NYT: “The British government said on Thursday that it would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote, in what it called a landmark moment for democracy and some of its opponents decried as an attempt to tilt the electoral playing field.”
Category Archives: comparative election law
“U.S. to Curtail Practice of Assessing Fairness of Foreign Elections”
WSJ: “he State Department is placing strict limits on its public assessments of foreign elections, according to an internal State Department directive, a sharp shift away from a practice the U.S. has used for decades to promote fair elections abroad.”
“Who Gets to Be Italian? Voters Face a Choice.”
Long after seeing millions of Italians emigrate as they fled poverty and war, Italy has now become a country to which millions of people have migrated, its schools and neighborhoods filling with Africans, Asians, Latin Americans and Eastern Europeans.
Yet many here say the law has not kept up with this dramatic demographic and social change, still making it too hard for immigrants to become Italian.
On Sunday and Monday, Italians will be called to vote in a referendum to decide whether to reduce the legally required residency in the country to five from 10 years in order to be able to apply for citizenship.
. . .
But for the referendum to pass, a majority of Italian voters must turn out, with most of them voting “yes.” Many observers are skeptical that will happen in a country where turnout is low.
Interesting details, too:
Supporters of the referendum accused Italy’s state broadcaster, Rai, of largely avoiding debates or reports about the referendum, though Rai said that it covered the referendum much more than the one in 2022.
Politicians opposed to changing the citizenship rules have said they won’t vote.
“Bolivia reinstates a leftist challenger but keeps former leader Morales off the ballot”
Bolivia’s electoral tribunal on Friday included leftist Senate leader Andrónico Rodríguez on the list of presidential candidates approved for the ballot but excluded the powerful former socialist leader Evo Morales — the other major thorn in the president’s side.
As tensions escalate in the run-up to Bolivia’s Aug. 17 elections, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal reinstated Rodríguez, a 36-year-old political upstart with close ties to Morales and roots in the ex-president’s rural coca-growing stronghold, weeks after suspending his candidacy on technical grounds in a decision that shocked many Bolivians.
“We are the candidate of the people,” Rodríguez said in a speech welcoming the revival of his campaign. “Our primary concern has been to wage the legal battle, and in the end, the power of the people had to prevail.”
With the ruling Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, riven by dysfunction and division over President Luis Arce’s power struggle with his former mentor, Morales, supporters of the senate leader see him as the only chance for MAS to beat the right-wing opposition and salvage its decades-long political dominance.
“Low Turnout in Mexico’s Far-Reaching Judicial Election Fuels Legitimacy Concerns”
Mexico’s sweeping reorganization of its judicial system got off to a rocky start. The nationwide election of thousands of judges over the weekend was marked by an exceptionally high level of abstention, with nearly 90 percent of voters opting not to take part.
Only 12.6 percent to 13.3 percent of voters cast ballots in Sunday’s election, according to estimates from the national electoral authority, fueling legitimacy concerns. That means the contentious judicial election had one of the lowest turnouts in any federal election since the early 2000s, when Mexico transitioned to a democracy.
The dismal turnout points to the confusion and indecision across the country over the election, which shifts the judiciary from an appointment-based system to one in which voters choose judges. Supporters of the plan have argued that it makes the system more democratic, while critics have characterized it as a power grab by the governing leftist Morena party.
UK: “Speaker’s Conference reports on abuse and intimidation of MPs and election candidates”
Report from Parliament:
An interim report from the Conference has found that threats and abuse are dissuading candidates from standing and making it harder for MPs and candidates to engage with the public. This has worsened over the last decade, with recent trends suggesting it could get worse.
. . .
The Conference reached a number of conclusions and made several recommendations in the interim report.
Currently electoral law is not fit for purpose when it comes to tackling harassment, abuse and intimidation of candidates. The Government should undertake a full review of electoral law, including identifying practices or processes that unintentionally undermine security or electoral integrity. As a minimum, the Conference recommends:-Reviewing how to make the intention behind section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983, regarding false statements of fact in relation to a candidate’s personal character or conduct, enforceable and able to keep pace with technological developments in AI and deepfakes.
