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Vienna, 28 October 2025: Election-Watch.EU, in partnership with its network of experts and organisations, is implementing an EU-funded project within the EU and its Member States to strengthen electoral integrity, advocate for citizen-led election observation, and enhance participation of mobile EU citizens. A Project Implementation Team (PIT) coordinates all activities, including project management, research, advocacy, gender and inclusion, and communications.
To support sound financial management [...]
citizen led election observation, EP elections 2029, equality, inclusion in elections, recruitment, transparency, transparency of political campaign
Online Roundtable on Election Monitoring Efforts to Preserve Information Integrity
Berlin, Brussels, 4 September 2025: Since 2023, landmark legislation like the EU’s AI act and Digital Services Act came into effect, while novel generative AI technologies came into widespread mainstream use. Numerous elections in Europe marked by disinformation and foreign interference (e.g., Romania 2024). Globally, the 2024 Trump re-election and Musk’s takeover of X accelerated rollbacks in moderation and fact-checking.
DRI organised [...]
accountability, Austrian elections, Austrian general elections, election observation, election security, social media monitoring, social media monitoring of electoral campaigns, Telegram monitoring, transparency
Article on Mimicking Election Observation published
Vienna, 3 September 2025: Since the 2000s, various institutions have begun conducting international election observation missions, frequently parallel to those of established organisations. While many of these institutions collaborate actively and report on the qualities and shortcomings of electoral processes, others have endorsed the same elections that have been condemned by others. One such institution is the Commonwealth of Independent States [...]
accountability, cis observers, election observers, election security, transparency
Two papers presented at the Electoral Integrity Conference 2025
Vienna, 10 July 2025: This year’s Electoral Integrity Conference featured a panel on ‘Monitoring Electoral Integrity’. Election-Watch.EU researcher Markus Pollak contributed two papers to the conference, which were presented in the panel.
In collaboration with Clément Desrumaux, one of Markus Pollak’s research project examines the recruitment practices of OSCE election observers. Their draft paper, „It’s a Small World! For 20 years, it’s [...]
accountability, election obdservation, electoral integrity, transparency
Meeting with the EP Rapporteur on the 2018 Election Act Amendment
Brussels, 9 July 2025: Election-Watch.EU, met with the Member of the European Parliament Mr. Borja Giménez Larraz (European People’s Party (EPP, Spain), rapporteur of the European Parliament on the 2018 amendment of the European Electoral Act (Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2018/994).
During the meeting, Mr. Rabitsch presented the work of Election-Watch.EU, promoting citizen election observation and strengthening electoral integrity [...]
2018 Electoral Act, 2018 EP electoral reforms, 2024 EP elections, citizen led election observation, EP elections 2024, equality, Spain, threshold, transparency
Social media monitoring of Austria’s general election campaign
Vienna, Berlin, 23 January 2025: Election-Watch.EU (as wahlbeobachtung.org) conducted a social media monitoring of the Austrian electoral campaign 2024 together with other researchers. In the study we examine toxicity, hate speech, and extremism on Austrian online and social media platforms, as well as on Telegram channels, ahead of the elections. This study displays findings in graphs to provide a better understanding and, in addition, includes a disinformation case study.
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accountability, citizen led election observation, data protection in elections, extremism, hate speech, inclusion in elections, social media monitoring of electoral campaigns, Telegram monitoring, toxicity, transparency, transparency of political campaign
Austria,European Union,General,International
Venice Commission recognises election observers as human rights defenders
Venice, 6-7 December 2024: The Venice Commission (VC; European Commission for Democracy through Law; Council of Europe) acknowledged Election Observers as Human Rights Defenders. Venice Commission Report Election Observers as HR Defenders
The Venice Commission points out in particular that:
➡️ States should adopt the necessary provisions in national legislation to provide sufficient possibilities to observe elections;
➡️ All states should foresee in [...]
accountability, citizen led election observation, equality, inclusion in elections, transparency, transparency of political campaign
International election observer organisations convene in Gdansk
Gdansk, 20-22 November 2024: Election-Watch.EU participated for the first time as an endorsing member at the annual implementation meeting of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation in Gdansk/Poland. Hosted by OSCE / ODIHR, and opened by former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Lech Wałęsa, the event took place in [...]
2024 EP elections, accountability, data protection in elections, Declaration of Principles, DoP, election security, endorsing DoP member, EP elections 2024, equality, inclusion in elections, transparency, transparency of political campaign
Austria,European Union,General,International
Election Assessment Mission Report with good practice examples published
Brussels, Vienna, 30 September 2024: Today, Election-Watch.EU published its Final Report with key findings, good practices and recommendations of the Election Assessment Mission (EAM) to the 2024 European Parliament Elections. From the beginning of May to mid-June, the Mission assessed the European elections across the 27 EU Member States based on six key principles: integrity, inclusion, accountability, transparency, equality, and resilience.
Reference report [...]
2024 EP elections, accountability, citizen led election observation, data protection in elections, election security, EP elections 2024, equality, featured-en, inclusion in elections, transparency, transparency of political campaign