These are some of the notable events relating to politics in 2002.
Events
January January 1- Eduardo Duhalde is appointed President of Argentina. He appoints Jorge Capitanich as cabinet chief, Carlos Ruckauf as foreign minister; Felipe Solá becomes governor of Buenos Aires. January 1- Safet Halilović becomes President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. January 1- Manuel Andrade Díaz takes office as governor of Tabasco. January 1- Kaspar Villiger becomes president of Switzerland; Pascal Corminboeuf becomes president of the Council of State of Fribourg; Claudio Lardi president of the government of Graubünden; Anita Rion president of the government of Jura; Ulrich Fässler Schultheiss of Luzern; Herbert Bühl president of the government of Schaffhausen; Rolf Ritschard Landammann of Solothurn; and Francine Jeanprêtre president of the Council of State of Vaud. January 1- Michael Bloomberg takes office as mayor of New York City. January 2- Levy Mwanawasa takes office as president of Zambia; Katele Kalumba becomes foreign minister. January 4- Assad Shoman is sworn in as foreign minister of Belize. January 6- Mikhail Lapshin wins Presidential run-off election in the Altai Republic. January 7- Michelle Bachelet is named defense minister of Chile, becoming the first woman in Latin America to hold the post. January 8- Kristiina Ojuland becomes foreign minister of Estonia. January 8- John Farmer, Jr. becomes acting Governor of New Jersey, followed by John O. Bennett and then Richard Codey until governor-elect Jim McGreevey is sworn in. January 10- Enrique Bolaños takes office as president of Nicaragua; Norman José Caldera Cardenal becomes foreign minister. January 12- Mark Warner takes office as governor of Virginia. January 13- In the Presidential runoff in Sakha, Vyacheslav Shtyrov is elected. January 13- Diosdado Cabello is named executive vice-president of Venezuela. January 14- Juan Babauta takes office as governor of the Northern Mariana Islands. January 15- Bill Graham is named as foreign minister of Canada. January 15- Pat Cox of Ireland is elected president of the European Parliament. January 15- Vladimir Torlopov takes office as head of the Komi Republic. January 18- P. S. Ramamohan Rao is sworn in as governor of Tamil Nadu. January 18- Natalya Partasova is confirmed as prime minister of Chuvashia. January 21- Yu Shyi-kun is named Premier of Taiwan; Eugene Chien is appointed as foreign minister; Fan Kuang-chun as governor of Taiwan Province. January 22- Georgi Parvanov takes office as president of Bulgaria. January 27- Ricardo Maduro takes office as president of Honduras; Guillermo Pérez Arias becomes foreign minister. January 28- Imangali Tasmagambetov is appointed as the prime minister of Kazakhstan.
February February 1- Yoriko Kawaguchi is named Foreign Minister of Japan. February 4- Choi Sung Hong becomes foreign minister of South Korea. February 8- Semyon Nazarov becomes prime minister of Sakha. February 8- Hazret Medzhidovich Sovmen is sworn in as president of Adygea. February 13- Amarinder Singh is sworn in as chief minister of Punjab. February 14- Beriz Belkić becomes chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. February 15- Angidi Chettiar becomes acting president of Mauritius who is soon replaced by Ariranga Pillay, and finally Karl Offmann. February 15- Lázaro Cárdenas Batel is sworn in as governor of Michoacán February 19- Mikhail Shatalov becomes prime minister of North Ossetia–Alania February 22- Marc Ravalomanana declares himself President of Madagascar.
March March 2- Narain Dutt Tiwari is sworn in as chief minister of Uttaranchal, now known as Uttarakhand. March 3- Gabriel Costa's Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe wins parliamentary elections in São Tomé and Príncipe, he would later become prime minister. March 4- Yvon Neptune is designated Prime Minister of Haiti. March 4- Ibrahim Rugova is elected President of Kosovo; Bajram Rexhepi is appointed prime minister. March 5- Mike Rann is sworn in as premier of South Australia. March 6- Nikolay Demchuk is approved as prime minister of Adygeya. March 7- James Bartleman takes office as lieutenant governor of Ontario. March 15- Dragan Mikerević is elected Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina. March 18- Modibo Keita (born 1942) becomes Prime Minister of Mali.
