Wednesday 31 January 2018

Costa Rica Elections 2018- free resources.


General elections will be held in Costa Rica on February 4, 2018 to elect both the President and Legislative Assembly.


Here are some resources to find out what is going on.

IFES has a good general guide to the electoral system


The Council of the Americas - has a background explainer on the nature and importance of the elections from the region.

Official information on the election (Spanish) can be obtained from the Tribunal Supremo. this includes lists of candiates regulations and results.

Newspaper coverage

La NaciĆ³n’s election coverage
Seminario Universidad's political coverage
The Tico Times’ election coverage
includes Alvaro Murillo Primer
Murillo is a political commentator who also has his own twitter account

Organisations which will observe the conduct of the elections include

OAS

Reports from earlier elections can be viewed on the ACE project election observation portal

Wednesday 3 January 2018

Liberia elects new president - use our resources to get background

At the end of 2017 Liberians elected a new president. George Weah
The New York Times has some basic discussion of Mr Weah and the elections.

For the full election results and information on the electoral system and procedures see the official Election Commission website
Also useful is the The Liberia Elections Portal which is  a project of iLab Liberia with support from OSIWA
it is adding great geospatial elections data  visualizations from 2011 and 2017 . There are also links to observation reports from outside commentators.

for recent observations of the conduct of the 2017 presidential elections see.
USAID Liberia International election observation
See the European Union Mission which has some preliminary statements praising the process.
as does the African Union mission
NDI- preliminary statement - there are also other earlier assessments and reports on the state of democracy in the region.
Carter Center has a programme operatign in Liberia which observed elections in 2011 and 2017

further background on politics and human rights can be found
on USIP website
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch