Voters’ trust in the integrity of electoral processes is crucial for their democratic participation, commitment to democracy and for preventing democratic backsliding. This was the emphasis of the speech by Stewart Dickson (United Kingdom, ILDG), Congress Spokesperson for local and regional elections and President of the Council for Democratic Elections of the Council of Europe, at an OSCE/ODIHR conference on international election observation in Gdansk, Poland, on 20 November 2024.
Addressing the session on election management bodies (EMBs) and global democracy crises, he stressed the importance of the EMBs’ work for strengthening citizens’ trust, and highlighted the challenges faced by them as their responsibilities had expanded into highly polarised sectors such as campaign finance, use of ICTs, media monitoring – including social media – as well as voter and candidate registration and complaints and appeals.
The Congress Spokesperson also referred to the recent new challenges observed by election stakeholders, including the Covid pandemic, natural disasters, domestic and foreign coordinated disinformation, hate speech, increased polarisation, political influence on the institutions and fast-paced technological development. He pointed out that the Congress’ October 2024 report on recurring issues with local and regional democracy identified the fast deterioration of the campaigning environment and the rise in foreign interference as emerging trends. Stewart Dickson welcomed in this regard the EMBs’ increasing focus on transparency and accountability to address these challenges, adding that more systematic election observation in all member states would also contribute to a better functioning of EMBs.
He concluded by emphasising the importance of coordinated approaches throughout the electoral cycle and the very effective co-operation developed between the Council of Europe and EMBs which include standard setting, observation of elections at all levels of government and collaboration with EMBs in the pre- and post-electoral period.
