NDI today condemned the government-backed violence that occurred in the wake of citizen protests in Tripoli, Benghazi and elsewhere, and joined international calls for the immediate cessation of attacks against Libyans who are exercising their right to peaceful assembly.
After several months of controversy and delays in the certification of election results, 249 members have now taken their seats in Afghanistan’s Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament. Among them are Farida Hamidi and Frishta Amini, two women who make up the entire delegation from Nimroz province in the far southwest corner of the country.
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.
Despite their 20 percent share of the population, Mayan women in Guatemala have limited political and economic power. They have the country’s highest rates of poverty and illiteracy, and, according to an NDI-supported study, are far less likely to vote than any other sector of the population. Only four of 158 deputies in Congress are Mayan women and only one of 333 mayors.
Project 2011 Swift Count (PSC), a coalition of four Nigerian civil society groups from across the country, has released two preliminaryreports on voter registration based on reports from approximately 1,000 observers who were deployed across all of Nigeria's 774 local government areas.
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 the aftermath of the brutal crackdown by government forces in Belarus following failed elections Dec. 19.
Wollack spoke at a Jan. 27 hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs.
Over the course of 20 years, Albania has made great steps in its democratic transition. Since 1991, NDI and the International Republican Institute (IRI) have been proud to support Albanian political parties, civic groups and citizens as they seek to build a political system of fairness, inclusion and transparency.
In Colombia, as in many countries in Latin America, municipal councilors generally receive little training in the skills they need to represent their constituents effectively. This is especially true for small and poor municipalities in post-conflict regions or those with large Afro-Colombian or indigenous populations.
“The tools of the trade must be learned on the job,” said Yamil Quinto of Istmina, a municipal council member from the city of Istmina in the primarily Afro-Colombian department of Chocó. (Colombian departments are the equivalent of states.)
Thirty-six political parties and two independent candidates in Niger have signed a code of conduct that encourages parties and their supporters to campaign honestly and respect the outcome of Jan. 31 presidential and legislative elections. The polls will mark a return to democratic rule following last February's coup d’état that removed autocratic President Mamadou Tandja from office. NDI worked initially with 16 parties to draft the code, based on examples used successfully in other countries.
Frishta Amini (left) and Farida Hamidi (right) from Nimroz province
