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EPDE & ZOiS Webinar: Belarus ahead of the presidential elections 2020

July 08, 2020

Belarus plans to hold presidential elections on 9 August 2020 despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. What conclusions can be drawn from the ongoing electoral campaign? What are possible implications of these elections for the relations between Belarus and its international partners? How can we assess the protest dynamics and police reactions prior to the elections? We will discuss these and other questions in an upcoming webinar on 15 July, 15:00 CEST.

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EPDE Launch of Politically Biased Election Observers Database

July 07, 2020

EPDE launched its new Database of Politically Biased Election Observers containing over 374 names of notorious “fake election observers” from over 60 countries. With this database, we want to increase transparency over election observation missions and encourage journalists, researchers, and political stakeholders to study and to take action against international and coordinated efforts to systematically destroy trust in free elections. Follow-up of all the feedback received is ongoing.

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Poland Preliminary report on the first round of the presidential election

July 06, 2020

In general, observers of the Political Accountability Foundation (PAF) assess the process of voting and vote tabulation as positive without any significant incidents but highlight that several issues must be resolved ahead of the second round in this election. These include that electoral packages were not delivered to voters abroad on time, problems with the online voter registration system, and lack of training of precinct election commission members especially when it came to counting votes.

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Azerbaijan Petition to release convicts during the COVID-19 pandemic

Azerbaijani civil society actors, human rights defender and lawyers, and other citizens call on authorities to release prisoner due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The petition states that the poor quality of food and the overcrowded conditions of detention centers is especially problematic during the pandemic.

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Belarus Government slashes campaigning locations in attempt to 'sterilize' elections

Local governments have drastically reduced the list of legal campaigning locations for outdoor events in an apparent attempt to curb election-related activity. Authorized venues are either unsuitable for such purposes or are likely to be unpopular among the voters. Mostly, these are parks and other recreation spaces, with some of them being inaccessible by public transport.

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Russia European politicians to legitimize constitutional changes in Russia

Kremlin-friendly foreign politicians, journalists, lobbyists and activists have once again been invited to praise the disputed “all-Russian voting” on the constitutional amendments proposed by President Putin. The main motivation behind inviting foreign politically biased observers to the “voting”, which has no basis in Russian legislation, is to provide a semblance of international legitimacy to constitutional amendments that have already been approved by the Russian parliament.

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Ukraine CSOs concerned over plans to pilot internet voting during Local elections

Signatories of this joint statement by IFES and Ukrainian CSOs, including CVU and OPORA, believe that at present it is too early to conduct a pilot test and that piloting technology for internet voting without sufficient preparation could cause harm to the integrity and perceived success of the election process. Full statement can be read here.

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Russia Far-right European politicians to whitewash constitutional vote in Russia

Far-right European politicians along with pro-Kremlin lobbyists have once again been invited by Russian authorities to legitimate the controversial constitutional vote in Russia. The voting would allow President Putin to stay in power for another 16 years. EPDE has identified several international “observers” who have already praised the procedures during early voting.

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