Lilia Shibanova, the founder of the Russian election observation network "Association GOLOS" and a board member of EPDE is currently being prevented from leaving the Russian Federation. 

On 30 October Georgia holds the second round of the parliamentary elections. 20 EPDE observers from eight countries are deployed around the country to observe the election process.

The internationally unrecognized “Donetsk People’s Republic” and “Luhansk People’s Republics” (“DPR”/”LPR”) held so-called “primaries” on October 2, 2016. 

On September 26, 2016 Azerbaijan held a hastily called, and controversial, referendum. EPDE has monitored the conduct of international election observer missions.

Due to shortcomings in situation of democracy and political freedoms prior to and during the Referendum, including the voting day, the Referendum failed to meet requirements of election legislation and international commitments.

During the reporting period a special electoral regime came into effect. In particular, the prohibition to amend budgets and increase the amount of unplanned welfare benefits became effective, special media regulations started to apply, and the staffing of precinct election commissions (PECs) by district level commissions (DECs) was completed.

Considering that, regardless of this year’s reduced coverage of polling stations by independent observers, there were still reports of individual acts of ballot box stuffing, “carousel voting,” voting under pressure, and other irregularities.

The election campaign of 2016 showed that violations in election campaigning stem from the most diverse political forces and election participants.

The conditions for campaigning were improved as compared to the previous elections. However, the candidates were not provided with equal rights; pro-government candidates enjoyed better conditions for campaigning...

On Friday, August 26^th - three weeks ahead of the elections to the State Duma - the Russian government-controlled TV channel NTV broadcasted a documentary "The Secret of Golos". 

During the preparations for the parliamentary elections scheduled on 11 September 2016, Belarussian authorities ignored most of the recommendations made by citizens' observers.

Lilia Shibanova, EPDE board member and founder of the Russian election observation network GOLOS was arrested by Belarusian boarder control at the Lithuanian-Belarusian border in the evening of May 12, 2016.

Ahead of Russian Duma Election 2016 the organisations Golos, IESC, EPDE and Silc are together launching a new initiative -presenting the results of their long-term election monitoring in Russia on the international level. 

According to the new amendment, domestic observers are not able to conduct observation at several polling stations on the voting day but can be deployed only to one particular polling station.

Civic Network Opora and the Committee of Voters of Ukraine together with the international EPDE experts published four analysis on the conditions for democratic elections in Ukraine. 

On 17 March, Anar Mammadli, EPDE board member and the Director of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS), based in Baku, Azerbaijan, was pardoned by the president Aliev along with a number of high profile political prisoners. 

From 1 till 7 March 2016, 50 EPDE monitors from Poland, Russia, Azerbaijan, Germany, Lithuania, Sweden and Ukraine  observed the last stage of the parliamentary elections in Slovakia scheduled on 5 March 2016.