Saudi Arabia first women councillors elected - academic resources

This week the first women councillors were elected in local elections in Saudi Arabia

Here are some useful resources for investigating this further

This is the official ministry site from Saudi Arabia (Arabic language ) which has details of local elections and electoral procedures.

National Geographic has interviews with candidates and women voters

Jadaliyya.com has discussion from women members of the Baladi campaign which supports womens political rights. This should be the home page of the movement (Arabic so unable to verify)

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain has some reports from women in the region as well as commentary

Guardian newspaper coverage

Useful programme from NPR which considers levels of turnout


IKnow politics the International Network of women in Politics has news, comment and articles on women in politics in the region


For background on womens human rights in Saudi Arabia and how they compare to other nations see the UNDP gender inequality index on the Human development reports website. See the entry for Saudi Arabia

Human Rights Watch 2015 report on Saudi Arabia

IPU has data on womens representations in parliaments worldwide

This masters thesis from University of Washington 2014 has a useful bibliographic on womens rights

This article reviews the status of women in Saudi Arabia published in the American Journal of education has been written by Ministry of education officials

Commentary from think tanks and academic groups

Al Monitor

Middle East Policy Council

France local elections gains for far right- recommended research resources

As the far Right Front National make gains in French local elections here are some recommended resources on the far right in France at the recent election results.

The main FN party website has news interviews and manifestos from the party. But for more detailed local election news they created a special municipales website 
Marine Le Pen has a twitter account where she sent messages of congratulation.

Newspaper and news service coverage.
Look at the following for news, analysis and polls
Le Monde
Le Figaro has a detailed website with a map of results . It also has information on parties, candidates and many online videos.
Le Parisien
Nouvel Observateur.
L'Express
Humanite

Academic discussion
Sciences Po televised forum on the municipales.
Cevipol analysis
The International Migration Institute has a paper on the impact of immigration on extreme right voting in France
MeLextra  This blog, the third journalism translation project by students of the MéLexTra JET master’s degree in English-French translation at Lille 3 University it translating stories about the rise of the far right from the French media.
Chatham House think tank has some analysis and discussion of far right politics in Europe,
The Conversation has academic discussion on whether youth in Europe are swinging to the right.

Local elections 2013 are UKIP set for a rise in support? - see our recommended academic resources

Tomorrow is Local elections day in many parts of England.
Here are our recommended websites for further academic research.

The UK Electoral Commission  has information about where local elections are taking place and the official procedures.

The House of Commons Library also has a good briefing note which details this.


Political Parties
Read some statement and manifestos on the policies of key parties contesting the elections.

Labour Party- see their campaign video
Look at labourList for social media discussion from supporters

Conservative Party Local election campaigns
Conservative home blogs has debate and news from supporters
The Spectator blogs (also has discussion from a relatively conservative perspective)

Libdem news
see Lib dem blogs  and Liberal Democrat Voice for any discussion

UKIP - see their manifestoes

For other manifestoes se the citizen journalist site Election leaflets   where vast collections of election ephemera dating back several years can be viewed online.

New services

BBC Coverage
Includes all the election broadcasts
FT blogs
Telegraph
Guardian - the politics live blog is also covering events.
Huffington Post

Academic commentators and think tanks covering local Government

The Local Government Information Unit (think tank) will be blogging and tweeting about the elections.
The Local Government Association will be producing an interactive table of the results.
Plymouth University has a specialist local elections centre. see maps of results from past elections. The UK Parliament library also has statistical papers with all results.

LSE blogs from the London School of Economics
De Montford University Local Governance Unit has examples of papers and blogs covering local government.

Institute of Local Government Studies (INLOGOV) University of Birmingham see papers and research news.

Eastleigh by-elections get the facts

This week there will be a by-election in Eastleigh The seat became vacant on the official resignation of Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) Chris Huhne, who announced his intention to resign on 4 February, following his guilty plea to a charge of perverting the course of justice
Eastleigh Borough Council has official notices about candidates.
UK Polling report has a round up of the latest polls from UK agencies and newspapers.


Political Parties.

Libdem news has a round up of news and views from the LIBDem candidate.The Official libdem website has a statement. Eastleigh Libdems website has campaign information.
Labour Party official candidate site John O farrell twitter articles from the Guardian.http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/13/john-ofarrell-why-standing-eastleigh-labour Labour List comment from bloggers. Eastleigh labour campaign twitter
Colin Bex Wessex regionalists.
David Bishop elvis loves pets.
Peace Party candidate Jim Duggan,
Howling Laud Hope - real name Alan Hope - Monster Raving Loony Party.
Conservative candidate Maria Hutchings
Diane James UKIP
Iain Maclennan, National health Action Party.
Darren Proctor Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.
English Democrat Michael Walters

News services
The BBC local news website has a list of candidates and their responses to questions from the electorate.

The Guardian has statistics on previous elections and turnout. plus news & discussion
Independent politics coverage
Get local news from the Eastleigh daily Echo
The Spectator blog has commentary from a small by-election in Hampshire - not many dead!
The Politics home website has stories and news
Guido fawkes blog.
Huffington Post coverage.

Where can I find election data? part 2 the UK

Electoral Commission
Independent body established by the UK Parliament. Website provides access to local, national, devolved assembly and European Parliament elections since 2005. Also available is data on political spending and analysis of the election campaigns.

House of Commons Library Research Papers
Produced by staff of the House of Commons Library to brief MPs, these regularly cover by-elections, general elections and devolved assembly elections, offering facts and figures on seats, votes cast and party representation.

Elections Centre at the University of Plymouth
Collates and analyses electoral data with a particular emphasis on local elections. Some results online. Also Produces the Local Elections Handbook, published annually since the 1980s, which is a comprehensive source of voting and electoral statistics for every local authority in Great Britain.

Several good printed series held by major research libraries and traceable via COPAC are
Times Guide to the House of Commons
Long established series, written by Times political journalists. Copies cover most general elections since 1885, offering election results, analysis, manifestos since 1950 and biographies of candidates.
Britain Votes
Series of volumes containing full election results; plus scholarly essays analysing key themes. Volume 1 edited by FWS Craig and published by Parliamentary Research Services in 1977 covered the general elections of 1974; subsequent volumes (compiled by different editors) covered the succeeding elections

British Election Study
Long established study of the attitudes and behaviour of the electorate. Covers general elections from 1963 onwards. Information, research papers and some quantitative data can be downloaded from the website. Earlier sets can be obtained via the ESDS data service