April April 1- Antonio Lazzaro Volpinari and Giovanni Francesco Ugolini take office as captains-regent of San Marino. April 1- Hassan Muhammad Nur "Shatigadud" is sworn in as President of Southwestern Somalia. April 1- Ernst Hasler takes office as Landammann of Aargau. April 5- Otto Roberto Mendonça de Alencar becomes governor of Bahia; Benedita Souza da Silva Sampaio becomes governor of Rio de Janeiro. April 6- José Manuel Durão Barroso is sworn in as prime minister of Portugal; António Martins da Cruz becomes foreign minister. April 8- Alda Bandeira becomes Foreign Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe. April 11- Sir John Vereker is sworn in as governor of Bermuda. April 12- Pedro Carmona Estanga becomes president of the transitional government of Venezuela. April 15- Ernie Eves becomes premier of Ontario. April 18- Georg Milbradt becomes minister-president of the German of Free State of Saxony. April 23- Charles-Louis Rochat becomes president of the Council of State of Vaud. April 28- Nikolay Ashlapov becomes acting governor of Krasnoyarsk. April 28- Bruno Koster is elected as Regierender Landammann of Appenzell-Innerrhoden.
May May 1- Young Vivian is elected Prime Minister of Niue. May 1- Thomas Burgener takes office as president of the Council of State of Valais; Ernst Buschor takes office as president of the government of Zürich. May 2- Perry Christie is elected Prime Minister of The Bahamas, selects Fred Mitchell as Foreign Minister. May 3- Dahir Riyale Kahin becomes President of Somaliland. May 5- French Presidential elections, Jean-Pierre Raffarin named prime minister, Dominique de Villepin named Foreign Minister. May 5- Jakob Kamm is elected Landammann of Glarus. May 8- Abel Pacheco de la Espriella takes office as president of Costa Rica; Roberto Tovar Faja becomes foreign minister. May 9- Acting governor installed in the Cayman Islands to serve until the arrival of Bruce Dinwiddy. May 12- Sergey Katanandov takes office as head of the republic of Karelia. May 13- Marcel Ranjeva named Foreign Minister of Madagascar. May 16- Jean-Luc Harousseau becomes acting president of the Regional Council of Pays de la Loire. May 16- Wolfgang Böhmer takes office as minister-president of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. May 20- Xanana Gusmão is sworn in as President of East Timor. May 21- Patrizia Pesenti becomes president of the Council of State of Ticino. May 22- Nikolay Tanayev is named acting Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan May 23- Murat Zyazikov is sworn in as president of Ingushetia. May 27- Paddy Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, takes over as international high representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina. May 27- Péter Medgyessy is elected prime minister of Hungary; László Kovács becomes foreign minister. May 29- Petr Švec becomes acting mayor of Prague. May 30- Roy Chaderton is sworn in as foreign minister of Venezuela.
