Percat also making the ten.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Provisional qualifying
Having struggled for the majority of the session, Whincup put in a late time to elevate him to 7th from 23rd – whilst 8th placed Cameron Waters also had an interrupted session having spent most of it in the garage with an engine sensor issue. Rounding out the top-ten would be Mark Winterbottom and Anton de Pasquale, with the latter's team-mate and 2018 pole-sitter David Reynolds finishing the session 22nd. Another big name to struggle was Fabian Coulthard; the DJR Team Penske driver finishing 16th. Both 'Wildcard' entries ended the session down the back, with Brodie Kostecki beating Alexander Rossi to 24th by 0.03sec. Rounding out the field  was Jack Le Brocq of Tekno Autosports, struggling heavily with the wet conditions.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Saturday practice
Saturday begun under grey skies. Will Davison set an early benchmark that would not be beaten, with only two other drivers setting a time under 2:05. The session stayed green throughout, however late in the piece James Hinchcliffe lost the rear of his Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore on the exit of the Cutting and dragged the right-rear corner along the wall. All teams except DJR Team Penske elected to run both main and co-drivers in the session, Prémat proving the exception in the #17 Mustang. The Waters/Caruso entry continued to be plagued with mechanical issues; a stuck throttle leaving them on the sidelines for the early running.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Top Ten Shootout
The field went out in reverse order from qualifying, with De Pasquale setting the benchmark of 2:04.3. Mark Winterbottom went out next, with lock-ups at the Cutting and Forrest's Elbow leaving him six-tenths down on the Erebus driver. Cameron Waters moved to provisional pole with the first sub 2:04 of the session despite a moment at Sulman Park, before Jamie Whincup's attempt left him 0.03sec shy of the #6. The Brad Jones Racing pair did not challenge the top order, surpassing only Winterbottom with Percat ahead of Slade.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Top Ten Shootout
Will Davison dropped in behind Whincup having felt he did not maximise his run, and Van Gisbergen dropped between the pair. Chaz Mostert, the penultimate runner, bettered Waters' time by a tenth – but McLaughlin proved unbeatable, beating Mostert's benchmark by four-tenths to claim his second pole position at the Bathurst 1000, and fifteenth of the 2019 championship.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Race
The race start was delayed as Brodie Kostecki stopped the Kostecki Brothers Racing wildcard entry at the exit of Forrest's Elbow on the original warm-up lap, complaining of breathing difficulties. The teams' Commodore ZB was towed back to the pits where it was discovered Kostecki's helmet fan was blowing dry ice from the drivers' cool box into his face and causing carbon monoxide poisoning. Brodie's cousin Jake jumped in the car to restart the race from the pit-lane, with Jake's older brother Kurt on standby should Brodie be ruled unfit to continue.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Race
McLaughlin got the jump on Mostert heading into Hell Corner on the opening lap, with Michael Caruso slipping past his Tickford team-mate into second. As the field climbed the mountain for the first time, Tim Slade found himself on the wrong end of a mid-field battle with Scott Pye – a slight bump at Quarry Corner (Turn 5) sending the Brad Jones Racing Commodore into the outside wall and bringing out the safety car.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Race
A safety car was deployed on Lap 135 in response to the stricken Commodore of Hinchcliffe and Rossi, which caused Coulthard, who was third at the time, to dramatically slow down the rest of the field. This happened as McLaughin and Whincup, who were first and second at the time respectively, headed into the pits. During this time the gap between Whincup and Coulthard, which was originally three seconds, extended out to over forty seconds. This caused a shuffle in positions, with several teams being better off, while others were worse off. Initially Coulthard was given a drive-through penalty for breaching safety car procedures, but when Ryan Story, Team Principal of DJR Team Penske, was interviewed about the issues, questions were raised that it was done by team orders.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Post race
The actions of DJR Team Penske during the Lap 135 safety car received mixed reception from team owners and drivers. Race runner-up Van Gisbergen described Coulthard as a "sacrificial lamb" and added that it was "pretty obvious" as to what had happened. Erebus Motorsport boss Barry Ryan claimed that DJR Team Penske had "blatantly cheated" and wanted points from the team stripped. Walkinshaw Andretti United's James Courtney, who finished third alongside Jack Perkins defended the team, stating that penalising the drivers would be "unfair" and stating that stripping McLaughlin of his maiden win would be "pretty harsh". McLaughlin, team-mate to Coulthard, was initially unfazed about the incident, but then lashed out at fans after it was revealed that Coulthard had received death threats after the incident.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Post race
DJR Team Penske were later charged for breach of team orders and had a hearing on  19 October. They were later found guilty and were fined $250,000, $100,000 suspended until 31 December 2021 and 300 points stripped from the teams' championship. Fabian Coulthard and Tony D'Alberto were both relegated to twenty-first position, the last running position, while Scott McLaughlin and Alex Prémat kept their first place.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Post race
McLaughlin and Prémat were not penalised because the stewards' investigation found that the team's orders were intended to benefit Coulthard and D'Alberto; by slowing the field down, the team hoped that Coulthard would keep his position as continuing to the pits at race speed would mean an extended stop waiting behind McLaughlin.


2019 Bathurst 1000, Report, Summary, Post race
Furthermore, on the 10 November, DJR Team Penske were fined $30,000 and Scott McLaughlin's pole time was stripped, after it was found that the valve lift in a number of cylinders had exceeded the maximum permitted valve lift prescribed by the ESD. The stewards ruled that this did not offer McLaughlin a performance advantage and the violation was so slight that the team could not have been aware of it. The team accepted the penalty, attributing the issue to improperly-calibrated machinery being used in assembling the engine. The penalty carried a flow-on effect to Race 30 at Sandown, which saw McLaughlin relegated to last position on the grid. McLaughlin retained his race win as the engine used in qualifying was replaced ahead of the race.


2019 Bathurst 12 Hour
The 2019 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour was an endurance race staged on the Mount Panorama Circuit near Bathurst, in New South Wales, Australia on 3 February 2019. The event was open to cars in GT and touring car classes, namely GT3 and GT4. It was the 17th running of the Bathurst 12 Hour, and the opening round of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge.


2019 Bathurst 12 Hour
40 cars were entered and 38 cars started, with two entries withdrawn following crashes in practice.


2019 Bathurst 12 Hour, Class structure
No entries were recorded for Class AAM (GT3 Am) for driver combinations including only bronze rated drivers.


2019 Bauchi State gubernatorial election
The Bauchi 2019 Gubernatorial Election was held on 9 March 2019 and concluded on 25 March 2019. The incumbent governor Abubakar Muhammad has lost to the PDP Bala Muhammed in the 2019 Bauch state Governorship election. Mr Bala Mohammed, the former minister of FCT, polled a total votes of 475,888 votes to defeat the incumbent governor Abubakar Muhammad who polled 470,570 votes.


2019 Bauchi State gubernatorial election, Results
A total of 2,462,803 voters were registered in the state. While a total of 1,143,019 voters were accredited. A number of 1,111,406 were recorded as valid votes while 22,566 votes were annulled.


2019 Bay of Plenty local elections
The 2019 Bay of Plenty local elections were part of the wider 2019 New Zealand local elections, to elect members to sub-national councils and boards. The Bay of Plenty elections cover one regional council (Bay of Plenty Regional Council), seven territorial authority (city and district) councils, two district health boards, and various local boards and licensing trusts.


2019 Bayelsa State gubernatorial election
The 2019 Bayelsa State gubernatorial election occurred on November 16, 2019, the APC nominee David Lyon won the election, defeating Douye Diri of the PDP.


2019 Bayelsa State gubernatorial election
David Lyon emerged APC gubernatorial candidate after defeating his closest rival, Diseye Nsirim. He picked Biobarakuma Degi as his running mate. Douye Diri was the PDP candidate with Lawrence Ewrujakpor as his running mate. 45 candidates contested in the election.


2019 Bayelsa State gubernatorial election, Electoral system
The Governor of Bayelsa State is elected using the plurality voting system.


2019 Bayelsa State gubernatorial election, Primary election, APC primary
The APC primary election was held on September 4, 2019. David Lyon won the primary election polling 42,138 votes against 5 other candidates. His closest rival was Diseye Nsirim, who came a distant second with 1,533 votes.


