Preliminary report on Kharkiv region by-elections
On March 15, 2020, voting took place at the interim elections of the people’s deputy of Ukraine in constituency 179. Civil Network OPORA conducted an independent non-party monitoring of all stages of the electoral process, including the election day, and the vote count. Before the election day, OPORA noted a competitive nature of the election […]
Need for unbiased formation of PECs ahead of referendum
Before the approval of the composition of precinct electoral commissions of the constitutional referendum, ″Independent Observer″ Alliance received alarms stating that in the process of the examination of commission members, ″parallel examinations″ were conducted, during which credentials were also given to ″acquaintances″ of precinct electoral commission members. Later, certain persons willing to be included in […]
Kharkiv region by-elections: OPORA records some violations but generally campaign meets basic democratic standards
A positive factor is the lack of confirmed facts of voter bribery or other forms of material incentives for citizens. However, these interim elections have illustrated yet another time the need to enhance the mechanisms of transparency and accountability of electoral finance. In fact, only 26 out of 40 registered candidates opened the accounts of […]
CEC failed to analyze 2019 financial reports of political parties
Members of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, including EPDE member Promo-LEX, – draw attention to the fact that, contrary to provisions of the law on political party financing, the CEC did not verify or analyze the financial management reports submitted by political parties to the Commission within a reasonable time for the […]
Election alert # 3 – Constitutional amendments in Russia – risk of a legal chaos
Photo: dw.com On January 20, 2020, the president submitted to the State Duma a draft law on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation “On improving the regulation of certain issues related to the organization of public power”. The highly controversial draft law has already been approved in the first reading by the […]
Planned amendments to the election code threaten transparency of elections
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy strongly criticizes the bill of amendments to the Election Code of Georgia, initiated in the Parliament of Georgia by the Central Election Commission (CEC) and the parliamentary legal affairs committee, bypassing the electoral reform working group. ISFED believes that some of these changes render useless the mechanisms of transparency […]
Pressure against independent observers, candidates and journalists during and since elections
Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS) issued a press-release on the physical, psychological and political pressure put on independent observers, candidates, their representatives and journalists since the 9 February early Parliamentary Elections. EMDS notes with regret that observers faced various cases of pressure during the voting and counting processes across the country on Election […]
Stricter regulation of election campaign financing and party donations needed in electoral law reform
Source: Christian Spicker/ imago images The German Bundestag is currently discussing a reform of the electoral law in order to curb further enlargement of the parliament and increase the proportion of women in parliament. Stefanie Schiffer, Chairperson of the European Platform for Democratic Elections, explains that a reform of the current electoral law must […]
Widespread violations and significantly lower turnout recorded during the early Parliamentary elections
Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS) observed yesterday’s early Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan and recorded similar violations on E-Day that have occurred in previous elections – one person voting multiple times, bussing of voters, ballot-box stuffing, and voting without registration. These violations were widespread and appeared to be deliberate actions aimed at breaching the […]
Increased pressure against civil society and candidates ahead of Sunday’s elections
Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS) has carried out long-term observation of 9 February 2020 early Parliamentary Elections in two stages: nomination and registration of the candidates and the pre-election agitation campaign. First interim report on the results of the monitoring in the first stage (9 December 2019 – 16 January 2020) was published […]