Kosovo's Dec. 12 parliamentary elections were generally calm and peaceful, but some irregularities were observed and will need to be investigated more fully, according to the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which organized an international mission to observe the vote.

The Egyptian Association for the Support of Democracy (EASD) trained and deployed more than 5,000 observers to monitor last month's elections for Egypt's lower house of parliament. While noting improvements over the administration of the country's 2005 parliamentary and 2010 Shoura Council elections, EASD described the Nov. 28 poll as "one of the most controversial parliamentary elections ever held in Egypt." And it highlighted numerous violations that it said prevented voters from fully exercising their political rights.

Women candidates enjoyed record levels of success in Jordan's Nov. 9 parliamentary elections. The country's new election law doubled the women's quota from six to 12 seats, and for the first time, a woman candidate from Amman won her seat outside of the quota system by amassing the largest number of votes in her district.

There were other firsts as well. Six of Jordan's 12 governorates elected the first women representatives from their region, and Myassar Sardiyah became the first Bedouin woman ever to be elected to parliament in Jordan.