Electronic voting is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots.
Presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on 15 October 2003. As expected, Ilham Aliyev, son of the outgoing president, Heydar Aliyev, was officially elected with an overwhelming majority in a vote international observers deemed to be not to be free or fair.
Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia on 28 March 2004. They followed the partial annulment of the November 2003 parliamentary elections, which were widely believed to have been rigged by the former President Eduard Shevardnadze. New elections for the 150 seats elected by proportional representation were ordered following the resignation of Shevardnadze and the election of new president Mikhail Saakashvili in January 2004. The results of the 75 seats elected in single-member constituencies in 2003 were not annulled.
Elections in Kazakhstan are held on a national level to elect a President and the Parliament, which is divided into two bodies, the Majilis and the Senate. Local elections for maslihats are held every five years.
Election monitoring involves the observation of an election by one or more independent parties, typically from another country or from a non-governmental organization (NGO). The monitoring parties aim primarily to assess the conduct of an election process on the basis of national legislation and of international election standards. There are national and international election observers. Monitors do not directly prevent electoral fraud, but rather record and report instances of suspicious practices. Election observation increasingly looks at the entire electoral process over a long period of time, rather than at election-day proceedings only. The legitimacy of an election can be affected by the criticism of monitors, unless they are themselves seen as biased. A notable individual is often appointed honorary leader of a monitoring organization in an effort to enhance legitimacy of the monitoring process.
Electronic voting in Estonia gained popularity in 2001 with the "e-minded" coalition government. In 2005, it became the first nation to hold legally binding general elections over the Internet with their pilot project for municipal elections. Estonian election officials declared the electronic voting system a success and found that it withstood the test of real-world use.
Presidential elections were held in Armenia on 19 February 2008. Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan was elected in the first round according to official results, but this was disputed by former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who was officially placed second.
Presidential elections were held in Georgia on 5 January 2008, moved forward from autumn 2008 by President Mikheil Saakashvili after the 2007 demonstrations.
The fairness of the 2008 Russian presidential election is disputed, with election monitoring groups giving conflicting reports. Most official reports accept that not all candidates had equal media coverage and that some election monitoring groups had restricted access to perform their role. Monitoring groups found a number of other irregularities, but made no official reports of fraud or ballot stuffing.
Campaigning for the first round of the presidential election held in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2008 took place from February to March. There were three major candidates: President Robert Mugabe of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and the independent candidate Simba Makoni.
This article gives details about the vote counting system for the 2008 Zimbabwe presidential election
An election verification exit poll (EVEP) is a relatively new concept in polling, intended to improve the accuracy of exit polls to such an extent that they can be used to verify election results. Traditional (media) exit polling relies on small samples, wheres EVEPs propose to use larger samples.
The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is the principal institution of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) dealing with the "human dimension" of security. The Office, originally established in 1991 under the 1990 Paris Charter as the Office for Free Elections, is still best known for its role in observing elections although its name changed in 1992 to reflect the broadening of its role by the Helsinki Summit.
Early presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan on 3 April 2011, having been originally scheduled for 2012. The elections were called after a plan for holding a referendum to increase president term limits to 2020 was rejected by the Constitutional Council. Nazarbayev was re-elected for a fourth term with 95% of the vote and a 90% turnout, against three nominal candidates. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has complained about a lack of transparency and competition in the vote.
Presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on 9 October 2013. The result was a victory for incumbent President Ilham Aliyev, who received a reported 85% of the vote, whilst leading opposition candidate Jamil Hasanli finished second with a reported 6% of the vote.
General elections were held in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2008 to elect the President and Parliament. Because of Zimbabwe's dire economic situation, the elections were expected to provide incumbent President Robert Mugabe with his toughest electoral challenge to date. Mugabe's opponents were critical of the handling of the electoral process, and the government was accused of planning to rig the election. Human Rights Watch said that the election was likely to be "deeply flawed."
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 11 October 2015. Long-term president Alexander Lukashenko ran for his fifth term in office, having won every presidential election since independence in 1991. He was re-elected with 84% of the vote, according to official figures. The 'against all' option received more votes than any opposition candidate.
General elections were held in Zimbabwe on 30 July 2018 to elect the President and members of both houses of Parliament. Held eight months after the 2017 coup d'état, the election was the first since independence in which former President Robert Mugabe was not a candidate.
The Coalition of Domestic Observers (CODEO) is a network of civil society groups, faith-based organizations, and professional bodies that observe Ghanaian elections to ensure free, fair, and transparent elections. Since its establishment in 2000, CODEO has become the largest domestic election observer network in Ghana–consisting of forty-two civil society, professional, and faith-based organizations. CODEO also holds membership with the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM) and the West African Election Observers Network (WAEON). Despite the long history of both domestic and international election observers in Africa, CODEO has established itself as a continental example for successful election observation and peaceful transitions to democratization.
Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) is the first-ever network of civil society networks in Pakistan dedicated to strengthening democracy through methodically-enacted observation and oversight of electoral, parliamentary, and governance processes. As many as 20 regional networks of over 500 tehsil-level civil society organizations are part of FAFEN, establishing its unmatched outreach to communities of people belonging to all classes, ethnicities, and religions across Pakistan. FAFEN’s work since its inception in 2006, has made it one of the most credible voices in the country for responsive, transparent, accountable, and efficient electoral, legislative, and local governance.So far, FAFEN has observed the General Elections in 2008, 2013 and 2018, Local Government Elections in 2015, and Legislative Assembly Elections in Gilgit-Baltistan in 2009 and 2015, with active support of its partner organizations as well as duly accreditation from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). FAFEN has earned an excellent reputation among various stakeholders, including the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and has been recognized as an authentic organization among political parties, civil society organizations, international community, academia, and the media. After the General Elections 2013 various political parties levelled multiple charges of rigging, on which the Supreme Court of Pakistan had formed a Judicial Commission to investigate the matter. FAFEN was the only civil society organization, which was summoned by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to share its election observation findings.
