The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

A new course that aims to help individuals around the world build and improve democracy in their own countries will soon be available online. The free course will be taught by Larry Diamond, democracy scholar and director of the Center on Democracy, Development & the Rule of Law at Stanford University.

Two weeks after Ángel Carromero spoke out about his personal account of the car crash that killed Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, many governments, including Spain and the U.S., have ignored Carromero’s allegations that the Cuban government caused the car crash, jailed Carromero under inhuman conditions and forced him to publicly give a false account of events.

Cole Blockenfeld, director of advocacy at the Project on Middle East Democracy, argues that reforms instituted for Jordan’s Jan. 2013 parliamentary elections were “only minor technical and administrative improvements to the voting process” rather than fundamental reforms that require the monarchy to share power. According to Blockenfeld, who participated in an NDI election observation delegation, too much praise from the U.S.

Legislative elections are fast approaching in Guinea and political tensions are on the rise. The anticipated May 12 polls will mark the West African country’s first competitive legislative elections, and there is increasing mistrust and suspicion between ruling and opposition parties.  In the past week, politically motivated riots have broken out in the capital, Conakry, leaving many people wounded and several dead.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013
3:30 – 5 p.m.

with

Hon Abike Dabiri
Chair of the House Committee on Diaspora Affairs

Hon. Uche Ekwunife
Chair of the House Committee on Environment

Senator Victor Lar
Chair of the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Anti-Corruption

The Washington Post editorial board reflects on the story of Ángel Carromero, who was driving the vehicle in which Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá was killed. Carromero recalls that the controversial crash was caused by a vehicle with government license plates that hit them from behind. However, Carromero says that after the crash, he was detained and forced to deny the Cuban government’s involvement in the crash. He is now back in his home country of Spain and is speaking out about his experience.

An ELOG observer texts his report in.

According to its statement on the parallel vote tabulation and observation of the voting process in Kenya, ELOG is confident that the election day process has been generally credible. It calls on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to immediately make public any information relevant and material to the results as announced. More specifically, ELOG calls on the IEBC to make public the individual results from all polling streams.

Speakers:

• Hon. Kanybek Imanaliev, Member of Parliament, Ar Namys
  Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affars
• Hon. Karganbek Samakov, Member of Parliament, Ata Meken

Date & Time: Monday, March 11, 3:30-5:00 p.m.

Location:National Democratic Institute, 455 Massachusetts Ave, NW, 8th Floor, Washington, D.C.

You can’t have a democracy without elections, but that does not mean that all elections are democratic. Authoritarian regimes often use elections as a way to claim legitimacy, rather than to actually further democracy. Elections matter, says Foreign Policy’s Jeffrey Gedmin. He argues that Iran is an example of a country which claims to have a democratically elected government, even as its government uses tactics like monitoring the population, barring international media, and restricting access to the Internet and mobile phones to stifle protests.