Topic Guide: Electoral Corruption

The Electoral Assistance Division (EAD)

EAD under the UN Department of Political Affairs, handles requests from individual members states to provide mainly technical assistance in the field of elections. It has supervised and observed elections processes in more than 100 countries worldwide since 1991 and increasingly focuses its electoral efforts on providing technical assistance to help member states build credible and sustainable national electoral systems. EAD’s technical assistance has grown exponentially through the provision of training and support of election administrations. Their website can be accessed here.  

The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)

ODIHR also regularly send observation mission to monitor electoral processes but mostly in participating states. Since Kuwait is not an OSCE participating state, they would probably not have a mandate to send a mission there.  

European Network of Election Monitoring Organisations (ENEMO)

ENEMO is a group of 19 leading civic organisations from 17 countries of Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, which have monitored more than 100 national elections and trained more then 100,000 observers in the region. ENEMO also organises international observation missions to evaluate elections, mainly in Europe and Central Asia.  

The Carter Center

The Carter Center is an American non-profit organisation that has observed more than 80 elections in around 35 countries. They have also developed standards for election observation together with the UN and NDI. Their website can be accessed here.  

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)

NDI is the main foreign partner of domestic election observation groups. In some cases, it also sends a moderate sized international election observation mission and has conducted more than 150 international missions. It has compiled a list of election monitoring organisations which could help at various stages of the process. Their website can be accessed here.  

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)

IFES supports citizens’ right to participate in free and fair elections. Founded in 1987, IFES has experience in over 135 countries. The foundation advances good governance and democratic rights by providing technical assistance to election officials, empowering the under-represented to participate in the political process and applying field-based research to improve the electoral cycle. Their website can be accessed here.  

The Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC countries (ECF-SADC)

ECF-SADC is an independent organisation in which each country in the SADC region is represented by its electoral management body. The forum has a broad range of projects and programmes which include regional workshops, the annual general conference, seminars and training programmes. It has launched several ground-breaking programmes in the region including the formulation of the Principles of Election Management, Monitoring and Observation, commonly referred to as PEMMO, the design and implementation of a Conflict Management Programme and the deployment of Peer Review and Observer Missions. Their website can be accessed here.