NDI - Bahrain

Middle East Activists, Albright and Isaacson Discuss What’s Next for the Arab Spring

rrunyan — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:22:02 +0000

A panel of political and civic activists from North Africa and the Middle East joined NDI Chairman Madeleine K. Albright and Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, to discuss what’s next for the Arab Spring at an event hosted by NDI on Monday, Nov. 7.

Panelists from Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen participated in the discussion, led off by former Secretary of State Albright led off the discussion and moderated by Isaacson.

Walter Isaacson (left to right), Atia Lawgali and Sheikh Mohammed Abu Luhoum discuss their Arab Spring experiences. (Photo by Kaveh Sardari)

Watch CSPAN's coverage of the discussion»

The panel was followed by the NDI 2011 Democracy Award Dinner where Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered the keynote address.

Panelists from Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen participated in the discussion, led off by former Secretary of State Albright and moderated by Isaacson.

Panelists for the Arab Spring discussion were:

Atia Lawgali, who joined the National Transitional Council in Libya as Minister of Culture in May, previously served as manager of the Health Department Information Center in the Ministry of Health in Benghazi from 1988 to 2000;

Sheikh Mohammed Abu Luhoum, a prominent founding member of the recently formed Justice and Building Party, served as a member of parliament in Yemen's first legislature after North and South Yemen were unified in 1990. He was a founder of the Republican Party of Yemen in 1991;

Dr. Amal Habib Al Yusuf, a Bahraini civic activist and ophthalmic surgeon focusing on defending the rights of Bahraini patients and healthcare workers, was one of the doctors trapped in the main hospital in Bahrain during the siege by military forces last March;

Mohammad Al Abdallah, a Syrian lawyer, human rights activist and writer, formed the Committee for Families of Political Prisoners after his father and brother were arrested. He now writes for several English and Arabic newspapers and blogs;

Rafat Al Akhalim, a Yemeni youth activist, is a leader in Resonate! Yemen, an organization that promotes youth engagement on policy initiatives;

Dr. Muneera Fakhro is a Sunni candidate for parliament in Bahrain, where she has published three books and authored studies focusing on gender and democracy; and

Dr. Azza Kamel is the director of Appropriate Communication Techniques for Development, an Egyptian women’s rights group, has published numerous studies on gender equality and the impact of violence against women.

Related:

Middle East Activists, Albright and Isaacson to Discuss What's Next for the Arab Spring at NDI Event

fgalleto — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:22:09 +0000

Author:

National Democratic Institute

Publisher:

National Democratic Institute

Published Date:

11/02/2011

Resource Type:

Press Release

Language:

English

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Read the release	238.28 KB

Persian Gulf Elections Offer Glimmer of Democracy | Sept. 23, 2011

fgalleto — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:38:04 +0000

Voice of America | Link to story »

Some analysts see hope that the elections, while restrictive, are at least a needed first boost. Staci Haag, Gulf regional director for the National Democratic Institute, says the Saudi vote, like other regional polls, is an important stepping-stone to greater democracy.

“The elections are going to be for positions that don’t necessarily hold a lot of power, but once they have the base of public support, a lot of councilors have tended to use that to try and advocate for more power and more say, which moves the ball forward a little bit every time,” said Haag.

Link to story »

Bahrain Needs U.S. Attention Now

fgalleto — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:01:07 +0000

Source:

Washington Post

Article Link:

Published Date:

09/09/2011

This Washington Post editorial urges President Obama not to forget about Bahrain's ongoing struggle for democracy. After including Bahrain in his speech about the Middle East in May, there has little U.S. follow up, and no senior U.S. officials have visited to encourage a transition.

"Bahrain has become the hidden story of the Arab Spring. While the popular uprisings in Libya, Syria and Yemen have dominated the news in recent months, far less attention has been paid to the tiny but strategic Persian Gulf emirate, which hosts the U.S. 5th Fleet. That’s partly because Bahrain’s ruling al-Khalifa family deflected criticism from the massive crackdown it launched in March by promising to initiate a dialogue with its opposition and implement political reforms. The regime, however, hasn’t delivered — and now it is risking a new explosion of unrest that could destabilize not just Bahrain but the region around it."

Cultivating a Prince to Coax an Ally to Change | June 9, 2011

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:12:13 +0000

The New York Times | Link to story »

Bahrain's reformist Prince Salman tours the U.S. while his family continues a brutal crackdown on protesters calling for democracy. NDI's director for the Middle East and North Africa comments on the situation. "The prince is on a world tour to convince people that Bahrain is turning over a new leaf when in fact the hard-liners are conducting business-as-usual at home."

Link to story »

Bahrain's Crackdown Creates Sectarian Fallout | June 7, 2011

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:20:45 +0000

NPR | Link to story »

As sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shiites escalate in Bahrain, NDI's resident director for the Gulf states, Staci Haag, comments on the division.

