Electoral Processes International IDEA Global Database on Elections and Democracy Abdurashid Solijonov Brussels, March, 2015

Electoral Processes Content of the database Voter turnout Gender quotas Political finance Electoral system design Electoral management design Direct democracy Electoral justice Voting from abroad ICT in elections

Electoral Processes Content of the database Voter turnout 33 Gender quotas 29 Political finance 43 Electoral system design 6 Electoral management design 7 Direct democracy 48 Electoral justice 105 Voting from abroad 4 ICT in elections 19 Total = 294 variables Number of variables

Electoral Processes Why EJ database?

Electoral Processes

In the beginning of 2014, Afghans set to elect a new president. The complex power struggles that surrounded the elections (both in the first round in February and the second round in June) led to reported fraud which was not resolved until mid-September, mainly due to the lack of an efficient EDR mechanism. After continuous negotiations between two main candidates, Abdulla Abdulla and Ashraf Ghani, and the involvement of the UN in the vote scrutiny, the election commission ultimately decided to declare the winner, but without announcing the final voting results. Real life example of electoral disputes Afghanistan

Electoral Processes Real life example of electoral disputes During the candidate registration process, the MEC rejected nominations of one presidential candidate and 14 parliamentary candidates. Five of the rejected candidates appealed to the High Court and in all the cases the Court ruled that the candidates were eligible to be nominated. President Joyce Banda called for the annulment of elections due to alleged massive irregularities. However, the MEC together with the Malawi Law Society initiated a judicial review and were granted a court order preventing the execution of the President’s decision. After several other judicial procedures involving the High Court, the MEC subsequently announced the presidential election results. Malawi

Electoral Processes What?

Electoral Processes International IDEA has conducted global comparative research of electoral dispute resolution systems 176 countries have been covered. Findings have been made public in online Electoral Justice database

Electoral Processes The Electoral Justice database consists of four parts covering challenged related to: Presidential / Legislative Presidential / Legislative Presidential / Legislative Common for Pres/Leg

Electoral Processes

Electoral dispute resolution process to challenge elections results

Electoral Processes Summaries of some data

Electoral Processes Summaries of some data

Electoral Processes Can citizens appeal against nominated candidates? Latin America and Caribbean EuropeAfrica Regional comparison

Electoral Processes EuropeAfrica Latin America and Caribbean Regional comparison Can citizens challenge election results?

Electoral Processes Is it possible to appeal the decision of the first instance body? Related to disputes targeting legislative election results

Electoral Processes Summaries of some data

Electoral Processes Summaries of some data What penalties are envisioned for offences related to incentive driven voter coercion?

Electoral Processes Summaries of some data What penalties are envisioned for offences related to threat driven voter coercion?

Electoral Processes Summaries of some data What institution(s) has the power to impose administrative sanctions for campaign finance infractions? Data for 170 countries

Electoral Processes Summaries of some data Data for 170 countries What types of sanctions can be imposed for campaign finance infractions? What institution(s) has the power to impose administrative sanctions for campaign finance infractions?

Electoral Processes Additional information in the database What types of sanctions can be imposed for campaign finance infractions? Comments

Electoral Processes What types of sanctions can be imposed for campaign finance infractions?

Electoral Processes THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!