Kosovo elections - who is concerned and why.

This week the USA said it was concerned about the conduct of the forthcoming Kosovo elections.
Here are some resources for finding out who is concerned and why.
IFES has some background information on the electoral system and previous elections. It also has some other recent publications assessing recent votes.
OSCE has monitored past elections and historic reports can be read on its website
More up to date analysis can be read on
the Balkan Insight news service.
SE Times news service
and B92
Other local observers of the elections include The Kosovo Democratic Institute
Kosovo Foundation for Democratic Society
and ENEMO which is conducting an international observaer mission to the region in 2010

Egypt elections - crowd mappings and other online monitoring systems.

This week the US government criticised the conduct of the Egyptian elections

During the elections a number of organisations used the web to enable citizens to get involved in reporting fraud in the elections. See this useful discussion of the examples in the TechPresident blog some examples of these (most in Arabic) can be viewed online. They include
Egypt elections crowdmap
shahid 2010
www.aswatna-eg.net also has examples of sites being used by the public.
For English discussion of the state of democracy in Egypt and conduct of elections. These sites are useful
Project on Middle East Democracy has a good blog with up to date postings.
Al-Jazeera coverage which includes blogs and interviews
Al-Masry news from Egypt
A number of international organisations have also conducted assessments.
International Idea has a section of reports.
The Global Integrity report has assessments and rankings of the state of corruption in Egypt from 2009.
The ACE Project has some recent reports plus links to encyclopedia style entries on the nature of the electoral system.
The Carnegie Endowment Arab Reform section has some up to date commentary and some past papers on the state of politics in Egypt.
The Council on Foreign Relations also has some background papers

Haiti elections to go ahead.

Despite the cholera crisis news agencies are reporting that the elections in Haiti will go ahead on Sunday 28th November.
Here are some starting points for tracing information on conditions in the region.
Amnesty International has several years of human rights reports on its website.
Another good source for this type of materials is Human Rights Watch
and the International crisis Group
More specific commentary on the background to the elections can be found on the
UN peacekeeping mission website.
NDI has information on civic education programmes. Scroll down the left hand side of the page to find links to documents and reports.
The Carter Centre has had involvement in health and democracy programmes in the past. Reports from coverage of earlier elections are on the website.
The OAS has sent observers to cover the 2010 events. Reports will be posted on the website. At the moment it currently contains press releases on aid programmes.

Finally an excelelnt news site covering the elections is Haitielections2010.com which is supported by USAID and the German Embassy. It has stories, polls and interviews (in French)

Moldova forthcoming elections- why are they taking place?

Early elections have been set for Moldova next week. According to the BBC faces it is the third election in two years 'after members of parliament in one of Europe's poorest states failed twice to pick a president'.
The Central Election Commission has official information on the dates and process (in Russian or Moldovian)This includes a separate voter information site
However One of the best sites for tracing the latest news stories, discuss and lists of candidates is maintained by ADEPT which has lots of English language coverage.
Also with regional intelligence , although accss to most stories requires a subscription is Transitions onlineIt links to a number of local organisations covering the election. These include:
•Civic Coalition for Free and Fair ElectionsCivic Initiative for a Clean Parliament
Sources of English language monitoring include the OSCE which has sent an observation mission. The website also has reports from previous elections which can help you assess the development of democracy.
Finally links to the local news services and political party sites can be found on Erik Herron's detailed guide to politics in East Central Europe and Eurasia

Burma were the 2010 elections fair?

Following on from the previous posting- here are some recomended resources for news coverage and analysis of the 2010 elections.

Irrawaddy - well regarded news service with up to date stories and coverage.Also provided are electoral laws, interviews and quotes.

PBS reported on Media censorship during the elections. Its article contains useful links to related reports on Media freedom in the region.

Burma Election 2010 website pulls together reports from ethnic media and reporters inside Burma. Highlights include reports from individual electoral districts, and election bulletins

Mizzima is amnnother well regarded news network which features work from journalists in exile. The site includes online interviews.

Alternative Asean Network on Burma is a human rights organisation. Its website has special election coverage. This includes electoral laws, statements and reports on the state of democracy.

Radio Free Asia is an American backed organisation. Its blog has recent postings on censorship and the state of democracy in Burma.

AsiaPortal is maintained by over 20 universities and research bodies who are members of the Nordic NIAS Council and NIAS/NIAS LINC. It aims to provide researchers and students with free access to topical news, articles and research reports about Asian nations. It also offers links to the latest Asian studies research from Nordic Universities (based in Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden). Its site includes some blogs about Burma

Finally the Democratic voice of Burma, a non profit media freedom body, also has excellent coverage of the hujman rights situation during the elections. Its election map has results and mappings of alleged violence and other incidents.

Burma: could an election ever be fair?

According to Barack Obama the recent elections in Burma were 'anything but fair'
Here are some useful resources for tracing facts about why he said this. They focus on the human rights situation in Burma. later today I will post on other news sources which you may find useful.

The Fund for Peace ranks Burma in 16th place on its 2010 Failed States Index.
Freedom House - Freedom of the Press report 2010 states that the press in Burma is not free
Its Freedom of the World Report also assesses the general state of democracy in Burma as unfree.
As does the Reporters without Frontiers Press Freedom Index 2010
Many leading international human rights organisations have reports covering the state of democracy in Burma. For example see the
International Crisis Group
Human Rights Watch
and Amnesty International
The United Nations has had a special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burma. Read the reports and comments online
Also useful is the Red Cross which has news and reports on prisoners detained in Burma
Finally a wealth of links on all aspects of Burma can be easily located on the Online Burma/Myanmar library . This is part of the WWW virtual Library and has excellent coverage of blogs and organisations. It also indexes individual key documents. These include items relating to the 2010 elections

How fair were the mid-term elections? What role did money play?

