Registration deadlines for European Elections
Vienna, 25 March 2024: Crucial voter registration deadlines for the 6-9 June 2024 European Parliament elections in three EU Member States (ES, IT, FI) passed already.
Tomorrow, on 26 March, Austria will have its cut off date for the voter register. Especially if you are a mobile EU citizen living in Austria and you would like to vote in Austria you would need to register by tomorrow. More information via the Ministry of Interior website.
Find here [...]
Austria,European Union,General
Artificial Intelligence – Curse or Blessing? Discussion at the European media days
Lech, 1 December 2023: The great transformation – fears, challenges and bright spots were the focus of the 15th European media summit in Lech am Arlberg/ Austria. As part of the science forum at the University of Innsbruck, Dr. Viorela Dan from the University of Innsbruck, Dr. Justus Piater, Head of the Digital Science Center at the University of Innsbruck and Dr. Armin Rabitsch from Election-Watch.EU (wahlbeobachtung.org) discussed the challenges [...]
2024 EP elections, citizen led election observation, data protection in elections, election security, transparency, transparency of political campaign
First Update of Democracy-Index in Austria
Vienna, 24 October 2023: At the press conference to present the updated 2023 Democracy Index, setbacks in terms of media freedom in Austria were noted. Since the Democracy Index was first developed and presented in October 2022, there have been regressions in media freedom and a slight decline in freedom of information. Positive developments were recorded in the [...]
demokratie, demokratie monitoring, demokratie-index, pressefreiheit, wahlrechtsänderungsgesetz, zivilgesellschaft
Austria,European Union,General,International
Policy Paper to the European Parliament Elections calls for EU and Member State action
Brussels, 28 August 2023: Election-Watch.EU (EW), together with the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD), Democracy Reporting International (DRI), and the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) published a Policy Paper to the upcoming European Parliament elections in June 2024. The findings and recommendations are outlined in four chapters: 1) Equality and Inclusion, 2) Transparency, 3) Accountability, and 4) Risks and Opportunities.
Four thematic [...]
2024 EP elections, accountability, citizen led election observation, data protection in elections, election security, EP elections 2024, equality, transparency, transparency of political campaign
Advisory opinion on the planned 2023 Electoral Amendment Act
Vienna, 9 January 2023: Election-Watch.EU (wahlbeobachtung.org) welcomes the submission of a private member bill by the governing parties to reform Austria’s electoral law and election conduct. The proposal to amend the electoral law includes some planned measures that our working group has already put forward in its list [...]
citizen led election observation, electoral amendment act austria, participatory electoral reforms, recommendations
Election-Watch.EU participates in round table with Austria’s federal Government
Vienna, 19 December 2022: Eleven Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) covering transparency, press freedom as well as civic and human rights met with Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler and Minister for the EU and Constitution, Karoline Edtstadler, in the Federal Chancellery of the Republic to discuss a draft law on information freedom, which is now pending since two years. Government representatives listened to the CSOs’ criticism on the draft and promised [...]
access to information, accountability, freedom of information, law on information freedom, transparency
Austrian journal for municipalities publishes research results
Vienna, 12 August 2022: In 2022 there will be another federal presidential election in Austria and tens of thousands of election officers will once again be needed to ensure that the elections run smoothly. The Austrian presidential election in 2016 and the problems that arose in connection with the conduct of the election drew attention to the issue of polling station commissions (poll workers) and raised the question of a possible need for reform. [...]
Election administration and electoral integrity
Vienna, 17 May 2022: In recent years, election administration has become a subject of intensified debates, raising questions of how to organize elections to ensure electoral integrity. One question concerns who should serve as members of polling station boards, administer election day proceedings, and participate in the vote count. Different models co-exist in modern democracies, with some countries – among them Austria – actively involving the [...]
election integrity, election oversight, electoral studies, poll worker study, poll workers, polling staff, polling staff survey
Discussion to open polling commissions to young voters
Vienna, 4 May 2022: As part of the action days for political education, Election-Watch.EU organized a discussion meeting on civil society participation in elections, hosted by Zentrum Polis. Opportunities of providing access to polling [...]
first time voters, inclusion, participatory electoral conduct, political education, polling commission, young voters