The idea came to Vuka Crnjanski when she heard a government official say of a group illegally charging tolls on Serbia's highways: "It's OK to steal a little. This group just went too far."

"Such a statement should have gotten the minister in serious trouble," said Crnjanski, who had worked with NDI as a political party and civil society trainer and was formerly senior figure in Serbia's Liberal Democratic Party. "However, there was virtually no reaction to the statement from any political parties, government officials, NGOs or the media."

For the first time in 24 years, Sudanese citizens will have the opportunity to cast ballots for a democratically-elected government in multi-party elections. For many Sudanese, the April 11-13 vote also will be their first time going to the polls.

With women becoming increasingly prominent in North African politics, NDI brought together more than 60 women from across the region who are both established and emerging as political and civic leaders to discuss the importance of women's political engagement. The group, from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, met in Casablanca, Morocco, March 13–14, a site that was chosen in part because of the record 3,406 new women councilors who were voted into office during last year’s municipal elections.

For four days in March 2003, in what is known as the Cuban Black Spring, 75 Cuban journalists, librarians, and democracy and human rights activists were arrested and imprisoned by Cuban government officials. Those detained were sentenced to six to 28 years for their peaceful advocacy for political, social and economic reforms.

Young people age 35 and under make up more than half of Algeria's population, but they are largely absent from political life. Broad confidence in the government is lacking, with youth seeing no clear benefit to getting involved at even the most basic level in their communities. The political system provides few openings for young people to participate in a constructive manner. Their mounting frustration is sometimes taken out through street protests, which can turn violent.

Responding to calls for electoral reform from civil society organizations in Jordan, a national grassroots coalition led by the National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) has launched a first-of-its-kind media and advocacy campaign to push for improvements in the country's election system.