What role did money play in the elections? Does money equal votes?
The US Federal Election Commission has official returns and maps of campaign spending which you can check

Fairvote campaigns for greater democracy. Check its website forn a good campaign spending map. There are also research reports on redistricting and constitutional issues relating to voter enfranchisement in the USA.

Other sources of clear information on money and politics in the USA include campaign and citizen watchdog groups. Some key examples are
Open Secrets.
Find the most expensive races as well as data and reports on individual candidates. Most data has been prepared by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Sunlight Foundation has also created a number of databases relating to transparency. Take a look at the Following the money blog
Political parties (find out what parties they are attending)and many more specialist datasources.

Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights - Elections run by the OSCE - monitors elections worldwide. This section covers its observations about the USA from 2004 onwards A small mission has been deployed to observe the 2010 mid-term elections. Its observations and reports will be posted online.

Mid-term elections: understanding the votes

AS the votes come in the BBC is giving live updates from its website
also offering live updates are a number of other news services including the Guardian.
Live video streams are being offered from major news services via this website
But how does this compare with past election trends? You can look at past results on the Clerk of the House website.Trace trends back to 1920!
For more in depth studies on voting trends see the National Election Commission website this has links to a number of key election surveys. These include Election administration surveys which give a sense of numbers of registered and unregister voters and the efficiency of the voting mechanism.
For further detailed official information on the voting system- try checking the Federal Election Commission websiteThis has a section of questions on the operation of the Electoral College
It also includes links to all the individual state electoral offices which are the official sources of information.

Who was the most joked about politician in the US mid-term elections?

According to research by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jon Stewart and Jimmy Fallon joked about Obama a total of 309 times compared to Sarah Palin, at 137.
On a more serious note you can read their research on media coverage of the elections on the CPMA website. This has an Obama Watch website which has been monitoring coverage since the start of Obama's presidency.

Other sources of discussion about the role of the media during the campaigns include:

The Wesleyan Media Project which is a collaboration among Professors Erika Franklin Fowler (Wesleyan University), Michael M. Franz (Bowdoin College) and Travis N. Ridout (Washington State University).It is tracking political advertising in elections.

Media week- designed for the profession it has also been considering campaign advertising, among other topics.

The Columbia Journalism review has a team following the campaigns. Read their insights online from the website.

The Pew Research Center for Excellence in Journalism has a weekly news coverage index.


In a related site, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Presshas a regular news interest index which maps popular topics. According to last week's review the American public are more interested in the economy, than the elections!

Mediagazer - is aggregating key topics in the media and is particularly good at highlighting the use of social media. There are currently some good links to stories about Twitter, web 2.0 and the elections.

The National Journal has also been discussing the use of social media during the campaigns. View a view video discussion on their website

Finally if you were really looking for jokes about the elections. See the Onion's quick guide

Did he blow it? (Obama in the Mid-term elections)

According to Sarah Palin, Barack Obama has lost ground in the US mid-term elections. You can view this prediction (and many others via the RealClear Politics website) but what are other political commentators saying?
Here are a few recommended blogs for following the debate.
One of the most well read American blogs is the Huffington Post which of course has extensive coverage. This includes videos and links to news stories and polls. Some of which are serious others not so!
Real Clear Politics also aggregates key blogs. Scroll down the page for transcripts of key political speeches and round ups of blog postings.
The Caucus Blog maintained by the New York Times
Daily Dish
Blog maintained by Andrew Sullivan. Very well regarded for its wide and entertaining discussion. Generally regarded as supporting Obama, the blog also has coverage of camoaign finance and daily round ups of news stories.
Talking Points Memo Commentary on political events from a politically left perspective, by Joshua Micah Marshall. Also includes political gossip and scandal.
The Corner is a blog from National Review staff. Their website also has a special battle 2010 section which has postings from the campaign trails.
National Journal staff are also discussing the elections on their blog.
In the UK Manchester University hosts the Obama expert media group. Their website isnt blogging the elctions. However it does include information on ongoing research about his presidency.

Is Obama struggling in the mid-term elections?

According to the Guardian Barack Obama is down but not out. but what do the other newspapers and polls say?
If you need basic facts on what the Mid-Term elections are and their significance. A good starting point is the BBC guide to the basics.

Other major news stories which have special features on the elections include:
the Guardian which has alive mid-terms blog and an interactive map of the key races.
The BBC website also makes use of a number of interactive features including maps, interviews with voters and more. Take a look at this graph which maps presidential popularity ratings and seats in mid term elections.

Of Course many American news services have extensive coverage. Good examples include:
the Washington Post which has maps of the political landscape, news stories and blogs.
The New York Times has excellent news coverage. An added feature is the tracking of Twitter
The CNN election center has a more popular approach with basic facts on the races for the American electorate. However, its polling center gives easy access to the most recent polls
C-SPAN Videos - gives great access to online videos of congressional debates.
NPR public radio likewise gives free access to debates and discussion about the elections but this time from radio. It has also launched a new political blog Its all Politics.

