Every year dozens of elections are held worldwide: presidential, parliamentary, municipal, referendums, primaries, among others. In 2022 there were more than 80 national electoral processes around the world, not counting local processes in dozens of countries.
The coverage of these is mostly critical, while little is said about the achievements and improvements that are seen year after year in electoral processes around the world. That is why in this article we seek to highlight and celebrate progress in terms of transparency, participation, and modernization of electoral commissions During the past year.
At Electoral Transparency we believe that communicating improvements is also important, especially so that the lessons learned are shared and considered by other commissions.
Starting from the African continent, we must highlight the case of Kenya, which held the most transparent and peaceful elections in its history. The authorities were able to publish all the tally sheets within hours of the end of the voting thanks to the implementation of technology in important phases of the election, which facilitated the transmission of the tally sheets with the results to a public website, and allowed all the actors audit the results.
International organizations such as International IDEA and the International Republican Institute (IRI) agreed that this process was transparent and the election results accurate. For its part, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) expressed: “the publication of the tally sheets in real time with the help of technology helped to strengthen the transparency of the counting process and was a notable improvement over previous elections.”
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A little further south, the neighboring country Angola took a step back in terms of electoral transparency since the electoral authorities did not use the system that in 2017 had allowed the publication of absolutely all the tally sheets. On this occasion, they only published the totals for the 19 provinces. Despite this, the country accepted the results calmly.
An important achievement of the Angolan authorities was that, for the first time in the country’s history, the elections granted rights to diaspora voters. The African Union for Election Observation (AUEOM) noted that this was one of its recommendations during the 2017 general elections and congratulated the authorities for taking this initiative.
Due to the influence they exert in the region, both elections were followed with great expectation.
As for Latin America, one of the most important elections was that of Brazil. Despite political polarization and a very close presidential race, it passed relatively calmly. Part of the credit goes to the authorities of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) that They managed to process more than 100 million votes in a matter of hours, and give results in real time.
The TSE demonstrated its technical and logistical capacity by organizing elections for more than 156 million voters, and biometrically authenticating the identity of 80% of them. In addition, innovative actions against the flow of fake news were taken during the campaign and after the election. The electronic ballot box verification mechanisms were also expanded in a proactive attitude of transparency.
On the Asian continent 19 elections were held, 6 of them general, among which are those of the Philippines, an archipelago of 7 thousand islands inhabited by more than 100 million people. In the February 2022 general elections, 67 million voters were eligible to elect a president, vice president, 12 seats in the Senate, 300 seats in the lower house, and approximately 18,000 local offices. The country had more than 75% of the results published just 3 hours after the polls closed.
The importance of having the electoral results the same night as the election is essential in the times we live in. Thanks to the technology implemented by the authorities since 2010, Violence in the Philippine elections has decreased significantly. And the most valuable thing about the modernization that the Philippine electoral commission has undertaken is that, after five elections with the use of technology to count and transmit votes and tally sheets, 90% of Filipinos prefer automated elections.
In Europe, for its part, more than 50 elections were held during 2022. We can highlight two diametrically opposed cases: France and Bulgaria.
In the first, there are no modalities for electronic voting, by mail or in advance, defying the trend towards greater electoral modernization. Perhaps this explains why the lowest turnout (72%) since 1969 was registered in the second round. According to opinion polls, 42% of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 were not willing to participate in the elections.
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On the other hand, Bulgaria continued advancing on its path towards electoral modernization. During the recent parliamentary elections, many of those that observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) spoke to expressed confidence in the use of voting machines, citing the positive effect on accuracy. vote counting and reducing opportunities to commit fraud.
In the case of North America we have a case that we have been able to observe first hand. Electoral Transparency organized a mission to monitor the elections in Los Angeles, the largest county in the United States, in which it was found that The Los Angeles voting system guarantees that citizens can vote secretly, regardless of their capacities and restrictions, through state-of-the-art electoral technology and from any of the authorized voting centers in the county. Undoubtedly, an example of electoral modernization for other counties in the country and for the region.
The foregoing is a clear example of the work that national and local authorities have been carrying out in the last decade: the use of different technologies to modernize their electoral processes so that they are more inclusive and provide greater facilities for people to exercise their right to vote. We hope that during 2023, decision makers will continue to promote mechanisms to guarantee the full participation of citizens, and strengthen the transparency and security of the elections.
*Director of Institutional Development of Electoral Transparency.
@JesusDValery @TransparenciaAL
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