Young people make up nearly 60 percent of the population in Zambia and face growing unemployment rates. But their participation in politics and government has remained low. A group of youth-oriented civil society organizations is using the drafting of a new constitution as an opportunity to address youth issues and include young people in the political process.
After three days of meetings in Pristina, Kosovo, a group of women and men leaders from around the world has created the “Pristina Principles,” a set of guidelines and priorities aimed at eliminating barriers to women’s political participation, aiding their economic empowerment and giving them access to security and justice in the region and around the world.
With the ability to make informed choices and express their will at the ballot box, Georgians participated in their most competitive elections in a decade on Oct. 1 and ushered in a period that will require a consultative and participatory legislative process in a newly-pluralist parliament, an NDI observer delegation said Oct. 2 in Tbilisi.
“The responsibility now lies with the country’s political leaders to engage immediately in constructive dialogue and reconciliation,” NDI said.
“Democracy is not perfect, but it is the best system so far,” said Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese activist, member of parliament and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate at a Sept. 19 dinner co-hosted by NDI and the International Republican Institute (IRI). “The best thing about democracy is that it allows for non-violent change in power, without hurt to the country.”
On the International Day of Democracy, Sept. 15, civil society organizations from across the globe joined in a call to parliaments worldwide for stronger collaboration to improve openness, transparency and citizen participation in the legislative process.
Golos, Russia’s largest independent election monitoring organization and a long-time NDI partner, has been awarded the 2012 Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee for its "outstanding efforts to promote democratic values through free and fair elections in Russia," according to a statement by Secretary General Bjørn Engesland. Sakharov, a scientist, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union.
Nepal has survived considerable political turmoil in recent years, including an armed conflict, failure of the Constituent Assembly to deliver a new constitution and the inability of leadership to form a sustainable government. Although the country has managed the political upheaval, recent events threaten the country’s chances for continued democratic change.
NDI has released results of a public opinion survey designed to measure Georgian voters’ attitudes toward parliamentary elections expected in October.
If the elections were held tomorrow, the poll found, 37 percent of likely voters said their first choice would be the United National Movement (UNM); 22 percent said “don’t know”; 21 percent refused to answer; 12 percent chose Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream Coalition; 3 percent said “no party”; 3 percent said the Christian Democratic Movement (CDM); and 2 percent named other opposition parties.
NDI will host more than 300 diplomats and political leaders from more than 100 countries in Charlotte, N.C., at this year’s Democratic National Convention. The visitors are part of NDI’s International Leaders Forum (ILF), which the Institute has hosted during every Democratic National Convention since 1984.
NDI’s guests include current and former heads of state, cabinet ministers, members of parliament, political party leaders and more than 100 ambassadors who are members of the Washington-based diplomatic corps.
