Free and fair election

Not to be confused with Unfair election.

A free and fair election is defined as an election in which "coercion is comparatively uncommon". This definition was popularized by political scientist Robert Dahl. A free and fair election involves political freedoms and fair processes leading up to the vote, a fair count of eligible voters who cast a ballot, a lack of electoral fraud or voter suppression, and acceptance of election results by all parties. An election may partially meet international standards for free and fair elections, or may meet some standards but not others. ^[1]

Factors

A 2016 study evaluated ten dimensions of the conduct of elections between 1975–2011: ^[2]

1. legal framework (whether there was a constitutional right of citizens to vote and seek office, whether elections were held at regular intervals, and whether election-related laws were not changed immediately before an election);
2. electoral management (whether gerrymandering occurred and whether election management bodies, if they existed, were independent, impartial, and accountable);
3. electoral rights (whether citizens were generally able to vote on the basis of equal suffrage and access);
4. voter registers (whether they were accurate, current, and open to voters for easy and effective voter registration);
5. nomination rules/ballot access (whether candidates had in practice a right to compete in the election, with rejections of candidate applications being based on "internationally recognizable and acceptable norms" and with no candidate receiving more than 75% of the votes, a signal of malpractice or election boycotts);
6. campaign process (whether elections were carried out without violence, intimidation, bribery (vote buying), use of government resources to advantage the incumbent, or a "massive financial advantages" for the incumbent);
7. media access (whether freedom of speech was protected and whether the ruling party was disproportionately benefited by government-owned media);
8. voting process (whether elections were conducted by secret ballot on a one person, one vote basis, with adequate security to protect voters and protection against ballot box stuffing, multiple voting, destruction of valid ballots, and other forms of manipulation);
9. role of officials (whether the election was administered with adequately trained personnel, free from campaigning or intimidation at polling places, and with the ability of international election observers and party representatives to observe polling places); and
10. counting of votes (whether votes were tabulated transparently and free of fraud or tampering)

Estimates

See also: Democracy indices

The study of 169 countries from 1975 to 2011 estimated that only about half of elections were free and fair. ^[2] The study wondered whether the increase in non-democratic regimes holding elections over time alongside a rise in global efforts around election observation led to a rise in the proportion of elections that were deemed to not be free and fair. The presence of election monitors and constraints on executive power were associated with a 31% higher probability of a free and fair elections in the study. ^[2]

The V-Dem Democracy Indices estimate the cleanliness of elections, share of adult citizens with active suffrage, if top officials are elected, freedom of speech, freedom of information, freedom of association and combine these estimates as the electoral democracy index. ^{[3] [4]}

Indices by V-Dem Institute for year 2024 ^[3]

