left In keeping with his democratic ideals, Mackenzie refused the offer of a knighthood three times, and was thus the only one of Canada's first eight Prime Ministers not to be knighted.

We are not certain that the word " democracy " was extant when systems that came to be called democratic were first instituted, but around 460 BC an individual is known whose parents had decided to name him ' Democrates ', a name which may have been manufactured as a gesture of democratic loyalty ; the name can also be found in Aeolian Temnus, not a particularly democratic state.

* 1994 – South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote.

Meanwhile, Zhelyu Zhelev, a communist-era dissident from the new democratic party-Union of Democratic Forces, was elected President by the Assembly in 1990, and in 1992 won Bulgaria's first presidential elections and served as president until 1997.

Nkurunziza was the first president chosen through democratic means since the start of the civil war in 1993 and was sworn in on 26 August, replacing transitional president Domitien Ndayizeye.

Much of the resources for these first democratic elections since independence came from locally represented donors and agencies called the " Groupe informel des bailleurs de fonds et representants residents " ( GIBAFOR ).

The first nation in modern history to adopt a democratic constitution was the short-lived Corsican Republic in 1755.

The country's first democratic elections in four decades were held on 30 July 2006 with a run-off between current president Kabila and his rival Bemba held on 29 October 2006.

Founded as an explicitly Christian democratic group, it declined at first but reversed its fortunes in the 1980s and 1990s when, as a result of the gradual enlargement of the EPP ( party ), it started to pick up members from other centre-right but non-Christian democratic parties.

The spread of increasingly democratic forms of representative governance has its origin in the formation of the first General Conventions of the American Episcopal Church in the 1780s, which established a " House of Bishops " and a " House of Deputies.

Uncomfortable with the workings of democratic ststem, unruliness in the East Pakistan parliamentary elections and the threat of Baloch separatism in West-Pakistan, Bengali President Iskandar Ali Mirza issued a proclamation that abolished all political parties in both West and East Pakistan, abrogated the two-year old constitution, and imposed the first martial law in the country on October 7, 1958.

Georgia has been a democratic republic since the first multiparty, democratic parliamentary elections of October 28, 1990.

Aristide Menezes led the Democratic Front, which in 1991 became the first legal opposition party and paved the way for democratic elections.

The Reformasi era following Suharto's resignation, has led to a strengthening of democratic processes, including a regional autonomy program, the secession of East Timor, and the first direct presidential election in 2004.

After the first democratic elections with universal suffrage in 1948, in which the Christian Democracy and their allies won against the Popular front of the Italian Communist and Socialists parties, the communist party never returned in the government.

The Republic of India and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan signed their first bilateral agreement for cooperation and friendly relations in 1947, which was formalized in 1950 when India became a sovereign democratic republic.

* 2001 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, is sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, becoming the first monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office.

Since South Africa and Malawi had their first democratic elections in 1994, Malawi and South Africa have enhanced relations.

In 1992, Alpha Oumar Konaré won Mali's first democratic, multi-party presidential election, before being re-elected for a second term in 1997, which was the last allowed under the constitution.

The first fully democratic Presidential election since 1960 occurred on 11 March 2007.

King Muhammad 5, was known to be most sympathetic to the formation of local self-government and made the first firm promise of elections on May Day, 1957.

Although the government was probably prepared for elections by mid-1958, the first decision was no doubt made more difficult as party strife multiplied.

From the rather tortuous history of electoral planning in Morocco an important point emerges concerning the first elections in a developing country and evaluating their results.

That same year, first parliamentary and presidential elections were held.

" The Republicans gained majorities in both House and Senate for the first time since Democrats in the 1856 elections, they were to be seated in numbers which Lincoln might use to govern, a national parliamentary majority even before pro-slavery House and Senate seats vacated.

* 1957 – In India, Communists win the first elections in united Kerala and E. M. S.

After two years of Democratic Party control, the Democrats lost control of Congress in the mid-term elections in 1994, for the first time in forty years.

The 1965 constitution led to the first general elections and to independence on 30 September 1966.

After the fall of the communism in 1990, the former communist party changed to Bulgarian Socialist Party ( BSP ) and won the first post-communist elections for the new constitution in 1990 with a small majority.

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.

Unlike the communist parties in most other East European states, the BCP ( changing its name to Bulgarian Socialist Party ) retained majority power after the transition in Bulgaria by winning the first free national elections in June 1990.

In 1995, Burkina held its first multiparty municipal elections since independence.

After the six-year voting ban on Bal Thackeray was lifted in 2005, he voted for the first time in the 2006 BMC elections .< ref name =" Voting ban lifted ">

Déby won the country ’ s first multi-party presidential elections with support in the second round from opposition leader Kebzabo, defeating General Kamougue ( leader of the 1975 coup against Tombalbaye ).

Cameroon's first multiparty legislative and presidential elections were held in 1992 followed by municipal elections in 1996 and another round of legislative and presidential elections in 1997.

In 1991, following growing pressure for a more pluralistic society, multi-party elections were held for the first time.

" 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.

Several smaller new parties that participated for the first time in the 2006 elections include Partido Unión Patriótica and Partido Alianza Democrática Nacionalista.

Costa Rica was among the first to call for a postponement of the May 22 elections in Peru when international observer missions found electoral machinery not prepared for the vote count.

On 22 April and 7 May 1990, the first free multi-party elections were held in Croatia.

Following the collapse of the ruling Communist Party in Yugoslavia, Croatia adopted a new constitution in 1990 – which replaced the 1974 constitution adopted by the Socialist Republic of Croatia – and organised its first multi-party elections.