Free and fair election

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See also: Unfair election

A free and fair election is defined by political scientist

vote, a fair count of eligible voters who cast a ballot (including such aspects as electoral fraud or voter suppression), and acceptance of election results by all parties. An election may partially meet international standards for free and fair elections, or may meet some standards but not others.[1]

Factors

A 2016 study evaluated ten dimensions of the conduct of elections between 1975–2011:[2]

  1. legal framework (whether there was a constitutional
    right of citizens to vote and seek office, whether elections were held at regular intervals, and whether election-related laws
    were not changed immediately before an election);
  2. electoral management (whether gerrymandering occurred and whether election management bodies, if they existed, were independent, impartial, and accountable);
  3. electoral rights (whether citizens were generally able to vote on the basis of
    equal suffrage
    and access);
  4. voter registers (whether they were accurate, current, and open to voters for easy and effective voter registration);
  5. nomination rules/ballot access (whether candidates had in practice a right to compete in the election, with rejections of candidate applications being based on "internationally recognizable and acceptable norms" and with no candidate receiving more than 75% of the votes, a signal of malpractice or election boycotts);
  6. campaign process (whether elections were carried out without violence, intimidation, bribery (vote buying), use of government resources to advantage the incumbent, or a "massive financial advantages" for the incumbent);
  7. media access (whether freedom of speech was protected and whether the ruling party was disproportionately benefited by government-owned media);
  8. voting process (whether elections were conducted by
    ballot box stuffing
    , multiple voting, destruction of valid ballots, and other forms of manipulation);
  9. role of officials (whether the election was administered with adequately trained personnel, free from campaigning or intimidation at polling places, and with the ability of international election observers and party representatives to observe polling places); and
  10. counting of votes (whether votes were tabulated transparently and free of fraud or tampering)

The V-Dem Democracy Indices codes free and fair elections separately from the extent of suffrage.[3]

Around the world

Further information: Democracy indices

The study of 169 countries from 1975 to 2011 estimated that only about half of elections were free and fair.

executive power were associated with a 31% higher probability of a free and fair elections in the study.[2]

See also

References

  1. S2CID 154766533
    .
  2. ^
    S2CID 110571606
    .
  3. ^ https://www.v-dem.net/documents/24/codebook_v13.pdf Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, Agnes Cornell, M. Steven Fish, Lisa Gastaldi, Haakon Gjerløw, Adam Glynn, Sandra Grahn, Allen Hicken, Katrin Kinzelbach, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Anja Neundorf, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Oskar Rydén, Johannes von Römer, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Aksel Sundström, Eitan Tzelgov, Luca Uberti, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2023. V-Dem Codebook v13, Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.

Further reading

External links
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