Country	Clean elections index	Share of population with suffrage	Elected officials index	Freedom of Expression and Alternative Sources of Information index	Freedom of association thick index
Denmark	0.96	1.0	1.0	0.98	0.93
Ireland	0.95	1.0	1.0	0.97	0.91
Estonia	0.96	1.0	1.0	0.97	0.91
Switzerland	0.94	1.0	1.0	0.97	0.92
Belgium	0.97	1.0	1.0	0.97	0.89
Norway	0.96	1.0	1.0	0.94	0.91
Sweden	0.95	1.0	1.0	0.95	0.92
Czech Republic	0.95	1.0	1.0	0.96	0.88
Luxembourg	0.94	1.0	1.0	0.96	0.9
France	0.95	1.0	1.0	0.96	0.89
New Zealand	0.96	1.0	1.0	0.95	0.88
Costa Rica	0.94	1.0	1.0	0.91	0.92
Australia	0.96	1.0	1.0	0.94	0.88
Uruguay	0.95	1.0	1.0	0.92	0.89
Finland	0.96	1.0	1.0	0.95	0.85
Chile	0.96	1.0	1.0	0.92	0.87
Iceland	0.92	1.0	1.0	0.91	0.92
Canada	0.94	1.0	1.0	0.94	0.87
United States of America	0.91	1.0	1.0	0.89	0.95
Germany	0.96	1.0	1.0	0.94	0.85
Austria	0.93	1.0	1.0	0.92	0.89
Latvia	0.92	1.0	1.0	0.93	0.89
United Kingdom	0.93	1.0	1.0	0.91	0.89
Portugal	0.94	1.0	1.0	0.89	0.89
Spain	0.96	1.0	1.0	0.86	0.91
Netherlands	0.96	1.0	1.0	0.89	0.87
Japan	0.93	1.0	1.0	0.85	0.93
Jamaica	0.87	1.0	1.0	0.92	0.89
Italy	0.95	1.0	0.98	0.84	0.9
Brazil	0.84	1.0	1.0	0.93	0.89
Taiwan	0.94	1.0	1.0	0.85	0.88
Lithuania	0.89	1.0	1.0	0.94	0.84
Vanuatu	0.9	1.0	1.0	0.88	0.89
Barbados	0.87	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.86
Malta	0.9	1.0	1.0	0.84	0.9
Cyprus	0.91	1.0	1.0	0.82	0.89
Suriname	0.86	1.0	1.0	0.88	0.86
Cabo Verde	0.84	1.0	1.0	0.85	0.89
Trinidad and Tobago	0.82	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.86
Slovakia	0.93	1.0	1.0	0.81	0.84
Greece	0.95	1.0	1.0	0.82	0.81
Seychelles	0.89	1.0	1.0	0.84	0.83
South Africa	0.81	1.0	1.0	0.84	0.9
East Timor	0.84	1.0	1.0	0.84	0.85
South Korea	0.93	1.0	1.0	0.79	0.82
Poland	0.76	1.0	1.0	0.91	0.86
Panama	0.85	1.0	1.0	0.8	0.88
Croatia	0.91	1.0	1.0	0.79	0.82
Slovenia	0.92	1.0	1.0	0.74	0.86
Israel	0.88	1.0	1.0	0.84	0.78
Argentina	0.87	1.0	1.0	0.76	0.86
Dominican Republic	0.71	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.88
Colombia	0.76	1.0	0.95	0.84	0.9
São Tomé and Príncipe	0.82	1.0	1.0	0.8	0.79
Nepal	0.72	1.0	1.0	0.81	0.87
Ghana	0.67	1.0	1.0	0.86	0.88
Solomon Islands	0.7	1.0	1.0	0.82	0.87
Sri Lanka	0.79	1.0	1.0	0.86	0.74
Lesotho	0.79	1.0	1.0	0.7	0.88
Kosovo	0.75	1.0	1.0	0.77	0.84
Ecuador	0.83	1.0	1.0	0.75	0.77
Bulgaria	0.71	1.0	1.0	0.8	0.83
Peru	0.85	1.0	1.0	0.73	0.74
The Gambia	0.77	1.0	0.96	0.81	0.77
Moldova	0.78	1.0	1.0	0.7	0.84
Romania	0.77	1.0	1.0	0.73	0.8
Armenia	0.68	1.0	1.0	0.73	0.89
Namibia	0.63	1.0	1.0	0.81	0.85
Senegal	0.72	1.0	1.0	0.85	0.71
Montenegro	0.61	1.0	1.0	0.81	0.87
Liberia	0.6	1.0	1.0	0.84	0.84
Guatemala	0.62	1.0	1.0	0.81	0.79
Botswana	0.61	1.0	0.92	0.81	0.86
Malawi	0.6	1.0	1.0	0.79	0.8
Paraguay	0.62	1.0	1.0	0.75	0.8
Bolivia	0.69	1.0	1.0	0.72	0.76
Maldives	0.63	1.0	1.0	0.73	0.78
North Macedonia	0.67	1.0	1.0	0.66	0.81
Bhutan	0.86	1.0	1.0	0.71	0.62
Kenya	0.49	1.0	0.98	0.9	0.75
Honduras	0.4	1.0	1.0	0.88	0.87
Malaysia	0.59	1.0	1.0	0.62	0.8
Fiji	0.54	1.0	1.0	0.75	0.72
Zambia	0.44	1.0	0.97	0.81	0.79
Bosnia and Herzegovina	0.52	1.0	1.0	0.65	0.81
Albania	0.49	1.0	1.0	0.7	0.82
Mexico	0.6	1.0	1.0	0.67	0.7
Nigeria	0.36	1.0	1.0	0.89	0.79
Benin	0.65	1.0	1.0	0.7	0.61
Mongolia	0.61	1.0	1.0	0.69	0.65
Mauritius	0.61	1.0	0.89	0.62	0.79
Guyana	0.42	1.0	0.9	0.78	0.83
Indonesia	0.52	1.0	1.0	0.72	0.69
Georgia	0.47	1.0	1.0	0.7	0.73
Papua New Guinea	0.29	1.0	1.0	0.79	0.87