2019 Bayelsa State gubernatorial election, Primary election, PDP primary
The PDP primary election was held on September 3, 2019. Douye Diri won the primary election polling 561 votes against 20 other candidates. His closest rival was Timi Alaibe, a former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, who came second with 365 votes, Gboribiogha Jonah, the incumbent deputy governor, scored 62 votes.


2019 Bayelsa State gubernatorial election, Results
A total number of 45 candidates registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission to contest in the election.


2019 Bayelsa State gubernatorial election, Results
The total number of registered voters in the state was 922,562, while 517,883 voters were accredited. Total number of votes cast was 505,884, while number of valid votes was 499,551. Rejected votes were 6,333.


2019 Bayelsa State gubernatorial election, Results, By local government area
Here are the results of the election by local government area for the two major parties. The total valid votes of 499,551 represents the 45 political parties that participated in the election.Blue represents LGAs won by David Lyon. Green represents LGAs won by Douye Diri.


2019 Baylor Bears football team
The 2019 Baylor Bears football team represented Baylor University in the 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Bears played their home games at the McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas, and competed in the Big 12 Conference. They were led by Matt Rhule in his third and final season as the program's head coach.


2019 Baylor Bears football team
Baylor, only two years removed from a 1–11 season in 2017, began the year unranked and projected to finish in sixth in the Big 12 Conference. The Bears won their first nine games of the season and climbed to 13th in the College Football Playoff rankings, but did not play a ranked team in that span. The team then hosted then-No. 10 Oklahoma, but Baylor squandered a 25-point lead and lost 34–31.


2019 Baylor Bears football team
Baylor finished out the regular season with an 11–1 record, 8–1 in Big 12 play to finish tied atop the conference standings, earning them a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game, the school's first appearance in the game, to play a rematch against Oklahoma. There, the Bears lost to the Sooners again, this time in overtime, 30–23. Baylor received an invitation to the Sugar Bowl to play SEC runner-up Georgia, where they lost 26–14, to end the season at 11–3 and ranked 13th in the final AP Poll.


2019 Baylor Bears football team
Baylor's defense was led by defensive tackle James Lynch, who was a consensus All-American and the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. He led the conference with 13.5 sacks on the season. He was joined on the first-team all-conference by defensive tackle Bravvion Roy. Offensively, the Bears were led by 3,000-yard passer Charlie Brewer, and 1,000-yard receiver Denzel Mims. Head coach Matt Rhule was named Big 12 Coach of the Year, and, after the completion of the season, he departed to take the head coaching job with the Carolina Panthers.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Previous Season
The Bears finished the 2018 season 7–6, 4–5 in Big 12 play to finish in a two-way tie for fifth place. The Bears were eligible for post-season play in which they defeated the Vanderbilt Commodores of the SEC 45-38 in the 13th edition of the Texas Bowl at NRG Stadium in Houston. This was Baylor's first winning season since 2018.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Preseason, Big 12 media poll
The 2019 Big 12 media days were held July 15–16, 2019 in Frisco, Texas. In the Big 12 preseason media poll, Baylor was predicted to finish in sixth in the standings.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Schedule
Baylor announced its 2019 football schedule on October 18, 2018. The 2019 schedule consists of 7 home and 5 away games in the regular season.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Game summaries, Stephen F. Austin
Baylor opened up the 2019 season by beating FCS Stephen F. Austin 56-17 in Waco. Trestan Ebner had three first half touchdowns for the Bears


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Game summaries, at Kansas State
Baylor's defense proved formidable and produced two turnovers, while their offense completed a blanced run game. Baylor remained undefeated with the 31-12 win over Kansas State.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
For the team's homecoming game, Baylor replaced their traditional interlocking 'BU' on their green helmet with the 'Sailor Bear' logo originally created by Arthur Evans for the second straight year.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
Texas Tech traveled to Waco to play Baylor, the two teams had played one another at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX nearly every year from 2009-2018. The 2010 game was played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, TX, the only game in this stretch that was not played at AT&T Stadium.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
The first half of the game was a defensive battle between the two teams. Texas Tech scored only 6 points in the half with two field goals from Trey Wolff while Baylor only scored 3 with a 37-yard field goal from John Mayers. The Red Raiders had 182 yards of offense in the first half while the Bears had 117. Baylor scored the first touchdown of the game for either team on its first drive of the half with a 4-yard run from Charlie Brewer.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
After trailing for most of the half, the Red Raiders scored a touchdown with 1:37 left in regulation to take a 20–17 lead. The Bears marched down field with Mayers making a 19-yard field goal as time expired to tie the game. Baylor started overtime on offense with Texas Tech on defense. During the drive, center Jake Fruhmorgen appeared to have fumbled the ball on a snap with the ball being recovered by Jaylon Hutchings for the Red Raiders and the play was blown dead quickly. The fumble was overturned as Baylor was penalized for an illegal snap penalty.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
The call was heavily criticized and the following day Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt announced that the Big 12 had told him that the penalty was the wrong call and that Texas Tech should have gained possession. Hocutt was later fined by the conference for making the announcement in violation of league policy.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
After winning in 2 overtime periods by a score of 33-30, Baylor moved up 4 spots in the AP poll from #22 to #18.


2019 Baylor Bears football team, Game summaries, at TCU
Heading into Week 11 of the college football season, Baylor is on top of the Big 12 conference standings with an undefeated 8-0 record. Recent victories over West Virginia and Texas Tech were close and TCU is looking to win a few more games to become eligible for a bowl game. Both teams have been able to score and the game is listed as one of the most "compelling matchups" for the week by MSN Sports.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup
The 2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup was the ninth edition of the Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, an annual international beach soccer tournament contested by men's national teams. Held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates since its inception, this year's event occurs between 5 and 9 November. The tournament was organised by the Dubai Sports Council (DSC) and Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). Unlike in previous editions, there was no lead sponsor this year.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup
The Intercontinental Cup is typically seen as the biggest tournament in the current international beach soccer calendar after the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Similar in nature to that of the FIFA Confederations Cup, eight nations took part.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup
The tournament started with a round robin group stage. The winners and runners-up from each group advanced to the knockout stage, a series of single-elimination matches, beginning with the semi-finals and ending with the final. Consolation matches were also played to determine other final rankings.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup
The season-ending Beach Soccer Stars awards were also presented in Dubai as a conclusion to the tournament.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup
Iran were the defending champions and successfully retained their title, winning a third Intercontinental Cup crown by beating Spain 6–3 in the final. Hosts UAE matched their best previous performance of third place for the first time since 2013.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, Participating teams
Overall, Europe and Asia were represented by three nations; Africa and North America, one nation each. Oceania, and for the first time, South America, did not enter any teams.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, Venue
The tournament took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; this edition was held at a purpose-built arena on Kite Beach, Jumeirah 3, for the second consecutive year with a capacity of 2,500.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, Draw
The draw to split the eight teams into two groups of four took place on 9 October at the Dubai Sports Council headquarters at 11:00 GST (UTC+4) and was conducted by former Real Madrid defender, Míchel Salgado.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, Draw
For the purposes of the draw, the nations were divided into two pots, shown in the table below; the teams were split based on their BSWW World Ranking – the top three teams plus the hosts were placed into Pot 1 whilst the lowest four teams of the ranking were placed in Pot 2. As each was drawn, the placement of the teams alternated back and forth between Groups A and B. The hosts, the United Arab Emirates, were automatically allocated to position A1.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, Group stage
Matches are listed as local time in Dubai, GST (UTC+4)


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, 5th–8th place play-offs
The teams finishing in third and fourth place are knocked out of title-winning contention, receding to play in consolation matches to determine 5th through 8th place in the final standings.


2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, Knockout stage
The group winners and runners-up progress to the knockout stage to continue to compete for the title.


2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships
The 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships was held in Hamburg, Germany from 28 June to 7 July 2019.


2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships – Men's tournament
The men's tournament was held from 28 June to 7 July.


2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships – Men's tournament
Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov defeated Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler to win the title, while Anders Mol and Christian Sørum captured the bronze medal by beating Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb.