"Bahrain society generally is made up of a lot of moderate people," Haag says. "But if you create divisions, then you also have moderate Sunnis who are pushed more toward the government side, because this creates a sense of fear between the two communities, and people are quite frankly forced to pick sides."

Link to story »

Canadians in the Thick of Arab World's Democracy Struggle | Feb. 24, 2011

rrunyan — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:55:08 +0000

St. Albert Gazette | Link to story »

The Canadian newspaper the St. Albert Gazette recently highlighted Canadians working to support democracy in the Middle East.

The article features Leslie Campbell, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at NDI, who has been to several countries in the region over the course of the last few weeks."It's a really hands-on thing," Campbell said. "You have to get your hands dirty. It's not something done from afar."

Global Domestic Election Monitoring Network Seeks to Share Experience

rrunyan — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:57:35 +0000

Millions of people around the world who have organized to monitor elections in their own countries often must brave difficult conditions and personal risk in a quest for responsive and transparent governance. While they share many goals and practices, they have not had a way, on their own, to connect with one another and benefit from the knowledge of their counterparts.

Enter the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors, or GNDEM, born in 2009 and now connecting 140 member organizations from more than 60 countries. NDI spearheaded the effort to create GNDEM and currently manages the GNDEM.org website.

Sierra Leone domestic monitors watch vote count during 2007 elections.

Launched last summer, the site provides easy access to more than 1,000 documents grouped into 39 priority topics identified by members. The topics range from how to maintain credibility and impartiality during observations to media strategies and the nuts and bolts of how to monitor various processes before, during and after elections.

The site also includes the Declaration of Global Principles for Nonpartisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Organizations, which was written and agreed upon by GNDEM member organizations. The effort to create and maintain global standards for domestic monitoring is similar to standards developed for international election observation adopted in 2005 and endorsed by 36 nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations.

“Citizen observation has become a movement. It’s not just a concept anymore.”

- Darko Aleksov, secretary general of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations

The Global Principles set standards for citizen observers. They are a tool for advocating for more rights for observers and for observers to be able to exercise those rights, said Darko Aleksov, secretary general of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which includes 22 monitoring groups from 16 countries in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe.

“Citizen observation has become a movement. It’s not just a concept anymore,” Aleksov said. “Around eight million people in the world so far have been recruited, trained and deployed to be domestic observers on a voluntary basis. This [Global Principles] document is a product of what we have learned.”

Networks of monitoring groups from different regions in the world – including ENEMO, also a GNDEM member – have existed for some time to share experiences. But GNDEM is the first effort to bring these regional networks and individual groups together to share knowledge on a global scale.

“NDI has helped foster regional networks and connections among groups over its 25 years of assisting citizen election monitors in more than 75 countries,” said Pat Merloe, NDI’s director of electoral programs, and part of the idea behind GNDEM is to encourage greater direct peer-to-peer exchanges.

“Traditionally, NDI has been in the best position to share global developments in citizen election monitoring,” Merloe said. “For example, if monitoring election violence becomes important in a given country, we know that efforts in Sri Lanka, Guatemala and Zimbabwe provide useful models. We bring that knowledge to bear, often bringing activists together to share experiences or otherwise helping people make connections.”

Domestic monitors audit a voter list in Indonesia in 2008.

These types of linkages are now beginning to happen through GNDEM. The Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center in Azerbaijan and the Egyptian Association for the Support of Democracy, for example, have sought the network’s help in distributing reports and press releases, while a coalition of groups in Liberia has asked for feedback on its preparations for general elections next October. Organizations like the DEMGroup in Uganda and the Bahrainian Transparency Association have featured their online mapping tools with the GNDEM community, sharing how they have incorporated new technologies into their monitoring methodologies.

Regional networking is also enhanced through GNDEM. The Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Ghana, for example, which monitors issues from economic reform to conflict mitigation and plays a leading role in nonpartisan election monitoring, has worked with help from NDI over the last year to launch the West Africa Election Observation Network (WAEON), representing citizen election monitors from 11 countries. CDD-Ghana recently hosted a study mission from the Central African Republic’s coalition of election monitors, which was preparing to observe that country’s 2011 general elections.

Another GNDEM member, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE), aims to improve the Lebanese electoral system and reinforce democratic electoral practices. It is working with other organizations in the Middle East and North Africa to launch a citizen election monitoring network to enhance the impact of election integrity efforts in that region. Like CDD-Ghana, LADE participated in developing the Declaration of Global Principles.

“International observation has long been effective in bringing global attention to a particular election,” Merloe noted, “but it cannot provide the deeper political understanding that citizen monitors bring, nor can it leave the lasting, substantial impact that so many citizen groups have created. After all, elections are about citizens’ rights to participate in public affairs and to establish accountable, representative governance.”

This story was originally published in the Spring 2011 edition of NDI Reports. You can read the entire newsletter here: www.ndi.org/NDI-Reports-Spring-2011/index.html. Please visit NDI’s complete newsletter archive at www.ndi.org/newsletter_archive to read newsletters dating back to 1987.

NDI E-news: The Middle East, African Elections, Belarus | Jan./Feb. 2011

fgalleto — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:10:35 +0000

February 2011

Now the Hard Work Begins...

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Egyptians celebrate in Tahrir Square. Photo by RamyRaoof.

Following weeks of protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain, thousands in Libya are now advocating for political freedoms long denied by the country's regime. The government has responded with beatings, shootings and arrests. NDI condemned this government-backed violence and joined calls for the immediate cessation of attacks against Libyans who are exercising their right to peaceful assembly, and for a democratic transition.

As democracy advocates raise their voices throughout the Middle East, analysts and commentators have turned to NDI seeking insights into the implications of the ongoing changes for the future of democracy in the region. In The New York Times,
The Washington Post, on CNN and elsewhere, NDI leaders and staff have offered commentary and interpretation as the historic changes have unfolded.

The Institute has a long history in the region. Its first office, for the West Bank and Gaza, opened in 1994. Since then, NDI staff have also been based in Egypt,
Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon,
Mauritania, Morocco and Yemen. Institute programming also encompasses Algeria, Bahrain,
Kuwait,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia
and Tunisia.

In all of these countries, NDI has established partnerships with political parties, civic groups, parliamentarians and others seeking to promote peaceful reform and have a voice in how they are governed. The Institute works to share organizational skills, comparative experiences and tools to connect democratic activists within and between countries.

In response to the developments in Egypt, for example, NDI is putting Egyptian activists in touch with political leaders from Chile, Poland and elsewhere so they can take advantage of lessons learned during other democratic transitions. It's similar to work the Institute has done in many other places and times, such as when it brought opposing Northern Ireland factions together in South Africa in 1997 to learn from Nelson Mandela and others how to negotiate peace and reconciliation.

African Election Roundup: Nigeria, Sudan, Niger

In Nigeria, NDI is conducting an international observation mission to analyze the electoral process before, during and after presidential, legislative and local elections scheduled for April. Regular updates can be found in Nigeria Election Watch, which is based on reports from NDI's long-term observers, who began assessing election activities throughout the country from January and will continue through May. Subscribe»

In Sudan, NDI's civil society partners, the southern-based Sudanese Network for Democratic Elections (SuNDE) and the northern-based Sudanese Group for Democracy and Elections (SuGDE), observed
all stages of the recent referendum
in which Southern Sudan voted to secede from the north. The groups concluded
that "the Southern Sudan referendum allowed the free expression of the will of the people for self-determination."
Read more»

Before presidential and legislative elections in Niger, 36 political parties and two independent candidates signed a code of conduct that encouraged parties and their supporters to campaign honestly and respect the outcome of the Jan. 31 vote and the runoff election set for March 12. Read more»

Women in Afghanistan, Guatemala, Ukraine Overcoming Obstacles to Elected Office

Among the 249 members of Afghanistan's lower house of parliament are Farida Hamidi and Frishta Amini, two women who make up the entire delegation from Nimroz province. Despite the risks faced by female candidates, both women ran strong campaigns and garnered more votes than their male opponents. Read more»

In Guatemala, where indigenous women are 20 percent of the population and hold only one of the nation's 333 mayoralties, Isabel Francisco discusses her campaign for mayor of Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango. "This is my third time as a candidate," she said. "The first time I finished in fifth place. The second time I finished in third place. This time I'm hopeful I'll win!" Read more»

Zinayida Galchynska promised herself that if she survived breast cancer she would run for local office and make a real difference in her community. She kept that promise and is now a councilor in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine — thanks in part to the skills she learned at an NDI campaign school and a campaign based on going door-to-door to meet voters. Read more»

NDI President Urges International Support for Belarusian People

NDI President Kenneth Wollack outlined ways the international community can provide moral support and practical assistance to political and civic leaders, media and ordinary citizens in Belarus, where government forces engaged in a brutal crackdown following failed elections Dec. 19. Wollack was speaking at a Jan. 27 hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs. Read more»

Colombian Municipal Councilors Hone Good Governance Skills

In Colombia, newly-elected municipal councilors generally are expected to learn on the job. To help them gather the skills they need, an NDI program focused on how to identify the needs of their constituents, develop policies to address those needs, and engage with citizens and the media. Read more»

NDI Adds 2010 Afghanistan Elections Data to Mapping Website

Complete data from Afghanistan's 2010 parliamentary elections have been added to
afghanistanelectiondata.org, the Institute's innovative mapping website
. The site now includes data from Afghan elections beginning in 2004, as well as demographic, ethnographic, topographic, security and other information. Visitors can create visual analyses of voting patterns and other assessments, or segment and envisage data and maps in a variety of ways.
Read more»

New NDI Publications

NDI, one of the world's largest publishers of Arabic-language resources and references on democracy support, has just released its latest catalogue. It includes a listing of publications and information on how to order them. Read it in Arabic | English»

Drawing on its 25 years of experience in the women's political participation field, NDI has published a new guide for democracy practitioners to help them develop and carry out effective programs to bring more women into government and politics. Democracy and the Challenge of Change: A Guide to Increasing Women’s Political Participation, helps the user develop, carry out, monitor and evaluate women’s political participation programs. The guide provides a rationale for focusing on increasing women’s participation and includes examples of best practices, case studies and practical strategies.

The new guide, Political-Process Monitoring: Activist Tools and Techniques, explores the work that the Institute and its partner groups have done for legislative, budget-related and campaign-related monitoring, shadow reporting and monitoring government follow-through.

NDI Experts on the Middle East and North Africa in the Press

rrunyan — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:03:19 +0000

In recent weeks political developments in the Middle East and North Africa have dominated headlines and airwaves. NDI staff and board members have offered their analysis of the situation to both online and broadcast outlets from the PBS NewsHour to ForeignPolicy.com to CNN. Here are some highlights of the coverage.

US Training Quietly Nurtured Young Arab Democrats

In this story by the Associated Press, Les Campbell, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, discusses NDI's assistance to Egyptian civil society partners since 2005, particular the effect of citizen election observers in the country.

"It had the effect of showing the emperor had no clothes," Campbell said. "Egyptians could make a difference. They could change things."

March 13, 2011 | Read»

Revolution Is Easy; Democracy Is Difficult

NDI President Kenneth Wollack and Chairman Madeleine Albright discuss the difficulty of transitioning to democracy after a revolution in the International Herald Tribune.

"It’s impossible to have one model," said Wollack, referring to the difficulty of deciding how a new government will be structured. "Chile is different than the Philippines, which is different than Indonesia."

"There’s no such thing as instant democracy," said Albright, emphasizing that the process will take a long time.

Feb. 27, 2011 | Read»

Egypt Starts Overhauling Constitution

As Egypt starts to draft constitutional amendments, NDI director for the Middle East and North Africa, Les Campbell, comments on potential assistance from the U.S. in the process.

"This really is not the constitutional-amendment phase at the moment. When they get to the point of actually revising election systems, that may be a different story and may require more outside help," Campbell said.

Feb. 17, 2011 | Read»

U.S. Had Year of Warnings Over Egypt

Jay Solomon discusses how the Obama administration, in an effort not to alienate Mubarak, chose to pursue its democracy promotion agenda in Egypt through private talks rather than tough public rhetoric, despite warnings from the Egypt Working Group that the country was headed toward transition.

While this approach gained the cooperation of Cairo in the Arab-Israeli peace talks, Solomon suggests the administration missed critical warning signs of impending unrest. In the article, NDI's director for Middle East and North Africa programs, Les Campbell, comments on the crackdown on election monitoring in the lead up to the 2009 elections.

Feb. 16, 2011 | Read»

Bush program helped lay the groundwork in Egypt

In the Boston Globe, NDI director for the Middle East, Leslie Campbell, comments on the Bush administration's support for election monitors in Egypt.

Feb. 15, 2011 | Read»

The Next Steps in Egypt

In the Canadian newspaper Maclean's, NDI director for the Middle East and North Africa, Les Campbell, discusses Egyptian political parties, the pro-democracy movement, and lessons from other democratic transitions.

"The Egyptian people took this upon themselves," he said. "We were glued to our TVs and saw this inspirational turn of events. But for people who have been around for a long time, and seen other transitions, there are a number of lessons, whether it’s from Poland, Chile or Indonesia."

Feb. 15, 2011 | Read»

The Return of Democracy Promotion

In the New York Times' Sunday "Week in Review" section Peter Baker writes about President George W. Bush's democracy promotion agenda and where the Obama administration has continued and departed from it. In the article, NDI President Kenneth Wollack commented on America's role in supporting democracy around the globe.

"The stirring events in Egypt and Tunisia should reinforce what has always been a bipartisan ambition because they are vivid reminders of universal democratic aspirations and America’s role in supporting those aspirations," Wollack said.

Feb. 14, 2011 | Read»

Obama Leadership Tested by Fast-Changing Egypt Crisis

Commenting in Business Week on the Obama administration's response to the popular uprising in Egypt, NDI's director for the Middle East, Leslie Campbell, said, "The fact that the administration has gone from the idea of Egyptian authorities can do no wrong to advocating an immediate transition to democracy in a matter of days is incredible."

Feb. 14, 2011 | Read»

Are Popular Protests A Mortal Threat To Dictators?

In an article discussing the domino effect of popular protests in the Middle East, Les Campbell, NDI's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa comments on the possibility of uprisings in the Gulf States.

"Maybe I'll be wrong, but I think in the Gulf states, the standard of living is so high that it's difficult to imagine an Egyptian-level of uprising there."

Feb. 10, 2011 | Read»

Free, fair elections still distant prospect for Egypt

NDI's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Les Campbell, comments on the dim prospects for free and fair elections in Egypt under the leadership of Vice President Omar Suleiman.

"I don't think there is much intent by the authorities in Egypt to actually make that transition, from fully manipulated to fully fair elections," Campbell told The Washington Post. "I suspect what they may have in mind is to go from fully manipulated to carefully controlled."

Feb. 9, 2011 | Read»

'Different Era' Ahead in Egypt

NDI Chairman Madeleine K. Albright appeared on CNN’s State of the Union on Feb. 6 to discuss the ongoing transition in Egypt, the role of the U.S. in that transition and Mubarak's future.

“My own personal opinion is the Mubarak era is over," former Secretary of State Albright said. "And the question is how to have a process that really works properly, that allows these various voices to come together and not disagree on some of the tactical aspects.”

Feb. 6, 2011 | Watch»

The Way Forward in the Middle East

Albright appeared on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show on Feb. 3 to discuss the developing situation in the Middle East and the role the United States and nongovernmental organizations can play in supporting the will of the people in Egypt and elsewhere in the region.

“Frankly this is not a story that the United States can control,” Albright said. “This is definitely the Egyptian people and they are being remarkable, the way they protested for a number of days peacefully, really voicing their views.”

“[At NDI] we have been working within Egypt for a long time in terms of developing of various aspects of civil society and talking to various opposition groups who are prepared to participate in a fair and free election.”

Feb. 3, 2011 | Watch»

Mubarak Supporters' Offensive Heightens Volatility in Egypt

Les Campbell, NDI's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, appeared on the PBS NewsHour to discuss the situation in Egypt.

"After President Mubarak promised a transition, the first step appeared to be to release the thugs on the protesters, and then the army, in their first real test, stood by and allowed this violence to occur," Campbell said. "Transition to something new doesn't start with unleashing violence."

Feb. 2, 2011 | Watch»

International Support for Democracy Development

On ForeignPolicy.com, James Traub wrote about the international community’s role in supporting democratic developments in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia. Traub quotes NDI President Kenneth Wollack about how the United States goes about helping these countries develop institutions that can build and sustain democracy.

“The requests have to come from local actors,” Wollack told Traub. “You have to be standing behind them.” He said organizations like NDI can make a difference by advising officials on the reform of laws governing the function of political parties, electoral commissions and the media in addition to working with civil society and political parties.

Feb. 3, 2011 | Read»

Supporting Democracy in the Middle East

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show where he addressed the current political situation in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East.

Daschle, NDI’s vice chair, talked about the importance of the work NDI and the International Republican Institute (IRI) are doing to support the foundations of democracy in the region. “[The United States is] not involved as a country, but we support NDI and IRI in a way that I think could really pay big dividends,” he said.

Feb. 3, 2011 | Watch»

Is The Arab World Ready For Regime Change?

Interviewed on NPR about the Jasmine Revolution taking place in Tunisia, Leslie Campbell, director of Middle East and North Africa programs for NDI, explains that now other regimes in the region recognize that threats to their power may always be bubbling under the surface. "Events in Tunisia have shown that it doesn't take years of building up civil opposition for a regime to crumble," he says.

Jan. 24, 2011 | Read»

NDI E-news: Burma, Jordan, Haiti | Nov. 2010

fgalleto — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:57:59 +0000

November 2010

Burma Groups Expose Intimidation, Fraud in Nov. 7 Elections

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Burmese citizens protest the 2010 elections.

Elections in Burma, the first in 20 years, along with the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi after years of house arrest, have brought increased attention to the situation in the autocratic Asian country. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Aung San Suu Kyi and her people," NDI Chairman Madeleine K. Albright said in a statement marking Suu Kyi's release.
"We will do everything in our power to be supportive as she continues the struggle to bring true democracy to Burma."

To highlight abuses associated with the elections,
the Burma Partnership, a coalition of media and human rights groups inside the country and civil society organizations across the border in Thailand, created the Burma Election Tracker website. It documents visually and in prose abuses suffered by Burmese citizens before, during and after election day. NDI provided technical assistance to the partnership in developing the site.

Burma Election Tracker visually displays election incidents by type and location.

Prior to the vote, the elections were widely seen as being structured to minimize opposition and ensure a victory by the ruling military junta. NDI analyzed the legal and human rights framework of Burma's new constitution and election law and concluded that the election process would be a setback for Burma's democratic development. The first-person accounts published on the election tracker support that conclusion, with incidents ranging from
violence and intimidation to fraud to abuse of government power. Due to the difficulty of getting reports out of the country, the site is able to compile only a fraction of incidents from the election.

"The reports that we gathered," the tracker said, "demonstrate that these elections were deeply flawed, and were fundamentally illegitimate, unfree, unfair and undemocratic."

NDI has helped local partners create similar websites to track information about elections, their run-up and aftermath.
In Afghanistan, NDI created an online mapping tool for the analysis of election results from 2004, 2005 and 2009 with layers of ethnographic, demographic, topographic and security data. Preliminary results from 2010 will be added soon. And in Bahrain,
monitors mapped incidents, polling locations, and ethnic and religious populations to draw broader conclusions about parliamentary elections in October.

