We invite both members of the network and ACE users in general to help us in establishing a "DID YOU KNOW?" feature to be developed as part of the Electoral Advice section of the ACE website.

We are looking at interesting facts about elections, in the form of a sentence of not more than 20 words, summarising something special about a given electoral process in the world.

Your contributions can be sent by email to: ace.facilitators@idea.int

Did you know?

• Did you know? In Italy, electors attaining 100 years of age are deprived of their voting rights.
• Did You Know? 1,617 democratic elections took place between 1945 and 2000.
• Did You Know? The first legislative elections in Jordan in which women took part were held in 1989.
• Did You Know? In October 2005, the Global Declaration of Principles and Code of Conduct for International Electoral Observation was adopted by the United Nations and by a wide range of global and regional organisations, including International IDEA.
• Did You Know? In Indonesia, a total of half a million military personnel do not exercise their right to vote.
• Did You Know? The word "ballot" comes from the Italian word ballotta or little colored ball. In the 13th century, some Italian communes used ballottas for votes.
• Did You Know? Some Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs), such as those of Australia, Canada, France, Ghana, India, Mexico, South Africa and the UK, regularly participate in international electoral assistance missions and international technical cooperation.
• Did You Know? Some countries emerging from conflict have relied on donor assistance, through the UN or other agencies, to fund the whole or a significant part of their electoral budget. Examples include Cambodia, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Did You Know? In Cambodia, Buddhist monks do not vote despite their constitutional right.
• Did You Know? In Italy, electors older than 100 years are automatically removed from the voters’ lists.
• Did You Know? In the Philippines it is illegal to consume alcohol on polling day.
• Did You Know?In Peru, registered voters will be fined if they do not vote, the participation in the Election is certified through a stamp on the back of the ID card.
• Did You Know? In Guatemala, it is illegal for anyone to sell alcohol for a 24-hour period leading up to an election.
• Did You Know? The total cost of the electoral process over the transition period in the Democratic Republic of Congo is put at €265.3 million, excluding logistic expenses.
• Did You Know? In Indonesian elections, voters must punch a hole in the ballot paper with a nail to mark their choice.
• Did You Know? The ballot paper used in most elections in Japan automatically unfolds itself in the ballot box, hugely reducing the amount of time and cost of the counting process.
• Did You Know? The preferential system was first introduced into the world in Queensland, Australia, in 1892.
• Did You Know? Only one country out of 14 holds presidential elections in the Pacific region.
• Did You Know? More countries use the List Proportional electoral system than any other system.
• Did You Know? Nauru uses the Modified Borda Count – a preferential system not found in any other country in the world.
• Did You Know? China holds elections on village level.
• Did You Know? Voters in Germany and New Zealand have two votes each.
• Did You Know? India and the United States use the same electoral system.
• Did You Know? Malta and Ireland are the only two of the 25 EU member states using another electoral system for European Parliament elections than List-PR (they use the STV)
• Did You Know? As of January 2006, women's representation in parliaments worldwide stood at 16%, up 1% from 2004.
• Did You Know? Rwanda scores best in the world when it comes to women representation with 48.8% of Members of Parliament being women.
• Did You Know? In May 2005, women in Kuwait finally secured the right to vote and run for office.
• Did You Know? The first legislative elections in Jordan in which women took part were held in 1989.
• Did You Know? New Zealand was the first place in the world to allow women to vote in 1893.
• Did You Know? Women in Liechtenstein gained the right to vote in 1984.
• Did You Know? In Afghanistan, women voted for the first time after the Taliban regime in the September 2004 Presidential Elections. Many of the women voters were registered at their home by mobile registration teams.
• Did You Know? In Afghanistan, men and women have separate polling stations. Women cannot enter a man’s polling station whereas men can enter a woman’s station (e.g. as polling staff).
• Did You Know? In Yemen, male and female voters vote in separate polling stations.
• Did You Know? In Germany, the first ever female Chancellor (the Head of the Government) was elected in September 2005. She is not only the first female German Chancellor but also the first from former East Germany and the youngest Chancellor ever elected.
• Did You Know? In January 2006, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was inaugurated as Liberia's president and Africa's first female elected head of state.
• Did You Know? In January 2006, the centre-left candidate Michelle Bachelet won Chile's presidential election, becoming its first female leader, taking 53% of the vote. She has announced to include 50% women into her cabinet.
• Did You Know? As overall turnout declines in Western Europe, women have become more likely to exercise their right to vote than men.
• Did You Know? In more than half of the world's countries, political parties have to report the source of their funding.
• Did You Know? In 65% of the world's countries, political parties receive public funding.
• Did You Know? Internal political party reforms can help women get elected to parliaments.
• Did You Know? The electoral system may determine how many political parties are in your country's parliament.
• Did You Know? In the 1990s, the average voter turnout in Asia was 77.5%.
• Did You Know? 34 countries in the world have compulsory voting.
• Did You Know? Mali has the world's consistently lowest turnout in national elections, with an average participation of only a little more than 20%.
• Did You Know? In several Scandinavian countries almost 40% of voters chose to vote in advance voting.
• Did You Know? Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Singapore and Uruguay are amongst the countries that impose penalties and sanctions on non-voters.
• Did You Know? 1,617 democratic elections took place between 1945 and 2000.
• Did You Know? Malawi's first ever multi-party local government elections in 2000 had a voter turnout of 14.2 percent.
• Did You Know? The Euro Gap is the difference in the turnout between national elections and European Parliament elections.