In addition to these news resources there are also a number of specialist poll sites which are worth monitoring as they contain detailed voting intention updates. Find out what the following have predicted!
Rasmussen reports.
Gallup Polls
Finally Angus Reid has done itsa usual good job of summarising and rounding up a selection of the most recent polls.

Elections and women recommended starting points for research

One of the recent issues raised by the elections in Bahrain was the political participation of women
Ypu can consider how bahrain compares with other nations by looking at the Gender gap report which is prepared by the World Economic Forum The Report examines four critical areas of inequality between men and women:
1. Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment
2. Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education
3. Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures
4. Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio

The IPU women in parliaments website has statistical data on gender breakdowns

Other good starting points for information on women and political participation include:
The women in Politics bibliographic database which is compiled by the Interparliamentary union (IPU) This enables you to search for references to journal articles and papers about all aspects of women and politics worldwide. unfortunately the full text is not on line.
The UN Womenwatch gateway draws together the latest statistics, reports and papers from Un agencies on all aspects of female political, social and economic life.
International IDEA is an organisation which works more specifically for women in politics. Its website has publications, details about projects and links to support networks. This includes worldwide statistics on voter turnout by gender and a global database of materials about electoral quotas for women
Iknow Politics - an international Knowledge network of women in Politics which has a wealth of resources including discussion of recent elections and interviews with women.

Bahrain elections- are human rights a concern?

Parliamentary elections are due to take place in Bahrain on 23rd October.
Recently Human Rights watch raised concerns about their conduct. Other monitors hve focussed on the lack of women in politics.
Here are some more useful starting points for getting more information.
There is an official Bahrain government election site (Arab only)
Government body Supreme Council for Women has some basic facts in English about the role of women in decision making in Bahrain.

The ACE Project has facts about the electoral system , electoral laws and recent results.
IKnow International Network for Women in Politics has issued appeals for more women to be involved. Read their news and reports Likewise the Womens Learning Partnership also has discussion of sex discrimination in Bahrain politics.

The Arab Reform Bulletin from the Carnegie Endowment has articles on politics, human rights, democracy and women which you may find useful.

The Project on Middle East Democracy also discusses the state of politics.

The Bahrain Human rights monitor is a monthly newsletter on all aspects of human rights. Its website has some recent news on the elections.

Other sources of information on Human rights are Freedom House
and the Bahrain Human Rights watch Society which is hoping to create a new site to cover events. (to date this had not appeared).

Czech elections 2010 - useful sources for background information

Parliamentary elections are due to take place on the 15th October. Here are some useful links for tracing background information on the lectoral system and past elections. The IFES election calendar has basic facts about the electoral system and information on past elections from 1998 onwards.

The Ace Electoral Network project encyclopedia also has a good collection of basic facts Plus useful RSS news feeds from good resources.

If you are looking for past election results a good starting point is the European Elections database from 1990 onwards.

The Czech republic also has a web archive. This contains a number of thematic collections coverign previous elections. Here you can find archived versions of websites.

The Electoral Commission has its own website which contains reports and results from the mid 1990s onwards.

Political Transformation and the Electoral Process in Post-Communist Europe was a joint project of the University of Essex, ACEEEO (Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials) and IFES (International Federation of Election Systems). It aimed to provide access to information on the legal and political transformation of the electoral systems of former communist nations. The section on the Czech republic include laws, statistics and reports from 1990-2002

The OSCE has monitored past elections. Find reports on their conduct from 2002-2010

Bosnia elections october 3rd 2010

Bosnian elections also took place this week
Here are some resources where you can find out more about the winner and research elections in general.
Firstly you can check basic news stories from the Balkan insight round up.a news service maintained by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
Le Courrier des Balkans is a French association which seeks to develop solidarity with journalists in Balkan nations and to translate articles from the free press in the Balkan nations See summaries of French news and articles about the region.
The Central Election committee provides information on legislation and news of events. The site appears to be down at the moment but hopefully will reappear soon.
Other sources of information on the conduct of the elections and electoral system include:
The OSCE which sent an observation mission.. You can also consult other reports from 1996 onwards.
The Association of Election Officials in Bosnia Herzegovina was established in 1999 under the auspices of OSCE. It is a non-governmental organisation which seeks to encourage democratic elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its website provides information on the purpose of the organisation and its activities. It includes access to its newsletters, reports of meetings and reviews of recent elections
related to this it might also be worth taking a look at the more broader Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEO) which has some reports on voter registration and procedures in Eastern European nations.
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs is a non-profit organisation which works to strengthen and expand democracy worldwide. This section of its website provides basic background information on Bosnia & Herzegovina plus access to full-text reports, surveys and papers published by NDI about it from 1996 onwards.

Will a clown win the Brazilian elections?

This week presidential elections are taking place in Brazil.
Bloggers and newspapers have been talking about the popularity of a professional clown!

Here are some recommended strating points for finding out more established facts about the election!
IFES has a country guide to the system and results from previous elections.
The BBC has some succinct candidate profiles and links to the latest news stories.
the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral is the official electoral commission of Brazil.It contains information about its purpose, organisation, structure and current activities. This includes reports of recent elections and election monioring in Brazil. Users should note that all information is currently offered in Portuguese only.
Observatorio Electoral Latin America
Provides access to information about parliamentary and presidential elections in Latin American countries. Each section contains a country profile, background information on the electoral system and recent election results. Many of the country profiles also contain historical datasets of election results for downloading plus papers.
Observatoire Politique de l'Amérique latine et des Caraïbes (OPALC) is a major research body of staff, students and researchers based at Sciences Po, France. It organises events, researches and publishes on all aspects of Latin American politics. Its site currently includes discussion (in French) about Brazilian politics and elections.

Some useful blogs covering the elections are:
The Foreign Policy Association has a Brazil blog
OpenDemocracy Net has some recent discussion of Brazilian elections and politics.
The Brazil Portal managed by Woodrow Wilson International center for Scholars has materials from earlier in 2010.
Finally Eleitor is a useful intiative, created by a consortium who include (Global Voices, CDI) which is monitoring the conduct of the elections. It is using web 2,0 services such as Twitter and Google maps to record instances of fraud.

Afghanistan human rights, liberty and elections

According to Foreign Policy magazine the west should be worried about fraud in the forthcoming Afghan elections.
But what do others think.
Here are some organisations which monitor human rights and security in the region.
The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation unit is an independent body based in Kabul. Its website has papers on economic, social and political development. For instance see this recent alternative voices paper on the elections in 2010
The Afghanistan Analysts Network is an independent policy institute. Its website includes timely blogs and full text publications.
Also based in Afghanistan is the Independent Human Rights Commission
Amnesty International has general reports on Afghanistan.
Human Rights Watch
International Crisis Group.
Finally Human Security Gateway aggregates reports on security from many leading research and human rights bodies worldwide so is a good starting point for locating full text papers and reports.

Afghanistan - elections coming soon

Parliamentary elections are due to take place in Afghanistan on the 18th September. As I will be way for a couple of weeks I thought i would offer some starting points on researching them.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has some background information on the electoral system.
Also from the United Nations UNDP Elect site has summaries of news and background information. It includes a particularly good resources section where you will find full text reports and papers (many covering previous elections from 2004 onwards) published by the UN and other major aid and charitable organisations.
The Independent Election Commission is overseeing the events. Its website has a list of candidates, parties and links to electoral laws. Take a look at the press releases section for the latest news.
A number of bodies will be monitoring the elections. Their websites will include analysis of the conduct of the elections and state of democracy in the region.
FEFA - is the fair and Free election Foundation of Afghanistan. Its blog has updates on the situation.
The OSCE will also be deploying a mission.
NDI is also producing an Afghanistan election digest which is covering the work of its own observation mission.

Finally some good news sites.
Afghanistan Votes good news coverage and interviews as well as voter information.
Silobreaker aggregates recent blog, twitter and internet piostings covering the elections. Look for the mappings of news stories on the site.
Similarly Global voices has up to date bloggers discussion.

Labour Party leadership - other sources of research

Here are some useful websites for researching issues relating to the reform of the Labopur Party. Most dont address the election directly, but they are useful background on the type of thinking taking place in the party about its future direction.

Tribune magazine has online articles and discussion

Compass is a membership organisation which was launched in September 2003. It is composed of left of centre political thinkers who are seeking to critically discuss the future of Socialist/ Labour politics and government in the Uk. They include representatives from leading political think tanks Demos, Catalyst and the Fabian Society.

Open Left is a project aimed at renewing British left wing politics which was launched in 2009 by think tank Demos

Next Left is a blog mainatined by the Fabian Society

Renewal is a journal of labour politics which was established in 1993 by the UK Labour Party Central Co-ordinating Committee. It aims to promote dialogue about socialism. 'New Labour', the 'Third way,

Save the Labour Party grassroots group campaigning for more involvement from the rank and file.

Campaign for Labour Democracy - again seeking more power fro the grassroots.

Compare the candidates in the 2010 Labour Party elections

Unlock Democracy have just launched the Votematch tool to help you decide who you would support in the 2010 Labour Leadership election.

Some other useful places for finding news and discussion of the qualities of the candidates include newspapers
Many of the mainstream ones have special coverage.
For instance the Guardian has online video interviews, cartoons and stories.
The BBC has blogs and interviews as well as analysis of the candidates.
Channel 4 also has some interesting profiles and comments

Another interesting source of discussion are labour newsites.
Tribune magazine gives free access to some recent articles and comment.
Bloggers for Labour syndicates the latest comment from Twitter and bloggers among the Labour grassroots covering a wide range of topics!
LabourHome also has an interesting discussuion thread on the elections from Labour members and supporters.
Likewise more discussion on Labour List

finally Guido Fawkes for those seeking interesting comment and some cartoon images of the candidates!

Labour Leadership election- meet the candidates!

This week - a key event for the uk the Labour leadership election.
The best starting point is the official labour party website. This has a section which lists the candidates, and the rules.
The candidates are:
Diane Abbot campaign website
twitter
constituency website
They work for You (useful voting records, election results, membership of comittee and other facts)

Ed Balls
Campaign website
Twitter
Constituency website
They work for you.

Andy Burnham
campaign website
Twitter
Constituency
They work for you

David Miliband
Campaign website
Twitter
Constituency
They work for you.

Ed Miliband
Twitter
Campaign
Constituency
they work for you.

Australian elections - hung parliaments and other discussions

Following on from the elections a number of blogs ghave been discussing the hung parliament.
Some good examples are
News services
Crickey which has lots of comment and cartoons on the hung parliament!
The Drum from ABC
National Times Columnists
The Punch News Limited staff
Election Blackout was a group blog covering the elections in some detail. it included postings on the use of social media during the campaigns.
Tally Room - maintainmed by blog by Ben Raue. former Greens candidate in south-west Sydney. Includes maps of results.
Australian politics.com - maintained by Malcolm Farnsworth. Includes twitter feeds and links from other blogs.
Finally there is a useful Australian politics blog directory on the about Barton website where many more are listed.

