Media crackdown raises fears for Pakistan’s democracy
The abduction of newspaper columnist and prominent critic of the military, Gul Bukhari (left), came just a day after the army’s chief spokesman declared that social media users who… Read more »
Category: Elections
Assessing Zimbabwe’s elections: another GNU in the making?
Amid indications that the first round of voting in Zimbabwe’s July 30 ‘harmonized’ elections may not produce a clear winner, some civil society groups started putting together building blocks for… Read more »
Democracy vs. clientelism, sectarianism in Lebanon elections
It will take more than one election cycle to get democracy to satisfy the expectations of the Lebanese people, according to Louisa Slavkova and Rob Norris, who served as National… Read more »
Zimbabwe elections could lack credibility, civil society warns
The European Union will oversee elections held in Zimbabwe this summer, the first time it has done so since 2002, CNBC reports: Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa is attempting to build… Read more »
Iraq and Lebanon elections energize civil society
The elections in Iraq and Lebanon earlier this month present a fragile but important counterpoint to a region in turmoil, notes Tamara Cofman Wittes, a Senior Fellow at Brookings’ Center… Read more »
Impatient dictators: ‘How to Rig an Election’
Authoritarian states are using all-too familiar constitutional mechanisms to consolidate power, according to activist-journalists Tamara Grigoryeva and Ismail Djalilov. Across Eurasia, snap elections happen rather frequently, they write for Open… Read more »
After ‘sham election’, four steps for rebuilding Venezuela’s democracy
Electoral authorities declared President Nicolas Maduro, the Council on Foreign Relations notes, with about 68 percent of votes cast, the winner in a Sunday snap presidential election. Roughly 46 percent… Read more »
Populism replacing sectarianism as defining force in Iraqi politics?
In all the turmoil of the Middle East, the most significant development of the year thus far may be the democratic election Iraq held on Saturday. It was competitive,… Read more »
Sadr poll win highlights potential for non-sectarian politics in Iraq?
An Iraqi nationalist cleric who led two uprisings against US troops has taken a surprise lead in parliamentary elections, fending off Iran-backed rivals and the country’s incumbent prime minister, the… Read more »
Potemkin elections an ill omen for global democracy
This week’s tsumani-sized election shock in Malaysia does not necessarily augur well for forthcoming electoral contests elsewhere, observers suggest. In less than two weeks, Venezuela will conduct the latest in… Read more »