International IDEA: Supporting Post-Conflict and Out-of-Country Elections in Europe

Today, a significant part of Ukraine’s electoral infrastructure has been damaged, necessitating large-scale changes to electoral procedures and voting locations. This is key when holding elections for the presidency, the parliament and thousands of local self-government bodies.

Organizing the first postwar elections will pose unprecedented challenges considering millions of voters will cast their votes in foreign locations. To design a feasible model for out-of-country voting for Ukraine, in compliance with internationally recognized electoral standards, the Ukrainian authorities and the international community have to come together to guarantee the voting rights of millions of Ukrainian refugees across the globe. International IDEA, together with the EU Parliament, organized a high-level dialogue which involved a community of 21 countries’ EMBs, members of the Ukrainian and European parliaments, representatives of civil society and prominent international organizations. A potential strategy to tackle such issue was discussed.

Out of this parliamentary electoral dialogue several things emerged such as the country’s appeal to the international community to support democratic institutions and uphold democratic principles through the establishment of a well-defined electoral instrument for out-of-country elections to enable citizens to exercise their right to vote.

The POS is taken from IDEA’s 2023 annual review https://www.idea.int/annual-review-2023