Round table summary: Armenia – Does the early election endanger the electoral reform?
On 25 March, EPDE hosted a round table discussion with five Armenian and international election experts and representatives of political factions on the ongoing electoral reform in Armenia and its prospects ahead of the early parliamentary elections scheduled on 20 June 2021. 50 participants from the international expert community and donor countries joined the […]
Momentous reform – no more district seats
On April 1, 2021, a marathon parliamentary session removed district seats from Armenia’s Electoral Code. Change doesn’t happen overnight… until it does. Eliminating district seats from Armenia’s Electoral Code was the flagship policy in the electoral reform bill brought forward in October 2018 by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s first government. That bill failed to […]
Social media monitoring report 2020 presidential election
Highlights from the Political Accountability Foundation (PAF)’s social media monitoring report: Facebook (FB) was an important channel for candidates in their communication with voters – its importance during both 2020 Presidential elections was only exacerbated by the pandemic situation which led to the introduction of restrictions on physical campaigning. Some candidates managed to increase their […]
Need for agreement between political parties to overcome current crisis and continue the reform process
Letter by Georgian CSOs urging all political parties to reach an agreement in the next round of mediation to overcome the political stalemate. Dear Sirs and Madams, We have closely followed and observed the political developments of the last few months that you have been part of in Georgia. It is clear for everyone that the […]
Civil society calls for civilized pre-electoral campaign ahead of snap elections
Joint statement by Armenian CSOs, including EPDE members Transparency International Anticorruption Center Armenia and Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Vanadzor We, the undersigned representatives of civil society, are severely concerned about the hate speech and calls for violence, which are widespread in Armenia’s political landscape, and tend to be rising ahead of the snap parliamentary election. Problematic and […]
By-elections – preliminary statement
Civil Network OPORA administered a comprehensive independent observation over the course of interim elections of people’s deputies in constituencies No 50 (Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast), and No 87 (Nadvirna, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast). We focused on the legality of procedures, competitiveness of the campaign, and its compliance with the international democratic standards. On the election day, March, 28, […]
By-elections in Ivano-Frankivsk region highly contentious with significant irregularities
OPORA hereby states the failure to ensure the right of voters for lawful and fair establishment of their voting results in a single-member constituency No 87 at elections of a people’s deputy of Ukraine. The extraordinary challenge for democracy and legality of elections in the constituency requires from the government and the law-enforcement authorities taking […]
Assessment of the 2021 electoral reform
Electoral reform represents one part of the action plan proposed by international partners to resolve the political crisis in Georgia which arose following the October 2020 parliamentary elections. To complement this international effort, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and Transparency International Georgia have issued recommendations and a detailed joint assessment of electoral […]
Human Rights Situation in Belarus: March 2021
Katsiaryna Barysevich, a journalist at TUT.BY, enters a court room during a trial in Minsk on 19 February, 2021. © 2021 RAMIL NASIBULIN/BELTA/AFP via Getty Images Summary of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” report: in March, the authorities continued to actively prosecute individuals for political reasons. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, criminal cases against […]
By-elections – formation of PECs
The process of establishing precinct election commissions was running under the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Elections of People’s Deputies of Ukraine” valid in part of the organization of the preparation and conduct of interim elections of people’s deputies of Ukraine. The total number of precinct election commissions established at the interim elections […]