Nepal’s legislature/parliament today elected Bidya Devi Bhandari as President receiving 327 out of 549 votes. Her closest contestant Kul Bahadur Gurung of the Nepali Congress received 214 votes and 48 lawmakers were absent during the vote.
The vote took place after the assembly failed to meet the deadline to propose a consensus candidate in accordance with the newly promulgated constitution.
For the upcoming General Elections, the Union Election Commission has invited international as well as domestic organisations to observe the electoral process. The UEC has now released a cartoon aimed at informing voters about the observers’ Code of Conduct, rights and responsibilities, and to prepare voters to meet observers at polling stations on election day.
STOCKHOLM/JAKARTA – ASEAN, through the initiative of the Philippines and in cooperation with International IDEA, today launched the report on ASEAN Election Observation at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The report highlights the following:
Elections can either further democracy, development, human rights and security, or undermine them.
International IDEA will co-host a three-day Asian-African practitioners meeting on political finance regulation in Bandung, Indonesia, October 20-22. The aim is to bring people from two regions that have been hit hard by electoral corruption together to address some of the burning issues that confront social distortion because of corruption and influence of money on the political decision-making process.
Following the operationalization of the Electoral Risk Management Unit (ERM Unit) of the Union Election Commission (UEC) back in August, International IDEA has continued assisting the development of monthly risk reports. The ERM Unit has produced two of these reports in August and September.
International IDEA Myanmar has produced a series of infographics on women's participation, cancellation of elections and ethnic participation across the 1990, 2010 and 2015 Myanmar elections. These are compared to countries that have experienced transitional elections.
About 120,000 booklets with essential information for voter-education trainers, candidates, election agents and domestic election observers have now been released by the Union Election Commission (UEC), with support of International IDEA.
The video of the panel discussion focusing on citizens’ involvement in the upcoming elections, peace and democracy and long-term reform is now available online.
The discussion was part of International IDEA’s celebrations of International Democracy Day in Yangon Myanmar and brought together over 150 guests including the seven person strong panel moderated by Thin Lei Win, Chief Correspondent at Myanmar-Now.
After the relaxing of private media limitations in 2012, Myanmar has witnessed an exponential growth of the number of media outlets, notably privately owned printed media. The political opening is so recent, that most state officials are not yet used to deal with journalists. And some, like our quoted election officer, even fear engaging with them.
On 25 April and 12 May the country was struck by two major earthquakes. These devastating events provided a strong impetus to speed up the process of constitution drafting which had been stalled for years due to political disagreements and changes of government.
September 20 became a historic day for Nepal as the new constitution was promulgated, a source of celebration for many and of frustration for some.
The Kingdom of Bhutan has been focused on establishing an Electoral Training Resource Center (ETRC) through the project “Enhanced Capacity of the Election Commission of Bhutan” initiated in 2012. This International IDEA project with the Election Commission of Bhutan includes a series of events, workshops and training sessions for staff from the ECB as well as other stakeholders.
On 16 September, Nepal’s Constituent Assembly passed the new constitution – after many years of delay due to disagreements between political parties. It was approved by 507-25 votes in the 601 seat assembly while some smaller opposition parties boycotted the vote. Protests over federal makeup continue in southern parts of the country.
A radio spot with essential information on the National Voter List Display that started on September 14, is now available for free download.
In preparation for the historic 8 November elections, the Union Election Commission has launched “Let’s go and check the Voter List” in Myanmar. The animated cartoon encourages massive participation in the National Voter List Display that starts in only three days, on 14 September.
Voters are urged to check their personal information on the lists, to make sure they can vote on 8 November.
All political parties need funding to play their part in the political process, yet the role of money in politics is arguably the biggest threat to democracy today.
As part of our ongoing work in the Kingdom of Bhutan, International IDEA is aiding in the development of a comprehensive civic/voter education programme, including a strategy for the Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB).
Preparations for the November 8 elections in Myanmar are hectic, to say the least. At stake are 1 171 seats at the Pyithu, Amyota and State and Regions Hluttaws assemblies. More than 6 000 candidates nominated from 90 parties are being scrutinized by the election sub commissions. In 2010 there were over 3 000 candidates and 40 parties taking part.
The Solomon Islands has held regular parliamentary elections since independence in 1978 and the voter turnout has been relatively high according to IDEA’s voter turnout database. From the 1980s up to today the turnout has been between 58 to 89 per cent, 89 per cent voting in the November 2014 elections.
