Entries Categorized with "Middle East and Africa"
- 10 of 53 results
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Winner-Take-All Elections Exacerbate Kenya's Ethnic Tensions
- Posted: May 2, 2013
- Author(s): Sara Helmi, Andrew Douglas
- Categories: Home, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Middle East and Africa, International Elections, Elections Worldwide
Kenya's use of winner-take-all elections provides few incentives for inter-ethnic cooperation. Proportional representation could help bridge the country's ethnic divides.
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The Future of Egyptian Democracy Hinges on the Fight Over Its Electoral Law
- Posted: March 12, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Home, Middle East and Africa, International Elections, Elections Worldwide
Over two years since the Arab Spring ousted President Hosni Mubarak and brought the promise of democracy to Egypt, it is clear that that promise is threatened. While most of the media covers the protests and riots in the streets of Cairo and Port Said, the battle that may ultimately decide the fate of Egyptian democracy is being fought over Egypt's new electoral law. The key issue is proportional representation.
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Israeli Election Results Show Responsiveness of Proportional System
- Posted: January 24, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Home, Middle East and Africa, International Elections, Elections Worldwide
As Tuesday's Israeli elections show, proportional representation systems guarantee that voters can change their government when they are unsatisfied with its performance.
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Everything You Need to Know About Israeli Elections Before Election Day
- Posted: January 4, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Home, Middle East and Africa, International Elections, Elections Worldwide
Understanding the Israeli electoral process is not easy when coming from an American perspective, because Israeli elections are nothing like American elections. The election that will be held in Israel on January 22 will be different from the 2012 elections in the U.S. in almost every conceivable sense.
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Libya's 'Hybrid' Election Rules and Why They Are Less Than Ideal
- Posted: July 5, 2012
- Author(s): Arab Spring Series, Erin Ellis
- Categories: Home, Middle East and Africa, 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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Hanging by a Thread: Egyptian Democracy After the June 18 Coup
- Posted: June 25, 2012
- Author(s): Erin Ellis
- Categories: Middle East and Africa, FairVote, Elections Worldwide
In the aftermath of a military "coup" staged on June 18, the future of Egyptian democracy looks precarious. In retrospect, the situation might have been prevented if Egypt had used proportional representation to elect its parliament in the first place.
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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): Arab Spring Series, Erin Ellis
- Categories: Instant Runoff Voting, Home, Middle East and Africa, 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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Kenya Visit Shows Youth Vote Key in Next Presidential Election
- Posted: April 24, 2012
- Author(s): Tyler Sadonis
- Categories: Home, Middle East and Africa, FairVote, Elections Worldwide
After a disputed election in 2007 caused violence and chaos across Kenya, the youth are organizing to ensure a different outcome when Kenyans return to the polls in 2013 to elect a new president.
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Egypt and the Winner-Take-All Distortion
- Posted: March 8, 2012
- Author(s): Sheahan Virgin, Arab Spring Series, Hüseyin Koyuncu
- Categories: Home, Middle East and Africa, 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): Arab Spring Series, Hüseyin Koyuncu
- Categories: Home, Middle East and Africa, 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.