Keynote Roundtable: “Elections Worldwide: Challenges and Innovations”

May 13 – 17:00-18:00

Room: Regency B

Almost half of the world’s population voted in national elections in 2024, yet numerous studies have documented the declining health of global democracy in recent years. As electoral systems face new challenges and adapt to technological and political shifts, understanding these dynamics is more important than ever. This roundtable brings together leading experts in public opinion research and electoral studies to discuss key trends, obstacles, and innovations shaping elections worldwide. 

The panel features three distinguished speakers:

• Ammar Maleki (Iran/Netherlands) – Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics at Tilburg University. Founder and director of GAMAAN Research Institute. He is an expert on electoral behavior in an authoritarian context and on public opinion in Iran.
• Richard Wike (USA) – Director of International Survey Research at Pew Research Center, specializing in global public attitudes toward democracy, governance, and political change.
• Yashwant Deshmukh (India) – Founder-Director of C-Voter, a leading public opinion and election research agency, with extensive experience in electoral analysis and polling.

The panel will be moderated by Olga Kamenchuk (USA), Associate Professor of Research and Instruction at Northwestern University and Co-Principal Investigator at the Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP) for Serbia, Russia, and Ukraine.