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Armenia Momentous reform – no more district seats

April 12, 2021

On April 1, a marathon parliamentary session removed district seats from Armenia’s Electoral Code. Eliminating district seats was the flagship policy in the electoral reform bill brought forward in October 2018 by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s first government. That bill failed to attract enough votes to pass, but now it has finally been accomplished. What is so problematic about district seats? What electoral reforms come next? Find out in our latest Policy Alert.

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Poland Social media monitoring report 2020 presidential election

April 08, 2021

Restrictions imposed on freedom of movement and freedom of assembly due to the COVID-19 pandemic during the first round of the election forced presidential candidates to run their campaign mostly via traditional and social media. PAF found that media outlets were far more active on Facebook than candidates. Candidates had a relatively limited ability in reaching wider audiences and will have to diversify their channels of communication beyond social media to reach other voters.

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Ukraine By-elections in Ivano-Frankivsk region highly contentious with significant irregularities

April 07, 2021

The by-elections in Ivano-Frankivsk deserve additional attention, as significant irregularities were observed there. The process of establishing voting results included excessive politization of district election commission (DEC) members’ work and ongoing rotations on the basis of non-public party affiliations affected the commission’s ability to act in an organized and unbiased manner to respond to challenges in the election process. The runner-up is now petitioning to hold new elections.

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Call for bids - Consultancy survey and focus groups

EPDE is seeking a consultant to help develop and conduct surveys and focus groups aimed at identifying common electoral challenges across Europe for its project 'European voters – together for electoral integrity'.

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EPDE Round table summary: Armenia – Does the early election endanger the electoral reform?

On 25.03. EPDE hosted an online round table discussion on the ongoing electoral reform in Armenia. Following Prime Minister Pashinyan’s announcement on reaching an agreement with the opposition to hold snap parliamentary elections on 20 June this year, initial concerns arose over what this might mean for the continuation of the electoral reform process. A broad political consensus and a strong public demand for reforms have helped push through some urgent reforms before the snap election campaign.

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Georgia Need for agreement between political parties to overcome current crisis and continue the reform process

In a joint letter, civil society organizations in Georgia, including ISFED, urge all political parties to reach an agreement in the next round of mediation to overcome the political stalemate. They call for the opposition to take up its mandate, engage in institutionalized politics and participate in both the development and implementation of reforms.

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Armenia Civil society calls for civilized pre-electoral campaign ahead of snap elections

The upcoming snap parliamentary elections are taking place during an ongoing political crisis in Armenia and civil society have raised concerns over the level of hate speech and calls for violence, which are widespread in Armenia’s political landscape, and appear to be increasing ahead of the snap parliamentary election. They urge the governmental and opposition political circles to refrain from practices that jeopardize democratic principles and undermine human rights values.

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Ukraine By-elections - preliminary statement

Two parliamentary by-elections were held 28 March in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Donetsk regions. During both campaigns, standards for campaigning were broken and election observers call for better legal approaches to prevent practices of implicit campaigning and financial incentivization of voters. Misuse of state resources for electoral purposes remains a serious issue. Reform of election administration system and improvement of professional capacities of election commissions needed.

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