2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships – Men's tournament, Qualification
There were 48 teams qualified for the tournament. Normally, the host country obtained two places in the competition as well as the top 23 teams from FIVB World ranking. But, there was a hosted team ranked among the 23 teams, so the next highest ranked team qualified. The next her 20 teams belonged to five continental confederation which got four spots each. The last three spots were appointed by FIVB.


2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships – Men's tournament, Preliminary round, Ranking of the third place teams
The four best third-placed teams advanced directly to the round of 32. The other eight third-placed teams will play in the lucky losers playoffs for the additional four spots in the Round of 32.


2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships – Women's tournament
The women's tournament was held from 28 June to 7 July.


2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships – Women's tournament
Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes defeated Alix Klineman and April Ross to win the title, while Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar captured the bronze medal by beating Nina Betschart and Tanja Hüberli.


2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships – Women's tournament, Qualification
There were 48 teams qualified for the tournament. Normally, the host country obtained two places in the competition as well as the top 23 teams from FIVB World ranking. But, both of the hosted teams ranked among the 23 teams, so the two next highest ranked team qualified. The next 20 teams belonged to five continental confederation which got four spots each. The last three spots were appointed by FIVB.


2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships – Women's tournament, Preliminary round, Ranking of the third place teams
The four best third-placed teams advanced directly to the round of 32. The other eight third-placed teams played in the lucky losers playoffs for the additional four spots in the Round of 32.


2019 Bedford Borough Council election
The 2019 Bedford Borough Council election took place on 2 May 2019 to elect members of Bedford Borough Council in England.


2019 Bedford Borough Council election
Bedford Borough Council has been under no overall control since 2010. The Conservatives defended fifteen seats, Labour defended fourteen, the Liberal Democrats defended nine and independent councillors defended two seats. Bedford is run by the directly elected Mayor of Bedford, who has been Liberal Democrat Dave Hodgson since 2009.


2019 Bedford Borough Council election, Background
Bedford Borough Council held local elections on 2 May 2019 along with councils across England as part of the 2019 local elections. The council elects its members in all-out elections, with all its councillors up for election every four years. Councillors defending their seats in this election were previously elected in 2015. In that election, fifteen Conservative councillors, fourteen Labour councillors, nine Labour councillors and two independent councillors were elected.


2019 Bedford Borough Council election, Background
The same day Dave Hodgson (Liberal Democrat) was re-elected mayor in the 2019 Bedford Mayoral election.


2019 Bedford Borough Council election, Council Composition
Prior to the election the composition of the council was:


2019 Beijing Renhe F.C. season
The 2019 Beijing Renhe F.C. season is Beijing Renhe's 2nd consecutive season in the Chinese Super League ever since it started back in the 2004 season and 2nd consecutive season in the top flight of Chinese football. This season Beijing Renhe participates in the Chinese Super League and Chinese FA Cup.


2019 Beijing Renhe F.C. season, Transfers, Winter
In:Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2019 Beijing Renhe F.C. season, Transfers, Winter
Out:Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2019 Beijing Renhe F.C. season, Squad
As of 1 March 2019 Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2019 Beijing Renhe F.C. season, Squad, Reserve squad
As of 1 March 2019Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2019 Beijing Sinobo Guoan F.C. season
The 2019 Beijing Sinobo Guoan F.C. season is the team's 16th consecutive season in the Chinese Super League since the league's founding in the 2004, and 29th consecutive season in the top flight of Chinese football. They compete in the Chinese Super League, Chinese FA Cup, Chinese FA Super Cup and AFC Champions League. They qualified for the AFC Champions League for the first time since the 2015 season, but failed to advance from the group stage.


2019 Beijing Sinobo Guoan F.C. season
The team qualified for next year's AFC Champions League by securing at least a 2nd place finish in the Chinese Super League on November 26, 2019 after a 4-1 away victory against Guangzhou R&F. The team finished in 2nd place, scoring 70 points, the highest point tally in Guoan's history and as 2nd place in Chinese Super League.


2019 Beijing Sinobo Guoan F.C. season, First team
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2019 Beijing Sinobo Guoan F.C. season, Statistics, Discipline
Last updated: 31 December 2019Source: Ordered by ,  and  = Number of bookings;  = Number of sending offs after a second yellow card;  = Number of sending offs by a direct red card.


2019 Beirut drone crash
Lebanese and Hezbollah officials reported that at 2:30 a.m. local time (23:30 GMT) on 25 August 2019, two drones crashed into the Dahieh district of Beirut, Lebanon. According to Lebanese officials, Israel launched a drone attack. Hezbollah denied exploding or targeting the drones. It was the first such incident between Israel and Lebanon since the 2006 Lebanon War.


2019 Beirut drone crash, Background
In July 2019 Israel targeted the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) bases in Iraq. Several Iraqi, Iranian and Israeli officials have attributed the attacks to Israel, but Israel initially did not confirm nor deny its role. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted responsibility for the attacks on 20 August 2019, claiming that "Iran is not immune anywhere". Israel confirmed responsibility for the strikes on 22 August 2019, which was later followed by a US confirmation.


2019 Beirut drone crash, Background
A senior researcher at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies stated that an upcoming election and indications that the United States may start talks with Iran, could be reasons why Israel had "stepped up the pressure".


2019 Beirut drone crash, Reaction
The Israeli military said it does not comment on "foreign reports".


2019 Beirut drone crash, Reaction
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah labeled the attack as a "suicide mission" and announced that other Israeli drones will be targeted over Lebanon.


2019 Beirut drone crash, Reaction
Ron Ben-Yishai reported for Ynet that the drones were Iranian-made, apparent by their models.


2019 Beirut drone crash, Reaction
Amos Harel, writing for Haaretz, stated that the attack was attributed to Israel and damaged an Iranian-supplied planetary mixer used for making "propellants that can improve the engine performance of missiles and increase their accuracy." The Guardian cites sources saying that Israel sent the drones to "disrupt efforts by Hezbollah to fit advanced guidance systems to rudimentary rockets."


2019 Beirut drone crash, Aftermath
Israeli jets made low altitude flights over Sidon, according to the Lebanese National News Agency. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he would down Israeli drones over Lebanon skies from now on. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the drones amounted to an open attack on the country's sovereignty.


2019 Beirut drone crash, Aftermath
According to the Lebanese National News Agency, Israeli aircraft attacked a PFLP-GC base in Qousaya  Lebanon the following day.


2019 Belarusian First League
2019 Belarusian First League is the 29th season of 2nd level football in Belarus. It started in April and ended in November 2019.


2019 Belarusian First League, Team changes from 2018 season
Two best teams of 2018 Belarusian First League (Slavia Mozyr and Energetik-BGU Minsk) were promoted to Belarusian Premier League. They were replaced by two lowest placed teams of 2018 Belarusian Premier League table (Smolevichi and Dnepr Mogilev).


2019 Belarusian First League, Team changes from 2018 season
Last placed team of the last season (Chist) relegated to the Second League. They were replaced by two best teams of 2018 Second League (Rukh Brest and Krumkachy Minsk), and the league was expanded to 16 teams.


2019 Belarusian First League, Team changes from 2018 season
Krumkachy Minsk were renamed to NFK Minsk during the winter break. In spring 2019, Dnepr Mogilev merged with Premier League team Luch Minsk, citing the willingness keep the city of Mogilev represented in top flight. The united club was named Dnyapro Mogilev. As a result, Dnepr Mogilev vacated their First League spot, and Sputnik Rechitsa (Second League 3rd-placed team) was additionally promoted.


2019 Belarusian First League, Team changes from 2018 season
A few days before the start of the season, UAS Zhitkovichi were denied a First League license due to debts and withdrew to the Second League, leaving the tournament one team short.


2019 Belarusian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship
The 2019 Belarusian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship was held from December 12 to 16, 2018 at the Minsk-Arena in Minsk, Belarus. The winners of this championship represented Belarus at the 2019 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship.


2019 Belarusian Premier League
The 2019 Belarusian Premier League was the 29th season of top-tier football in Belarus. BATE Borisov were the defending champions, having won their 13th consecutive league title and 15th overall last year. Dynamo Brest won the Belarusian Premier League title for the first time, ending the BATE Borisov streak.


2019 Belarusian Premier League, Teams
The bottom two teams from the 2018 season (Smolevichi and Dnepr Mogilev) were relegated to the 2019 Belarusian First League. They were replaced by Slavia Mozyr and Energetik-BGU, champions and runners-up of the 2018 Belarusian First League respectively.


