Complaints about irregularities in the electoral register and the voter list – selected remarks against the background of jurisprudence

The article discusses the issues of the so-called complaints about irregularities in the register of voters and the list of voters, regulated in the provisions of the Act of 5 January 2011, the Election Code. The considerations focused on the legal nature of the decision of the commune head (mayor, city president) made as a result of the admissibility of lodging such a complaint by anyone. These decisions of administrative courts were cited, in which opposing positions were expressed regarding the admissibility of applying the provisions of the Act – Code of Administrative Procedure to various procedural issues on the basis of complaint proceedings and discussed in detail in the aspect of the main problem raised in the article. The author argues that the provisions of the Code of Administrative Procedure will not apply to these proceedings, and the decisions of commune heads or other authorized entities made in response to complaints are not administrative decisions.

Central African Republic heads into tense elections

Significance However, the Constitutional Court must still approve the contested electoral register and rule on the eligibility of candidates, including former President Francois Bozize. Impacts Bozize's exclusion may prompt the main opposition platform, the Coalition for Democratic Opposition (COD-2020), to boycott the polls. Instability may compromise the deployment of international, independent experts to observe or provide technical support to elections. Dissatisfaction among the political opposition, armed groups and regional leaders over the lack of dialogue may grow after the elections.

The structure and migration patterns of the population of Uruguay through isonymy

Surname distribution can be a useful tool for studying the genetic structure of a human population. In South America, the Uruguay population has traditionally been considered to be of European ancestry, despite its trihybrid origin, as proved through genetics. The aim of this study was to investigate the structure of the Uruguayan population, resulting from population movements and surname drift in the country. The distribution of the surnames of 2,501,774 people on the electoral register was studied in the nineteen departments of Uruguay. Multivariate approaches were used to estimate isonymic parameters. Isolation by Distance was measured by correlating isonymic and geographic distances. In the study sample, the most frequent surnames were consistently Spanish, reflecting the fact that the first immigration waves occurred before Uruguayan independence. Only a few surnames of Native origin were recorded. The effective surname number (α) for the entire country was 302, and the average for departments was 235.8 ± 19. Inbreeding estimates were lower in the south-west of the country and in the densely populated Montevideo area. Isonymic distances between departments were significantly correlated with linear geographic distance (p < 0.001) indicating continuously increasing surname distances up to 400 km. Surnames form clusters related to geographic regions affected by different historical processes. The isonymic structure of Uruguay shows a radiation towards the east and north, with short-range migration playing a major role, while the contribution of drift, considering the small variance of α, appears to be minor.

Promoting voter registration: the effects of low-cost interventions on behaviour and norms

We report two studies investigating whether, and if so how, different low-cost interventions affect voter registration rates. Low-cost message-based interventions are increasingly used to promote target behaviours. While growing evidence shows that such ‘nudges’ often significantly impact behaviour, understanding of why interventions work or fail in particular contexts remains underdeveloped. In a natural field experiment conducted before the 2015 UK general election, we varied messages on a postcard sent by Oxford City Council to unregistered students encouraging them to join the electoral register. Our primary finding from the field study is that just one of our interventions – a reminder that people failing to register may be fined – has a significant positive impact. Offering small monetary rewards to register instead has a negative but insignificant effect. In a second study, using an online experiment we identify a particular mechanism explaining the influence of this intervention. Specifically, we show that our interventions have divergent effects on perceptions of the normative appropriateness of registering: emphasising that failing to register is punishable by law strengthened the perception that one ought to register, while offering monetary inducements for registering weakened the perception that doing so is an action already expected within society.

Patients or prisoners? Time to reconsider the voting rights of mentally disordered offenders

SummaryAlthough the Representation of the People Act 2000 permits most psychiatric in-patients to register on the electoral register, transferred prisoners and those admitted to hospital under hospital orders remain disenfranchised by law. This article clarifies the voting rights of individuals receiving in-patient psychiatric care and contends that the selective disenfranchisement of some mentally disordered offenders is problematic, discriminatory and may breach international human rights law. There are therefore strong arguments for the UK government to address this long-standing inequality before the next general election.

Taking Care of the Ancestral Language

Non-status Sámi are defined as a group of people who are of Sámi descent, but they do not have official Sámi status. The term ‘non-status’ means that they lack the official status of Sámi people because they do not fulfill the criteria of Sáminess, as defined by the Finnish law of the Sámi Parliament, and thus do not belong to the electoral register of the Sámi Parliament. Some of the Non-status Sámi have revitalised the Sámi language and started to use it actively; this was the target group of this study. In this study, ten Non-status Sámi’s narratives were obtained through interviews. The Sámi-speaking Non-status Sámi were divided into two types according to how they locate themselves in Sámi society: (1) conscious Non-status Sámi; and (2) integrative Non-Status Sámi. According to the findings, Sámi-speaking Non-status Sámi identities and locations within the Sámi society are diverse. The study contributes to the discussion of decolonisation a new perspective from Indigenous people who have consciously started to revitalise Indigenous language and culture. Furthermore, the study shows the multidimensional nature of Indigenous identity and sheds light on marginalities in Indigenous communities.

Mathematical Modeling of the Propagation of Democratic Support of Extreme Ideologies in Spain: Causes, Effects, and Recommendations for Its Stop

This paper deals with the construction of a discrete population mathematical model for the short-term forecast until January 2016 of the electoral support of extreme ideology parties in Spain. Firstly, the nontrivial concept of extreme ideology is stated. Then, the electoral register is split in three subpopulations: supporters of extremist parties, abstentions/blank voters, and supporters of establishment parties. The model takes into account the following variables: economy measured throughout the Spanish unemployment rate; demography quantified in terms of birth and death rates and emigration; sociopolitical situation measured by the Spanish poverty indicator, trust on the Government labor indicator (GLI), and the indicator of political trust. By considering the dynamic subpopulations transits built throughout data obtained from public and private prestigious institutions and sociopolitical analysis, a system of difference equations models the electoral population behavior in Spain allowing us to compute the expected electoral support in the time horizon of January 2016. Sensitivity analysis versus uncertain parameters is performed in order to improve the reliability of the model results.