Democratic backsliding in Georgia – need to adopt proportional electoral system
ADDRESS OF NGOS TO THE GOVERNMENT ON THE TRANSITION TO THE PROPORTIONAL ELECTORAL SYSTEM The backsliding of democracy in Georgia over the recent period has come under the spotlight by international organizations and representatives of countries friendly to Georgia. Backing out on the promise to adopt a proportional system, the formation process of the […]
Restrictions on political freedoms and violations against opposition continue ahead of early Parliamentary elections
(Parliament of Azerbaijan) Source: European Parliament, Flickr Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS) has carried out the long-term observation of 9 February 2020 early Parliamentary Elections. EMDS notes, in comparison with the last Parliamentary elections in 2015 there is an increase in political activeness prior to the current elections due to a large […]
New ‘new’ Election Code – which system will be used in future Ukrainian elections?
Peculiarities of electoral system for parliamentary elections The Election Code suggests to use an open-list proportional representation system for organization of parliamentary elections in Ukraine. Voters will be able to vote for a party and, additionally, for a certain candidate in regional list of this party. Only parties that overcome the 5% national threshold will […]
OPORA Statement on Adopting Electoral Code Upon its Second Review
Civil Network OPORA hereby welcomes the efforts of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to build a dialogue and reach a compromise on the Electoral Code. Political legitimacy of the law is an important element of building public trust to the institute of elections. Second review of the Electoral Code does formally complete a lengthy process for […]
Preliminary report on the 23 December Municipal Elections
Executive Summary EMDS is a non-partisan non-governmental organization working for holding free and fair elections, as well as the development of civil society and democracy in Azerbaijan. EMDS carried out the long-term observation of the 23 December 2019 Municipal Elections in Azerbaijan covering all stages of the electoral process – nomination of candidates, campaigning, election […]
Ruling Party’s Electoral System Offer Is Unacceptable and Unserious
Statement of EPDE member ISFED and 15 other Georgian civil society organizations assessing the ruling party’s initiative: On December 20, during the fourth meeting between the ruling and the opposition parties on the electoral system, the Chairperson of the Parliament unveiled the ruling party’s offer about changing the electoral system in a way that out […]
Policy Alert # 1 – Political Deadlock After Broken Promise on Electoral System Change
caucasuswatch.de Georgia’s ruling party’s failure to adopt the promised constitutional amendment on transition to a fully proportional representation for the upcoming 2020 elections has caused a political deadlock in the country. The Georgian Dream (GD) backtracking on their promise has been largely viewed as an attempt to cling to power and maintain unfair advantage […]
Foreign Observation of the Illegitimate Elections in South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2019
The so-called “Republic of South Ossetia” and “Republic of Abkhazia” are breakaway regions of Georgia that are recognised as independent sovereign states only by five UN Member States: Russia (which supports their de facto independence by military, economic and political means), Nauru, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela. Other entities that recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia […]
EPDE Policy Alert – Electoral Reform in Ukraine #15
Photo: OPORA EPDE welcomes that the profile committee of Ukraine’s Parliament yesterday held an additional meeting to discuss a set of problematic provisions in the draft Electoral Code. The parliamentary vote on the draft planned for this week has been postponed. Earlier, EPDE members Civic Network OPORA and the Committee of Voters of Ukraine […]
Statement ahead of Parliament’s consideration of changes to Electoral Code
The Ukrainian Parliament is expected to consider proposals of changes to the Electoral Code made by the President of Ukraine this week, 3-6 December. Civil Network OPORA calls on parliamentarians to make use of procedural possibilities to fine-tune the text of the document. In particular, the parliamentary committee is recommended to hold another meeting before […]