2019 Belarusian Premier League, Teams
In spring 2019, Luch Minsk merged with Dnepr Mogilev. The united club was named Dnyapro Mogilev. It inherited Luch's Premier League spot and licence, their sponsorships and most of the squad, while keeping only a few of Dnepr players and relocating to Mogilev. Dnepr continued its participation in youth tournaments independently from Luch.


2019 Belarusian Premier League, Results
Each team plays home-and-away once against every other team for a total of 30 matches played each.


2019 Belarusian Premier League, Relegation play-offs
The 14th-place finisher of this season (Dnyapro Mogilev) played a two-legged relegation play-off against the third team of the 2019 Belarusian First League (Rukh Brest) for one spot in the 2020 Premier League. Rukh Brest won the series on penalties and got promoted, while Dnyapro Mogilev were relegated.


2019 Belarusian Super Cup
The 2019 Belarusian Super Cup was held on 2 March 2019 between the 2018 Belarusian Premier League champions BATE Borisov and the 2017–18 Belarusian Cup winners Dinamo Brest. Dinamo Brest won the match 3–1 and won the trophy for the second time.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Belarus on 17 November 2019.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Background
Parliamentary elections were required to be held no later than 6 September 2020. However, in his annual address to the nation on 19 April 2019, President Alexander Lukashenko announced that they would be held in 2019. Lukashenko suggested Sunday 7 November or October Revolution Day as possible dates, however the election was ultimately scheduled for 17 November 2019.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Electoral system
The 110 members of the House of Representatives were elected from single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Campaign
Street agitation near the shopping mall for one of the candidates in the 92nd "Aŭtazavod" constituency (Minsk)


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Campaign
Information board with 4 candidates competing in the 91st "Šabany" constituency (Minsk)


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Campaign
Most opposition parties decided to contest the election but not all candidates were registered. The Conservative Christian Party and the Belarusian Social-Democratic Assembly decided to boycott the elections.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Conduct
On 13 November, during preliminary voting, an observer in Brest published a video showing alleged ballot stuffing. Lidia Yermoshina, chief of the Central Election Commission of Belarus, denied fraud had taken place and stated that the observer's accreditation should be withdrawn as they were not allowed to film in a room with ballot boxes. On 15 November, the observer's accreditation was withdrawn by the local electoral commission. Another objection by the same observer concerning the number of preliminary votes was accepted.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Conduct
Students from some universities claimed that they had been forced to participate in preliminary voting, or encouraged to do so by being allowed absences from classes on Saturday and Monday. The universities denied the claims. On 15 November Belarusian State Economic University students openly protested near the campus for similar reasons, citing the recently published video with one of their instructors (curators) demanding people participate in the preliminary voting.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Conduct
Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that “fundamental freedoms were disregarded and the integrity of the election process was not adequately safeguarded". A statement from the OSCE team cited concerns including what they described as the exclusion of many opposition candidates, limited opportunity for public campaigning and shortcomings during vote counting. OSCE observer Margaret Cederfeldt said the election had demonstrated "an overall lack of respect for democratic commitments".


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Conduct
Election observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States described the elections as "competitive, open, free [and] transparent", adding that they considered them to be held in line with the country's Constitution and Electoral Code.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Results
Only 21 of the 110 elected deputies were members of political parties, with all belonging to pro-government parties; the Communist Party of Belarus emerged as the largest party in the House of Representatives with 11 MPs, the Republican Party of Labour and Justice came second with six seats, the Belarusian Patriotic Party won two and the Agrarian Party and Liberal Democratic Party won a seat each.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Results
Unlike in the previous elections in 2016, in which two opposition candidates were elected, the opposition did not win a single seat; the opposition United Civic Party lost its sole seat and the only pro-opposition independent MP failed to be re-elected. All 110 elected representatives were described as "loyal" to President Alexander Lukashenko. For all but one term since 2004, there have been no opposition MPs in the House of Representatives. However, since a 1996 referendum effectively concentrated all governing power in Lukashenko's hands, the House has been dominated by Lukashenko supporters even when opposition MPs have managed to get into the chamber, and the House has done little more than approve Lukashenko's policies.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, Results
44 of the 110 elected MPs were women, two were under the age of 30 and thirty were members of the previous parliament.


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, International reaction
In its report following the elections, the OSCE stated that the legal framework in Belarus "does not adequately guarantee the conduct of elections in line with OSCE commitments and other international standards and obligations". As to the voting, the OSCE stated that " the lack of safeguards in election day and early voting procedures negatively impacted the integrity of the process." It also highlighted that "over 1,000 complaints and applications were filed with the election commissions, local authorities and courts, mostly related to appointment of commission members and candidate registration and deregistration".


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, International reaction
The US State Department made a statement, referring to the decision by the OSCE: "The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly, and the Council of Europe's conclusions and observations about these elections are deeply troubling. We regret that alternative voices will not be represented in parliament."


2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, International reaction
The European Union noted that the election "took place in an overall calm atmosphere" but stated that "there was an overall disregard for fundamental freedoms of assembly, association and expression".


2019 Belfast City Council election
The 2019 election to Belfast City Council, part of the Northern Ireland local elections on 2 May 2019,  returned 60 members to the council via Single Transferable Vote.


2019 Belfast City Council election, Results by Electoral Area, Balmoral
2014: 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Sinn Fein, 1 x UUP2019: 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Sinn Fein2014-2019 Change: DUP gain one seat from UUP


2019 Belfast City Council election, Results by Electoral Area, Black Mountain
2014: 5 x Sinn Fein, 1 x People Before Profit, 1 x SDLP2019: 6 x Sinn Fein, 1 x People Before Profit2014-2019 Change: Sinn Fein gain one seat from SDLP


2019 Belfast City Council election, Results by Electoral Area, Botanic
2014: 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Sinn Fein, 1 x SDLP, 1 x UUP2019: 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Sinn Fein, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Green2014-2019 Change: Green gain one seat from UUP


2019 Belfast City Council election, Results by Electoral Area, Castle
2014: 2 x DUP, 1 x Sinn Fein, 1 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP, 1 x UUP2019: 2 x DUP, 1 x Sinn Fein, 1 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Green2014-2019 Change: Green gain one seat from UUP


2019 Belfast City Council election, Results by Electoral Area, Collin
2014: 5 x Sinn Fein, 1 x SDLP2019: 4 x Sinn Fein, 1 x SDLP, 1 x People Before Profit2014-2019 Change: People Before Profit gain one seat from Sinn Fein


2019 Belfast City Council election, Results by Electoral Area, Court
2014: 2 x DUP, 2 x Sinn Fein, 1 x PUP, 1 x TUV2019: 3 x DUP, 2 x Sinn Fein, 1 x PUP2014-2019 Change: DUP gain one seat from TUV


2019 Belfast City Council election, Results by Electoral Area, Lisnasharragh
2014: 2 x Alliance, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x UUP2019: 2 x Alliance, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Green2014-2019 Change: Green gain one seat from UUP


2019 Belfast City Council election, Results by Electoral Area, Oldpark
2014: 3 x Sinn Fein, 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x PUP2019: 3 x Sinn Fein, 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x People Before Profit2014-2019 Change: People Before Profit gain one seat from PUP


2019 Belfast City Council election, Results by Electoral Area, Ormiston
2014: 2 x Alliance, 2 x DUP, 2 x UUP, 1 x Green2019: 3 x Alliance, 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Green2014-2019 Change: Alliance gain one seat from UUP


2019 Belfast City Council election, Results by Electoral Area, Titanic
2014: 2 x DUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x UUP, 1 x PUP, 1 x Sinn Fein2019: 2 x DUP, 2 x Alliance, 1 x UUP, 1 x PUP2014-2019 Change: Alliance gain one seat from Sinn Fein


2019 Belgian Athletics Championships
The 2019 Belgian Athletics Championships (Dutch: Belgische kampioenschappen atletiek 2019, French: Championnats de Belgique d'athlétisme 2019) was the year's national outdoor track and field championships for Belgium. It was held on 31 August and 1 September at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.


2019 Belgian Athletics Championships
The national championships in 10,000 metres and women's 3000 metres steeplechase took place on Saturday 4 May in Oudenaarde. Hammer throw events took place in Nivelles.


