LGBTI persons often face numerous obstacles to fully exercise their participation rights in the electoral process. In different countries, election observation organizations, both domestic and international, have made efforts to identify barriers to the effective participation of this community, document discriminatory legislation and practices, and make recommendations to foster political inclusion. Furthermore, LGBTI persons can also participate in the electoral process as election observers.

Example: European Union Election Observation Missions occasionally address LGBTI participation in elections, including references to this issue in their preliminary statements and final reports. In Honduras, the 2017 Mission’s final report gave account of discrimination and violence against LGBT community members and of the existence of LGBT candidatures in the interim and PARLACEN elections. It also pointed out the case of a trans candidate who was not given the chance to change her name in the ballot paper, according to her actual gender identity.[1] The final report of the 2018 Mission in El Salvador dealt with LGBT candidatures, violence against the LGBT community and EMBs efforts to promote the vote of transgender people.[2]

Example: In Mexico, the National Electoral Institute (Instituto Nacional Electoral) established a protocol to enhance participation of transgender voters in the 2018 elections.[3] The civil society organizations Organización Fuerza Ciudadana A.C. and Espacio Progresista deployed domestic observers in polling stations during Election Day, to monitor and assess the implementation of the Trans Protocol. The transgender community also had the opportunity to participate in these election observation efforts, by becoming domestic observers themselves. Organización Fuerza Ciudadana A.C. benefits from the Support Fund for Electoral Observation, an initiative launched by UNDP and Mexico’s EMBs to enhance transparent and independent domestic observation of the electoral process.[4]

Example: In the second round of the 2015 Guatemalan presidential elections, Citizen Action (Acción Ciudadana) and the Multi-cultural Network of Trans Women (Red Multicultural de Mujeres Trans) deployed election observers in Guatemala City and other neighboring municipalities, to identify the obstacles that restrict transgender women’s participation in the process. Their report contains concrete recommendations to promote the effective electoral participation of this community.[5]

Example: In Pakistan, the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) recruited 25 transgender persons as election observers for the 2018 Pakistani general elections, to monitor human rights violations, violence and discrimination against marginalized social groups in the electoral process.[6]