IDEA took part in the “International Colloquium on Political Pluralism and Electoral Processes” held 1-3 Oct. in Rabat, Morocco. The colloquium brought together more than 400 participants, including representatives of governments, parliaments, political parties, nongovernmental organizations, media and academics. The audience came from the Middle East, North Africa, and G8 countries.
The event was organized by the governments of Morocco and Italy, with Italian organization No Peace Without Justice and Maroc 2020 to bring together civil society and officials from the Arab world and come up with recommendations for promoting democracy in the region.
Opinions
“Arab people passionately feel that democratizing the Arab world is a responsibility for the Arab world and should not be enforced or imposed from outside. The colloquium was one step in this direction, as it allowed consultation with regional actors, and diverse regional opinions”, said Antonio Spinelli, senior programme officer in IDEA’s Electoral Processes team.
IDEA made two presentations at the Colloquium. In his opening statement, IDEA’s Acting Secretary-General, Massimo Tommasoli, said that the debates would feed into “IDEA’s project on democracy in the Arab world, which focuses on Jordan, Yemen and Egypt, as well as almost every other thematic programme IDEA conducts that use case studies from Arab countries” (listen to his intervetnion at the opening session here). Abdalla Hamdok, director of IDEA’s Africa and Middle East programme, talked about the challenges of democratization in the Arab world (listen to his intervention at the closing session here).
IDEA’s work in the Arab region focuses on the conduct of free and fair elections, the political inclusion of women, and the political party functioning – all themes that were addressed at the colloquium. Participants received the new IDEA Handbook on Electoral System Design and the Institute’s reports on democracy in Yemen, Jordan and Egypt.
Contact: Antonio Spinelli, senior programme officer on electoral processes
IDEA's Acting Secretary-General, Massimo Tommasoli, addressing the International Colloquium on Political Pluralism and Electoral Processes” held 1-3 Oct. in Rabat, Morocco.
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