2019 Belgian Cup Final
The 2019 Belgian Cup Final, named Croky Cup after the sponsor, was the 64th Belgian Cup final and took place on 1 May 2019 between Gent and KV Mechelen. KV Mechelen was the first team from outside the top division to qualify for the cup final since the 2001 Belgian Cup Final when Belgian Second Division champions Lommel lost to Westerlo. KV Mechelen won the cup by two goals to one.


2019 Belgian Cup Final
KV Mechelen qualified on 29 January 2019 and played its sixth final, losing on all previous occasions except for the 1987 Belgian Cup Final, where they beat RFC Liège by 1–0. Gent qualified one day later following a win on penalty kicks against Oostende. Gent played their fifth final, winning already on three occasions, most recently they won the 2010 Belgian Cup Final against Cercle Brugge with a convincing 3–0 result.


2019 Belgian Cup Final, Pre-match, Football fraud investigation
In the weeks prior the match, the 2017–18 Belgian football fraud investigation had come into full focus as KV Mechelen was being accused of match fixing, causing the Royal Belgian Football Association to penalise the team by not allowing them to promote (despite becoming champions in the 2018–19 Belgian First Division B just a few weeks earlier), prohibiting them to play European football for the coming season and deducting 12 points from the start of the 2019–20 season.


2019 Belgian Cup Final, Pre-match, Football fraud investigation
As the winner of the 2019 Belgian Cup Final qualifies for the group stage of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, a win by KV Mechelen would also impact the European places distribution and cause a scheduling problem, as in this case the third-placed team in the Championship play-offs would enter at this stage instead with all other European places shifting down accordingly.


2019 Belgian Cup Final, Pre-match, Football fraud investigation
As a result, the fifth- rather than fourth-placed team from the Championship play-offs will have to play the Europa League play-off final against the winner of the Europa League play-offs, a match which is scheduled for 26 May 2019. The final ruling on the fraud investigation however is only scheduled for 27 and 28 May 2019, which could overturn the decision to prohibit KV Mechelen from playing in Europe.


2019 Belgian Cup Final, Pre-match, Bad form
Besides the negative impact of the football froud investigation, both teams went into the final in bad spell. KV Mechelen had not played a competitive match for over six weeks as their season had already ended mid-March when winning the promotion play-offs against Beerschot Wilrijk. On top of that their central midfielder Onur Kaya was unavailable due to yellow card suspension. Gent on the other hand was still active in the Championship play-offs, but had only obtained one single point out of their last six matches at the time of the cup final. Gent players Roman Yaremchuk (suspension) and Giorgi Chakvetadze (injury) were unavailable for the match.


2019 Belgian Cup Final, Match, Summary
Despite a sunny afternoon and a packed stadium, both clubs looked uninspired in the early stages of the match, with the first opportunity coming only after fifteen minutes as Jonathan David's shot tested KV Mechelen goalkeeper Michael Verrips a first time. With just over half an hour on the clock the match opened up, starting with a long range free kick by Nikola Storm, who surprised everyone by aiming straight for goal. His shot hit the post, with replays showing Gent goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski had deflected the ball with his fingertips first.


2019 Belgian Cup Final, Match, Summary
Referee Erik Lambrechts had not noticed and thus did not award a corner kick, allowing Gent to launch a counter-attack from which they scored. Initial shots by Nana Asare and Birger Verstraete were blocked causing a scramble in front of the KV Mechelen goal before Jean-Luc Dompé was able to benefit and open the score. KV Mechelen, who were deemed underdogs, did not give up and managed to score just a few minutes later through Storm who volleyed in the equaliser, shooting the ball between the legs of Kaminski. Rob Schoofs had the opportunity to give KV Mechelen the lead just before the half-time break, but this time Kaminski was able to make a save.


2019 Belgian Cup Final, Match, Summary
In the second half, Gent had more possession of the ball but failed to created any chances. On the hour mark, Kaminksi misjudged a free-kick by Storm, allowing Germán Mera to score through a header to put KV Mechelen in the lead. Gent took the match in control from that point on, crossing many balls into the box, with Verrips required to make several key saves, blocking shots from Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, Roman Bezus and Alexander Sørloth.


2019 Belgian Cup Final, Match, Summary
Several players of KV Mechelen started suffering from cramps as they had not played any competitive match for over six weeks and the team came under severe pressure. With just minutes on the clock however, a breakaway ended in a one-on-one situation between Tim Matthys and Kaminski, but Matthys' shot was saved, handing Gent a lifeline. Odjidja-Ofoe however placed a large opportunity wide just before the final whistle, handing KV Mechelen a second Belgian Cup win.


