Review of the 2024 Super Cycle
Edited by Toby S. James, Holly Ann Garnett and Erik Asplund
The Electoral Integrity Project collaborated with International IDEA to publish a special report on “Review of the 2024 Super-Cycle Year of Elections: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities”.
The report was edited by Toby James, Holly Ann Garentt and Erik Asplund and included chapters from Vasil Vashchanka, Gudlaug Olafsdottir, Julia Thalin, Ingrid Bicu, Sonali Campion, Erik Asplund, Madeline Harty and Therese Pearce Laanela.
The report was published to coincide with the Stockholm Conference on Electoral Integrity on 10-12 June, which will gather election authorities from more than 40 countries.
The Electoral Integrity Project will publish it’s full independent evaluation of 2024 elections alongside the Perceptions of Electoral Integrity dataset later in June.
The key findings of the EIP-IDEA report were that:
1. Electoral management bodies face significant challenges due to extreme weather, a radically changed information environment, politicization of their mandate, and aggression towards their officials, compounded by the egregious use of money in politics and manipulation of social media algorithms to influence elections.
2. Instances of disinformation narratives during elections were recorded in at least 80 percent of 54 national elections tracked by International IDEA’s Global Election Monitor (GEM) in 2024—showing how the deregulated approach of social media platforms, aggressive use of disinformation, and difficulty in tracing financial flows are creating significant challenges for ensuring a level playing field for election candidates.
3. Election-related malpractice, often at the local level, remains a perennial problem in elections; incidents of undue violation of rules, vote buying or attempts at fraud were recorded in at least 17 national elections from 2024.
4. Despite historic peaceful transfers of power in 2024, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, election-related violence continued, with targeted attacks against political candidates and violence by illicit armed groups and government-sponsored violence in various countries.
5. Gender-based violence during election periods was recorded in 28 national elections in 2024, in public, private, and online spaces. The violence disproportionately affected marginalized groups—showing the need for legal and institutional reforms as well as transformative strategies to protect electoral safety.
6. Natural hazards such as floods, heatwaves, and tropical storms affected at least 20 primary, subnational, national, and supranational elections in 15 countries in 2024, with climate change and the 2023–24 El Niño event as contributing factors.
7. In 2024, electoral reform laws were passed in some countries (e.g., Georgia) with minimal support, raising concerns about democratic backsliding via legal changes designed to entrench incumbent power and diminish safeguards for democratic checks and balances.
8. The unpredictable environment, difficulty introducing reforms, and online efforts to undermine elections in 2024 highlighted the need for trust-building efforts by electoral management bodies.
The report had the following calls for action:
1. Election authorities must have adequate, sustainable funding, free from political influence.
2. Election authorities must engage proactively, with enhanced cooperation from multiple actors, to mitigate the impact of mis- and disinformation.
3. The rise of aggression against election workers and institutions necessitates improved security measures, support mechanisms, and legal provisions.
4. Electoral reform processes must be safeguarded to prevent misuse by incumbents and ensure inclusive political consensus-building.
5. Preparing for the unexpected has become essential for election administrators, requiring risk management, resilience-building, and crisis management methods.
6. Interagency cooperation and a whole-of-government approach are vital for addressing the multifaceted challenges of electoral integrity.