Even before unforeseen events like natural disasters or outbreaks of new conflicts occur this year, as they always do, 2012 will be full of important political news, with elections not only in the United States but also around the world, some in countries that are crucial to the stability of their regions.

Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries in Africa, is to hold a presidential election by early April to replace the recently deceased Malam Bacai Sanhá. Here, a Colonial-era building on an island near the coast. JOE PENNEY

The International Peace Institute, which is based in New York and has close ties to the United Nations, has compiled a lengthy, informative list of places, people and political changes to watch this year. The guide notes the long retinue of national and legislative elections in Africa (Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Zimbabwe), but also the places to keep an eye on in the Continent: Somalia and the two Sudans. And while the whole world will be waiting to see who wins the US presidential election, there is also a re-election bid by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, also in the fall.

To read the institute’s Top 20 issues in its new Global Observatory, to http://www.theglobalobservatory.org/analysis/184-ipis-top-issues-to-watch-in-2012-part-2-the-regions.html