Sierra Leone	0.25	1.0	0.98	0.82	0.82
Hungary	0.6	1.0	1.0	0.49	0.65
Philippines	0.39	1.0	1.0	0.67	0.72
Tunisia	0.52	1.0	1.0	0.77	0.48
Ivory Coast	0.39	1.0	1.0	0.67	0.71
Somaliland	0.53	1.0	0.75	0.64	0.66
Madagascar	0.23	1.0	1.0	0.7	0.85
Tanzania	0.37	1.0	0.91	0.7	0.69
Singapore	0.8	1.0	1.0	0.34	0.58
India	0.52	1.0	1.0	0.49	0.59
Ukraine	0.6	1.0	1.0	0.42	0.57
Thailand	0.44	0.99	1.0	0.52	0.63
Togo	0.29	1.0	1.0	0.58	0.59
Iraq	0.35	1.0	0.97	0.56	0.53
Lebanon	0.3	1.0	0.5	0.72	0.72
Angola	0.29	1.0	1.0	0.49	0.61
El Salvador	0.32	1.0	1.0	0.39	0.67
Kyrgyzstan	0.42	1.0	1.0	0.49	0.41
Mauritania	0.28	1.0	1.0	0.65	0.42
Democratic Republic of the Congo	0.2	1.0	1.0	0.64	0.53
Serbia	0.21	1.0	1.0	0.42	0.66
Pakistan	0.16	1.0	1.0	0.57	0.57
Mozambique	0.15	1.0	1.0	0.52	0.58
Central African Republic	0.16	1.0	1.0	0.62	0.46
Zanzibar	0.12	1.0	0.82	0.56	0.66
Kuwait	0.66	1.0	0.77	0.59	0.1
Turkey	0.41	1.0	1.0	0.18	0.56
Cameroon	0.14	1.0	1.0	0.6	0.41
Comoros	0.13	1.0	0.93	0.52	0.51
Guinea-Bissau	0.0	1.0	1.0	0.62	0.62
Jordan	0.51	1.0	0.0	0.58	0.58
Uganda	0.12	1.0	0.99	0.52	0.42
Kazakhstan	0.34	1.0	1.0	0.37	0.3
Zimbabwe	0.16	1.0	1.0	0.38	0.5
Morocco	0.45	1.0	0.0	0.6	0.55
Ethiopia	0.34	1.0	1.0	0.27	0.36
Algeria	0.3	1.0	1.0	0.34	0.3
Republic of the Congo	0.1	1.0	1.0	0.4	0.46
Djibouti	0.17	1.0	1.0	0.34	0.39
Niger	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.75	0.68
Gabon	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.76	0.58
Haiti	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.72	0.53
Uzbekistan	0.3	1.0	1.0	0.23	0.14
Palestine (West Bank)	0.0	1.0	1.0	0.32	0.39
Chad	0.06	1.0	0.5	0.48	0.41
Rwanda	0.29	1.0	0.92	0.15	0.17
Bangladesh	0.06	1.0	0.0	0.31	0.42
Mali	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.63	0.47
Venezuela	0.07	1.0	1.0	0.22	0.26
Libya	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.56	0.51
Cambodia	0.1	1.0	1.0	0.16	0.2
Egypt	0.15	1.0	0.98	0.18	0.14
Equatorial Guinea	0.08	1.0	1.0	0.14	0.17
Cuba	0.29	1.0	1.0	0.09	0.02
Burundi	0.07	1.0	0.91	0.17	0.18
Azerbaijan	0.09	1.0	1.0	0.13	0.15
Vietnam	0.51	1.0	1.0	0.14	0.02
Oman	0.69	1.0	0.0	0.15	0.05
Tajikistan	0.1	1.0	1.0	0.12	0.15
Russia	0.14	1.0	1.0	0.08	0.13
Hong Kong	0.3	1.0	0.0	0.34	0.2
Somalia	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.66	0.44
Iran	0.24	1.0	0.5	0.23	0.09
Guinea	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.55	0.24
South Sudan	0.0	1.0	0.5	0.19	0.35
Belarus	0.18	1.0	1.0	0.03	0.07
Burkina Faso	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.35	0.39
Nicaragua	0.15	1.0	1.0	0.03	0.04
Turkmenistan	0.07	1.0	1.0	0.04	0.06
Syria	0.0		0.5	0.07	0.1
Sudan	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.25	0.32
Laos	0.22	1.0	0.5	0.04	0.05
Eswatini	0.38	1.0	0.0	0.12	0.02
Yemen	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.24	0.26
Bahrain	0.22	1.0	0.0	0.13	0.13
United Arab Emirates	0.54	0.36	0.0	0.06	0.04
Palestine (Gaza)	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.07	0.18
Qatar	0.41	0.35	0.0	0.06	0.04
Myanmar	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.05	0.11
North Korea	0.12	1.0	0.0	0.01	0.03
Afghanistan	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.09	0.05
China	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.04	0.04
Eritrea	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.02	0.02
Saudi Arabia	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.09	0.03