2019 Belgian Cup Final, Match, Summary
With KV Mechelen on trial for alleged match-fixing as part of the 2017–18 Belgian football fraud investigation, it remained uncertain whether they would be allowed to take part in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League group stage for which they would normally qualify by virtue of winning the cup. The club was eventually found guilty and the European ticket moved to the third-placed finisher in the 2018–19 Belgian First Division A Championship play-offs, Standard Liège.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix
The 2019 Belgian Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Johnnie Walker Belgian Grand Prix 2019) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 1 September 2019 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium. The race was the 13th round of the 2019 Formula One World Championship and marked the 75th running of the Belgian Grand Prix, the 52nd time as a round of the World Championship and the 62nd time the race had been held at Spa-Francorchamps.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix
Charles Leclerc won the race, becoming the first Monegasque driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix followed by the Mercedes drivers of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Before and during the race there were several tributes in memory of French driver Anthoine Hubert who had died the previous day during the F2 feature race. Charles Leclerc, long time friend of Hubert, dedicated the victory to him.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Background, Entrants
Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly swapped their seats for the race, with Albon taking Gasly's place at Red Bull Racing and Gasly returning to Scuderia Toro Rosso to fill the seat vacated by Albon. The rest of the entrants remained unchanged from the Hungarian Grand Prix although  Nicholas Latifi drove in the first practice session for Williams, replacing George Russell. Marcus Ericsson did not attend the IndyCar Grand Prix of Portland and travelled to Belgium in case he was needed to stand in for Kimi Räikkönen who had suffered a leg injury over the summer break, but ultimately Räikkönen was able to race.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Background, Championship standings before the race
Heading into the weekend Lewis Hamilton and his team Mercedes held a 62-point and 150-point leads in their respective championships.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
The death of Anthoine Hubert in the Formula 2 feature race on Saturday loomed over the race. A minute of silence was held for Hubert before the start of the race and a standing ovation was organised for lap 19, the same number as his car.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
At the start of the race Carlos Sainz suffered a power failure and did not get off the line. Whilst Charles Leclerc got away cleanly, third placed Lewis Hamilton was able to attack second placed Sebastian Vettel on the inside of turn one, pushing the Ferrari off the track, allowing Hamilton to take second place. However, a poor run through turn 5 and the higher top speed of the Ferrari meant that Vettel was able to recover the position on the straight that followed.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
Although he briefly threatened Vettel when the Ferrari was forced wide after turn 1, Valtteri Bottas settled into fourth behind Hamilton. Behind the first four, Kimi Räikkönen was on the outside of Sergio Pérez on the start-finish straight and did not see Max Verstappen, who had a poor start, on inside and turned into the Red Bull driver at the first corner. Both drivers suffered damage with Verstappen suffering suspension damage, causing him to crash into the barriers on the outside of turn 4. The collision caused the safety car to be released.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
Due to the incident, the cars further back had to pick their way around the debris. Lando Norris, who had started eleventh, managed to move into fifth. Daniel Ricciardo was not so lucky as he was tagged on the rear right-hand side by Lance Stroll. The Verstappen-Räikkönen incident led to the safety car being deployed and Sainz, Räikkönen and Ricciardo all made pit stops. Sainz, suffering with a power issue, had a very slow stop, as did Räikkönen when his pit crew could not secure his new front wing.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
Räikkönen then stopped again at the end of lap 2. Sainz continued to be slow and did not catch up the pack after his pit stop, eventually pulling off in the run off area at the final chicane at end of his second lap. This caused the safety car, which was about to be brought back into the pits, to stay out.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
The safety car came in for the start of lap 5 and the Ferraris managed to open a gap to Mercedes cars on the restart. Leclerc quickly managed to pull out of DRS range but Vettel stayed ahead of Hamilton who attacked several times before the first pit stops. Radio messages between Hamiton and his engineer revealed that Hamilton did not think Vettel was that quick. However, whilst the Mercedes cars were much stronger than the Ferraris in the second sector, they were not as fast in the first or third sectors, both of which contained the key overtaking spots of the turn 7 and turn 19 respectively.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
With Norris running in fifth and Romain Grosjean in sixth, Kevin Magnussen became embroiled in a fight with Pérez over seventh place. The two drivers battled over several laps but eventually Pérez overtook Magnussen on the Kemmel straight on lap 10 and the Haas of Magnussen then quickly fell backwards. Pierre Gasly overtook Magnussen towards end of Kemmel straight on the next lap with Stroll doing the same one lap later.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
Gasly pitted on lap 13 and was around a second faster than his new Toro Rosso teammate Daniil Kvyat, showing that undercut could be quite powerful. This led Ferrari to pit Vettel at end of lap 15 for medium tyres. There was a brief window for Mercedes to respond but they chose not to instead pushing on, as did Leclerc. Vettel then set a fastest lap on 17, which included an overtake on Norris, and started taking significant time out of Leclerc, Hamilton and Bottas who had still not pitted.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
The top three were all on one stop strategies so instead were stretching their tyres. Leclerc pitted at end of 21, Hamilton at end of 22, and Bottas at end of 23. Hamilton lost a second during his stop due to a slow left rear tyre and emerged several seconds behind Leclerc. All three had been jumped by Vettel on pit stop strategy however Leclerc then set a fastest lap on lap 23 and, along with the Mercedes cars, started catching Vettel as tyre degradation took its toll. It quickly became clear that Vettel would likely end up stopping a second time.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
At the start of lap 27, Vettel allowed Leclerc to overtake. Hamilton quickly closed on Vettel but struggled to overtake due to the sector speed differences. Eventually, on lap 32, having closed up in sector three on the previous lap, Hamilton was able to make a move into turn seven and pass Vettel but Leclerc had opened a gap of more than six seconds. When Bottas caught up to Vettel as well, Vettel pitted at end of lap 33 for soft tyres, going for the extra point for fastest lap, which he gained on lap 36.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
Behind the leaders Alexander Albon, on his debut for Red Bull, carried out a fine recovery race. Having taken a penalty for exceeding his quota for power unit components, he started seventeenth on the grid. When the fifteenth placed Sainz failed to get away, Albon had to take evasive action leading to a loss of position. This was rectified almost immediately in the aftermath of Verstappen-Räikkönen incident as he was able to overtake several slow and damaged cars. Pitting at end of lap 23 for soft tyres, Albon quietly gained places whilst the battle between the Mercedes and Ferraris unfolded.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
After passing Gasly for ninth place Albon tried to take Ricciardo on the outside of turn 10, on lap 34, but failed to overtake him. He then carried out a switch back move to pass the Renault driver the outside of turn 11. On lap 38, Albon then passed Kvyat at start of Kemmel straight to make it up to seventh leaving him more than ten seconds behind sixth placed Pérez.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
Back with the leaders, Hamilton started making gains on Leclerc. The two drivers had to pick their way through traffic in the final laps, slowing both down. However, Hamilton managed to close to less than one second on final lap but was not close enough to make a move. As the leaders entered the second sector, Antonio Giovinazzi crashed and was buried in the wall at turn 12 bringing out yellow flags.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
Leclerc managed to survive the last few corners to become the first driver to claim a maiden win at Spa since Michael Schumacher at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix. It was also Ferrari's first victory since Räikkönen at the 2018 United States Grand Prix, with Leclerc the Scuderia's 39th winner and Monaco the 23rd nation to win an F1 race. Bottas finished third with Vettel in fourth.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
Lando Norris, who had run a quiet race after his first lap jump to fifth, stopped on start line on his final lap and ended up classified eleventh. At the end of their penultimate lap, Albon had closed onto the back of Pérez at the final chicane which led to an unusual turn 1 as the two drivers slowed down excessively to try and get DRS for the Kemmel straight.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
Pérez stayed ahead so Albon was able to attack with DRS after Raidillon but had to go onto the grass partway down the Kemmel straight to pass the Racing Point car. The incident was investigated by the stewards after the race but no further action was taken. With Albon finishing fifth, Pérez was sixth, Kvyat seventh, Nico Hülkenberg eight, Gasly ninth and Stroll tenth.


2019 Belgian Grand Prix, Race, Race report
Leclerc dedicated his win to Anthoine Hubert. The podium finishers carried out a notably muted celebration and did not spray champagne on the podium in respect to Hubert.


2019 Belgian Indoor Athletics Championships
The 2019 Belgian Indoor Athletics Championships (Dutch: Belgische kampioenschappen indoor atletiek 2019, French: Championnats de Belgique d'athlétisme en salle 2019) was the year's national championship in indoor track and field for Belgium. It was held on Sunday 17 February at the Flanders Sports Arena in Ghent. A total of 25 events, 13 for men and 12 for women, were contested. It served as preparation for the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships.


2019 Belgian Road Cycling Cup
The 2019 Belgian Road Cycling Cup (known as the Bingoal Cycling Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the fourth edition of the Belgian Road Cycling Cup. Timothy Dupont is the defending champion.


2019 Belgian Road Cycling Cup, Events
Several changes were made to the calendar compared to the previous season: Le Samyn, Dwars door West–Vlaanderen, the Heistse Pijl, the Grote Prijs Jef Scherens, the Eurométropole and Binche–Chimay–Binche no longer took part and were replaced by the Grote Prijs Jean-Pierre Monseré, the Circuit de Wallonie, the Schaal Sels and the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen. As a result, the total number of races dropped from ten to eight.


2019 Belgian Super Cup
The 2019 Belgian Super Cup was a football match that took place on 20 July 2019 between Genk, the winners of the 2018–19 Belgian First Division A, and Mechelen, the winners of the 2018–19 Belgian Cup. In its eighth appearance, Genk won its second Belgian Super Cup after already winning the 2011 edition, by a convincing 3–0 margin. Defender Sébastien Dewaest was twice able to score from a set piece delivery, with Dante Vanzeir scoring the final goal in the closing minutes.


2019 Belgian Super Cup
Mechelen could have become only the ninth different club to win the Belgian Super Cup, but failed to win again after an earlier loss in the 1987 Belgian Super Cup. With the victory of Genk, the Belgian Super Cup was won for the 15th consecutive year by the league winners, as the 2004 Belgian Super Cup still marked the last year the cup winners overcame the league winners, when Club Brugge beat Anderlecht.


2019 Belgian federal election
Federal elections were held in Belgium on 26 May 2019, alongside the country's European and regional elections. All 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected from eleven multi-member constituencies.


2019 Belgian federal election
The far-right Vlaams Belang (VB) saw a resurgence in Flanders, and with the New Flemish Alliance (NVA), parties subscribing to Flemish separatism and nationalism obtained nearly 50% of the vote in Flanders. The Swedish coalition of N-VA, CD&V, MR and Open VLD lost more than a quarter of its seats, the worst government punishment in 20 years.


2019 Belgian federal election
In addition, gains for the far-left Workers' Party of Belgium (PVDA-PTB), and the green Ecolo party in Wallonia occurred. Overall, traditional parties suffered losses in both regions.


2019 Belgian federal election, Background
Following the 2014 elections, a centre-right government consisting of N-VA, CD&V, Open Vld and MR was formed, led by Prime Minister Charles Michel (MR). The government coalition is unique in several aspects: the N-VA participates for the first time, the MR is the only French-speaking party, and the French-speaking Socialist Party is not part of the government for the first time in 25 years.


2019 Belgian federal election, Background
Local elections were held on 14 October 2018. As such, the 2019 simultaneous regional, federal and European elections were held only several months after the local elections.


