Senior level leadership of 10 major political parties unanimously called today for the immediate extension of the Political Parties Act along with major changes to the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and a number of other reforms to mainstream Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). 

During day-long discussions at a roundtable forum, the political leaders emphatically agreed that political reforms were fundamental for sustainable peace and development decisions that reflect the genuine needs of the people of FATA.

The smallest of the former Yugoslav republics, Montenegro achieved independence through peaceful referendum in 2006 and is on course to join the European Union and NATO. But like some other countries in the region, it still faces challenges that point to the need for more transparency and accountability in its governance system before it can meet the EU’s membership requirements.

Al Quds Center for Political Studies recently published the first reports ever prepared on parliamentary monitoring in Jordan. They provide information and analysis to Jordanian citizens and civic groups on various elements of parliament’s performance.

Nelson C. Ledsky, the director of NDI’s Eurasia programs for many years and a 35-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service who retired with the rank of ambassador, died June 19 in Washington, D.C.

By Patrick Merloe
Director of Electoral Programs at NDI

Since the Iranian election on June 12th, onlookers have called for a recount to assess whether incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually won, as the election commission reported he had. It’s certainly true that the results are suspicious. One example is the large portion of results available in an extraordinarily short period of time given the fact that voters had to handwrite a candidate’s name on the ballot and that the counting had to reconcile number of ballot stubs with ballots.

The Iran Election Bulletin is a biweekly publication covering domestic political and election issues in Iran.