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Snap election was held in the Republic of Vanuatu on 22 January, following the dissolution of the legislature on 24 November 2015. A total of 265 candidates, including eight women, contested 52 seats in the unicameral legislature. Constituencies in Vanuatu comprise of eight single-member seats and 10 multi-member seats. Multi-member constituencies range from two to seven seats.

Many of the world’s constitutions today include non-discrimination clauses and provisions for gender equality. In the last 20 years, an increasing number of new constitutions also include gender-specific provisions and gender-inclusive drafting styles to promote substantive equality. Even so, real gender-equality has not been achieved in any country.

On 20 January in Yangon, Myanmar, Ricardo Lagos, President of Chile between 2000–2006, officially launched Democratic Transitions: Learning from World Leaders, published by International IDEA and Club de Madrid with support from the European Union.

Women continue to be underrepresented in Bhutan politics and following the general elections in 2013 the number of women parliamentarians sank from 14 per cent to 8 per cent. No women were elected for a second term.

On 7 November 2013 super typhoon Haiyan (called Yolanda in the Philippines) made landfall in central Philippines killing more than 6300 people and leaving a trail of unprecedented destruction and devastation in its path.

Although Myanmar’s Union Electoral Commisison (UEC) welcomed both domestic and international electoral observation missions to observe the November 2015 elections, and established codes of conduct for each category of observation missions, there is no authorization in the law for electoral observation in Myanmar.

The two day regional conference on “The use of money in politics and its effects on people’s representation” jointly held with the Election Commission of India, International IDEA & India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) on 15-16 December 2015 in New Delhi concluded today.

This year brought about a long-awaited general election in Myanmar, and a new constitution in Nepal, which was contested from the outset.

Many Asian countries are experiencing a commercialization of politics which translates into a sense of rising overall costs for campaigning. State funding is often marginal (or even non-existent) and candidates without sufficient resources at their disposal find it hard to compete, since their parties often do not finance their candidates’ campaigns.

More than 11,000 domestic observers and 1,000 international observers were accredited to observe the general elections of 8 November in Myanmar. Among these numbers were 19 ASEAN representatives from electoral management bodies (EMBs) from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Timor-Leste as well as three representatives from the ASEAN secretariat.

Political instability is often associated with frequent changes of government.

Frequent changes of government may act as a barrier to sustainable human development and make it more difficult for governments to be accountable. Changes of government occur often in a number of Pacific Island states, in particular Nauru, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

After almost a decade-long process of political bickering and multi-stakeholder dialogues, Nepal adopted a new constitution on 20 September. The constitution provides for a federal system of government, as opposed to the previous unitary state system. Nepal is now a federation that will be comprised of seven states, each with a legislature and chief minister.

Communications training has become firmly established as a necessity in many democracies. As a young democracy and with relatively inexperienced law makers who have little knowledge of communication strategies there is a strong need for media training and capacity building in Bhutan.

Last Thursday morning, IDEA’s Myanmar country Head of Office Jorge Valladares walked into the IDEA office at the Union Election Commission in Naypyitaw to find makeshift beds and half-drunk cups of coffee. The team had been up all night working with UEC staff to scrutinize election observers, and they had no plans of quitting anytime soon.

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom continues to support credible, transparent and inclusive elections in Myanmar.

As part of the STEP democracy programme, International IDEA in Myanmar has been supporting the Union Election Commission (UEC) with trainings on the design and communication of key messages to the public through the media. Members of no less than 80 electoral sub-commissions, at regional, district and township levels have been trained by IDEA between September and October 2015.

In 2006, leaders in Nepal came together to sign the Comprehensive Peace Accord, signalling the end of the 10-year armed conflict.

In 2008–12, the first Constitutional Assembly (CA) made remarkable progress in drafting a constitution. However, when the tenure of the first CA ended, key issues remained unresolved, and the constitution could not be finalized.

This publication provides a brief overview of the peace and constitution-building processes in Nepal, starting with the end of decade-long People’s War in 2006 to promulgation of the constitution in 2015. It describes the incredible gains made by national actors over the years and the important supportive role played by the international community.