See also

• Election subversion
• Electoral integrity
• Polyarchy
• Unfair election
• Voter suppression

References

1. Elklit, Jorgen; Svensson, Palle (1997). "What Makes Elections Free and Fair?" (PDF). Journal of Democracy. 8 (3): 32–46. doi:10.1353/jod.1997.0041. S2CID   154766533.
2. Bishop, Sylvia; Hoeffler, Anke (2016). "Free and fair elections: A new database". Journal of Peace Research. 53 (4): 608–616. doi:10.1177/0022343316642508. S2CID   110571606.
3. "The V-Dem Dataset – V-Dem". V-Dem. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
4. "V-Dem Codebook v15" (PDF). 2025. Retrieved 21 April 2025.

Further reading

• Katz, Richard S. (2005). "Democratic principles and judging 'free and fair'". Representation. 41 (3): 161–179. doi:10.1080/00344890508523309. S2CID   154352155.
• Geisler, Gisela (1993). "Fair? What Has Fairness Got to Do with It? Vagaries of Election Observations and Democratic Standards". The Journal of Modern African Studies. 31 (4): 613–637. doi:10.1017/S0022278X00012271. S2CID   154664000.
• Mercurio, Bryan; Williams, George (2004). "Australian Electoral Law: 'Free and Fair'?". Federal Law Review. 32 (3): 365–395. doi:10.22145/flr.32.3.3. S2CID   220285411.
• Fick, Glenda (1999). "The Gender-Sensitive Check-List for Free and Fair Elections" . Agenda. 15 (40): 66–74. doi:10.1080/10130950.1999.9675739.
• Shah, Seema (2015). "Free and fair? Citizens' assessments of the 2013 general election in Kenya". Review of African Political Economy. 42 (143): 44–61. doi:10.1080/03056244.2014.995162. hdl: 10.1080/03056244.2014.995162 . S2CID   154891103.
• Goodwin-Gill, Guy S. (2006). Free and Fair Elections. Inter-Parliamentary Union. ISBN   978-92-9142-277-7.
• Falade, Adesola; Adebiyi, Ayodele A.; Ayo, Charles K.; Adebiyi, Marion; Okesola, Olatunji (1 January 2019). "E-voting system: the pathway to free and fair election in Nigeria" . Electronic Government. 15 (4): 439–452. doi:10.1504/EG.2019.102578. ISSN   1740-7494. S2CID   204539213.
• Bjornlund, Eric (2004). Beyond Free and Fair: Monitoring Elections and Building Democracy. Woodrow Wilson Center Press. ISBN   978-0-8018-8048-3.

External links

• Explainer: Free and Fair Elections