The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will hold a two-day meeting of experts on electoral issues on 12 and 13 November 2004 at its Geneva Headquarters, The House of Parliaments. This roundtable will review devedevelopments that have taken place in electoral law and practice since 1994, when the IPU published its standard-setting works, Free and Fair Elections : International Law and Practice and the resultant Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections. The meeting will bring together top-level experts from various regions who have been involved in developing and implementing electoral standards.

In view of the considerable developments that have taken place in the electoral field in the past decade since the above-mentioned works were published, including an ever-increasing number of elections taking place around the world, it has become necessary to undertake a review.

The roundtable is expected, in light of this review, to identify elements for updating the IPU study on free and fair elections. According to the IPU Secretary General, Anders B. Johnsson, "in this way, the IPU will continue contributing to global efforts to establish standards which, when implemented, allow for more transparent and fair electoral processes, the outcome of which reflects the will of the people, a key precept of democracy".

"While elections might be considered the defining institutions of modern democracy, surprisingly little effort has gone into investigating the connection between the two", says Richard Katz, Professor at Johns Hopkins University (United States), one of the announced participants. He argues that the literature has traditionally focused on the true meaning of democracy and the general impact of elections on its achievement, with little attention devoted to the possibility that some democratic values may be better achieved, or more seriously undermined, by one variety of electoral system rather than another. The roundtable is being organised with financial support from the Ford Foundation. Two eminent scholars, Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill of Oxford University and Michael Boda of Oxford University and Johns Hopkins University, will serve as moderators.

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Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 140 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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Contact for additional information or interviews:

Mrs. Luisa Ballin, IPU Information Officer 5, ch. du Pommier, CH - 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex / Geneva Tel. +41 22 919 41 16/27 Fax: +41 22 919 41 60 E-mail: lb@mail.ipu.org or cbl@mail.ipu.org