Australian elections - good sites for keeping up to date with the news

This website has an excellent collection of links to the main national and regional newspapers from Australia
Most have special election coverage with interviews, polls and more.
The Australian has news polls, tweets and videos
canberra Times has multimedia discussion of issues in the region
Sydney Morning Herald has a Pulse blug as well as the usual news and reports
ABC public broadcaster has a special website with electoral calculators, interviews and news coverage.
Crickey is an alternative news service which has discussion, polls and satire
Angus reid global Monitor has summaries of most of the main newspaper and market research polls.
other useful blogs and news services include;
Inside story and other papers listed on Australian Policy online.
Womens Electoral Lobby discussion of womens issues and the election
Google Australia has information on google search trends, it also has links to the main YouTube channels of the parties where you can view promotional materials
For more information on the use ofm social media in the elections - take a look at the Mapping online publics website This is the blog for a research project called New Media and Public Communication: Mapping Australian User-Created Content in Online Social Networks, based at Queensland University of Technology.This has analysis of twitter postings and usage during the campaigns.

Australia elections 2010 starting points

Here are some good starting points for basic information on the elections.
Australian Electoral Commission
The Australian Electoral Commission is responsible for conducting Australian federal elections, maintaining the electoral register and providing electoral information to the public. Its website provides detailed information on the functions and structure of the Commission. It includes the relevant elements of the Commonwealth Electoral Act of 1918 which established its role. Also accessible are the full results of all federal elections and bye-elections from 1993 onwards from both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Links are also provided to the websites of Australian state and local electoral administration bodies

Electoral Council of Australia

a consultative body composed of election officials and commissioners from the Australian states and territories. It is concerned with all aspects of electoral administration. Its website provides access to information on the purpose of the body and its recent activities. It includes background information on the operation of the electoral system and the Australian system of proportional representation and recent reports from the council on such issues as elections, ballot papers, electoral registers, electoral reform and electronic voting.

Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters - Parliament of Australia

This is the official website of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, a committee of the Australian Parliament which scrutinises electoral procedures in Australia. Its website provides information on the history, purpose, membership and current work of the committee. It also includes access to its recent press releases and full-text reports. The latter cover such topics as the administration of elections, election registration and electoral funding in Australia

Australian Parliamentary library has guides, facts and repots on elections and the electoral system.

Australian policy online - has agood basic primer on Australian election

ABC news also has a good basic guide These include list of candidates, facts, a blog from political editor A. Green and more

Australia historic election resources

As Australia prepares to go to the polls here are some excelelnt recommended resources for finding out more about past elections.

Australian government and politics database

This website is maintained by researchers at the University of Western Australia. It provides free access to a wealth of facts and figures about Australian politics from 1890 to the present day. It includes results of all state assembly (lower house) general elections since 1890. Results for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT 1989-) and the Northern Territory (NT 1974-); summary information on political parties which have won more than 2 percent of the vote or won a seat at any of the general elections; lists of government members; dates and summary information about Australian prime ministers. Also avaiable is a searchable glossary of Australian political terms. 2010 results are to be added soon!

Democratic Audit resources.
Since 2002 a team at the Australian National University has been conducting Audits to assess Australia’s strengths and weaknesses as a democratic society. Acess their full text reports online.

Electoral campaigns: Pandora Archive
PANDORA is a major project of the National Library of Australia which aims to archive key Australian Internet resources and websites for posterity. This section preserves materials relating to state and federal elections in Australia from 1996 onwards. There are large separate collections for the 2004 and 2007 elections. These include snapshots of sites taken during different stages of the campaigns. They include websites maintained by political parties, candidates, news services; media and lobby groups.

Trove

The Trove website is maintained by the National Library of Australia. It aims to provide a single search point to trace reliable information about Australia and Australians. These include digitised materials from the Australian archives, academic institutions and museums as well as resources about Australia produced by overseas institutions. All types of materials are indexed including multimedia, images, archives, newspapers, books, journal articles and theses. All subject areas of the sciences, social sciences and humanities are covered; with a particular emphasis upon Australian political, social and economic history. A search for elections brings up historic photos, newspaper articles and references to books.

Rwanda elections - 'meaningful participation by all?'

This week presidential elections took place in Rwanda.
Foreign policy journal discussed the outcome on its website
The official government website has results and information on the procedures. It refers to meaningful participation in the elections by all Rwandans. The Rwanda Press centre (managed by the Media High Council) also has some positive comment. However a number of other organisations gave critical comments on the system in the run up to the elections. here are some good places for locating comment.
Committee to protect Journalists - argued that there was no critical press
Rwanda Info noted reports by the FDU committee on irregularities.
Amnesty International reported on pre-election attacks as did Human Rights Watch
There is also a useful blog Democracy watch Rwanda 2010 created by aid worker Susan Thompson which gives a personal view on events on the ground.
The Commonwealth also sent an observer mission Its preliminary statements notes positive and negative aspects.
Finally try searching the Institute of Security Studies website for articles and analysis of the state of democracy and security in Rwanda and the excellent Human Security Gateway has links to the latest news and research reports from centres of research worldwide.

Favourite african elections resources

This week a selection of our recommended sites for finding out more about parliamentary and presidential elections in Africa.

