Since the 1990s, election observation has become a primary tool of the international community to support democracy and assess the legitimacy of governments.
It is a highly visible element of EU foreign policy and election observation missions (EOMs) are better resourced and more sophisticated than ever before.
But even as EOMs are becoming more professionalised, democracy is in decline.
Take two recent examples. In Zimbabwe's historic 2018 elections following the overth...
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Matthew is EUobserver's Opinion Editor. He joined EUobserver in June 2018. Previously he worked as a reporter for The Guardian in London, and as editor for AFP in Paris and DPA in Berlin.