Mr Miguel Angel Lara Otaola, an EIP Research Scholar in 2015-16, will represent the EIP project and attend the International IDEA workshop, on The Timing and Sequencing of Transitional Elections, The Hague, Netherland on 30th November and 1st December 2017
The event seeks to distill a set of policy recommendations on the timing and sequencing of elections in transitions from authoritarian to democratic governance, from deep political crises to stability, and from war to peace.
The workshop, focusing on post-war elections, will take place in The Hague on 30th November and 1st December 2017. Building on case studies on Nepal, Liberia, Northern Ireland, and Bosnia Herzegovina, the workshop discussions will investigate solutions to nine plausible dilemmas highlighted in the literature; grouped into three broad thematic sessions:
1. Dilemmas of International Engagement: will discuss the trade-offs between an emphasis on local or international ownership of elections; between short- or long-term international involvement in the process; and different security arrangements.
2. Dilemmas of Sequencing the Roadmap to Elections: will discuss the trade-offs that may arise between the necessity to have a fast but also legitimate transition; the optimal prioritization between constitution-building and electoral processes; and the optimal sequencing of elections at different levels of government (national, regional, and local).
3. Dilemmas of Legal and Institutional Framework: will discuss the trade-offs between adopting the most convenient or adaptable electoral system; the use of accommodative measures such as power-sharing that may have positive short-term but negative long-term consequences; and key decisions necessary in electoral administration choice.
Miguel Lara Otaola is a democracy practitioner and scholar with +9 years of progressive responsibility and a range of relevant skills in the field of elections and election support. He has experience in the development and implementation of electoral training and technical assistance projects. He has worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the project for the creation of an International Centre for Electoral Research and Training and provided support for the Global Programme for Electoral Cycle Support (GPECS). At Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE) he has served as a Senior Advisor for International Affairs for the Presidency of the Council.
He has participated as an electoral observer in several missions in the EU and Latin America and has a track record of publications in the fields of democracy and elections. He also directed a regular national television show in Mexico on access to justice. He holds an MSc in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics (LSE) and an MPA from Tec de Monterrey. He is currently a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Sussex.