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How to Protect Gender Equality in Elections During COVID-19
Disasters often inflame and exacerbate existing inequalities, and women continue to be largely left out of decision-making processes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Electoral stakeholders should work to ensure that gender does not serve as a barrier to electoral and political rights during this crisis.
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Indelible Ink in Elections: Mitigating Risks of COVID-19 Transmission While Maintaining Effectiveness
Many countries use indelible ink to ensure that voters cannot cast multiple ballots. Hand-sanitizing procedures, recommended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, could also affect the ink’s effectiveness. IFES presents some factors election management bodies should consider.
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Innovating in Response to COVID-19 Moves Cybersecurity Forward in Georgia
On March 31, the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES) held a virtual signing ceremony in partnership with the Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC), information technology vendor UGT and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to launch cybersecurity enhancements to protect Georgia’s elections from malign influence. Shifting the signing ceremony to a virtual format capped off IFES’ efforts to innovate in the face of the global COVID-19 crisis.
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The Legal Quagmire of Postponing or Modifying Elections
Amidst the uncertainty of COVID-19, many countries are grappling with how to modify election procedures to minimize the risk of transmission or change the system for voting completely to avoid the need for voters to go to the polls. While important and often necessary, these decisions are far from simple. IFES has compiled a list of legal elements to consider in relation to election postponements and modifications.
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Elections and COVID-19 – What We Learned from Ebola
In an op-ed for Devex, IFES' Anthony Banbury shares lessons learned from the Ebola crisis as guidance for holding elections and averting a democracy crisis during COVID-19.
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Training Election Commissions in Kyrgyzstan on Electoral Rights of Persons with Disabilities
In honor of Global Elections Day, IFES and local partner organizations conducted a two-day training on ensuring the electoral rights of persons with disabilities for representatives of Kyrgyzstan's Territorial Election Commissions.
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Emergency Powers and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Protecting Democratic Guardrails
Without a strong foundation for democratic resilience, a global health crisis can shock democratic institutions and offer a blank check to governments to use emergency powers to curtail political rights. IFES has identified four indicators that help to understand whether state actions during this time are “limited to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation.”
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Regional Europe Office Holds Successful First Virtual Event in Light of Pandemic
On March 24, IFES held “Slovak Parliamentary Elections in an Era of Disinformation: Post-Election Debrief” as a virtual meeting. The event demonstrated that despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there are effective ways for the international community to come together and carry on a meaningful dialogue on salient issues.
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Low Voter Turnouts, Fear, Disinformation and Disrupted Supply Chains: How Election Commissions Are Unprepared for COVID-19
All electoral activities planned for the near future will be affected one way or another by the COVID-19 pandemic. Election commissions need sound advice and technical assistance to navigate the complexity of each election context, coordinate with the relevant health authorities, consider all relevant public health and political factors, and make sensible decisions to safeguard voters and electoral processes.
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Youth Public Policy Academy Launched in North Macedonia
IFES and the National Youth Council of Macedonia just launched the Public Policy Academy, the first in a series of capacity-building efforts to increase young North Macedonian citizens’ participation in political and electoral processes.