• Towards a Reconciliation Agenda for Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka and Burma: Drawing Parallels
• Nigeria: Political Party Preparations for Local Elections
• Effective Electoral Assistance

• Political participation
• Electoral systems
• Political parties
• Post-conflict democracy building and dialogue
• Democracy analysis, assessment and assistance

• Africa
• Arab World
• Asia
• Caucasus
• Latin America
  

HIGHLIGHTS

• Towards a Reconciliation Agenda for Sri Lanka

At the start of an activity to facilitate progress towards a national reconciliation agenda, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), in cooperation with the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies and the Jaffna Justice and Peace Commission, held a series of workshops in Sri Lanka on 24–28 February. Using the IDEA Handbook Reconciliation After Violent Conflict as a starting point for discussions, the workshops provided a forum for representatives of various community-based organizations from the north and the south to assess the relevance of the practical tools for achieving reconciliation outlined in the Handbook in regard to their own situation. Read more

• Sri Lanka and Burma: Drawing Parallels

Three Burmese political activists were invited to attend the Colombo workshop, which included a closed discussion on Burma and drew parallels with the situation in Sri Lanka. One participant noted that, based on past experience and on what we have learnt from Sri Lanka, the likelihood of the ceasefire in Burma turning into a definite political resolution seems extremely unlikely. A multi-level approach is needed if reconciliation processes in both countries are to be successful. For them to succeed, though, they must also enjoy the active support of the international community and neighbouring states. Read more

• Nigeria: Political Party Preparations for Local Elections

Since 20 February 2004, IDEA’s Nigeria Office has been publishing ‘Party Watch’, a weekly update on issues relating to the political party system in the country, with a short-term focus on the local elections set for 27 March 2004. Also to prepare for the polls, IDEA convened a roundtable on 26 February for Nigerian political parties, which agreed to establish a working group that will address the needs of political parties, especially in view of the national elections in 2007. Read more

OTHER NEWS

• Effective Electoral Assistance

Evaluation exercises conducted by a number of donor agencies following 10–15 years of electoral support indicate that the building of a strong and stable electoral administration capacity is a better long-term investment than providing ‘ad hoc’ contributions for electoral events. IDEA has worked closely with election administrators in several of its member countries as they have reviewed their electoral policies and track records. As part of preparations for a new project on ‘Effective Electoral Assistance’, IDEA’s election team prepared a working paper on donor assistance for electoral processes.

• Women and Conflict

At the fifth seminar on ‘Refugees and Post-Conflict Reconciliation’ – organized by the Spanish Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Globalitaria Peace-building Initiatives and the Universal Forum of Cultures, Barcelona 2004, and held in Valencia, Spain, on 19–22 February – Guido Galli from IDEA’s democracy building and conflict management team gave a presentation on ‘Women and Conflict: Dilemmas for National Legislators and the International Community’. From the standpoint of women’s rights, the presentation provided examples mainly from Afghanistan and Guatemala. During the seminar, which also comprised a session with parliamentarians from countries that have experienced internal conflict, IDEA raised issues related to conflict prevention, resolution and reconciliation.

• Media and Elections

Lack of understanding and sometimes even trust between the media and electoral bodies has had negative ramifications on elections in many countries. As part of IDEA’s work to develop tools for electoral bodies and the media, IDEA facilitated a workshop during a seminar on ‘Media and Elections’ organized by the Canadian Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS), 20-22 February in Toronto. This forum provided journalists and electoral administrators with an opportunity to share experiences on training journalists in how to cover elections in the developing world. IDEA will share its tools and electoral expertise with organizations like IMPACS so that its media development initiatives can have a more effective impact on local partners and hopefully on democracy building in general.

• Structuring Electoral Management Bodies

Since early 2004, IDEA has been conducting a global study on the structuring of electoral management bodies (EMBs). IDEA is assembling comparative research on good practice in regard to major questions affecting EMBs, including their structure and independence, financing, how election staff members are recruited and organized, and gender issues in election administration. An expert group has been established, and met at IDEA’s headquarters in Stockholm on 26–27 February to advise on the project. (Click here for a concept paper)

• Direct Democracy

The use of plebiscites, referenda and other citizen’s legislative initiatives has grown in recent years at both the national and sub-national levels, often to meet constitutional requirements or to respond to calls for ‘direct democracy’. A new IDEA project is investigating the use of direct democracy across the world, focusing in particular on experience in Latin America, which is relatively unknown to researchers elsewhere in the world. A first meeting to discuss issues relating to direct democracy was held in London on 13–14 March. The meeting brought together academic experts and practitioners from Asia, Europe, Latin America and the USA and involved extensive discussion of comparative experiences and their impact on the quality of democracy and such issues as terminology and the administration of referenda. (Click here for a concept paper)

DID YOU KNOW ...?

• With plans to hold local elections in Saudi Arabia underway, four members of the Saudi Shura (Advisory) Council – Mr Mohammad A. Al-Sharief, Mr Sulaiman A. Al-Khraigi, Dr Saleh F. Al-Zahrani and Mr Ihsan G. Faqeeh – were invited to IDEA’s headquarters on 19 March to exchange views on democracy building, elections, and political party development.

• To mark International Women’s Day 2004, IDEA hosted an informal seminar on ‘Women, Conflict and Peacebuilding’ at its headquarters on 8 March. The guest speaker was Ms Kerstin Grebäck from the Kvinna till Kvinna (Woman to Woman) Foundation in Stockholm. Active in the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East, Kvinna till Kvinna supports women in regions affected by war and armed conflict.
  
  
• Building on its work on political party issues, IDEA Secretary-General Karen Fogg and Regional Director of Latin America Daniel Zovatto participated in the UK Wilton Park meeting on ‘Achieving Sustainable Political Change in Emerging Democracies: the Political Party Challenge’ on 15–17 March.
  
  
• The Policy Summary of IDEA’s Handbook Reconciliation After Violent Conflict is now available in French, Sinhala and Tamil.
  
  
• The second publication in the Quota Workshop Report Series, The Implementation of Quotas: Latin American Experiences, is now available in Spanish (La aplicación de las cuotas: experiencias latinoamericanas) in print and on the IDEA website.

• A new IDEA publications catalogue is available on the website.

Staff News

• Ms Ingrid Wetterqvist (Sweden) joined IDEA as Head of Planning and External Relations at the end of February 2004. She knows IDEA well having been the “focal point” for the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
  
  
• Ms Francesca Binda (Canada) joined IDEA in February 2004 as Senior Advisor on Political Parties and Institutions. She was previously Country Director for the National Democratic Institute in Bosnia–Herzegovina, where she has lived and worked for the past eight years.