-Removing the option for any home addresses to be published as part of the nomination process.
-Introducing ID and address checks for all candidates.
-Working with the Electoral Commission to review the adequacy of nomination requirements in protecting elections from candidates seeking to mislead the electorate or undermine the integrity of the democratic process.
Election updates from Mexico, Poland, South Korea
One more story on Mexico’s judicial elections, from the Wall Street Journal:
Weak requirements for candidates risk elevating underqualified magistrates. Drug cartels could try to influence elections for judges who work at high-security prisons where top criminals are locked up, said Eduardo Guerrero, a Mexico City-based security consultant.
In Poland, from the Associated Press:
Conservative Karol Nawrocki won Poland’s weekend presidential runoff election, according to the final vote count on Monday. Nawrocki won 50.89% of votes in a very tight race against liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 49.11%.
The race had Poland on edge since a first round of voting two weeks earlier, revealing deep divisions in the country along the eastern flank of NATO and the European Union.
And the New York Times on the upcoming election in South Korea, with this note:
Mr. Lee still faces his own legal jeopardy: he has been on trial on several criminal charges, including violating election laws. There is a legal debate over whether his trials should continue if he wins the election or should be suspended until after his five-year term. The nation’s Constitution doesn’t provide a clear answer. The Constitutional Court will likely have to weigh in.
“How the Indian Media Amplified Falsehoods in the Drumbeat of War”
The news reports chronicled India’s overwhelming successes: Indian attacks had struck a Pakistani nuclear base, downed two Pakistani fighter jets and blasted part of Pakistan’s Karachi port, the country’s oil and trade lifeline.
Each piece of information was highly specific, but none of it was true.
Disinformation on social media in the days during and since India and Pakistan’s intense military confrontation last week has been overwhelming. Sifting fact from fiction has been nearly impossible on both sides of the border because of the sheer volume of falsehoods, half-truths, memes, misleading video footage and speeches manipulated by artificial intelligence.
But some of that flood also made its way into the mainstream media, a development that alarmed analysts monitoring the evolution of outlets in India once trusted for their independence. The race to break news and a jingoistic approach to reporting reached a fever pitch during the four-day conflict, as anchors and commentators became cheerleaders for war between two nuclear-armed states. Some well-known TV networks aired unverified information or even fabricated stories amid the burst of nationalistic fervor.
And news outlets reported on a supposed strike on a Pakistani nuclear base that was rumored to have caused radiation leaks. They shared detailed maps that purported to show where the strikes had been. But there was no evidence to uphold these claims. The story of the Indian Navy attacking Karachi was also widely circulated. It has since been discredited.
“When we think of misinformation, we think of anonymous people, of bots online, where you never know what the source of the thing is,” said Sumitra Badrinathan, an assistant professor of political science at American University who studies misinformation in South Asia. Social media platforms were also rife with misinformation during India’s 2019 conflict with Pakistan, but what was notable this time, Dr. Badrinathan said, was that “previously credible journalists and major media news outlets ran straight-up fabricated stories.”
“When previously trusted sources become disinformation outlets, it’s a really large problem,” she said.
The misinformation shared on mainstream media platforms about the conflict between India and Pakistan is the latest blow to what was once a vibrant journalism scene in India….
“Convicted cardinal wants to vote for pope, his brother prelates must decide”
Cardinals in meetings ahead of the start of a secret conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis are scratching the hair under their red skull caps as they try to decide whether a cardinal convicted of embezzlement and fraud can join in the vote.
Their quandary concerns Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who in December 2023 was sentenced to 5-1/2 years in jail. He was the most senior Catholic Church official ever to stand trial before a Vatican criminal court.
Becciu has denied all wrongdoing and is appealing the court’s ruling. The Italian cardinal, who is free pending his appeal, confirmed in a conversation with Reuters on Thursday night that he felt he should be allowed into the conclave.
“Britain’s hereditary lords hatch a survival plan”
Some of Britain’s hereditary peers are already planning a comeback to the House of Lords despite the ruling Labour Party’s plans to boot them out.
Peers from multiple parties have discussed the prospect of at least 10 of the 92 lawmakers — eligible to stand for the U.K. parliament’s second chamber due to their aristocratic birth — being nominated for life peerages after the government axes their existing rights to sit and vote later this year, four peers told POLITICO.
Such life peerages would ostensibly be offered by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the normal way, but in practice they would be reserved by respective parties to hand to selected hereditary peers in their ranks.
“Enforcing the Law of Democracy: On the Marine Le Pen Ineligibility Judgment and Its Implications”
Camille Aynes and Eleonora Bottini blog:
It was a political bombshell. On Monday, 31 March 2025, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right party Rassemblement National (National Rally) in France, was convicted of misappropriation of public funds in the so-called “parliamentary assistants” case. She was sentenced by the Paris Criminal Court to four years of imprisonment, including two years to be served, a fine of 100,000 euros, and a five-year period of ineligibility to hold public office immediately enforceable.
This unprecedented judgment jeopardizes the very possibility for the leading candidate in the upcoming 2027 presidential election to run for office. While neither Marine Le Pen nor the broader public appeared surprised by the conviction itself, given the underlying facts of the case, two elements of the ruling proved entirely unexpected. The first was the imposition of the additional sanction of a ban on standing for public office. The second, and even more striking, was the immediate enforceability of this sanction, despite the pending appeal.
We argue that the judgment is marked by an unusual degree of judicial creativity, particularly in its underlying conception of democracy, which may be understood through the lens of militant democracy. Although it does not constitute a political judgment in the traditional, partisan sense, its constitutional and symbolic significance is substantial—and the backlash it has provoked against the judiciary is a cause for concern….
Candidate disqualifications and challenges for elections in Romania, Brazil
Discontent abroad as reported by Reuters. In Romania:
Thousands of Romanians took to the streets of Bucharest on Saturday to show their support for the European Union, amid political disputes over a presidential election rerun scheduled for May.
Romania is due to repeat its two-round presidential election on May 4 and 18 after the Constitutional Court voided the initial ballot in December following accusations of Russian meddling in favour of Calin Georgescu, who had been leading in the polls.
. . .
On Saturday, the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) approved four candidates for the presidential election and rejected one, ultra-nationalist Diana Sosoaca.
And in Brazil:
Thousands of people gathered on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach on Sunday in a show of support for former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, who faces charges of leading a plot to topple the government and undermine the country’s democracy after he lost a 2022 election.
Charges against the former army captain and several key allies will go before a five-judge panel at Brazil’s Supreme Court on March 25. If judges agree to hear the trial, Bolsonaro and others will become defendants.
. . .
Bolsonaro is also fighting a ruling by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which has barred him from running for public office until 2030. In spite of the ban, he has repeatedly expressed his desire to seek the presidency again in 2026.
“Trudeau Government Left Canada Vulnerable to Foreign Interference, Report Finds”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was “insufficiently transparent” about foreign interference in Canadian politics and sometimes took “too long to act” against attempts to meddle in the country’s past two general elections by foreign powers including China and India, a government commission said on Tuesday.
“Trust in Canada’s democratic institutions has been shaken, and it is imperative to restore it,” the commission said in its final report, which summarized 18 months of hearings, testimony and examination of classified intelligence documents.
The government’s efforts to rebuild trust have been “piecemeal and underwhelming,” said Marie-Josée Hogue, a Court of Appeal justice from Quebec, who led the commission.
The final report included 51 recommendations by the commission to strengthen Canada’s electoral system, ranging from stricter rules for the country’s political parties and third-party financing to better sharing of intelligence and oversight of disinformation during campaigns.
Via Rob Richie.
“Romanian Court Annuls Presidential Election Results and Orders a New Vote”
The NYT coverage of the Romanian constitutional court’s decision is here; the court’s decision itself is here. The NYT reports that the decision was based on manipulation of digital media — including this Tiktok controversy and alleged Russian interference.
The U.S. Embassy’s statement on the decision is here.
And the European Commission has ordered TikTok to preserve information under the EU’s Digital Services Act, for a pending investigation and increased future monitoring.