“When observers are silenced, democracy loses its witnesses.” – EPDE board member Zosia Lutkiewicz delivers intervention at WHDC
EPDE board member Zosia Lutkiewicz delivered an intervention at the 2025 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference highlighting the climate of repression and narrowing spaces for election observers and ways to respond. Citizen election observers are often the first to notice when democracy begins to close. When civic space narrows, it shows first in the polling station, […]
WHDC Side Event: Citizen Observation under Pressure: Safeguarding the Space to Monitor Elections
All guests of the 2025 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference (WHDC) are invited to attend EPDE-ODIHR side event scheduled for 7 October, 18:30–19:30 in Meeting Room 1 – Belweder Foreign interference, disinformation, and opaque political financing are reshaping elections across the OSCE region, creating new demands on citizen observers. As these risks grow, domestic monitoring organisations […]
FURIC 2025 | Technologies for Trust: Innovating for Election Integrity in a Changing Global Order
The Follow-Up on Recommendations’ Implementation Conference (FURIC 2025) returned to Brussels for its third edition on September 23–24, 2025, this year organised in cooperation with European Parliament’s Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG) and OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR). In times of increasing digital interference and authoritarian influence on elections […]
Defending Electoral Integrity in the Digital Age. EPDE at the Money in Politics Conference
EPDE board member Zosia Lutkiewicz, President of the Political Accountability Foundation, took part in the 2025 edition of the Money in Politics conference, held on 8-9 July in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova. The conference provided a focused platform for examining the growing vulnerabilities at the intersection of political finance and digital campaigning. This year, key […]
Future proofing election observation with EPDE’s ElectLab
The landscape of election observation is changing rapidly. While traditional monitoring methods remain essential, today’s observers face an increasingly complex array of hybrid threats to election integrity. From artificial intelligence and platform manipulation to foreign interference and data protection risks, the challenges demand new skills and approaches from election observers. Recognising the urgency of this […]
EPDE Establishes Advisory Council
The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) proudly announces the formation of its Advisory Council. From July 2025, this new body will support the EPDE Board and Secretariat in shaping the platform’s strategic development, enhancing programmatic impact, and expanding partnerships that safeguard democratic values in Europe and beyond. The Advisory Council will play a key […]
National parliaments should step up the fight against fake election observers
European Parliament-organised Conference on Countering Fake Election Observation recommends EU member state parliaments commit to a binding code of conduct for election observation. The Conference on Countering Fake Election Observation, was organised by the European Parliament’s Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG) and the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) in the European Parliament in Brussels on 4 […]
Challenges to Election Observation in Europe: Adam Busuleanu in conversation with Cosmin Bârzan, Civic Resource Centre
EPDE Senior Program Officer Adam Busuleanu met with Cosmin Bârzan, president of the Civic Resource Centre, to discuss EPDE’s mission and the growing challenges facing election observation in Europe. Their conversation explored the increasing impact of online voting and social media manipulation on electoral integrity. Adam emphasized the shrinking space for civil society in places […]
Leveraging Tech for Election Integrity: EPDE at RightsCon 2025
EPDE hosted a roundtable at RightsCon 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan “For every autocratic move, tireless human rights defenders innovate, unite, and hold governments accountable. Our task is to stay ahead, stay connected, never give in.” – these words by a human rights defender at a lightning talk encapsulate the spirit of RightsCon 2025, which took […]
European Democracy Hub: What Does the ‘Year of Elections’ Tell Us About Democracy?
Moldova: Elections and Kremlin’s Shadow By Lukasz Kondraciuk, Election Integrity and CivicTech Lead at the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE). Moldova’s October 2024 elections and referendum, characterised by unprecedented Kremlin-sponsored influence attempts, highlighted a climate of profound political and geopolitical divisions in the country representing two drastically competing visions for Moldova’s future. The governing […]