The World e-Parliament Report 2008 represents a first effort to establish a baseline of how parliaments are using, or planning to use ICT to help them fulfill their responsibilities and to connect to their constituencies. The Report also provides an opportunity for sharing lessons learned and good practices from different regions of the world.
The WePR 2008 is a joint product of UNDESA and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, prepared as part of the work of the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament.

Women are being locked out of the democratic processes in Ghana and argues that societies 'cannot claim to be committed to the principles and ideals of democracy and the universal values of equality' if groups within are marginalized.

For many citizens, the single most important opportunity they have to meaningfully participate in the democratic process is voting. It is also the primary means for Ghanaians, especially the poor, women and other disadvantaged groups of society, to participate i more...

Ballooning oil and gas wealth is contributing to an accelerated process of democratic decline in the leading energy rich states of the former Soviet Union according to Nations in Transit 2008, a new study released on June 23, 2008 by Freedom House. The study finds a sharp and systematic erosion of accountability and transparency in Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, affecting a range of sectors, such as civil society, electoral process, and media and judicial independence.
Nations in Transit e more...

Crinis – ray of light in Latin – is a joint project from Transparency International and the Carter Center to promote transparency and accountability in political financing in Latin America. The goal of Crinis is to help increase public trust in democracy and political parties by promoting transparency and accountability in political financing. This report scrutinises the state of political party finance in eight Latin American countries. In English and Spanish. PDF, 104 pages.

When money corrupts campaigns and candidates, political finance can undermine the same democratic values and good governance that it also supports. To prevent and address the problem, transparency and accountability must form part of the policies used to combat it. Published by Transparency International. 2008.

Few Mexicans express confidence in their electoral processes, according to a poll by Consulta Mitofsky. Only 20.9 per cent of respondents think the next election in the Latin American country would be clean, while almost 70 per cent expect it to be not very clean, not clean at all, or fraudulent.

MEPs looking into how to overhaul the workings of the European Parliament have raised concerns about the number of quick deals that are reached on EU laws, saying they risk resulting in poor quality legislation and that the process is not sufficiently transparent.
A working document drawn up for the reform-minded deputies notes that the "enormous pressure" faced by each six-month EU presidency to wrap up a piece of legislation under their watch comes at the expense of "open political debate."
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MSI is looking for a Senior Legislative Specialist for an upcoming project on strengthening the capacity of the National Assembly of Serbia.
This full-time position will be responsible for management of the legislative strengthening component of a project focusing on the separation of powers. The person will manage all technical assistance to the National Assembly, will design appropriate scopes of work for short-term technical assistance providers, will review and supervise their work as well more...

The goal of this USAID-supported program is to provide technical election assistance for the upcoming 2008 presidential elections in Armenia. Activity areas include: voter registration (creation of a national unified registry with OVIR and the CEC and local level registry drives with voters), voter information (VE materials and use of the media), election administration (trainings and regulatory materials to lower level EMCs), and a disabilities and elections project working through local NGO pa more...

The 2007 elections in Papua New Guinea have been commended in a report by the Commonwealth-Pacific Islands Forum Election Assessment Team. Between June and August 2007 members of the Team assessed “the polling, part of the counting process and the formation of the new government” as well as some of the preparation and campaigning for the elections.