2019 Belgian federal election, Background
In early December 2018, a political crisis emerged regarding the Global Compact for Migration, which was supposed to be signed but sparked instead opposition from government party N-VA. As the three other government parties as well as a large majority in parliament supported the compact, N-VA left the government and the three other parties continued briefly as a minority cabinet (Michel II) with an unclear status. Prime Minister Michel ultimately offered his resignation to the King on 18 December 2018, who accepted it three days later. As regular elections were scheduled for May 2019 anyway, snap elections were only favoured by N-VA and Vlaams Belang and did not happen, and the minority cabinet continued as a caretaker government until the elections.


2019 Belgian federal election, Electoral system
The 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected in 11 multi-member constituencies, being the ten provinces and Brussels, with between 4 and 24 seats. Seats are allocated using the D'Hondt method, with an electoral threshold of 5% per constituency.


2019 Belgian federal election, Electoral system
Representatives elected from the five Flemish Region provinces, Antwerp (24), East Flanders (20), Flemish Brabant (15), Limburg (12) and West Flanders (16), automatically belonged to the Dutch-speaking language group in parliament, whereas those elected from the five provinces of Wallonia, Hainaut (18), Liège (15), Luxembourg (4), Namur (6) and Walloon Brabant (5), formed the French-speaking language group. The 15 members elected in Brussels could choose to join either group. Apportionment of seats is done every ten years in accordance with population data, last by royal order of 31 January 2013.


2019 Belgian federal election, Electoral system
The 60-member Senate is composed of 50 representatives from the regional and community parliaments, plus 10 co-opted senators proportionally divided among parties based on the result of the federal election.


2019 Belgian federal election, Electoral system
All Belgian citizens aged 18 or over were obligated to participate in the election. Non -Belgian citizens residing in Belgium (regardless of EU citizenship) couldn't vote, whereas Belgian citizens living abroad could register to vote.


2019 Belgian federal election, Date
The 2011–14 state reform changed several aspects regarding federal elections. Starting with the May 2014 election, which coincided with European Parliament and regional elections, the federal parliament is elected for a five-year term rather than a four-year term.


2019 Belgian federal election, Date
The federal elections would from then on always coincide with the European Parliament elections; snap federal elections would trigger a parliamentary term lasting until the next European Parliament elections. However, as of 2017, a law needed for this to take effect has not been enacted. Given the five-year term for all three elections, they all coincided in 2019 regardless, as no snap federal elections were called.


2019 Belgian federal election, Date
Additionally, de facto practice is to formally dissolve parliament and trigger new elections by Declaration of Revision of the Constitution shortly before regular expiry of the parliamentary term.


2019 Belgian federal election, Parties and leaders, Lead candidates
The following candidates are the first on the respective party list (lijsttrekker / tête de liste) per constituency.


2019 Belgian federal election, Campaign
Despite leaving the government coalition in late 2018, it was the explicit ambition of N-VA to continue governing after the May 2019 election. In January 2019, the party put forward ex-minister Jan Jambon as candidate for Prime Minister should the party enter a coalition. A continuation of the "Swedish coalition" (N-VA, MR, CD&V and Open Vld), potentially expanded with cdH, was a likely scenario. Outgoing Prime Minister Charles Michel (MR) was candidate to continue in his position.


2019 Belgian federal election, Campaign
Meanwhile, the French-speaking Socialist Party (PS) had the ambition to re-enter government as well, or "re-conquer" as formulated by leader Elio Di Rupo, after being in the opposition at federal level and being ousted from the Walloon government.


2019 Belgian federal election, Campaign
Additionally, there was speculation that the Flemish liberal and green parties (Open Vld and Groen) would favour cooperating, given Groen's recent rise and their local governing coalitions in cities like Mechelen, Gent and Oostende. However, their French-speaking counterparts, MR and Ecolo, are politically and ideologically further apart.


2019 Belgian federal election, Retiring incumbents
The following incumbent members of the Chamber of Representatives announced their retirement from (national) politics:


2019 Belgian federal election, Aftermath
The election once again exposed the deep linguistic, ethnic and regional divisions of Belgium, with the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders strongly voting for right-wing Flemish nationalist and separatist parties, and the French-speaking region of Wallonia strongly voting left.


2019 Belgian federal election, Aftermath
In response to Vlaams Belang's surge in support there has been some speculation that the N-VA leader Bart De Wever may break the Cordon sanitaire imposed on the party, resulting in the two Flemish nationalist parties joining forces, by refusing to rule out talks with the VB, as their strong results could make forming a coalition more difficult.


2019 Belgian federal election, Aftermath
The People's Party, a small right-wing French-speaking party, dissolved on 18 June through an internal party vote in response to losing their only seat in the elections. Former party leader Mischaël Modrikamen blamed the "systematic exclusion of the People's Party from the political and media debate."


2019 Belgian federal election, Aftermath
In the days following the election, King Philippe held consultations with all main party leaders, including Vlaams Belang party leader Tom Van Grieken. According to British newspaper The Guardian, 1936 was the last time a far-right leader had an official meeting with the king.


2019 Belgian federal election, Aftermath
On 30 May, King Philippe appointed Johan Vande Lanotte (sp.a) and Didier Reynders (MR), two experienced politicians with a long period of service, as informateurs. They reported on their progress by 6 June as expected, after which they were given some more time, with a new deadline of 17 June. After this deadline passed, another extension was granted until 1 July, and again until 29 July and one more extension until 9 September.


2019 Belgian federal election, Aftermath
On 24 August the Belgian government decided to appoint Didier Reynders as European Commissioner. On 4 October 2019, King Philippe announced the end of the first phase of federal government formation talks, with the informateurs advising that a government of the N-VA, the Socialist Party and the Greens was the best option to pursue. The informateurs will report back to the king of the 4 November, following which a formateur will be appointed to introduce the third stage of government formation.


2019 Belgian federal election, Aftermath
On 4 November, the two new informateurs, Rudy Demotte and Geert Bourgeois, offered their resignations to the King, as they could not break the political deadlock.


2019 Belgian federal election, Aftermath
On 17 March 2020, the successor of Michel II Government, the Wilmès Government, had its mandate extended. Most parliamentary parties provided them external support in order to manage the coronavirus pandemic. Informal talks on forming a new government began in June of 2020. Wilmès II government was eventually replaced by the permanent seven-party coalition — De Croo Government in October, with Wilmès becoming one of the deputy prime ministers.


2019 Belgian regional elections
The 2019 Belgian regional elections took place on Sunday 26 May, the same day as the 2019 European Parliament election as well as the Belgian federal election.


2019 Belgian regional elections
In the regional elections, new representatives were chosen for the Flemish Parliament, Walloon Parliament, Brussels Parliament and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community. The Parliament of the French Community was composed of all elected members of the Walloon Parliament (except German-speaking members) and 19 of the French-speaking members of the Brussels Parliament.


2019 Belgian regional elections
The elections followed the 2014 elections and were shortly after the 2018 local elections, which indicated voters' tendencies after an unusually long period of time without any elections in Belgium.


2019 Belgian regional elections, Electoral system
The regional parliaments have limited power over their own election; federal law largely regulates this and the federal government organises the elections, which occur per Article 117 of the Constitution on the same day as the European Parliament elections.


2019 Belgian regional elections, Electoral system
As such, all regional parliaments were elected using proportional representation under the D'Hondt method. Only Belgian citizens in Belgium had the right to vote, and voting was mandatory for them. Belgians living abroad were allowed to vote in European and federal elections, but not in regional elections.


2019 Belgian regional elections, Electoral system
The following timetable is fixed for the simultaneous European, federal and regional elections:


2019 Belgian regional elections, Flemish Parliament
124 members of the Flemish Parliament were elected. The five Flemish provinces (West Flanders, East Flanders, Antwerp, Flemish Brabant and Limburg) each were a constituency, plus the Brussels-Capital Region where those voting for a Dutch-language party could also vote in the Flemish election.


2019 Belgian regional elections, Flemish Parliament
The incumbent Bourgeois Government was made up of a coalition of Flemish nationalists (N-VA), Christian democrats (CD&V) and liberals (Open Vld). The incumbent Minister-President was Geert Bourgeois (N-VA). The three-party centre-right government coalition had a comfortable majority.


2019 Belgian regional elections, Flemish Parliament
In the October 2018 local elections, no major shifts occurred, although N-VA and sp.a lost some support while Vlaams Belang and Groen generally gained votes. CD&V and Open Vld remained stable.


