The 2011 change in Yemen’s government has brought with it a first for the country – the chance for ordinary Yemenis to publicly question their political leaders about the economy, unemployment, transitional justice and other issues on their minds. 

Millions of Ghanaians voted in a close election last December that returned incumbent President John Dramani to office by a margin of less than 3 percentage points. An independent vote count by a local election monitoring organization that used SMS technology to verify returns from around the country gave many voters the confidence necessary to ensure a peaceful election process—both during the voting and in the days following.