West African elections can run the democratic gamut. From the peaceful presidential polls held in Ghana in 2008 to the ongoing election-related standoff in Cote d’Ivoire, elections in the region have seen everything from successful transfers of power to ethnic tensions to widespread fraud.
Millions of people around the world who have organized to monitor elections in their own countries often must brave difficult conditions and personal risk in a quest for responsive and transparent governance. While they share many goals and practices, they have not had a way, on their own, to connect with one another and benefit from the knowledge of their counterparts. Instead, they have relied on organizations such as NDI to help them share lessons and experiences.
Afghan women candidates speak at a pre-election rally in Kabul.
Where women have gained a political voice around the world, there have been tangible gains for democracy, including greater responsiveness to citizen needs, increased cooperation across party and ethnic lines, and more sustainable peace.
NDI today condemned the government-backed violence that occurred in the wake of citizen protests in Tripoli, Benghazi and elsewhere, and joined international calls for the immediate cessation of attacks against Libyans who are exercising their right to peaceful assembly.
After several months of controversy and delays in the certification of election results, 249 members have now taken their seats in Afghanistan’s Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament. Among them are Farida Hamidi and Frishta Amini, two women who make up the entire delegation from Nimroz province in the far southwest corner of the country.
In recent weeks political developments in the Middle East and North Africa have dominated headlines and airwaves. NDI staff and board members have offered their analysis of the situation to both online and broadcast outlets from the PBS NewsHour to ForeignPolicy.com to CNN. Here are some highlights of the coverage.
Despite their 20 percent share of the population, Mayan women in Guatemala have limited political and economic power. They have the country’s highest rates of poverty and illiteracy, and, according to an NDI-supported study, are far less likely to vote than any other sector of the population. Only four of 158 deputies in Congress are Mayan women and only one of 333 mayors.
Project 2011 Swift Count (PSC), a coalition of four Nigerian civil society groups from across the country, has released two preliminaryreports on voter registration based on reports from approximately 1,000 observers who were deployed across all of Nigeria's 774 local government areas.
NDI President Kenneth Wollack outlined ways the international community can provide moral support and practical assistance to political and civic leaders, media and ordinary citizens in the aftermath of the brutal crackdown by government forces in Belarus following failed elections Dec. 19.
Wollack spoke at a Jan. 27 hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs.
Afghan women candidates speak at a pre-election rally in Kabul.
Frishta Amini (left) and Farida Hamidi (right) from Nimroz province
