Burundi elections should they be postponed?

Parliamentary elections should take place in Burundi on 5th June. However according to the BBC African leaders have urged that they be postponed.

on 28th may the EU suspended its election observation mission. in its statement it refers to an atmosphere of intimation rendering the elections impossible 

IPU has background data on the  electoral system.
The national election commission has communiques and lists of candidates about the conduct of the elections.

get news stories from All Africa.com.
IRIN Humanitarian news.

analysis
International Crisis Group calls it a moment of truth. Other reports express concern it will re open violence.
Human Rights Watch refers to deadly violence being used against protestors
Amnesty International writes of the government pursuing a campaign of intimidation.
Africa Research institute has an interactive map of elections in Africa in 2015, with articles and some analysis
United Nations concerns
ISS south Africa analysis of security.
Iteka -- Ligue Burundaise des Droits de l'Homme (Bujumbura, Burundi)

Poland elections update

Poland elections update.
President Komorowski loses to challenger Duda

see our list of useful links to news resources and background summaries.

For some more information on the new president. see his website 
Twitter account.

website of the Law and Justice party.

Reaction.from Europe
European Council on Foreign Relations- asked what happened.

Guardian refers to a shift to the right.
Irish times says it augurs ill  for EU relations.
Open Europe.

Reaction from Russia
TASS  believes it can improve relations with Russia
However Moscow Times sees it as stagnating

Assessments
OSCE observation reports assess the state of democracy and conduct of the elections.
European Platform for Democratic elections.
Silba

Ireland - same-sex marriage referendum 2015 academic research resources

Ireland will hold a referendum on 22 May on a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which would permit same sex marriage. Use these links to trace useful academic resources for research.
Referendum Commission has the official text of the question and spells out the changes to the constitution.

News sites.
BBC introduction and news stories.
Irish Times Ipso poll  May 2015 scroll down for questions on same-sex marriage. this discusses the voting intention by age, gender and class as well as considering the issue of children's right which has been a key issue in the campaigns. Main news coverage.
RTE news and coverage. 
News Statesman

Pro - campaigns and statements.
Irish Times editorial
Amnesty International
Barnados
Law Society of Ireland
Fine Gael political party support

Marriage Equality - a grass roots NGO. website is supporters of the Yes Equality campaign.
and the Selfies for Yes social media campaign through the launch of a Yes Equality App.
Belong to Yes- nationwide coalition of leading youth and children’s organisations campaigning for a YES vote

Social media pro campaigns
Yes equality
Mrs Brown for yes equality Youtube
Yes Equality facebook.
Mashable has photographs of pro murals

Anti- Campaign
Keep Marriage supported by Mothers and Fathers Matter.
Iona Institute
Meaning of Marriage Irish Catholic  Bishops conference 
Facebook

Polish presidential elections 2015

Polish presidential elections have been going on this week.
Euronews has a quick guide on everything you need to know!

On the LSE EUROPP blog Aleks Szczerbiak predicted a close result.The Polish Politics blog has further in-depth analysis from him of the issues at stake.
European Election Monitor has some analysis from the Robert Schumann Centre which examines the importance of the election and its political background.

Electoral system and previous elections.

IFES has recent turnout data and information on the electoral system.

National Election Commission Poland - results in Polish only.

ACE Project also has background papers and results in English. this includes sumaries of electoral laws and recent articles.

News summaries.
Political news in English from
Radio Poland
New York Times.
Guardian
School of Slavonic and East European studies links to Polish language websites.


Assessments
OSCE observation reports assess the state of democracy and conduct of the elections.
European Platform for Democratic elections.
Silba

UK election postmortem.

Last week in our scoop.it page  we collected statements in support of political groups from newspapers.
who did the Economist think should govern Britain?
the sunday express endorsed UKIP
the Observer Labour

This week election post-mortem.
examining the problems with the polls.
examples include: IPSO statement
British Polling Council statement
YouGov post-mortme

Kazakhstan Presidential elections 2015 - 97.7 % victory

Presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan on 26 April 2015. Nursultan Nazarbayev of Nur Otan, got his 5th term of office wining 97.7% of the vote.

Here are some useful links:

The Central Electoral Commission has an official website in English which has recent and past results and details of electoral law.

The OSCE monitored the elections and found in its preliminary report a 'lack of voter choice' . Its website also has notices and reports relating to earlier observations in the region.

Other organisations with reports on the recent state of democracy in the region include:

United Nations reports on the state of ratification and observations relating to UN documents.

Freedom House

Indeed in its 2015 State of Freedom in the World Report it ranked it as unfree. The full report provides details of the methodology used.

Human Rights Watch reports.

Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights. has English language news and reports relating to government policy and also links to international monitoring reports.

IFEX has recent reports on lack of freedom of expression in the region.

Open Democracy - recent bloggers discussion.

Eurasianet.org

operated by the Eurasia Program of the Open Society Foundations. has commentary and recent news reports.

UK Election news this week

This week the   

Libdems release disability manifesto

commentary on the main party manifestos- here is a selection of what we have added

Nuffield trust
IFS
UCU
Centre for Social Justice debate on compassion in British politics.
Milifandom


Get the full results and more on our scoop.it page which has links to the latest manifestos and comment.
http://www.scoop.it/t/election-2015

other major new Sites for election decision making this week.

Fantasy Front page
Who would be your fantasy front bench for the UK government choose 22 politicians. This fun open source tool has been created with the support of mySociety and Joseph Rowntree Trust using data from Public Whip and They Work For You. It encourages voters to deepen their knowledge of the work of politicians by providing them with information on individual MP voting records on specific issues.

Other recommended voter education tools for 2015 include:

Democratic dashboard find out the facts and figures about local constituencies.

Vote for policies not personalities. – supported by the Joseph Rowntree Trust. Encourages voters to examine the content of the manifestos

Who gets my vote from Queen Mary College. Answer the questions to find out your party.

Position dial produced in collaboration with the University of Westminster enables users to compare their own viewpoint with party policies using a online dial.

Vote match from unlock democracy. Take the quiz and in under 5 minutes find out who you should vote for!

Remember we are storing more reports and reaction on our scoop.it page










Try our scoop.it page which has links to the latest manifestos and comment.





http://www.scoop.it/t/election-2015