Addressing the potential of new information and social networking technologies, former Secretary of State and NDI Chairman Madeleine Albright spoke at the Dec. 5 launch of a new initiative aimed at using technology to improve communications between citizens and their government. “Democracy thrives on diversity and becomes stronger through vigorous debate,” she said. “Its very identity is based on the free expression of popular will.”

NDI’s regional director for Central and Western Africa, Christopher Fomunyoh, outlined political and technical challenges facing Mali after last March’s military coup in testimony Dec. 5 before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs.

As Guinea prepares for its first legislative elections since a 2008 military coup, the role of the nation’s security forces during the election period has come to the fore.

In 2010 Guineans participated in a democratic election that brought President Alpha Condé to power. Though the armed forces played a constructive role in providing security for that poll, a massacre in 2009, in which the military opened fire on unarmed civilian protesters, still weighs heavily on the minds of Guinean citizens.

While generally free and peaceful, some aspects of the recent general elections in Angola lacked transparency, which undermined the credibility of the electoral process, according to a report by the Coalition for Election Observation (Coligação para Observação Eleitoral, COE).