Taiwan elects first woman president- find out more with our academic links

Last week Taiwan elected its first woman president.
She has an official website and Facebook page which offer insight into policies and campaigns.

The central Election Commission has background on the electoral system. It also created a 2016 election page with official results in English. The National News Agency Focus Taiwan provides free access to recent articles.

News reports can be viewed on these websites:
Guardian
New York Times
Economist 
Taipei Times
Time 
South China Morning Post.
Deutsche Welt

Think tank assessments of the possible impact and background

Carnegie Endowment background paper from september 2015
 C-span video discussion from experts about the election. September 2015
Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada assessment
CRS insight - Jan 12th 2016, prepared for members of congress
China Focus - simulation of results conducted before the poll
Academic discussion from the Conversation blog 
University of Nottingham - China Policy Blog 
Frozen Garlic blog from Nathan Batto an Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica and Jointly Appointed Assistant Research Fellow at the Election Study Center, National Chengchi University.

 Taiwan Brain Trust is a foreign policy Institute dealing with cross-straits relations. Its website has news and reports

 Taiwan Foundation for Democracy has background news and report son the state of democracy in the region

 

 

Central African Republic elections- get the facts

On 30th December the Central African Republic went to the polls after years of conflict. Use our links to get free access to academic resources.

News service resources.
Guardian
All africa.com has summaries of news stories many taken from African news sources.


Background on the electoral system
Official electoral commission website (French) very basic under construction.
International Idea Election Guide
Ace project encyclopedia entries on the region include details of the electoral system. there are also reports of election observation missions from 1993-2004

Background information on political and human rights in the region.
Freedom house reports rank the region as unfree
Amnesty International reports on conflict
Human Rights Watch reports
African Research Institute has some articles. scroll down and expand the country name.
UNDP work in Central African republic has background on peace plans and the constitutional referendum in December 2015
NDI electoral process strengthening work and projects in the region.
EISA - Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa- resources. includes observation reports from elections 2010-2014
search website of African Studies Centre Leiden University to find references to articles and books. The connecting Africa option provides free access to references and in wherever possible

 Election observation reports.
Press releases from the United Nations on the conduct of the elections.
African Union observations

Spanish elections get the facts

Spain went to the polls recently.
get the facts behind the election and the results using our academic links

Background.
the official website of the central election authority has background information on the electoral system, legislation . It is possible to generate maps of results.
The Ministry of the Interior website has information for voters and preliminary results.
Spain political data yearbook information from before the elections

News coverage of events.
Guardian newspaper.
El Pais
El Mundo
Spain report - English translations of Spanish text
RTVE has access to online TV debates between leaders
as well as analysis and news coverage 

Polls

Metroscopia polls

Celeste-Tel

GESOP 

Logica

Analysis 

from the Conversation blog.

It includes a very good background explainer.

Piedras de  papel blog

EUROPP - LSE. it includes live blog coverage of the polling night

CIS analysis of polls and social economic and political barometers.

Real Instituto Elcano

 

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

Venezuela elections November 2015- get some facts from academic resources

This week elections took place in Venezuela what were the results? what was the background and possible outcome?
find out more using our recommended academic resources.

The official electoral body has a website with results and regulations.

IFES has some background information on the elections plus discussion of the conduct. 
CRS Insight prepared as a background for US politicians.

News services

AVN (spanish language) 
El Nacional 
Guardian newspaper
Economist has a primer and discussion.
 New York Times editorial (from November) and news
Venezuela analysis.com
Venezuelanalysis.com is a project of Venezuela Analysis, Inc., which is registered as a non-profit organization in New York State and of the Fundación para la Justicia Económica Global,

Polls
Barometropolitico.com
Americans Barometer polls on political attitudes. 1995-2014
 

Think tank reports
these provide background to the political/ human rights situation. state of democracy
Brookings Institution
International Crisis Group
Bloomberg
Foreign Policy
Council on Foreign Relations 
Carnegie Endowment 
Amnesty International 
Human Rights Watch

Myanmar Elections - recommended research resources.

Historic elections have took place in Myanmar this week.
Here are some of our recommended resources for academic research.

Guardian coverage

Coverage from election observation missions.
These have reports on the conduct of the elections.

EU Observation mission
Carter center
Asian Network for Free Elections. 
Gender Concern 


Background information on the state of democracy in the region.
NDI has previously organised education and other programmes details of which are on its website.
Princeton University elections and political transitions workshop 2015 report 
Chatham House Feb 2015 research paper
Myanmar’s Troubled Path to Reform: Political Prospects in aLandmark Election Year 
see also the more recent comments  

 

Myanmar’s Troubled Path to Reform: Political Prospects in a Landmark Election Year - See more at: https://www.chathamhouse.org/publication/myanmar%E2%80%99s-troubled-path-reform-political-prospects-landmark-election-year?gclid=CJfe8-P0gMkCFeoJwwod9YMDgQ#sthash.Dhv6KccE.dpuf

Myanmar’s Troubled Path to Reform: Political Prospects in a Landmark Election Year - See more at: https://www.chathamhouse.org/publication/myanmar%E2%80%99s-troubled-path-reform-political-prospects-landmark-election-year?gclid=CJfe8-P0gMkCFeoJwwod9YMDgQ#sthash.Dhv6KccE.dpuf

Turkey elections - get the facts

this week elections in Turkey provoked some controversy.

see our background information  blog posting for checking facts and figures about the election.

Observers from the Council of Europe which said the process was hindered by violence

Journalists have criticised press crackdowns 

European Federation of Journalists has also condemned events
as had the Turkish Union of Journalists

Detailed preliminary findings and analysis can be viewed on the OSCE election observations website.