Senior Project Manager

Domenico Tuccinardi is a specialist in electoral management and electoral legislation. He has worked in the field of of electoral assistance and governance development in Eastern Europe, the Middle-East, Asia and Africa.

Among his main appointments, Domenico directed the external registration and voting programmes for the OSCE Mission in Bosnia between 1999 and 2000. As OSCE Deputy Director of Elections in Bosnia between 2001 and 2002, he designed the transfer of the election administration functions to the newly created Election Commission of Bosnia, where he represented the OSCE as delegated commissioner.

Domenico also was the Election Administration specialist of the IFES planning team for the Iraq Transitional Elections of  2005, and later on he led the EU project in support of the same elections. More recently he was Special Advisor for the EU to the  Ad Hoc Referendum Commission on the Independence of Montenegro.

Among Domenico's activities in electoral observation, he was Deputy Chief Observer for the EU Election Observation Missions in Venezuela and Nicaragua. Domenico is also the co-author of the EU Methodological Guide on Electoral Assistance and collaborates to other specialized publications in the field of electoral technology. He holds a law degree and an MA in international law.

Network Facilitator/Policy Specialist

Stina Larserud has worked for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm since 2003.

Her prime focus has been on electoral system design and she was the lead writer for the "Electoral Systems" topic area of the ACE Encyclopaedia and the electoral systems module in BRIDGE version 2 and was one of two authors of the 2007 IDEA publication on electoral systems and gender quotas. She was also the co-author and editorial anchor of the IDEA handbook on Electoral System Design. Having studied in Sweden and in Australia, Stina holds a Master’s degree in political science from the University of Uppsala, Sweden in comparative politics and institutional design and is a fully accredited BRIDGE facilitator.

Stina acts as a Chairperson of a polling station commission at elections and referendums in Sweden.

Network Facilitator/Policy Specialist

Sara Staino  has worked with the Electoral Processes Programme of International IDEA since early 2004.

In this capacity, she has performed several functions; representing IDEA in the ACE Project Management Committee tasked with the conceptualization and implementation of the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network; as a lead writer for the "Electoral Management" topic area of the ACE Encyclopaedia; and as IDEA Project Manager for the ACE Course Correction process. Sara is also co-author and editorial anchor of the newly published IDEA handbook on “Electoral Management Design”.

Sara was previously a University Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Örebro, Sweden, teaching International Studies and Electoral Management and Observation. She has been an international election observer in a number of electoral observation missions for the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and regularly acts as a Chairperson of a polling station commission in Sweden. Sara is a semi-accredited BRIDGE Facilitator and a graduate of the University of Örebro, Sweden, in political science.

Administration/Technical Support

Vincent Kearns is originally from Melbourne Australia. Before working for the ACE Practitioners' Network Team in Stockholm, Vincent worked for the Australian Government. His duties, amongst other things, was  creating and maintaining databases that tracked the many people visiting or migrating to Australia and representing the Government when dealing with the myriad of different ethnicities that made Australia their home. Vincent has a degree in Social Science from RMIT University in Melbourne.

Finance and Administration Officer

Eralda Vahidi has studied agriculture and economical politics of  agriculture at the University of Kamza in Tirana and has worked in the private sector as well as with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Albania. She has held several positions within UNDP; interpreter, finance and administrative assistant and public awareness and information coordinator and she worked as an administrative assistant for OPTO International in Sweden from August 2004 until she joined International IDEA in 2005.

Support Staff

Paul Guerin is a Senior Programme Officer in the Electoral Processes Team at International IDEA. Paul’s main focus on ACE is the establishment of the Regional Electoral Resource Centres and the "Regions & Countries" networking component of the ACE site. As an original designer of BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance & Elections), Paul is also working on version 2 of the innovative, modular professional development course for electoral administrators. His other projects currently include the Electoral Assistance project which culminated in an international meeting on Ottawa in May 2006 “Towards more sustainable and effective electoral assistance” and the subsequent development of a course for donor and implementing agencies.

Paul’s work for the past 14 years has been primarily focused on electoral assistance programmes, capacity development programmes and observation for the United Nations, the European Commission and other international organisations particularly in democratisation processes in transitional and post-conflict countries, in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia.