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Election FAQ
Elections in Kazakhstan: 2015 Presidential Election
Following incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s call for early elections, Kazakhstani citizens will head to the polls on April 26 to vote for their next President. In a nationwide address, President Nazarbayev said the presidential election had been moved in order to prevent an overlap with upcoming parliamentary elections.
News & Updates
Feature
Promoting Gender Inclusion with Nepal’s Election Commission
In the last decade, Nepal has made significant progress in promoting gender equality and women’s political participation, including adopting women’s rights-focused international and national instruments as well as a gender quota in the 2007 interim Constitution.
News & Updates
Feature
President Bill Sweeney Reaffirms IFES’ Relationship with Egyptian Stakeholders
As Egypt prepares for parliamentary elections that will be held starting in March 2015, International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) President and CEO Bill Sweeney traveled to Egypt to reaffirm IFES’ commitment to working with key Egyptian government stakeholders. At a reception held in Cairo on February 5, President Sweeney met with the spokesman of the High Elections Commission (HEC), Judge Omar Marwan, and Chairman of the State Information Service Ambassador Salah Abdel Sadek. They were joined by officials from the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Ministry of Transitional Justice; members of the diplomatic community, including representatives from the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Embassies of Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the European Union; and representatives from the United Nations Development Programme and the Arab League.
News & Updates
Feature
Registering Marginalized Populations to Vote in Nepal
As Nepal undergoes critical electoral and governance changes, IFES Nepal is working with local partners to register Nepalis – including Dalits, youth, Muslim women, freed Kamaiya (those subjected to forced labor) and other historically marginalized groups – to vote. This is part of IFES Nepal’s efforts to ensure that all Nepalis are able to participate actively in Nepal’s evolving political process.
News & Updates
Feature
Improving Access to Citizenship Certificates
As a primary legal document in Nepal, the citizenship certificate is compulsory for banking; accessing formal education and employment; registering on the voter’s roll; and obtaining a variety of benefits, including social security and government allowances for people with disabilities, victims of armed conflict and internally displaced persons. Yet despite its importance, there are significant barriers – including lack of knowledge or supporting documents and issues related to gender, caste and extreme poverty – that hinder access to citizenship certificates, especially for those from Nepal’s more marginalized groups.
Publication
Book
Gender Equality & Election Management Bodies: A Best Practices Guide
The full participation of women and men in a country's political and decision-making processes as voters, candidates, elected officials and electoral management body (EMB) staff is crucial. Yet, despite a set of robust international instruments and many positive developments in recent years, women represent only 21.7 percent of world's parliamentarians and in many countries they continue to be marginalized and underrepresented in political and electoral processes. Clearly, major steps still need to be taken before true gender equality is achieved in this arena.
September 23, 2014
News & Updates
Feature
Empowering Youth in Nepal to Secure their Voting Rights
As part of the USAID-funded “Strengthening Political Parties, Electoral and Legislative Processes” program, IFES Nepal is partnering with subawardees like Youth Initiative (YI) to strengthen the participation of youth, ethnic minorities and historically marginalized groups in Nepal’s electoral process. In support of this objective, IFES Nepal and YI recently launched a new initiative – “Voter Registration, Electoral Participation and Citizenship Certificate Support for Youth” – to ensure that eligible youth are able to register and secure their right to vote.
News & Updates
Feature
Electoral System Changes in Egypt Spark Dialogue on Post-Revolution Future
On June 5, just a few days prior to the swearing in of the new President-elect, former interim President Adly Mansour ratified Egypt’s new parliamentary elections law, significantly altering the voting system established in 2011. In the former mixed system, two-thirds of representatives were elected through lists on the basis of proportional representation and one-third as individual candidates using the majoritarian system. The new law establishes what can be described as a dual-majoritarian system where 74 percent of representatives will be elected through the majoritarian system, 21 percent elected from closed, winner-take-all party lists, and 5 percent appointed by the president.
News & Updates
Feature
Roundtable held in Cairo on New Disability and Elections BRIDGE Module
The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) organized a roundtable in Cairo, Egypt as part of the development of the Building Resources in Democracy, Governance, and Elections (BRIDGE) training program. The new disability rights module is being developed along with IFES teams in Haiti and Indonesia. The session focused on identifying key issues regarding inclusion of people with disabilities in the electoral process. Participants from various disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs) in Egypt discussed ideas with IFES staff and curriculum developers.
News & Updates
Feature
IFES Hosts Election Commission of Nepal
On July 14, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) hosted a delegation from the Election Commission of Nepal (ECN), led by Commissioner Dolakh Bahadur Gurung, an interactive learning session at its Washington, D.C. headquarters.