June June 1- Elisabeth Zölch-Balmer becomes president of the government of Bern; Pierre Hirschy becomes president of the Council of State of Neuchâtel; Hans Peter Ruprecht becomes president of the government of Thurgau; and Gabi Huber Landammann of Uri. June 3- Etienne Ys becomes prime minister of the Netherlands Antilles. June 3- Piet Meyer is sworn in as acting premier of Western Cape, to be eventually replaced by Marthinus van Schalkwyk. June 7- The Pakistani Foreign Minister offers his resignation, and is eventually replaced by Inam ul-Haq. June 7- Viktor Maslov takes office as head of the administration of Smolensk Oblast. June 8- Amadou Toumani Touré is sworn in as president of Mali. He eventually names Lassana Traoré Foreign Minister. June 10- François Lonseny Fall is named foreign minister of Guinea. June 12- Mohlabi Tsekoa becomes foreign minister of Lesotho. June 14- Askar Aitmatov becomes foreign minister of Kyrgyzstan. June 21- Jamiruddin Sircar becomes acting President of Bangladesh. June 22- Matthias Platzeck is sworn in as Minister-President of Brandenburg. June 26- Álvaro Silva Calderón of Venezuela is elected Secretary-General of OPEC. June 27- Koffi Sama is named Prime Minister of Togo. June 28- Élisabeth Morin becomes president of the Regional Council of Poitou-Charentes.
July July 1- Frits Goedgedrag takes office as governor of the Netherlands Antilles July 1- Elsbeth Schneider-Kenel becomes president of the government of Basel-Land; Leo Odermatt becomes Landammann of Nidwalden; Hans Hofer becomes Landammann of Obwalden; Peter Schönenberger becomes Landammann of Sankt Gallen, and Friedrich Huwyler becomes Landammann of Schwyz. July 4- Jan Peter Balkenende is asked to form a new government as Prime Minister of the Netherlands; he will select Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as foreign minister, and Johan Remkes as interior minister. July 6- Rama Jois is named as governor of Jharkhand. July 9- The governor of Maharashtra resigns, he will eventually be replaced by C K Thakkar. July 9- Members of the Peruvian cabinet resign, and are eventually replaced by Luis Solari as prime minister and Allan Wagner Tizón as foreign minister. July 9- Ana Palacios is named foreign minister of Spain. July 11- Chang Sang is named Prime Minister of South Korea. July 11- The Foreign Minister of Turkey resigns. He is to be replaced by Şükrü Sina Gürel. July 12- Vladimír Špidla is appointed as prime minister of the Czech Republic. Cyril Svoboda will become Foreign Minister. July 15- Igor Nemec is elected mayor of Prague. July 18- A. P. J. Abdul Kalam is elected president of India. July 22- K. R. Malkani is appointed as lieutenant governor of Puducherry. July 24- Alfred Moisiu takes office as President of Albania. July 24- James Traficant was expelled from the United States House of Representatives after being convicted of ten felony counts. July 27- New Zealand holds a general election, which Helen Clark's left-wing Labour Party wins, in coalition with the Progressive Party and confidence and supply from the United Future Party.
August August 2- Saufatu Sopoanga is elected prime minister of Tuvalu by Parliament. August 4- Congress chooses Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada as president of Bolivia. August 5- Parliament elects Sir Michael Somare as prime minister of Papua New Guinea. August 7- Álvaro Uribe Vélez is sworn in as president of Colombia; Carolina Barco is sworn in as foreign minister. August 9- Chang Dae Whan is named Prime Minister of South Korea. August 14- Lyonpo Kinzang Dorji becomes prime minister of Bhutan. August 26- Viktor Aleksentsev is appointed acting Prime Minister of Ingushetia. August 28- Theo-Ben Gurirab becomes Prime Minister of Namibia.
September September 1- Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand becomes director-general of the WTO. September 2- Ange Mancini takes office as prefect of French Guiana. September 5- Iajuddin Ahmed is declared President-elect of Bangladesh. September 10- Kim Suk Soo is named Prime Minister of South Korea. September 15 - The Swedish general election leaves Prime Minister Göran Persson and the Social Democrats in power. September 30- Lena Hjelm-Wallén is named defense minister of Sweden.
October October 1- Giuseppe Maria Morganti and Mauro Chiaruzzi are installed as Captains-regent of San Marino. October 3- Aleksandr Khloponin is named acting governor of Krasnoyarsk. October 3- Maria das Neves is named Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe. October 4- The King of Nepal would abolish his council of ministers, and would later hire Lokendra Bahadur Chand as prime minister.