Africa Governance, Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP)

is a special project of the Open Society Institute which is working in conjunction with NGOs to promote democracy and the rule of law in African nations. Its website provides access to information about the aims of the project and its activities. It includes access to the full-text of a library of online press releases, articles, papers and reports published by its partners since 2000. Key areas of concern are political participation, election monitoring reports, government accountability and delivery of public services in Africa, civil justice systems. Although many African nations are covered principle areas of research are: South Africa, Senegal, Mozambique and Ghana.

Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa

was established in 1996 to promote fair and free elections in South Africa and has not evolved into the Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa, with a broader remit. The website provides information on the current voting registration and electoral systems. It also covers democracy and governance. Also accessible on the site are recent election results, data on womens parliamentary representation in addition to country profiles and comparative tables.


African Elections Project
co-ordinated by the International Institute for ICT Journalism in association with other partners and funding from Open Society Initiative for West Africa. It is particularly concerned with developing the use of ICT for elections in West Africa. The main case studies cover presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana, Cote d 'lvoire, and Guinea from 2008/9. The website provides information on the aims, methods and activities of the project. Each country section contains the full election results, plus access to examples of selected blogs, online videos and websites developed to cover the election campaigns.

Africa South of the Sahara: politics & government

An annotated guide to Internet sites relating to politics and government in Africa. This is part a larger Web guide to Africa-related sites called "Africa South of the Sahara", produced by Stanford University (USA). It is designed for students, faculty, librarians, and others. it includes links to sites covering African elections, political parties and political events.


Web Dossiers ASC Leiden
The Library, Documentation and Information Department of the African Studies Centre, University of Leiden prepares regular dossiers of useful resources to guide students and researchers studying African poliitcs, sporting events and economics. They typically include a bibliography of relevant journal articles, reports and papers . Note that while in some cases, the full text is accessible, in the majority, abstracts only can be read online. There is also a directory of links to the websites of key news sources and other research organisations where information on elections can be found.

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.

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

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.

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

German presidential elections 2010

Today Germans are going to the polls in a snap presidential election which is widely seen as a test to the authority of referendum on the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A brief summary of why the elections are taking place and the main candidates is provided by the Robert Schuman Fondation.
The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at John Hopkins University has a number of links to English and German articles where you can read more about the issues at stake
Readers of German should take a look at the civic education site maintained by BpB
This has background information on the history and purpose of the elections. Ther eis also an online dictionary of political terms which you can get for your mobile phone!
Get some up to date newspaper coverage from the main daily German newspapers
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has news, videos and polls
Der Spiegel coverage includes an interactive map
Zeit online coverage
Welt
Mediaskop Politics maintained by the Universität Hohenheim provides regular updates on coverage of political issues in the German Media - find out which politicians and parties are making the news.
ZDF Politbarometer maintained by ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) also provides free access (in German language only) to a collection of political opinion polls and recent interviews where you can examine recent trends.
Fot those who cannot read German some English language summaries of recent polls can be found on the Augus Reid Global Monitor website.

Guinea election will technology enhance democracy?

Elections have been taking place in Guinea
According to news posted on All.Africa.com sms texting will increase democracy by enabling closer voters to receive messages and report abuses
CENI the official electoral body has a website where you can find out more. This includes news and background information on the electoral system
All africa.com also offers free news headlines from Guinea on events

A number of monitoring organisations have websites which are observing the conduct of the elections, including the work of CENI
EU observation mission
The Carter Center which has a blog from reporters in the field
EISA - a body from South Africa
NDI has worked in the region in the past and its website has historic reports on democratization initiatives.

Another good starting point fro news espacially up to the minute use of technology) is the twitter feed from the African Elections project. This is co-ordinated by
The International Institute for ICT Journalism. The main website has useful news stories and background information in French

There is also some discussion from bloggers on Global Voices onlineincluding this useful posting on the role and usage of twitter.

Slovakia elections - who won?

According to unofficial results released by the Slovak Statistical Bureau yesterday, Saturday’s parliamentary elections in Slovakia were won by Slovak PM Robert Fico’s left-wing Social Democrats
articles and discussion of the election outcome can be found in the following news resources -
Spectator
Radio Slovakia International This includes a collection of articles on the elections
Some commemntators have claimed that the exit polls did not reflect the final result. You can check some polls on the FOCUS research site. English language translations and summaries are on the Angus Reid site
Other useful sources of information on the state of democracy are
IVO - the institute for Public Affairs. This has some free access to papers and reports about politics and foreign policy in Slovakia

Transparency International Slovakia has recent surveys and news stories on political, social and economic corruption. Although much of the site is not offered in English.
More historic materials on democratization programmes can be found on the NDI website
finally you might like to take a look at the OSCE election observation mission to the 2010 elections. At present this has a preliminary needs assessment but fuller reports are likely to be aded in the near future.

Voting at railway stations in the Netherlands

This week voters in the Netherlands went to the polls. Radio Netherlands reported that the decision to place some voting booths in stations was a success.
In 2008 researchers from Stanford University argued that location effects voting bhaviour see the abstract and references for Contextual priming: Where people vote affects how they vote on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences website.

The UK Political Studies Association database also has papers from its conferences (1994-2010) which cover voting behaviour.
And American Political Studies Association conference papers 2002 onwards can also be viewed from their website

The ACE Electoral Knowledge Encyclopedia contains articles on arange of topics covering all aspects of elections and electoral systems.

finally it might be useful to take a look at the International Idea voter turnout database - does a differnet electoral system or method of voting increase political participation?

Historic Netherlands election resources

On a related theme the Netherlands has also digitised some excelelnt historic materials relating to its political and electoral history.

