Angolans will go to the polls on Aug. 31 for a historic election, the third in the country’s history and the first presidential election since a civil war ended in 2002. 

Despite this significance, most Angolans are not fully informed of their rights as voters and many are unaware of recent changes to election laws, such as expansion of term limits and changes in voting procedures.  In addition, the elections will take place amid growing violence against opposition supporters and a wave of student-led activism against wealth disparities. 

In the wake of last October’s constituent assembly elections in Tunisia, a number of political parties have come together in various combinations to form a governing coalition and a workable opposition. Such coalition-building is new to Tunisia, where, until the ouster last year of long-time President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, one-party rule was the norm.

As the democratic process gradually gets stronger in Afghanistan, citizens expect more jobs, social services, education opportunities for their children, improved infrastructure and health care. This short documentary film shows how political parties and elected officials are creating policy agendas that speak to citizen's priorities. With support from NDI, political parties in Afghanistan are learning to become more representative of different ethnicities and develop policies reflective of constituent concerns.

This story was originally published in USAID-Nepal's June 2012 e-newsletter.

NDI has released results of a public opinion survey designed to measure Georgian voters’ attitudes toward parliamentary elections expected in October.

If the elections were held tomorrow, the poll found, 38 percent of likely voters said their first choice would be the United National Movement (UNM); 22 percent said “don’t know”; 18 percent chose Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream Coalition; 16 percent refused to answer; 4 percent said “no party”; and 3 percent said the Christian Democratic Movement (CDM).