Election Watch: Jordan, Ukraine, Côte d'Ivoire

In November, NDI fielded an
international delegation of 61 short- and long-term election observers that monitored all aspects of the electoral process in Jordan, from the campaign to balloting on election day to the counting of ballots. In a preliminary statement
issued after the Nov. 9 polls, the delegation said that while the vote was a clear improvement over the nation's 2007 elections, a number of structural shortcomings and other problems should be addressed for future polls. Read more»

After October local elections in Ukraine, NDI commented on
the deterioration of electoral freedoms since the country's presidential election earlier in the year. The Institute said it shared the concerns of Opora, Ukraine's largest domestic election monitoring organization and an NDI partner, which highlighted an atmosphere of mistrust. Read more»

In Côte d'Ivoire, people voted in October presidential elections, the first in 10 years, following a civil war. In an effort to mitigate election-related tensions, NDI worked with political parties seeking to reaffirm a campaign code of conduct
they'd signed in 2008, contributing to a peaceful election day. A runoff will be held Nov. 28. Read more»

New NDI Publications

Don't miss the latest NDI publications and contributions:

NDI President Kenneth Wollack and Governance Director K. Scott Hubli write in the Journal of Democracy about "Getting Convergence Right" on the relationship between democracy and development programs. Read more»

Writing in the Harvard International Review, Wollack discusses the history and evolution of democracy assistance and how such assistance fits into overall U.S. foreign policy goals. Read more»

Shari Bryan, NDI vice president, writes about "The Youth Bulge in Africa" in a paper presented to the National Intelligence Council. Read more»

NDI focus group research with more than 800 Southern Sudanese showed significant support for a referendum in which they will decide whether to choose unity with the North or to secede, and a strong desire for the vote to be held on schedule, in January. The report, Southern Sudan at the Crossroads, was released in September. Read more»

After passage of a series of constitutional reforms designed to expand democratic practices in Hong Kong, citizens are cautiously optimistic about the future. The Calm After the Storm compiles research and conclusions of popular opinion in Hong Kong following the reform vote last summer. Read more»

NDI Aids Haitian Groups Working on Presidential Debates, Cholera Containment

With 19 candidates running for president of Haiti, differentiating them by platform and issue can be difficult. To help Haitians make informed decisions in preparation for the Nov. 28 vote, NDI helped produce a series of six candidate debates, aired on 32 television and radio stations, that focused on substantive issues about the future of the country. Read more»

In an effort to contain Haiti's cholera outbreak, grassroots organizations known as Initiative Committees are working to educate citizens about the importance of hygiene and safe drinking water. Developed more than a decade ago with NDI support, the committees are using their networks to help with relief and rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of last January's earthquake. Read more»

Coalition to Monitor Vote for Better Elections in Nigeria

Nigeria is at an electoral crossroads. Next year's vote for president could herald a democratic turnaround or lead to further electoral fraud and possible violence. To monitor the process and verify results, a coalition of four prominent civil society groups have come together to form Project 2011 Swift Count, hoping that their independent effort will deter fraud and help restore public trust in the election. Read more»

Albanian Women Claim a Voice in Politics through Advocacy on Health Care

A multipartisan network of politically active Albanian women is advocating for better health care services for women, as well as spreading information about early detection and treatment for breast and cervical cancers. The educational campaign has reached nearly 5,000 women, and has led to free cervical cancer screening tests for women in one Albanian city. The women are also lobbying local and regional officials for more resources for women's health care. Read more»

Women Speak Out Against Discrimination in Burkina Faso

A coalition of representatives of women's and human rights organizations in Burkina Faso recently traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to present a report on the status of women's rights in the West African country to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The coalition highlighted some of the major challenges facing Burkinabe women, including lower rates of school attendance for girls, unequal access to health care, and high rates of domestic violence. Read more»

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NDI E-news: Colombia, Haiti, Ukraine, Bahrain | Feb. 2010

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:20:53 +0000

February 2010

Chocó Women Win 2009 Madeleine K. Albright Grant

The Departmental Network of Chocó Women of Colombia (Red Departmental de Mujeres Chocoanas) has been chosen by NDI to receive the 2009 Madeleine K. Albright Grant for its work to create greater roles for women in the region's civil and political life.

The network is an umbrella group of 52 civic organizations from 18 towns in the primarily Afro-Colombian department of Chocó in the western part of the country. It will receive $25,000 for a political training school and to create a network of women political leaders in Chocó. Both will further the organization’s mission: to help Chocoan women achieve greater equality between the sexes and encourage women’s political participation. Read more»

NDI established the Madeleine K. Albright Grant in 2005 to support organizations that create greater roles for women in political and civic life. Winners are selected from a competitive pool of applicants seeking to promote women's political participation. Past recipients include the Women’s League of Burma, the Indonesian Women’s Political Caucus (KPPI), the Mostar Women’s Citizen Initiative of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the 50/50 Group of Sierra Leone.

