Content Authored by Arab Spring Series
1 - 10 of 19 results
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Libya's 'Hybrid' Election Rules and Why They Are Less Than Ideal
- Posted: July 5, 2012
- Author(s): Erin Ellis, Arab Spring Series
- Categories: Middle East and Africa, Home, Elections Worldwide
On July 7, Libya will hold its first democratic elections since 1964. FairVote explains Libya's hybrid election system for the 200-seat General National Congress and how it could be better if all seats were elected by a form of proportional representation.
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Lessons Learned from Egypt's Presidential Runoff: The Case for Using an Instant Runoff Ballot
- Posted: June 15, 2012
- Author(s): Erin Ellis, Arab Spring Series
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, Middle East and Africa, Home, Elections Worldwide
On June 14, Egypt's high court disbanded the nation's parliament elected last winter, arguing that the candidates should have run without party affiliation. The ruling makes this weekend's presidential election all the more important, as the president will become the only national government leader who has been elected and will not have a parliament to check his decisions. This blog post analysis thus takes on even greater importance.
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Egypt and the Winner-Take-All Distortion
- Posted: March 8, 2012
- Author(s): Hüseyin Koyuncu, Arab Spring Series, Sheahan Virgin
- Categories: Middle East and Africa, Home, Elections Worldwide
After previously explaining the hybrid election system recently used by Egypt in its parliamentary elections, we here analyze how use of winner-take-all elections for many seats distorted fair representation of political views and women. Seats elected by proportional representation provided far more representative results.
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Egyptian Parliamentary Elections, Part 1: The Rules
- Posted: February 13, 2012
- Author(s): Hüseyin Koyuncu, Arab Spring Series
- Categories: Middle East and Africa, Home, Elections Worldwide
Egypt recently held important parllamentary elections. We explain how some seats were elected with proportional voting and others with winner-take-all and the impact of these voting rules on representation.
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Egypt: The Military Struggles to Maintain its Legitimacy
- Posted: December 12, 2011
- Author(s): Hüseyin Koyuncu, Arab Spring Series
- Categories: Middle East and Africa, Home, Elections Worldwide
Amidst controversies and protests, Egypt last month held the first in a series of elections for a new parliament. FairVote has covered the region's moves toward representative democracy in our Arab Spring series. Here’s the first of a series of posts analyzing the elections, starting with a focus on the state country before the voting last month.
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Tunisians Hold Arab Spring's First Vote
- Posted: November 4, 2011
- Author(s): Hüseyin Koyuncu, Arab Spring Series
- Categories: Middle East and Africa, Home, Elections Worldwide
The election is seen as a democratic success for new Tunisia, with some 4.1 million registered voters voting to select the members of the Constituent Assembly – using a method of proportional representation that ensured nearly every participant elected someone, and no one faction earned the winner-take-all power to dominate other factions. Tunisians have fulfilled their duty peacefully and with great pride, whether in the capital or in provincial towns. European Union observers saluted the election’s “transparency.” Clearly, the strong desire of Tunisians to be governed by democratically elected authorities guided the electoral process.
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Update: Lebanon Discusses Adopting Proportional Representation
- Posted: August 22, 2011
- Author(s): Yasmeen Gholmieh, Arab Spring Series
- Categories: Reforms, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Middle East and Africa, Home, Elections Worldwide
The Arab Spring movement has influenced Lebanon differently than many of its neighbors. Unlike nations like Syria and Yemen, there aren't street protests. Rather, the turmoil in the country is within the Parliament, not the people themselves.
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Lebanon Discusses Adopting Proportional Representation
- Posted: July 19, 2011
- Author(s): Jais Mehaji, Arab Spring Series
- Categories: Europe, Middle East and Africa
Though not undergoing the same kind of upheaval as in Tunisia, Egypt, or Syria, Lebanon has been experiencing some change from the Arab Spring movement. As true in all countries moving toward real elections, adoption of proportional representation voting systems is seen as a key goal.
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More on Egypt's Electoral Law
- Posted: July 18, 2011
- Author(s): Jais Mehaji, Arab Spring Series
- Categories: Middle East and Africa, Elections Worldwide
Progress toward democracy is looking all the more complicated in Egypt, as questions about the parliamentary elections’ rules remain unanswered and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces’ (SCAF) electoral measures are replete with ambiguity.
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Egypt Caretaker Government Passes Electoral Draft Law Amid Parties' Vehement Objections
- Posted: July 8, 2011
- Author(s): Jais Mehaji, Arab Spring Series
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Middle East and Africa, Elections Worldwide
After Egyptians successfully overthrew Hosni Mubarak back in February, the military government which took over in the interim has pursued a difficult transition to democratic rule. Parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place in September, and political parties and citizens alike have been very vocal about how they will be conducted -with one key conflict being the democratic opposition seeking a fully proportional representation voting system and the caretaker government wanting to keep half of seats elected by winner-take-all elections.