According to the Central Bank of Armenia, during the first half of 2008, cash remittances sent back to Armenia by Armenians working abroad rose by 57. 5 percent and totaled $ 668. 6 million USD, equivalent to 15 percent of the country's first-half Gross Domestic Product.

* 1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country's first national census.

* 1980 – The Republic of Zimbabwe ( formerly Rhodesia ) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.

George Washington ( February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799 ), the country's first president, is often said to be the father of his country.

Her father's grandfather had fled France during the Revolution, going first to Saint-Domingue, then New Orleans, and finally to Cuba where he helped build that country's first railway.

The country's first post-communist Assembly elections, in November 1991, made the winning new pro-reform Union of Democratic Forces ( UDF ) to make government alone, having won 110 out of the 240 seats in the assembly.

The University of Ouagadougou, founded in 1974, was the country's first institution of higher education.

The Cameroon government held two national censuses during the country's first 44 years as an independent country, in 1976 and again in 1987.

The country's economic development was successively marked by the export of first agricultural produce, then saltpeter and later copper.

" An era of peaceful democracy in Costa Rica began in 1889 with elections considered the first truly free and honest ones in the country's history.

In the 2002 national election, a new party founded by former PLN Congressman and government Minister Ottón Solís captured 26 % of the vote, forcing a runoff election for the first time in the country's history.

As the anniversary of Confederation, Dominion Day, and later Canada Day, was the date set for a number of important events, such as the first national radio network hookup by the Canadian National Railway ( 1927 ), the inauguration of the CBC's cross-country television broadcast ( 1958 ), the flooding of the Saint Lawrence Seaway ( 1958 ), the first colour television transmission in Canada ( 1966 ), the inauguration of the Order of Canada ( 1967 ), and the establishment of " O Canada " as the country's national anthem ( 1980 ).

1984 — The country's first coalition government, between Sir Thomas and Geoffrey Henry, is signed in the lead up to hosting regional Mini Games in 1985.

Robert Mugabe announced Zimbabwe's immediate withdrawal from the Commonwealth at the 2003 CHOGM, and Nigeria's execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others on the first day of the 1995 CHOGM led to that country's suspension.

Freely contested municipal elections, the country's first, were held in September.

During the South African occupation of Namibia, Ethiopia was one of the country's leading proponents abroad ; Ethiopia and Liberia were the first two states to bring the question of independence for then South West Africa to the United Nations.

* 1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.

In his first speech after assuming the party leadership he called for a non-racist South Africa and for negotiations about the country's future.

Sweeping political reforms in 1990 led to a new constitution, and the PDG garnered a large majority in the country's first multi-party elections in 30 years.

In December 1993, Conté was elected to a 5-year term as president in the country's first multi-party elections, which were marred by irregularities and lack of transparency on the part of the government.

In 1994, 20 years after independence from Portugal, the country's first multiparty legislative and presidential elections were held.

In Spain, the Visigoth ic nobleman Pelagius of Asturias | Pelagius who founded the Kingdom of Asturias and began the Reconquista at the Battle of Covadonga, is a Folk hero | national hero regarded as the country's first monarch.

Notwithstanding the country's commitment to democratic institutions, Colombia's history has also been characterized by widespread, violent conflict.

U. S. relations with the Dominican Republic are excellent, and the U. S. has been an outspoken supporter of that country's democratic and economic development.

Israel was founded as a Jewish state in 1948, and the country's Basic Laws describe it as both a Jewish and a democratic state.

Congo's economic prospects remain largely dependent on the country's ability to establish political stability and democratic rule.

The United States and Turkmenistan continue to disagree about the latter country's path toward democratic and economic reform.

In recent times, some prominent economists including Alan Greenspan have warned that the widening rich-poor gap in the U. S. population is a problem that could undermine and destabilize the country's economy and standard of living stating that " The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself ".

The country's second democratic election is marred by low voter turnout, due to several boycotts and pre-election violence, which result in at least 13 deaths.

* December 6 – The Spanish Constitution officially restores the country's democratic government.

On December 15, 2006, the fourth Druk Gyalpo, His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, abdicated all of his powers as King to his son, Prince Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, with a specific intention to prepare the young King for the country's transformation to a full-fledged, democratic form of government due to occur in 2008.

Ronald Reagan once said of him " President Balaguer has been a driving force throughout his country's democratic development.

They also said that the emergence of armed rebel groups seeking to overthrow Aristide reflected " the failure of the country's democratic institutions and procedures ".

From their debates has emerged a multifarious populist nationalism which argues that anti-imperialist nationalism in China has provided a valuable public space for popular participation outside the country's political institutions and that nationalist sentiments under the postcolonial condition represent a democratic form of civic activity.

In 2000, she joined the National Democratic Institute, an organization that promotes democracy and peace in developing nations and travelled to Kosovo to help women there to run in the country's first democratic election.

Four months after its March defeat, the Socialist Party makes impressive gains in the country's first democratic local elections.

Correct handling of political finance impacts a country's ability to effectively maintain free and fair elections, effective governance, democratic government and regulation of corruption.

Although Pereira initially promised to lead a democratic and socialist nation upon becoming President, he compounded the country's chronic poverty by crushing dissent following the overthrow of Luís de Almeida Cabral.

His victory over John Atta-Mills after the end of Jerry Rawlings ' second term marked the first peaceful democratic transition of power in Ghana since the country's independence in 1957.

Awolowo was also the country's leading social democratic politician.

Begum Khaleda Zia ()( born August 15, 1945 ) is the former First Lady of Bangladesh ( 1977 – 1981 ), and then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, having served from 1991 to 1996, becoming the first woman in the country's history and second in the Muslim world ( only after Ms Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan in 1988 – 1990 ) to head a democratic government as prime minister.

Somewhat unusual for a former Soviet satellite state, Mongolia voted to retain the MPRP during its first venture into democratic elections, and Enkhbayar was appointed to serve as the country's Minister of Culture.

With Bhutto assuming the control, the leftists and democratic socialists entered in county's politics, later emerged as power players in country's politics.

And, for the first time in country's history, the leftists and democratic socialists had a chance to administer the country with popular vote and wide approved exclusive mandate, given to them by the West's population in the 1970s elections.

In 1992, Abulfaz Elchibey, the leader of PFA, won the country's first ostensibly democratic presidential elections.

Hans Köchler ( 1995 ) relates the question of transnational democracy to empowering the individual citizen by involving him, through procedures of direct democracy, in a country's international affairs, and he calls for the restructuring of the United Nations Organization according to democratic norms.