The Madeleine K. Albright Grant is made possible through the generosity of the Melvin and Bren Simon Foundation.

Initiative Committees Working to Distribute Aid and Information in Haiti

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12 brought suffering and destruction to a country that was already facing major development challenges. The situation on the ground changes daily as Haitian and international relief efforts try to help the millions of citizens who now lack food, water, medical care and shelter.

In response, members of a Haitian network of community organizing groups, or Initiative Committees (ICs), are mobilizing to support national and international relief efforts. Developed over more than a decade with NDI support, the ICs are present in 179 municipalities across the country and involve 35,000 Haitians and 3,500 civic organizations, including 400 women's groups.

African Experts Lay Out Recommendations for Credible Elections

Election experts and practitioners from 25 African nations meeting in Ghana last November called for the ratification of the African Union's charter on elections and enforcement of its standards to achieve more peaceful and credible elections on the continent.

The gathering, organized by NDI and nine other organizations, issued a communiqué with recommendations for standards that could mitigate conflict and improve election processes.

Ghana was chosen as the site for the colloquium because of its successful 2008 elections, which were considered credible, despite heated political tensions and a razor-thin margin between the presidential candidates.

NDI Launches Website That Adds Transparency to Afghanistan Election Data

NDI has launched an innovative online mapping tool for analyzing election data from Afghanistan's flawed Aug. 20 presidential and provincial council elections. Designed to make the data more accessible and transparent, the site uses demographic, ethnographic, topographic and security information. The tool also identifies areas that had significant electoral irregularities.

Using a data browser that provides tools to manage a series of maps, filters and overlays, the site provides numerous ways to segment and visualize raw vote count data. Visitors can run customized queries with the results displayed as lists, charts and maps. The website uses all open source software and makes the data easily available for download in CSV format.

NDI Partner Groups Commend Ukrainian Elections, Offer Recommendations for Sunday's Runoff

After the Jan. 17 Ukrainian presidential election, two NDI partner groups that had observed the election issued statements hailing the vote as an improvement over the 2004 presidential poll but also citing shortcomings that they said should be addressed before the runoff on Feb. 7.

Both Opora and ENEMO highlighted procedural and organizational problems with the vote, including updates made to the voter lists on election day and uneven enforcement of provisions regarding mobile voting (voting from home). Both groups directed their recommendations to the Central Election Commission, which has jurisdiction over the issues.

Youth Leaders Declaration from Belgrade Summit Seeks Regional Cooperation and Peace

With the goals of increasing communication and fostering a network of politically active youth across Europe, NDI co-sponsored a three-day summit in Belgrade that brought together young people from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia to address issues of war crimes, rule of law, discrimination and xenophobia.

On the final day of the summit, the group released "The Belgrade Declaration," which pledged to strengthen their ties with their governments, promote new political values and use new technologies to improve communication and understanding.

Bahrain Women’s Union Calls for Action on Domestic Violence Law

The Bahrain Women's Union (BWU) launched an advocacy campaign last month calling for a law against domestic violence. The campaign kicked off with a march to demonstrate public support for addressing the issue, followed by a roundtable for MPs to discuss the cultural roots of domestic violence and ways to legislate against it. The Kingdom currently has no laws or government policies to address domestic violence, despite the fact that it has seen a sharp increase in domestic violence reports over the last four years.

Before the launch of the campaign, NDI worked with the activists to refine their advocacy plan and strategy for reaching key decision makers and allies.

The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide by promoting citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

Arab Activists Learn to Leverage New Media

fgalleto — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:58:29 +0000

Leveraging new media tools to extend an issue or candidate's reach is now a necessary component of campaigns of all kinds. In order to help the next generation of activists in the Middle East and North Africa adopt new media tools effectively, a group of civil society activists representing 11 countries gathered in Istanbul in November at an event organized by Aswat, an Arabic language website for Middle Eastern democratic activists.

Leveraging new media tools to extend an issue or candidate's reach is now a necessary component of campaigns of all kinds. In the Middle East and North Africa, new media technologies have revolutionized the way activists disseminate information and mobilize supporters, providing activists with alternative tools to make their voices heard, convey their message, recruit volunteers and mobilize even in places with repressive regimes.

In order to help the next generation of activists in the region adopt new media tools effectively, a group of civil society activists representing 11 countries gathered in Istanbul in November. The activists are working on a range of issues from increasing the participation of youth in politics in Iraq to building strong women leaders in Bahrain. At the conference, they were able to learn from each other and from experts who have used new media strategies to affect political change. The event was organized by NDI in conjunction with Aswat, an Arabic-language website for Middle Eastern democratic activists.

