Live Session: Digital Technologies, Elections and Democracy in times of COVID-19

Aug 12, 2020Event Updates

The video of the live session can be found here.

Politics has now caught up with digitalization, but policy is still lagging behind. How can we improve electoral governance in the COVID-19 era? How can we hold electoral processes in the COVID-19 era while maintaining political and electoral rights? Join us in this Online AIWS Roundtable and Club de Madrid Live Session in collaboration with the Boston Global Forum. 

‘Digital Technologies, Elections and Democracy in times of COVID-19’ is an online AIWS Roundtable and Club de Madrid Live Session in collaboration with the Boston Global Forum.

COVID-19 is pushing us into digital democracy. But are we prepared for the digital transformation of political processes and elections? 

Politics are undergoing a process of digital transformation spurred by COVID-19. Cabinet meetings and even parliamentary sessions via videoconference are not a rare sight since the pandemic’s outbreak. Politics has now caught up with digitalization, but policy is still lagging behind.

The pandemic has dealt a blow to our economic and political systems: Elections are no exception. While some administrations have chosen to postpone elections, others have held these under extraordinary circumstances, altering timelines and voting procedures while ensuring free, fair and transparent votings.

How can we streamline electoral processes during COVID-19 without affecting political and electoral rights? How can we improve electoral governance in such a context? Is there a danger in election manipulation and hacking, particularly in countries with poor digital infrastructure?

The Session will be moderated by Milburn Line, Senior Advisor for Policy and Content at the Shared Societies Project of the World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid

Join us in this Club de Madrid and AIWS Live Session in collaboration with the Boston Global Forum on ‘Digital Technologies, Elections and Democracy in the times of COVID-19’ on 13 August at 9:00 EST / 15:00 CET to discuss the digitalization of democracy.

This event is a continuation of the event on August 5, 2020, which was stopped after 35 minutes due to technical problems during Live Session with speakers below: