July - September 2004
Moving ahead with political party research
Building upon its work on political party financing and gender representation issues, IDEA this summer moved ahead with its Research and Dialogue programme with political parties around the world. Workshops to discuss legal frameworks under which political parties operate, as well as their internal management practices, were held in several countries in Africa, Central Europe and South Asia. IDEA and its partners plan to provide comprehensive information to legislators and political leaders, activists, and other reformers. Read more
Negotiating in Nepal: learning from Sri Lanka and South Africa
Representatives of political parties and civil society groups gathered in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 29-30 June to discuss international experiences of negotiated political settlements, review national experiences of negotiating political settlements, and to draw lessons from them for a future negotiation process in Nepal. The discussions were part of 'Constitutional Dialogues in Nepal', a six-month project initiated by IDEA with the support of the European Commission. The Nepal South Asia Centre, the Collective Campaign for Peace, Martin Chautari and the Centre for Studies on Democracy and Good Governance are also project contributors. Read more
Local-level democracy in Africa’s burgeoning cities
Rapid urbanization is changing the face of Africa. Pushed by a lack of opportunity, and attracted by the promise of a better life, millions of youth are abandoning rural areas in favour of urban centres. The continent’s future thus depends on the quality of city-level governance. A new IDEA policy summary, Democracy at the Local Level in East and Southern Africa: Profiles in Governance, assesses the state of democracy in Nairobi, Kenya; Mwanza, Tanzania; Lusaka, Zambia; and Gaborone, Botswana. The summary, presented at an August symposium in Gaborone to local democracy specialists from East and Southern Africa, is based on evaluations IDEA held in late 2003 and early 2004. The African Union of Local Authorities and the Electoral Institute of South Africa hosted the event with IDEA. Read more
Women, politics and Latin America
Research on countries as disparate as the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Peru reveal a surprising number of similarities with regard to the political participation of women. As part of its work on gender and political parties, IDEA and its Peruvian local partner, Asociación Civil Transparencia, presented three books on the subject to some 130 representatives of political parties and civil society groups in July. In addition, they released a report containing statistics on the political participation of women in Peru. Read more
Building election administration capacity in the South Caucasus
IDEA is conducting a programme of training and capacity building for election administrators in the South Caucasus during 2004 and 2005 with support from the Netherlands. On 20-22 July, the core group of election trainers in the South Caucasus came together in Yerevan with representatives of key election institutions of the South Caucasus countries for a demonstration of BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance & Elections), the training material developed by IDEA in partnership with the Australian Electoral Commission and the UN Electoral Assistance Division. The regional core training team and the international BRIDGE experts tailored the course modules to the specific Caucasus context and prepared training material in Russian. Next steps include accreditating more than 20 BRIDGE trainers for the region, followed by a training programme in Georgia in 2005.
Toward common procedures for European Parliament elections?
On 9 July in Cardiff, IDEA’s Secretary-General Karen Fogg presented a keynote speech at the first seminar in a series organized by the UK Electoral Commission (UKEC) to benchmark UK electoral experiences against those of other EU states. Ms Fogg provided UK and European electoral officials with information and a comparative perspective on the operating framework of elections in EU member states (such as voter registration and nominations) and procedures for polling and the count, and discussed the prospects for a common approach to European elections throughout EU member states. The seminar output will be included in the UKEC statutory report on European Parliament elections.
Briefing the new Independent Election Commission of Iraq
From 21 June to 7 July, IDEA elections expert Antonio Spinelli spoke at the 'International Workshop on Electoral Administration' organized by the UN Electoral Assistance Division and IFE, the Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico, to support the development of the professional capacity of the nine newly appointed members of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq. The workshop covered principles of elections and electoral administration, the role and functions of an independent electoral management body and of electoral commissioners, an overview of electoral operations, and immediate tasks facing the Electoral Commission of Iraq. Participants also addressed the electoral system and legal framework, possible alternatives for registering eligible voters, registration of candidates, the challenge of voter education, the timing and sequencing of the various elections to be held after the first ones scheduled in January 2005, and the challenge of organizing and conducting the forthcoming elections within a very tight timeframe and in an extremely volatile security situation. Irfan Rahman, election commissioner of Mauritius, and representatives of the election commissions of Palestine and Yemen also contributed to the discussions.
Comparative election administration in the Pacific
Many Pacific states gained independence between 20 and 30 years ago, and debate is flourishing on institutional and electoral. Pacific experts, academics and commentators met 10-12 July in Port Vila, Vanuatu. IDEA Head of Electoral Processes Andrew Ellis and Alistair Legge, secretary of IDEA’s regional partner PIANZEA (Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand Election Administrators’ Network), presented a paper analysing electoral practice throughout the Pacific, bringing information from 16 countries with an enormous range of practice together for the first time. The Pacific Institute of Advanced Studies in Development & Governance (University of the South Pacific) and the Institute of Policy Studies (Victoria University of Wellington) organized the conference.
DID YOU KNOW ...?
IDEA tools put to use in Armenia, Afghanistan and Ukraine
IDEA’s Codes of Conduct have been translated and distributed to election commissioners and other interested officials in Armenia, Afghanistan and the Ukraine. Working in partnership with the Armenian Central Electoral Commission, IDEA provided Code of Conduct: Ethical and Professional Administration of Elections and Code of Conduct: Ethical and Professional Observation of Elections. The professional election staff of Afghanistan received the same Codes, plus Code of Conduct: Political Parties Campaigning in Democratic Elections. In the Ukraine 3,200 election administrators received the Ethical and Professional Administration of Elections Code.
