The mission’s focus was on the rights and opportunities of women, youth, persons with disabilities and other underrepresented groups to participate in the electoral process. It also assessed media freedoms, the role of the media and online coverage of the election campaign.
The COVID-19 pandemic has both highlighted and worsened a range of vulnerabilities and inequalities across the globe. Epidemic diseases are nothing new, in fact they have broken out periodically throughout human history. COVID-19 is not the first and certainly will not be the last pandemic the world has to face. Therefore, it is important that we plan ahead in order to ensure greater preparedness for the next outbreak. As the old saying goes, when we fail to prepare, we prepare to fail.
Uganda held general elections on 14 January 2021. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Electoral Commission (EC) announced that these should be ‘scientific elections’ and adopted social distancing measures. In effect, this led to the curtailing of public rallies and in-person campaigning. Political parties and candidates were forced to rely heavily on newspapers, radio, and television – but also on social media.
The election campaigns during the parliamentary elections of 25 April, 2021 in Albania, were quite dynamic and with a noticeable increase in the number of female MP candidates. However, these figures did not translate into higher representation of women in the media contents. The audio-visual media during the last parliamentary elections continued to have gaps in the coverage of issues and topics related to women and girls.
The programmes of political parties are of utmost importance, especially in the pre-election period. For this reason, identifying and addressing issues that improve the citizens’ quality of life, with emphasis on the disadvantaged social groups, ought to be an important part of an electoral force’s political offer.
WFD in Albania aims to improve the participation of young people in the political life in the country through supporting the efforts of youth wigs of main political parties. To gain a better understanding of their position in the upcoming elections of Aril 2021, our office in Tirana supported the organization Qëndresa Qyterare (Civic Resistance) to monitor and analyse the representation of young people (18-29 years) in the MP candidates’ lists for the 3 main parties: Democratic Party, Socialist Party and Socialist Movement for Integration.
In partnership with the British Embassy in Pristina, WFD deployed a team of four international election experts and three national advisers to analyse the electoral process. The expert mission operated from 25 January to 19 March 2021. This report presents their findings and recommendations.
Despite the challenges, the election was regarded by many as among the least problematic held so far in the country. Some of the key findings were as follows:
