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“The process appears to have yielded a result that accurately reflects the will of Bangladeshi voters,” said Constance Berry Newman, head of a 65-person delegation from the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based group that promotes democracy. The EU Election Observation Mission, the Commonwealth Observer Group and the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute also praised the election process.

In an op-ed for the Melbourne Age newspaper, Bob McMullan, the Australian Secretary for International Development Assistance, details his observation of the Dec. 29 parliamentary elections in Bangladesh as a member of NDI’s international observation delegation.

McMullan writes:

NDI’s Regional Director for Eurasia Laura Jewett addressed the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also called the Helsinki Commission, on Kyrgyzstan’s July 23 presidential election. Jewett outlined several areas in which the government of Kyrgyzstan could take steps to improve the electoral environment, which would in turn help rebuild citizen confidence in the process.

Bangladeshis voted enthusiastically and in large numbers in Dec. 29 parliamentary elections that were well-administered and conducted in an orderly fashion, according to the findings of an international observer delegation fielded by the National Democratic Institute.

Ghana’s Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), an NDI partner that monitored the Dec. 28 presidential runoff election, declared the runoff ‘largely in accordance with the electoral laws’ based on data collected from 1,000 polling stations around the country. CODEO reported a number of “problems and lapses” with the balloting but said they did not fundamentally undermine the integrity of the process.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jacqueline Corcoran, NDI Resident Country Director
[email protected], +880 (2) 988 3998; or
Kathy Gest, NDI Director of Public Affairs
[email protected], 202-728-5535

In anticipation of the 2008 U.S. elections, a delegation of North African political leaders took part in an NDI study mission to examine the U.S. election process and the mechanisms in place to safeguard the integrity of the polls. Participants included senior party representatives, journalists and academics from Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

The study mission gave the visitors a first-hand look at the extraordinary civic engagement and outreach techniques that preceded the election and produced a particularly large voter turnout.

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), an NDI partner, reported that its independent parallel vote tabulation (PVT) confirmed the Election Commission’s determination that a presidential runoff election is required in Ghana.  The National Democratic Party (NPP) candidate received more than 49 percent of the vote but was shy of the majority required, while the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate received over 47 percent of the vote. The NDC is leading the NPP slightly in the parliamentary election results with a small number of seats going to others.