Databank verkiezingsuitslagen - Dutch election results
created by the Dutch Election Council to provide free access to information and statistical data from Dutch election. These include the results from Senate, House, local, European elections and Dutch referendums. Many materials are offered from 1848 onwards.It is possible to get tables of results for years, regions and parties. Some are offered in Dutch only.

Verkiezingsaffiches
This site has been created by the Documentatiecentrum Nederlandse Politieke Partijen (Documentation Centre for Dutch Political Parties) which is based at the University of Groningen. It provides free access to an online collection of political posters from Dutch political parties. These cover the period 1918 onwards, with new materials being added regularly. They include examples from the mainstream and smaller parties and posters used in election campigns in the Netherlands. Posters can be sorted by party or year. Some annotations on content are provided in Dutch.

The main website of the Documentation Centre for Dutch Political Parties also has a section for publications where you can find full text copies of the yearbook of the DPP and information on political party archives.

Archipol is a joint project of the Documentation Centre for Dutch Political Parties (Documentatiecentrum Nederlandse politieke partijen; DNPP) and the Groningen University Library. It aims to electronically archive the websites of the main political parties in Holland. Its website provides information on the aims and progress of the project. It includes access to technical papers and presentations on its work from 2000 to the present day. It also includes online access to the archived websites. These include coverage of the websites of political parties during the 2006 Netherlands elections

Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies is developed and maintained by the board of SKON (the Dutch Foundation for Electoral Research). The site is offered in Dutch or English. The English language version contains information on the Dutch electoral system and all parliamentary results in the Netherlands from 1848 to the present day. It also offers some information on the election studies of the Dutch electorate. Users should note that at present most datasets are not available for downloading. There are links to data archives where statistical information can be found.

Finally for general interets the great Memory of the Netherlands website offers free access to a vast collection of online resources (images, photographs, documents) relating to Dutch economic, political and social history.

Netherlands snap election June 9th

A snap election will be taking place tomorrow in the Netherlands. The government collapsed on 20 February 2010 when the Labour Party ministers resigned over differences on whether to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan.
Here are some useful starting points for following events.
A basic guide to the electoral system as well as results of previous elections can be found on the IFES website
The Dutch Electoral Council has official information in English about the elections. This includes an explanation of preocedures and regulations. The Dutch version of the website sems to have more detailed statistics on past elections.
In terms of news coverage - a good starting point is the Radio Netherlands website. Take a look at the weekly press reviews for summaries of recent Dutch articles.There are alos videos of Dutch politics
Another useful site with election news is NRC. Take a look at the primer on Dutch elections and parties.
the Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek (IPP) also has a excellent dossier on the elections. some of it is in Duttch. But there are good listings of links to parties manifestoes, political leaflets and posters from the campaigns

Predict who is going to win by looking at opnion polls on these websites.
Politieke Barometer
Peil.Nl
and TNS
Finally the OSCE will be reviewing the elections. Look for current and past reports of missions on their website

Have Czech electors moved to the right?

According to the BBC voters have moved to the right in the Czech elections of the
28th May. But is this right get some more information from these useful websites.
Basic background information on the elections and past election results can be obtained from the IFES website which has an excellent election guide.
the osce has also sent an observation mission which has a preliminary needs assessment and reports on earlier elections from 1998 and 2002.
The Czech Statistical Office has an English language website with official results, turnout and parties. Volby.Cz also has statistics from past elections from 1996 onwards.
Newspaper coverage of events can be found on the following sites.
The Prague Post has an election Watch section
Prague Daily Monitor
Czech happenings (English title) has a section of press reviews from the campaigns. These are a useful starting point for finding out Czech opinions.
Transitions online last week discussed concerns that the facebook generation were boycotting the polls.Note that many items on the site are offered to subscribers only.
For those who can read Czech SANEP has opinion polls and market research relating to the elections. English language summaries of some of the polls can be read on the Angus Reid monitor website

Bangladesh elections - new report

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangladesh has just launched a new independent study Elections in Bangladesh 2006-2009: transforming failure into success.

Intute has a good collection of links to other websites on this topic

The official Election Commission website has recent results, lists of candidates and full text legislation

The Alliance for Democracy and Reform in Asia also has some useful press releases and news about the state of democracy in the region.

Landslide victory in Ethiopia polls

A fourth term landslide victory was announced in the Ethiopian elections for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the ruling EPRDF party. Listen to the BBC world service coverage of the events.
The site also includes a montage of opinions from Ethiopians and some assessments of alleged poll irregularities.
The National Election Board of Ethiopia has some provisional results, lists of candidates and background information on the elections.

Further news coverage is on the IRIN news and All Africa.com
Human Rights Watch has condemned government repression during the elections
The EU is observing the elections and has placed a preliminary statement on the website.
Background facts, figures and results from past elections can be viewed on the African Elections Database
The IFES website which has some reports from 2005 and coverage of democratization programmes
Further background on security can also be obtained from the International Crisis Group website.
Finally a really good website which is summarising all the news and reports is Ethiopia Election Watch It is maintained by human rights group Aigawatch

Presidential elections in the Dominican Republic

This week there have been some elections in the Domenican Republic. here are some recommended starting points for research.

