EPDE Policy Alert – Electoral Reform in Ukraine #14
Photo: OPORA On 13 September 2019, the Ukrainian Parliament, following a request from President Zelensky, dismissed all acting commissioners of the Central Election Commission. The decision was taken with a vast majority of 341 votes. Due to the lack of objective grounds, the dissolution of Ukraine’s key electoral management body is assessed as politically […]
Election alert #2 – Outcome of the regional elections and violations encountered by independent observers
Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky/DPA More than five thousand elections on different levels were held in Russia on September 8, on the so-called single voting day. Russian citizens were electing governors of 16 Russian regions, deputies of 13 regional parliaments, mayors of cities, councilors of city and municipal councils. The average turnout was 41.2%, which slightly […]
Russia election alert #1 – Devaluation of election institution ahead of regional elections
Photo: DW/E. Barysheva The situation on the eve of 2019 regional elections shows several important trends. On the one hand, Russian electoral system is becoming extremely politically biased and repressive. On the other, there is growing social demand for participation in decision-making and rising protest activity, including protest vote and participation in street protests. […]
Promo-LEX launches its observation mission for the Local elections in Moldova
Photo: Promo-LEX On 20 October, nation-wide Local elections will take place in Moldova. Furthermore, Parliamentary elections are scheduled in four constituencies, where the deputies previously resigned. EPDE member Promo-LEX Association found that although the pre-election period was marked by uncertainties with regard to the date of the general local elections, the principle of stability […]
Electoral reform across Europe – EPDE side event at the HDIM
Photo: OSCE/Piotr Dziubak The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) will hold a side event at the upcoming 2019 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) of OSCE in Warsaw. It will take place on the first day of the HDIM, on 16 September at 13.15 hours – right after the opening plenary session. The event […]
Working on electoral reform should continue
Earlier this week ISFED and partner NGOs have released a statement about the ongoing electoral reform working group and proposed legislative changes drafted by the Georgian Dream. ISFED positively assesses the changes proposed to the Law on Political Unions of Citizens in relation to the change of the political party finance regulations and move to […]
Findings and conclusions: Parliamentary elections in Ukraine
Image source: Civil Network Opora During the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE)’s round table discussion on the conduct and the findings of the Parliamentary elections in Ukraine, many participants spoke of these elections being a watershed moment in Ukrainian history. This was an election of ‘firsts’ since this was the first summer election […]
Findings from CVU on the Parliamentary elections
Photo: UNIAN Main findings of CVU’s observation: 1. According to the CVU, E-day was generally conducted in accordance with the requirements of Ukrainian legislation and international standards of democratic elections. In comparison to the previous elections of the President of Ukraine in 2019 and the extraordinary Parliamentary elections in 2014, the number and nature of […]
Statement of OPORA on the Parliamentary elections
During the election day, observers of the Civil Network OPORA did not identify any systemic violations of election law or conflicts that would destabilize the course of voting or have any significant impact on citizen voting results. However, frequent and recurrent procedural violations made by polling station election commissions and the incompetence or illegitimate intentions […]
“Strong tendencies to divide Russia’s and Germany’s civil societies”
Picture: picture alliance / dpa / Uwe Zucchi The German public radio station Deutschlandfunk today reported on the perspectives of the German-Russian Petersburg dialogue forum, which is currently taking place near Bonn, Germany. In the report, Petersburg dialogue board member and EPDE Chair Stefanie Schiffer states: “The Petersburg dialogue is an institution which has […]