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Election support

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Elections are an essential element of democratic processes and key moments for holding state institutions accountable. Inclusive and transparent elections which allow the non-violent and open competition among different interests offer the possibility for redistributing access to power. Of course this goes not without political risks. If elections are poorly designed and stirred by confrontational electoral campaigns, they can result in violent conflicts and single party dominance.

SDC is substantially engaged in election support, at national and subnational levels, along the following principles: [A] to view elections not as "one-shot events" but engage with a long-term perspective along the whole electoral cycle; [B] to understand elections as important but not the only means for democratic transformation. Electoral assistance needs complementary activities and to be connected with other good governance or democratisation programmes; [C] to strengthen domestic ownership and capacities; [D] to diversify collaboration modalities in order to minimize risks. Election support must start with careful political risk analysis and strengthen domestic capacities in preventing and mitigating electoral violence. This is particularly important in post-conflict scenarios.

Election support has been a recurrent ddlgn learning topic over the past years with several learning inputs. You can find resource documents and interesting links here below and information on ddlgn learning under the subtopic learning journeys.



Key documents: SDC

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Key documents: other

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Further reading documents

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 Further Reading Documents



Links

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  • https://www.shareweb.ch/site/DDLGN/SiteAssets/Document_Type_images/Deza_Link.svg

    UNDP Online Toolkit for Electoral Assistance

    This Toolkit is designed to guide UNDP colleagues and other electoral practitioners at different stages of electoral cycle projects, by explaining core concepts at each stage, procedures to be followed, and linking to useful tools that are available both in UNDP and outside of UNDP. This is a living Toolkit that evolves over time by addressing new issues and presenting fresh resources.

    Link
    UNDP
  • https://www.shareweb.ch/site/DDLGN/SiteAssets/Document_Type_images/Deza_Link.svg

    Community of Democracies: Working Group on Elections

    Recalling its commitment to strengthen democracy and assist countries in their process of democratic consolidation, the Community of Democracies has established a Working Group on Elections to serve as a platform for dialogue and action on election-related issues, bringing together government representatives and national electoral institutions, as well as regional and international organizations active in the field.

    Link
    Community of Democracies
  • https://www.shareweb.ch/site/DDLGN/SiteAssets/Document_Type_images/Deza_Link.svg

    EC-UNDP Partnership on Electoral Assistance

    The focus of the EC - UNDP Joint Task Force is on identification, formulation, implementation support and monitoring of all the EC-UNDP projects of electoral assistance. The lessons learnt are consolidated and codified so that they can effectively feed into the implementation of the new electoral assistance projects (and) into the joint EC-UNDP trainings on Effective Electoral Assistance.

    Link
    European Commission, UNDP