Tuesday 27 July 2010

Guinea Presidential election - well run?

This week Presidential elections took place in Guinea.
IFES has a calendar of results from recent elections.
and the Official election Commission CENI has some results and background information (in French)
On 24th July the Carter Center observation mission stated that despite some flaws preparations were going well.
But do others agree.
French broadcaster RFI has a useful guide in French to the elections and their background. It also includes news stories, video footage and interviews with candidates.
All Africa.com has news headlines and discussion from African sources.
IRIN news is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs it includes a timeline and some stories.
Finally the African Elections Project has a Twitter feed with timely postings from the field. The West African Elections Project is co-ordinated by the International Institute for ICT Journalism in association with other partners and funding from Open Society Initiative for West Africa.

Wednesday 21 July 2010

Burundi - can the elections be fair?

At the ned of this week the people of Burundi go to the polls. But in asituation where there is little choice can the elections be fair?
Listed below are some recommended sources where you can find more.

CENI is the official electoral commission website. It has information in French. It contains news releases, lists of candidates and legal texts on the conduct of the elections.
CSIS has a good introductory guide to understanding the elections.
Organisations which have reaised concerns about polictical violence in the region.
include Human Rights Watch which argyued that the earlier presidential elections were marred by violence.
The International Crisis Group also echoes this in its reports.
Syracuse University Impunity Watch also criticises the lack of democracy in the region.
The Afro online news agency has some comment from African observers.Other news stories can be found in the Buruni Tribune and IRIN News the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.) The latter also emphasises the tensions.
Another really good websites which links to basic factual information and pre poll asessments from observers is the EISA profile compiled by Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa
You should also consult som eof the observers websites for updates from the scene. These include:
the EU observer mission
Caritas
The East African Community

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Finding historic Japanese election materials

Japanese Politics Central has results from 1946 onwards. These include seats, national level and district level. It also links to Japanese sources of election results.

The Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP) currently includes 24 national election surveys conducted in 19 countries since 1990. It is based at the Social Sciences Institute of the University of Lisbon. The 3 phases of research share a common concern with the processes of intermediation through which citizens receive information about policies, parties, candidates, and politics in general during the course of election campaigns. It includes data taken from Japan in 1993

The Japanese Data Archive us based at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. It provides access to a large collection of materials relating to Japanese public opinion poll research. It includes free access to JPOLL an online question level database of Japanese material. This contains over 10,000 questions and responses from Japan's major social, cultural and political attitude surveys conducted in the last decade. Free registration is required. All materials are translated into English. The site also holds a searchable catalogue of datasets. It provides references to over 1,500 research reports and 200 series from 1980 onwards, with some party identification data available from 1946 onwards.

A User's Guide to Past Japanese Election Studies (English language)
Part of the Virtual Library on Democracy created by The Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine, this provides an annotated list of major election surveys and information on where data may be obtained. Most are not in ful text online but it indicates where they may be found.

For Japanese language readers! The Association for Promoting Fair Elections
Includes data on voter turnout rate changes on national and local levels from 1946 on and public opinion polls from all postwar elections.

Asian election Studies is another good site.It includes news, conference alerts and links to studies and statistics on elections in a number of Asian nations.

Japan elections: how badly did the DJP do?

Japanese elections on the 11th July lead to a loss of seats for the Democratic Party.
Here are some starting points on what was at stake and how to find out more about Japanese politics.
CSIS Center for Strategic and International Studies has a good introduction to the issues and the implications of the results for the foreign policy of the USA.

The Liberal Democratic Party has its own website where you can find news stories, manifestos and analysis of events.
Other political parties such as the Social Democratic Party have their own viewpoints.
However, if you are looking for English language stories. Some recomended starting points are:

IFES election Guide which also has links to brief summaries of statistics on past elections.
The ACE Electoral Project has some articles on the issues at stake. There are also some links to about a dozen papers and articles on electoral reform in Japan on the site.
Japanese Broadcasting Corporation website NHK World has some reports, video interviews with coverage and reactions to the elections.
Japan News Review is an online newspaper/news aggregator founded in 2007, based in Sweden. It contains news stories linking to English-language articles and its own translations of Japanese.
finally dont forget Japanese Politics Central. This great site website hosted by the University of Virginia, brings together information on various aspects of Japanese politics, including election results; cabinet and party support rates; biographies of Japanese politicians; and bibliographic information. The "bibliography on Japanese politics topics" presents extensive bibliographic resources in alphabetically organized topic areas, and should be useful to anyone embarking on studies in Japanese politics.

Monday 5 July 2010

More useful sites for researching hungarian elections and politics

The office of the President website has information in English about the role of the president, recent events and biographies of past presidents from 2000 onwards.
The Hungarian National Election office has background information on the electoral system, legislation . information from 1996-2008 . It doesnt seem to include presidential elections.

The Centre for the Study of Public Policy (CSPP), based at the University of Aberdeen, specialises in comparative public policy research. Since 1991 it has been conducting a unique programme of survey research in 15 post-Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Information about Hungarian studies can be found on the website.
Project on Political Transformation and the Electoral Process in Post-Communist Europe based at the University of Essex also has some past data on parliamentary elections in Hungary
OSCE ODIHR has an online collection of information on the electoral system , the text of electoral laws and some election observation reports on its website
Finally
Erik Herrons website has an excellent collection of links to political sites and news resources relating to Hungary. These focus on sites based in Hungary.

Hungary Presidential elections

Presidential elections will take place in Hungary on July 7th
The IFES website has a basic guide to the elections.
It lists the main candidates as
Pál SCHMITT - further information can be found on the Party: Hungarian Civic Union / Magyar Polgári Szövetség (Fidesz)website. information and recent speeches via the European parliament website
Krisztina MORVAI more on the party website The Movement for a Better Hungary / Magyarországért Mozgalom (Jobbik)

András BALOGH Hungarian Socialist Party / Magyar Szocialista Párt (MSZP)
for news information on the elections try Transitions online news stories (subscriptions required to access some stories)
Politics Hungary is a good source of English language political news. from the all Hungary media group