UK Election 2017 - 19-30th April 2017

Here are some key publications
Gina Miller Best for Britain Campaign supporting candidates backing a soft Brexit and encouraging tactical voting.

Open Britain has a map of key constituencies which it is targettign to campaign for a soft brexit

Jeremy Corbyn has released 10 pledges on his website which wil form the basis of the party manifesto. they also posted on facebook their pledges about the NHS

UKIP launch integration strategy - including banning of face veils

House of commons Library research briefing Political disengagement in the UK: who is disengaged?

France presidential elections useful resources

As the first round of the French presindetial elections will be happening soon here are some useful academic resources.

Official government resources
Check the regulations and official candidate lists on the Constitutional Court website

News coverage

France

France 24    
includes a vote compass for you to pick your candidate

 L'Express

Le Monde

Figaro

Humanite

Foreign news.

BBC

Guardian 

Huffington Post has daily poll summaries

Independent

 New York Times 

Washington Post

Economist

Sciences Po Cevipol

Boussole for testing which candidate you should vote for  

Cevipol election studies of voter interest and engagement

Polls

Commission des sondages has lists and results from recent polls

major agencies include:  Presitrack

elabe

Depuis 1958 has an anlysis of the polls

Social Media trends

facebook tools

Google Trends 

Bakamore social is conducting  a study of social media trends in the election.

Ezy Insights - election on Facebook

Turkey referendum

A constitutional referendum was held throughout Turkey on 16 April 2017 on whether to approve 18 proposed amendments to the Turkish constitution that were brought forward by the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (M

Basic guides to the referendum
IFES
Middle East Institute
Brookings 

The Turkish Supreme Electoral council has some information in English about the electoral system and electoral laws
the main presidency website has an English section with recent speeches and press releases

News stories and analysis
Hurriyet
CNN turkey has breakdowns of the results by region

Guardian

Analysis
Carnegie Europe
Economist - Turkey is sliding into dictatorship
Foreign Affairs

Newsweek - why the referendum matters to the US and the world

OpenDemocracy Net
LSE blogs

The Atlantic
Human Rights watch

Observation report of the conduct of the referendum

OSCE reports

Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe

AEGEE reasons for not observing

Background information on the state of democracy in Turkey

Chatham House

Rand

Freedom House

Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch

UK election 2017- fixed term parliaments - what are they?

As a UK general election is anounced for June.A question people are asking is what is a fixed term parliament and how does it effect elections?

The 2011 Fixed Parliaments Act sets out the terms for early elections.
A simple explanation was offered by the Guardian
the House of Commons Library has also produced a briefing paper to the act.

the statement and reaction

Theresa Mays election statement - transcript from the Independent

Jeremy Corbyn twitter

Nicola Sturgeon SNP

Libdems

Green Party

Scottish Independence - should there be an indy2?

Last week SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon wrote to Theresa May to request a second independence referendum for Scotland
The Scottish government has an official video
and the parliamentary website provides details of the Scottish Parliament vote in favour of the referendum.
you can can read the full text of the speech from 13th March when Ms Sturgeon called for a second referendum in the face of 'hard brexit'
The Scottish website has background on the call for the referendum
this includes details of the consultation on a draft referendum bill which closed in January 2017

Fullfact has considered whether Scotland can legally hold another referendum
Good discussion can also been found on the UK Constitutional Law Blog


News sources.
Scottish Sun 
Scottish Herald
Scotsman 
Daily Record

Opinion polls.
Good sources for recent comment

What Scotland thinks. It also includes excellent analysis from expert John Curtice.

 ScotCen - published a recent survey on what Scottish voters think of the independence voting.

YouGov report

Research discussion- the Conversation blog. 
 

Serbian elections 2017. What happened? were they fair?

Presidential elections were held in Serbia on 2 April 2017. What happened? Were they fair? Get some starting points with our academic links.

IFES Election Guide has basic information on the electoral system/ and turnout rates from recent elections since 2000

The Republic of Serbia Election Commission has an official website in English with background information on the process, electoral law as well as recent news. It includes a section on the 2017 elections.

For recent news good sources are:

EUROPP blog from the LSE. The most recent entry on the Serbian elections includes a survey of diaspora voters.

B92 news

Radio Free Europe  note the information about its origins.

Balkan Insight 

2017 election assessments

The following organisations have sent missions to observe the election. their websites have notes and assessments

OSCE/ ODIHR

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) 

Democracy Human rights assessments of Serbia
Freedom House Freedom in the World Report

 Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch

Freedom of the Press Serbia- Freedom House