“A moderator is not the show or star of the program. The candidates and issues are,” said Bernard Shaw, CNN anchor emeritus and two-time moderator and panelist of  U.S. presidential debates.

In the closing weeks before Haiti’s October 25 elections, six candidates made their case to the country’s 5.8 million voters at an October 6 presidential debate. The two-hour forum, part of the Anvan’n Vote (“Before We  Vote” in Haitian Creole) initiative of the Public Policy Intervention Group (Groupe d’Intervention en Affaires Publiques, GIAP), was the first of a series of six debates to which all 53 of Haiti’s presidential candidates were invited grouped by alphabetical order.  

More than 500 university students, deans, professors, government officials and civil society representatives packed into an auditorium at the University of Jordan to watch teams from 16 universities^[1] compete in NDI’s third annual National Student Debate Competition.

Despite the possibility of spillover violence from Syria, a vacancy in the presidency and postponed parliamentary elections, young Lebanese party activists are eager to find ways to enter politics.

Forty of them, representing five political parties, gathered outside Beirut last month for a campaign school for future candidates and campaign teams  to learn how to build outreach strategies and create messages that address voter interests.

A new blog, written by NDI staff, tells the inspiring stories of citizens and organizations doing the challenging work of building democracy around the world.

Over the last decade, candidate debates have increasingly become a centerpiece of elections across a wide spectrum of democratic countries. Voters in more than 60 nations tune in to learn more about candidates running for president, prime minister, parliament or local government offices.

Debates provide a rare side-by-side and unfiltered comparison of candidates, promote accountability for campaign promises, and can help decrease political tensions and conflict.

Candidate debates that bring contenders face to face with voters and each other are increasingly becoming a mainstay of the political landscape.

Across the globe, debate sponsors share the belief that debates benefit new democracies in many ways, including helping voters make informed choices, reducing the potential for violence in countries coming out of civil war, encouraging candidates to focus on issues rather than personality or ethnic differences, and holding elected officials accountable for campaign promises.