The Official Electoral Junta website has official details on the poll, candidates and results.

newspaper coverage can be found on the websites of these national newspapers:
Hoy digital
El Nacional
Dominican Today
Listindiario
A number of international observation teams witnessed the elections. Their reports and press releases might also prove useful.
see OAS at present just a press release
Carter Center has reports on earlier missions in the 1990s
NDI also has reports on previous elections
if you are interested in historic information the Political database of the Americas maintained by George Washington University has local and national election results since the 1960s.

Report on Uk voting problems published

2010 UK Parliamentary General Election Interim Report: Review of problems at polling stations at close of poll on 6 May 2010 - Electoral Commission. According to the commission at least 1,200 people lost their chance to vote on election night because of bad planning by councils

The Guardian datablog has a useful spreadsheet of places where the electorate couldn't vote.You can donload it directly from the website.

The OSCE ODIHR also deployed a mission to the Uk elections - some preliminary needs assessments are currently online.
In response to the elections Institute Public policy research has published a report Devising an Electoral System for the 21st Century: The case for AMS

Philippine elections online- harassed voting machines and more!

Following on from the Earlier postingon evoting in the 2010 Philippine elections. Here is some more on the use of the web.
The elections have been characterised by increased use of social media. Some interesting examples include the cult following for the twitter feed from a harassed vote counting machine!
Bloggers were also accredited by the election body to provide official coverage of events.
They include BlogWatch
Vote Report Philippines 2010, a project of the Computer Professionals Union which has examples of google maps being uused to monitor individual polling stations.
Kontra Daya 2010, a multisectoral and interfaith elections monitoring watchdog
and 100ARAW.com, a collaborative 100-day online countdown to the elections which also has some interesting materials on the elections online and an election day blog.

citizen net juan watch also united to monitor the elections. Their site has examples of recent postings.
USHAIDI technology has also been used to map incidents of failures of voting machine technology

Purple Thumb Live created a site for live blogging of the elections. Take a look for entries throughout the day.

Philippines elections evoting and more!

Of course the Uk is not the only nation which has recently gone to the polls. Millions have been voting to queue in the Philippines where national and presidential elections have been held. They include widespread use of voting machines. A twitter feed has even been launched which claims to be a harassed machine and attracted 100s of eager followers!
Here are some useful starting points for finding out more.

The Official election Commission site has the latest results . It also includes an explanation of the e-voting procedurewith sample ballot papers. Other features of the site include explanations of electoral law and procedures.
Sites containing election news - including the following national newspapers and news services Manila Bulletin
The Inquirer which has a large specialist politics website with polls, interviews and comment.
ABS News
GMA news where the website features video interviews, interactive maps of election campaigns and more.
Yahoo also has a good aggregation of election news
The Asia Foundation has some comment on its In Asia newsletter
Opinion poll results can be viewed via the major companies Social Weather Stations and PulseAsia
A number of independent watchdogs are also monitoring the conduct of the election. Their websites include press releases, comment and report on conduct.
National Citizens Movement for Free elections It includes some papers on electronic voting.
AFREL - Asian Network for Free Elections has sent an observation mission. Some preliminary statements have been posted on the website.
International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a programme in the Philippines to strength democracy. Its website includes background information on democratization and voter education.
NDI National Democratic Institute also has a Philippines delegation. Read their comments on e-voting and find out more background on democracy strengthening programmes
Finally Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) has some useful materials. Thes einclude reports, press releases and some voter education materials. The latter include online videos of mock voting demonstrations and presidential forum discussions.

Who is the new prime minster?

Yesterday it was announced that David Cameron had become the new Prime Minister
Here are some sites where you can find out more.
His official website tells you that his hobbies include growing vegetables. You can also download details of expenses and look at recent speeches.
the 10 Downing Street Flickr
and YouTube channels now contain information on Cameron. You can watch his acceptance speech and recent conversation with Barack Obama

However more detailed information on Cameron can be found on these websites.
The BBC has photographs and comment on Camerons life
the Guardian Aristotle database has facts and figures, the paper also has videos and recent news stories.
TheyWork for you has an excellent listing of recent parliamentary activity, questions, expenses and work in his constituency.
Finally the Political Studies Association Uk (PSA) conference proceedings database has some full text papers on David Cameron's leadership of the Conservative Party. See this example from 2007 which considered whether Cameron had feminized the party

Did you have any trouble voting?

One of the news stories relating to election day was the claim that many people did not get to vote as the polling stations closed before they got their chance.

The Electoral Commission has now launched an investigation where members of the public can write in with their experiences.
The BBC website provides an introduction to what they regard as the root problems. It also contains a discussion forum where members of the public have put their comments This includes footage of queues shot from mobile phones.
The Channel 4 factblog considers claims that the problems were caused by high turnout and ultimately finds them to be a fiction.
Finally another interesting site to watch is the OSCE election observatiuon team who will be reporting on the consuct of the British elections.

Lib-Dems - what will they do?

The final results have indeed revealed a hung parliament. The Guardian has a spreadsheet where you can download date for each constiuency
But the question now seems to be what will the libDems do? Most of the Uk newspapers have columns discussing this at length
See David Camerons offer to them via the BBC website
and Gordon Brown's statement
The Official LibDem website has Nick Cleggs statement and will be posting further press releases
LibDem blogs has some comment on the situation from his supporters
as does the LibDem Voice website where members are being urged to have their say. They also have a twitter account
The Next Left blog from the Fabian society today said most of the public supported a coalition.
The BBC also has a good text feed of comment including postings from bloggers and journalists
Finally you might want to compare the content of the manifdestos yourself. The Guardian has a good visual display of the words which may offer insight as well as links to the full text.