The goal of the conference was to share new media technologies and strategies that have worked in other circumstances, and to explore ways in which they could be adapted to the needs of the activists in attendance. In the opening session, Sam Graham-Felsen, content director at Blue State Digital and former director of web content and blog outreach for the Obama campaign, discussed ways to inspire an organization's supporters to take action by using personal stories relayed through new media. He used his experiences from the Obama campaign to draw larger conclusions about the role of new media in campaigns.

Alan Rosenblatt, associate director for online advocacy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, stressed that, although the tools themselves are changing, the communications and grassroots organizing strategies remain the same. "Rather than think in terms of tools I want to take it back and talk about some bigger communications strategies," Rosenblatt said. "Regardless of what technology you're using, you're still just doing communications strategy, and mobilization and organization strategy."

Panel discussions were designed to encourage participants to apply lessons from conference seminars in their day-to-day advocacy activities, tying real problems the activists faced in their campaigns back to solutions that could be helped by using new technologies. Participants — civil society activists and journalists from across the MENA region — partook in lively panel discussions led by Graham-Felsen, Rosenblatt and others.

Each panel discussion provided a comprehensive overview of the use of new media tools in campaigns. One discussion covered the effective use of more familiar tools including email, listservs, websites and online petitions, while another panel focused on of the trends, reach and uses of blogging and micro-blogging. Other panels focused the discussion on social networking sites such as Facebook and online forums, using video, audio and visual components effectively in a campaign, and the power of mobile technology as a tool for activism.

In addition to Graham-Felsen and Rosenblatt, other panelists included Katrin Verclas, co-founder and editor of MobileActive.org; Mohamad Najem, co-founder of Social Media Exchange based in Beirut; and Vlada Milovanovic, new media consultant in Serbia.

"We learned a lot about tools that we could use in the media," explained one participant who chairs an organization in Bahrain. "This is really going to contribute immensely to the delivery of our message, and when I get back home, I’ll work on this issue."

Another participant, a journalist from North Africa, agreed. "There are a lot of new ideas for me, including Twitter and its many uses, especially as a means to distribute news quickly. Another new idea is using mobile phones in new ways. We had used them [before the conference] but I’m going to add new uses and hopefully our service will improve with these new tools."

Pictured above: Alan Rosenblatt leads a panel at the conference in Istanbul

Published February 3, 2010

Bahrain: Streamlining the Voting Process | Jan. 26, 2010

rrunyan — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:50:02 +0000

Gulf Daily News| Link to story »

A leading human rights organization yesterday called on the Bahraini government to open up this year's parliamentary elections to international monitoring. Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS) secretary general Abdulla Al Derazi said his organization was in constant contact with international adjudicators such as NDI and believed it was a natural progression for the 2010 elections to be scrutinised in this way.

Link to story »

Bahrain Women’s Union Calls for Action on Domestic Violence Law

fgalleto — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:51:57 +0000

For more than two decades, women in Bahrain have struggled to raise awareness of domestic violence. The Kingdom has no laws or government policies to address violence against women and a draft law that would establish penalties has been languishing in the parliament for years. To push the issue, the Bahrain Women’s Union (BWU), an association of 12 women's organizations, launched an advocacy campaign on Dec. 11 for a domestic violence law, which has been a priority for the union since its founding in 2001.

The Kingdom has seen a sharp increase in domestic violence reports in the past four years, according to Bahrain’s Batelco Anti-Domestic Violence Against Women Center. Cases increased from 1,316 in 2006 to 2,201 in 2008, for example.

On Dec. 11, the BWU organized a march in Manama, the capital, to demonstrate public support for a new law. More than 100 people took part, The BWU also started a drive to gather citizen signatures on a petition for parliamentary action, which will also be presented to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The next day, the BWU held a roundtable for members of parliament (MPs) representing the appointed Shura and the elected Nuwab councils as well as government officials, lawyers and about 35 civil society activists. Participants discussed the need for legislation to address domestic violence, the cultural and social roots of the problem and the frequency of domestic violence in Bahrain. After the roundtable BWU members met individually with MPs to press for legal reform. The union is also developing a video to help educate the public on domestic violence.

In advance of the advocacy campaign, NDI supported the BWU through workshops and technical assistance as part of its larger effort to support Bahraini civil society organizations seeking to engage elected officials. NDI conducted an October session where participants refined their advocacy plan and created a strategy for reaching key decision makers and allies, and dealing with opponents. At follow-up meetings in November, NDI provided BWU leaders with technical assistance as they planned the campaign and the MPs roundtable.

Pictured above:The Bahrain Women’s Union and members of parliament from Bahrain discuss the domestic violence law at the roundtable late last year.

See the coverage of the march in the Bahrain Tribune
See the coverage of the BWU’s roundtable in the Bahrain Tribune

Published January 14, 2010

NDI - Bahrain

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NDI Experts on the Middle East and North Africa in the Press

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February 2010

Arab Activists Learn to Leverage New Media

Bahrain: Streamlining the Voting Process | Jan. 26, 2010

Bahrain Women’s Union Calls for Action on Domestic Violence Law