January 1: Pavel Chernov takes office as prime minister of Karelia.
January 1: Pascal Couchepin takes office as President of the Confederation and Interior Minister of Switzerland; Ruth Metzler-Arnold becomes vice president; Claude L?ser becomes president of the Council of State of Fribourg, Stefan Engler president of the government of Graub?den, G?ald Schaller president of the government of Jura, Margrit Fischer-Willimann Schultheiss of Luzern, Christian Wanner Landammann of Solothurn, and Jean-Claude Mermoud president of the Council of State of Vaud, and Walter Suter Landammann of Zug.
January 3: Kalonzo Musyoka becomes foreign minister of Kenya.
January 4: Democrat Ed Case is elected in a Hawaii special Congressional election, replacing Patsy Mink, who had been elected to Congress posthumously in November 2002.
January 10: In elections in Djibouti, the Union for a Presidential Majority wins 62.2% of the vote against 36.9% for the Union for a Democratic Alternative.
January 10: Luis Ernesto Derbez becomes foreign minister of Mexico; Fernando Elizondo Barrag? is sworn in as interim governor of Nuevo Le?.
February 5: The head of the pro-Moscow administration of Chechnya, announces the dismissal of their Prime Minister whos is later replaced by Anatoly Popov.
February 17: Oleg Budargin takes office as governor of Taymyr.
February 25: Roh Moo Hyun takes office as president of South Korea; Parliament later approves Goh Kun as prime minister, who would later appoint Yoon Young Kwan as foreign minister.
June 3: Republican Randy Neugebauer defeats fellow Republican Mike Conaway in a Texas Congressional special runoff election to succeed Larry Combest, who resigned in November 2002. Both men had advanced to the runoff in a May 2003 primary.
September 9: Indiana lieutenant governor Joe Kernan becomes acting governor when governor Frank O'Bannon suffers a stroke, and is officially sworn in as governor when O'Bannon dies a few days later. Both are Democrats.
November 23: Nino Burdzhanadze is declared President of Georgia after after opposition forces stormed parliament, the new government includes Zurab Zhvania as minister of state and Tedo Japaridze as foreign minister.