Equatorial-Guinea elections - what are the human rights issues?

Equatorial-Guinea is due to hold elections on 26th May 2013. See the IFES guide for basic facts on the forthcoming and recent elections.
Get the government perspective on their official website. This includes a section on election news.
they also have a blog which has some coverage of events.

However commentators have raised issues about the state of human rights and civil liberties in the region- try these links to get the facts.

Reporters Without Frontiers has accounts of opposition social media and websites being blocked
All Africa.com also has a good selection of recent news stories which focus on this and other related human rights issues.
Amnesty International has expressed concerns about the treatment of opposition politicians. See also their annual report for a more general discussion of wider conditions.
Human Rights Watch also has coverage in its annual report plus more recent statements.
Freedom House has an annual ranking of freedom in the world. See its latest entry
Genocude Watch reports on Equatorial Guinea.
US Department of State 2012 country report on human rights practices.

finally an excellent resource is EG Justice Justice for Guinea. It has a section on its website called election concerns.

Pakistan elections - check out our recommended research starting points

This wek voters in Pakistan went to the polls.
here are some recommended sites for beginning academic research

The Pakistan Election Commission has official press releases, lists of candiates and results on its website. Also accessible are election notices, regulations and rules
it also worked with the government of Pakistan on creating the about MyVote.pk to provide the electorate with information on where and how to vote. Also associated with this was the Jaag Pakistan website which aimed to encourage reporting of electoral fraud and violence. it uses crowd sourced technology. View the online map for reported instances.

News Services
The BBC has a summary of key events and players as well as current news stories.
The Guardian has a good introductory guide as well as the latest news stories.
Dawn - has a special feature with party profiles and detailed analysis.
Pakistan elections com has news and results.It also has an interactive map of results
Bashaoor Pakistan also has updated news from Pakistan
PTV has a large election 2013 website with results and analysis from Pakistan TV. You can also download an election app. and get access to past election statistics.
Newsweek pakistan coverage

Monitoring reports
here are some resources for discussion on the conduct of the elections and state of democracy innthe region.
A recent poll by the Pew Center found that muslims are sceptical about the state of democracy

European Union observation reports. from the reports of the Observer mission.
NDI has a preliminary statement from observers.
Global voices online has discussion from bloggers.
Pakvotes has been using social media to help voters. it provides free access to a number of monitorign reports from human rights agencies.
Another site using social media to assess conduct is pakvoter which has both twitter and facebook accounts.


The Free and fair elections network is also a good source of reports on political violence, corruption and the state of democracy
and there was a gender election monitoring misison deployed from Gender Concerns International

Malaysia elections - were they fair?

At the beginning of May elections took place in Malaysia.
Al- Jazeera raised the question could they be fair?
Here are our recommended research links.

Official Election Commission Of Malaysia Website (Malay) has results and information about the electoral system
It includes links to a special election dashboard. and an official  election 2013 portal



the main political party sites with their manifestoes are;
Barisan Nasional (English)

Pakatan Rakyat
  News coverage
Good English language sources which contauin anlysis, reults and commentary on candidates are
The Star Online.
ABC News from Australia has a gallery of images and commentary. Guardian UK Al-Jazeera Channel news Asia has a special section Malaysia decides with twitter, video and text coverage.   New Mandala has some coverage . It was established in June 2006 by Dr Andrew Walker and Dr Nicholas Farrelly.  Hosted by the Australian National University (ANU) College of Asia and the Pacific, it provides anecdote, analysis and new perspectives on mainland Southeast Asia     civil/ human rights organisations commenting on the elections include: Asian Network for Free elections (ANFREL) MAFREL Malaysians for Free Elections - see their Facebook comments. KOMAS - Malaysian human rights organisation Bersih 2.0 see also Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for general background

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.