EMDS believes that the authorities failed to address shortcomings of the Election Code despite the repeated calls and recommendations of domestic organizations, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and the OSCE/ODIHR. In this report, EMDS assessed the preparations to the 27 December 2019 Municipal Elections and found that: fair composition of election commissions, effective protection mechanisms of the election right, preventing illegal interference with the electoral process, improving regulations for registration of candidates and shortcomings in voter lists remain unaddressed.

All the observers of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” were able to freely attend the meetings of bodies that formed the precinct election commissions (PECs), but the absence of legal guarantees for the representation of all political actors on the election commissions, as in the past, resulted in arbitrary and discriminatory treatment towards opposition parties and movements. Out of 495 nominees to the PECs, 21 come from opposition parties, which is up to three times less than in the previous parliamentary elections of 2008, 2012 and 2016.

Analysis including recent reports and recommendations by citizen observer organizations, open source information, and the newly developed Catalogue of Recommendations. Overall findings: Conditions for election observation, both in legislation and in practice, and attitudes towards it vary considerably from country to country. An observed rise in politically-motivated domestic observation can be noted, seriously damaging any credible non-partisan election observation.

The situation on the eve of 2019 regional elections, 8 September 2019, 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.

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 a so called regressive rule of financing. However, draft amendments to the Election Code proposed by the ruling party contain a number of problematic issues and if adopted, they will have a detrimental effect on the electoral environment ahead of the 2020 elections.

On July 11, 2019, ten days before the snap parliamentary election on July 21, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted an Electoral Code which introduces a proportional electoral system with open regional party lists for parliamentary elections and harmonizes Ukraine’s electoral legal framework. However, even if signed by the President, the Electoral Code would enter legal force only in December 2023.

In Anton Shekhovtsov’s newest study, he identifies different factors that influence the occurrence of Russian interference in international elections. This article discusses elections in France, Norway, Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Sweden that took place in 2017-2018, and shows how different combinations of these factors produced different outcomes in terms of Russian meddling.

ISFED presents 2nd statement including assessment of the voting process and PVT results. According to it, while at majority of electoral precincts the Election Day was mostly free from any major violations, the voting process progressed amid tension, especially in electoral districts of Zugdidi and Marneuli. At or near several electoral precincts, physical and verbal confrontation took place, which in some cases was accompanied by commotion at polling places and disruption of voting process.

The 2019 Ukrainian presidential elections once again proved, for the sixth time in a row, that Ukrainian democracy is solid enough to allow a peaceful transfer of power. Outgoing President Petro Poroshenko accepted his defeat and cleared the way for his successor Volodymyr Zelensky. What marked the presidential elections in Ukraine in 2019? What were their weak points and what are the challenges and tasks which the Ukrainian society and its international partners face in order to improve the electoral processes for the upcoming parliamentary elections? (in German)

The final report of the long-term and short-term "Akanates" ("Eyewitness") Observation Mission of the 2018 Snap Parliamentary Elections in Armenia indicates that the elections were held in an atmosphere of a free, competitive and peaceful electoral contest, which essentially differed from the national elections held in previous years. Nevertheless, a few issues were identified during the observation, based on which a number of recommendations are presented.

The Civil Network OPORA found that the election took place in competitive environment and in compliance with basic standards of genuine elections, whereas cases of breaking national law failed to present any constraints for citizens to exercise their right to vote and be elected. 

The report presents an overview and analysis of the key findings from the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy’s observation mission of the pre-election, Election Day, election runoff and post-election periods of the Presidential election in 2018.  At the same time, it provides assessment of the work of key administrative bodies involved in elections.  Drawing upon the findings, ISFED offers 42 recommendations for improvement of the electoral environment in Georgia. 

This sixth report by Promo-LEX includes observations from the Election Day, such as the opening and closing of polling stations, incidents observed during the day, and an analysis of the final vote counting and issues surrounding this process. 

This fourth report includes monitoring results using the framework of the Promo-LEX Observation Mission (OM) of the pre-election period focusing on the period of 23 January – 5 February 2019 in the run-up to the parliamentary elections taking place on the 24 February 2019.

The Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS) prepared a report on the situation of human rights in Azerbaijan covering the year 2018 based on publicly available and alternative sources of information. Their conclusion is that there has not been any progress in the situation of human rights in Azerbaijan in 2018.

The latest long-term monitoring report on the presidential elections by the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) indicates that there remain some technical flaws with the current legislation concerning the presidential election. These include the lack of limits on the presidential candidates' election funds and the possible appearance of a significant number of biased members of electoral commissions. Other issues concerning early campaigning and the placement of illegal campaigning are also addressed in this report. 

ISFED started social media monitoring on August 29, 2018 as the official campaign began. At this stage, ISFED monitors only Facebook activity since Facebook is especially popular among different social media platforms in Georgia. This second interim report evaluates trends identified by social media monitoring at the end of the pre-election period ahead of the first round of the presidential election and during the runoff. ISFED continues the monitoring and based on the analysis of information collected, it will present a final report.