The New England Times’ Post

Local politics is an important part of European democracy, but what determines whether voters participate in local elections? A new book from Silvia Bolgherini, Selena Grimaldi and Aldo Paparo examines elections in 70,000 municipalities across 18 European countries. They find that turnout depends heavily on the size and urbanisation of a municipality. https://lnkd.in/gZjr2caP

2024 Elections in Ghana: Overview of Ghana"s Electoral Process

In the latest commentary, Mehrzad Boroujerdi analyzes Iran's history of voter turnout and its impact on the country's most recent parliamentary and assembly elections this past weekend. https://lnkd.in/eCNu-bMi

One side-effect of voter apathy can be low voter turnout on election day if voting is non-compulsory. This trend trend has been observed in countries that have conducted elections so far. Nov 2024 in the US elections turn out is predicted to be low due to voter apathy https://lnkd.in/ewYZYXqj #democracy

What are the gaps in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) that have made it difficult to have credible local government elections? How can these gaps be filled? These are the questions that our Executive Director Samson Itodo asks and answers in this opinion article, which also argues against the calls to abolish state independent electoral commissions in order to have credible local government elections. https://lnkd.in/dE_UDEts #lgelectionreforms

Voting rights were hard fought for, over many generations. But in recent times government have eroded the impact of voting for many people, and made it all but impossible possible for others to even vote (often the most disadvantaged people and areas). The carving up of political boundaries, the phoney devolution areas with deals that offer much on the surface but not enough meat underneath. The introduction of barriers to voting. And even then, democracy is a thinly veiled sham, because the UK have a totally unelected upper chamber, England has no assembly, Northern Ireland’s is often broken and don’t even get started on the constitution issues. We need change. I welcome the opportunity of a general election, but we need real, transparent change that involves the people of the UK.

Curious how local elections shaped up this August? Discover the surprising voting trends, regional powerhouses, and the role of endorsements in Okaloosa County's primaries!

When electoral communication is dominated by social media - and as local journalism and news media is eroded in ability to scrutinise very local information some different approaches are needed... Check out this openly gathered and shared data project from Democracy Club initially tracking local election material that is available on pdfs - the team have also previously looked at hard copy leaflets which are much harder to track without a good level of public participation. https://lnkd.in/ein_Jr5M A crowdsourcing approach with a bit of automation could help voters get more accountable and up to date information or check on that very local/ inaccessible info ...developing and using this data in UK GE 2024 could be a good place to start...You may well know folk already working further on it so fyi to Peter Thirup Baeck Kathy Peach Tom Steinberg Sym Roe Mevan Babakar

The recently concluded upazila parishad elections in Bangladesh have once again brought to light a concerning trend: a significant decline in voter turnout. Despite efforts to ensure a smooth electoral process, voter participation plummeted to a worrying 36.1 percent in the first phase of polling, marking a notable decrease from previous elections.

Explainer: How to register to vote in the upcoming European and local elections