In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Against the background of Mongolia’s famous blue sky, around 1,215 delegates from 104 countries gathered in Ulaanbaatar to participate in the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies (CD) from April 27- 29, 2013, organized under Mongolia’s Presidency of the CD, which started in July 2011.

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On Friday, October 9, the people of Timor-Leste went to the polls to elect their local suco council members. There are over 440 of these councils, and the voting took place at 748 polling stations throughout the country. Formally gaining independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a UN-administered transition, Timor-Leste has not had an easy [...]

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Sitting in the small but breezy Local Peace Committee (LPC) office in Nepal’s Rolpa district, LPC Coordinator and Maoist leader Rishi Ram Roka Magar pauses when we ask him if he fears that Nepal is heading toward another war. He contemplates the question with a somber face for a few tense moments, and then his [...]

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How to define a “good” election? Obviously everyone wants a peaceful, free, and fair election process. To strengthen accountability and make sure voters know what choices they have, they must also have sufficient information about the candidates in order to be able to make an informed choice on Election Day. In Indonesia, the big question [...]

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Deep in Dolly, the red-light district of Surabaya, East Java, four women were sitting patiently. Onstage next to them were two dancers in tight, low-cut spandex costumes, swinging to the beat of dangdut music, while an old crooner with bouffant hair provided the vocals. As the women waited, light from flashing Bintang beer signs shone [...]

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Seminal elections in a country’s history, such as those after a period of civil war, military rule or at the demise of an authoritarian regime, are invariably marked by the arrival of troupes of international election observers; their duty: to comment on the overall election environment and whether or not the elections held are free [...]

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On December 29, 2008, Bangladesh held its most credible and most peaceful elections to date. They were free, fair, and without the usual violence and disruption that has accompanied most elections in Bangladesh. Voter turnout hit 88 percent, a remarkable figure for a country with a history, albeit interrupted, of regular elections. These elections differed [...]

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Historians and political scientists are long used to identifying the key ingredients in the making of revolutions – price hikes, splits in the elite, repression – all waiting for a magic trigger to unite and ignite a radical change in political systems. Perhaps there is now a new trigger for change forcing an overhaul if [...]

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Once again, Indonesian voters defied commentators by enthusiastically participating in Jakarta’s first-ever direct election for governor. While there are no official results yet, voter turnout amongst the 5.8 million voters appears to be much higher than some were anticipating in the run-up to the election (the Indonesia Survey Institute predicted only a 35% turnout in [...]

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