Voters' trust in the integrity of electoral processes is crucial for their democratic participation, commitment to democracy and for preventing democratic backsliding. This analysis formed the core of a speech by Stewart Dickson (United Kingdom, ILDG), the 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 held in Gdansk, Poland, on 20 November.
Addressing the session on Election Management Bodies (EMBs) and crises in global democracy, Mr Dickson stressed the importance of the EMBs' work for strengthening citizens' trust and highlighted the challenges facing them as their responsibilities expanded into highly polarised sectors such as campaign finance, 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' report in October 2024 on recurring issues with local and regional democracy identified the rapid deterioration of the campaigning environment and the rise in foreign interference as emerging trends. Mr 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.