2019 Belgian regional elections, Flemish Parliament
Incumbent Minister-President Bourgois (N-VA) contended in the simultaneous European Parliament elections; N-VA president Bart De Wever (N-VA) was their party's candidate to succeed him as head of the Flemish Government. Minister Hilde Crevits was CD&V's candidate for Minister-President. Open Vld explicitly did not put forward a candidate.


2019 Belgian regional elections, Flemish Parliament, Main candidates
The following candidates are the first on the respective party list (lijsttrekker) per constituency.


2019 Belgian regional elections, Walloon Parliament
75 members of the Walloon Parliament were elected. The members were elected in multi-member arrondissement-based constituencies; the Walloon Parliament is the only parliament in Belgium still using this geographical level for constituencies. A January 2018 law however reduced the constituencies from 13 to 11, following a successful challenge by Ecolo to the Constitutional Court that constituencies with too few seats are unrepresentative. Both Luxembourg constituencies were merged and the Hainaut constituencies were redrawn.


2019 Belgian regional elections, Walloon Parliament
After the 2014 elections, a coalition government of the Socialist Party (PS) and Christian democrats (cdH) was formed. In 2017 however, following major scandals involving mainly PS, cdH opted to continue governing with MR as the main party instead of PS. Willy Borsus (MR) succeeded Paul Magnette (PS) as Minister-President of Wallonia in July 2017. This was the first time a government majority changed during a legislative term of a Belgian regional government.


2019 Belgian regional elections, Brussels Parliament
All 89 members of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region were elected. They were elected at-large, but there were separate Dutch-language party lists (electing 17 members) and French-language party lists (electing 72 members). Those voting for a Dutch-language party could also cast a vote for the Flemish Parliament election.


2019 Belgian regional elections, German-speaking Community Parliament
All 25 members of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community were elected in one constituency (at-large).


2019 Belgian regional elections, German-speaking Community Parliament
In the 2014–2019 period, the government was made up of regionalist ProDG, the socialist party and the liberal PFF, headed by Minister-President Oliver Paasch (ProDG).


2019 Belgium Tour
The 2019 Lotto Belgium Tour  is the seventh edition of the Lotto Belgium Tour, previous called Lotto-Decca Tour, a women's cycle stage race in Belgium. The tour has an UCI rating of 2.1.


2019 Belizean territorial dispute referendum
A referendum on the territorial dispute with Guatemala was held in Belize on 8 May 2019. Voters were asked whether the territorial dispute with neighbouring Guatemala should be referred to the International Court of Justice.


2019 Belizean territorial dispute referendum
The vote had originally been scheduled for 10 April but was delayed by a legal challenge. When it took place, the proposal was approved by 55% of voters.


2019 Belizean territorial dispute referendum, Background
A commitment to take the Belizean–Guatemalan territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice was signed by the countries' governments in December 2008. A referendum was held in Guatemala on the proposal on 15 April 2018. As required by previous agreements, a referendum was required to be held in Belize within six months. Guatemalan Vice President Jafeth Cabrera stated that the Belizean vote would be held in May 2018, but the Belizean government released a statement denying the claim and stated that the referendum would be held after a voter re-registration process has occurred to ensure an accurate and fair vote.


2019 Belizean territorial dispute referendum, Background, Delay
The referendum was challenged in court by the opposition People's United Party (PUP) on the grounds that it was based on the 2008 Special Agreement between Belize and Guatemala, which might lead to territorial changes that were inconsistent with Belize's constitution. That led to an injunction being issued by the Supreme Court, delaying the referendum. Following the issuing of the injunction, the Belizean government introduced legislation that it believed would address the injunction. However, the PUP claimed that an amendment to the constitution, requiring a two-thirds majority vote, was needed before the referendum could be held.


2019 Belizean territorial dispute referendum, Background, Delay
The Belizean government's new referendum legislation was passed by the House of Representatives on 12 April 2019, and by the Senate on 15 April. The PUP objected to the new referendum bill on the grounds that it was based on the 2008 Special Agreement, which was still the subject of the court proceedings under which the injunction delaying the referendum was issued. PUP attorney Kareem Musa stated that the PUP would have supported a referendum based on the pre-existing referendum legislation, which did reference the 2008 Special Agreement.


2019 Belizean territorial dispute referendum, Background, Delay
The European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States issued a joint declaration, dated 11 April 2019, urging the Belizean government to hold a vote as soon as possible. Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales also urged the government to hold the referendum quickly. Meanwhile, Morales sparked controversy by drawing Belize as part of Guatemala during a visit to a school. On 15 April 2019, Guatemalan gunboats also prevented the Belizean coast guard from patrolling the Sarstoon River on the border between the two countries.


2019 Belizean territorial dispute referendum, Background, Delay
On 15 April 2019, the Belizean government asked for the injunction to be set aside in light of the 10 April deadline for holding the referendum and introducing a new referendum bill had passed. The court refused to set aside the injunction before the substantive hearing, and set the hearing for 29 April.


2019 Belizean territorial dispute referendum, Results
The referendum passed by more than 10 percent of the vote nationwide. Yes won 22 of the constituencies, with nine voting no.


2019 Belk Bowl
The 2019 Belk Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 31, 2019, with kickoff at 12:00 p.m. EST on ESPN. It was the 18th edition of the Belk Bowl, and was one of the 2019–20 bowl games concluding the 2019 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by department store chain Belk.


2019 Belk Bowl, Teams
The game was played between the Kentucky Wildcats from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Virginia Tech Hokies from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). This was the 20th meeting between the programs; Kentucky entered the game leading the all-time series, 11–6–2.


2019 Belk Bowl, Teams, Kentucky Wildcats
Kentucky entered the bowl with a 7–5 record (3–5 in conference). They finished in the three-way tie for fourth place in the SEC's East Division. The Wildcats lost to both ranked FBS teams that they played, Florida and Georgia. This was Kentucky's first appearance in the Belk Bowl.


2019 Belk Bowl, Teams, Virginia Tech Hokies
Virginia Tech entered the bowl with an 8–4 record (5–3 in conference). They finished second in the ACC's Coastal Division. The Hokies were 1–1 against ranked FBS teams, defeating Wake Forest and losing to Notre Dame. This was Virginia Tech's second Belk Bowl; their 2016 team won that season's Belk Bowl over Arkansas, 35–24.


2019 Bella Cup
The 2019 Bella Cup was a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the twenty-fifth edition of the tournament which was part of the 2019 ITF Women's World Tennis Tour. It took place in Toruń, Poland between 3 and 9 June 2019.


2019 Bella Cup, Singles main draw entrants, Other entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:


2019 Bella Cup – Doubles
Maja Chwalińska and Katarzyna Kawa were the defending champions, but chose not to participate.


2019 Bella Cup – Doubles
Rebeka Masarova and Rebecca Šramková won the title, defeating Robin Anderson and Anhelina Kalinina in the final, 6–4, 3–6, [10–4].


2019 Bella Cup – Singles
Barbora Krejčíková was the defending champion, but chose not to participate.


2019 Bella Cup – Singles
Rebecca Šramková won the title, defeating Marta Kostyuk in the final, 6–1, 6–2.


2019 Belmont Stakes
This is the current revision of this page, as edited by Colonies Chris (talk | contribs) at 19:22, 9 September 2020 (minor fixes, replaced: U.S. → United States, Jose Ortiz → José Ortiz,  -  →  –  (2), 2019-2019 → 2019–2019). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this version.


2019 Belmont Stakes
The 2019 Belmont Stakes was the 151st running of the Belmont Stakes and the 108th time the event took place at Belmont Park. The 1 1⁄2-mile (2,400 m) race, known as the "test of the champion", is the final leg in the American Triple Crown, open to three-year-old Thoroughbreds. Sir Winston won the race, with a time of 2:28.30.


2019 Belmont Stakes
The race took place on June 8, 2019, in Elmont, New York, with post time scheduled for 6:37 p.m. ET. It was a Grade I stakes race with a purse of $1.5 million, broadcast on NBC with coverage of the undercard on NBCSN. There was no chance of a Triple Crown winner, as Kentucky Derby winner Country House did not run in the Preakness Stakes, due to his trainer detecting a virus.


2019 Belmont Stakes, Results
The post position draw was held on June 4 at Citi Field, prior to that day's New York Mets game.