Austria,European Union,General,International

Election Assessment Mission Report with good practice examples published

30 Sep , 2024  

Brussels, Vienna, 30 September 2024: Today, Election-Watch.EU published its Final Report with key findings, good practices and recommendations of the Election Assessment Mission (EAM) to the 2024 European Parliament Elections. From the beginning of May to mid-June, the Mission assessed the European elections across the 27 EU Member States based on six key principles: integrity, inclusion, accountability, transparency, equality, and resilience.

Reference report [...]  read more

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European Union,General,International

Presenting Electoral Reform Paper at the Electoral Integrity Project Conference

19 Mar , 2025  

Brussels/Vienna, 19 March 2025: The Electoral Integrity Project and The Westminster Foundation for Democracy organised an online conference on “Electoral Reform: Democratic Principles and Global Practice” on 19-21 March 2025.

Armin Rabitsch and Markus Pollak from Election-Watch.EU presented their paper: What remains to be done: Thinking through Reforms of the European Parliament Elections using a powerpoint presentation.

The paper revisits the historical [...]  read more

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Austria,General,International

Social media monitoring of Austria’s general election campaign

23 Jan , 2025  

Vienna, Berlin, 23 January 2025: Election-Watch.EU (as wahlbeobachtung.org) conducted a social media monitoring of the Austrian electoral campaign 2024 together with other researchers. In the study we examine toxicity, hate speech, and extremism on Austrian online and social media platforms, as well as on Telegram channels, ahead of the elections. This study displays findings in graphs to provide a better understanding and, in addition, includes a disinformation case study.

 [...]  read more

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European Union,General,International

How best to assess hybrid threats in elections?

12 Dec , 2024  

Brussels, 11-12 December 2024: Elections globally are facing increasing challenges to their integrity, driven by disinformation, cyberattacks, foreign covert operations, and other hybrid threats. This necessitates a rethinking of approaches by both election organisers and election observers to better understand these risks and adapt processes accordingly. For citizen and international observers, this raises questions about whether current methodologies [...]  read more

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Austria,European Union,International

Telegram and its role in Austria’s 2024 election

9 Dec , 2024  

Vienna, Berlin, 9 December 2024: In the recent general elections, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) secured its position as the largest party in Parliament for the first time. Election-Watch.EU examined the role of Telegram in shaping political discourse during this period in a collaborative effort with [...]  read more

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Austria,European Union,General,International

Venice Commission recognises election observers as human rights defenders

8 Dec , 2024  

Venice, 6-7 December 2024: The Venice Commission (VC; European Commission for Democracy through Law; Council of Europe) acknowledged Election Observers as Human Rights Defenders. Venice Commission Report Election Observers as HR Defenders

The Venice Commission points out in particular that:
➡️ States should adopt the necessary provisions in national legislation to provide sufficient possibilities to observe elections;
➡️ All states should foresee in [...]  read more

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General,International

International election observer organisations convene in Gdansk

22 Nov , 2024  

Gdansk, 20-22 November 2024: Election-Watch.EU participated for the first time as an endorsing member at the annual implementation meeting of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation in Gdansk/Poland. Hosted by OSCE / ODIHR, and opened by former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Lech Wałęsa, the event took place in [...]  read more

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Austria,General

Vote Advice Application for the Austrian general elections online

16 Sep , 2024  

Vienna, 16 September 2024: Since Monday, 16 September 2024, the vote advice application wahlrechner.at for the 2024 Austrian National Council election is online. The wahlrechner.at was first tested during the European elections as a pilot project, where the app recorded 550,000 users.  

The project, initiated by several democracy-focused NGOs, is supported both technically and content-wise by the association KohoVolit.eu, which [...]  read more

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