NDI mourns the passing of Willie Blacklow, a colleague and friend who believed in the power of politics to improve people’s lives and who worked to instill the values of democracy as a long-time trainer for the Institute.

Through the years, NDI sent Willie to eight countries on three continents to work with parliamentarians, political parties, minority groups and others as they sought to master the role of communication in order to participate more effectively in the political process.

As an audit of Afghanistan’s runoff presidential election ballots continues, NDI has added preliminary runoff results to its Afghanistan election data website. The data, released last month by Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, show preliminary results of the runoff between Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, including turnout information and a comparison of the results of the April 5 first round and June 14 second round results.

It’s a beautiful, sunny morning as Trizza Ndalama from Zomba District, Malawi, finishes packing her legumes to sell at her local market. She notes that for many years she has made little profit on her produce. “I can only sell at the Chingale market nearby, which is not that viable,” Ndalama said. “The big market where I can sell the produce at a reasonable profit is very far from this village and the road is very bad.”