scholarly journals Bias in the eye of beholder? 25 years of election monitoring in Europe

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Michal Mochtak ◽  
Adam Drnovsky ◽  
Christophe Lesschaeve
Keyword(s):  
Election Monitoring

scholarly journals Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR) and Electioneering Process in Nigeria (2015–2019)

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402110067
Author(s):  
Babayo Sule ◽  
Usman Sambo ◽  
Abdulkadir Ahmed ◽  
Muhammad Yusuf
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
Election Monitoring ◽  
International Donor ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Donor Agencies ◽  
Civil Societies

Civil society organizations have played a pivotal role in democratization process in Nigeria since the advent of the Fourth Republic. They have greatly helped in the success of the 2015 and 2019 General Elections through pre-election, during election, and in post-election monitoring and advocacy. This article, therefore, examined the role of the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR) in improving the election in Nigeria during the 2015 and 2019 General Elections. While many civil societies flourished recently in Nigeria, their role toward democratization and facilitating credible election remain insignificant until in the 2015 and 2019 General Elections where their activities helped immensely the process of a credible election. A Civil Society as the Third Tier of Government framework was adopted as a theoretical explanation of the context of the work. The research used a qualitative case study method of data collection where informants consisting of members of NCSSR, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and academicians were selected for the interview and Focus Group Discussion. The total number selected was 16 from the three identified categories. The research discovered that the NCSSR aided the process and fairness of the 2015 and 2019 General Elections through proper monitoring, civic voter education, active collaboration with electoral body (INEC), and collaboration with international donor agencies through what they called “Civil Society Situation Room” which consist of more than 60 registered civil societies. The research recommends that civil societies should be empowered with constitutional backing and independent funding to enable them carry out their responsibilities adequately. Also, the article recommends that the electoral body (INEC) should liaise more and cooperate with civil societies to enable them conduct good and credible elections in future.

The Politics of International Regime Complexity

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen J. Alter ◽  
Sophie Meunier
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
International Regimes ◽  
International Regime ◽  
Introductory Essay ◽  
Election Monitoring ◽  
International Obligations

The increasing density of international regimes has contributed to the proliferation of overlap across agreements, conflicts among international obligations, and confusion regarding what international and bilateral obligations cover an issue. This symposium examines the consequences of this “international regime complexity” for subsequent politics. What analytical insights can be gained by thinking about any single agreement as being embedded in a larger web of international rules and regimes? Karen Alter and Sophie Meunier's introductory essay defines international regime complexity and identifies the mechanisms through which it may influence the politics of international cooperation. Short contributions analyze how international regime complexity affects politics in specific issue areas: trade (Christina Davis), linkages between human rights and trade (Emilie Hafner-Burton), intellectual property (Laurence Helfer), security politics (Stephanie Hofmann), refugee politics (Alexander Betts), and election monitoring (Judith Kelley). Daniel Drezner concludes by arguing that international regime complexity may well benefit the powerful more than others.

Experimenting in Democracy Promotion: International Observers and the 2004 Presidential Elections in Indonesia

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan D. Hyde
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Impact Evaluation ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Democracy Promotion ◽  
Assistance Programs ◽  
Democracy Assistance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Election Monitoring ◽  
Field Experimentation

Randomized field experiments have gained attention within the social sciences and the field of democracy promotion as an influential tool for causal inference and a potentially powerful method of impact evaluation. With an eye toward facilitating field experimentation in democracy promotion, I present the first field-experimental study of international election monitoring, which should be of interest to both practitioners and academics. I discuss field experiments as a promising method for evaluating the effects of democracy assistance programs. Applied to the 2004 presidential elections in Indonesia, the random assignment of international election observers reveals that even though the election was widely regarded as democratic, the presence of observers had a measurable effect on votes cast for the incumbent candidate, indicating that such democracy assistance can influence election quality even in the absence of blatant election-day fraud.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith G. Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Just World ◽  
Electoral Process ◽  
Election Monitoring ◽  
The Press ◽  
International Monitoring ◽  
The World ◽  
Media Organizations

This concluding chapter discusses how international election monitoring has become the most prominent tool in the liberal effort to promote democracy and create a more stable and just world. After elections, media organizations everywhere hurry to the press conferences of the international monitoring organizations and headline their assessments. International leaders likewise rely on the monitors' information to justify their rejection or acceptance of newly elected governments around the world. Election monitors can be a force for good. Although they generally cannot bring about change singlehandedly, they can reinforce existing pressures on a country. They can help improve elections and increase turnover, and politicians sometimes do follow their advice and make real changes to the electoral process.

Introduction

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith G. Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Process Monitoring ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Political Process ◽  
International Community ◽  
Election Monitoring

This introductory chapter discusses the credibility of international institutions and the methods the international community uses to promote good domestic governance. It asks about whether international election monitors improve the quality of elections. Given the logistical and political challenges to their efforts to assess elections, skeptics would have plenty of reasons to question claims that monitoring organizations could actually influence the behavior of politicians in any way. Theoretically, monitors may be able to improve elections through several mechanisms. Yet, as early critics noted, international election monitoring organizations are highly complicated actors and monitoring is a complex undertaking. By injecting themselves into the domestic political process, monitoring organizations raise many questions about their conduct and effects and, by extension, about the motivations of the international actors who sponsor them.

scholarly journals Resisting International Election Observation Through Election Visit Programmes: The Case of Malaysia

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-331
Author(s):  
Muhamad Takiyuddin Ismail ◽  
Norazam Mohd Noor
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
International Norm ◽  
Election Monitoring ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Election Observation

Malaysia has not invited International Election Monitoring Organisations (IEMOs) for any of its general elections (GEs) since 1990 and so is numbered among those states that defy this international norm. Although the elections under the Barisan Nasional (BN) regime displayed a wide variety of manipulative practices, the BN was able, due to its position as a semi-authoritarian nature, its strategic importance and its lack of dependence on foreign aid, to successfully resist demands for the presence of IEMOs. The prospects for IEMOs has been further reduced, since the GE 2013, by the Election Commission’s “election visit programme” (EVP), adopted to compensate for the absence of IEMOs. Following Malaysia’s historic GE 2018, a widespread consensus has developed that though Malaysia should not abandon its own EVP programme, it should readopt this international norm by inviting IEMOs. This is especially needed considering the amateurish state of domestic election monitoring in Malaysia.

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