University of Ottawa researcher, Daniel Stockemer, wins prestigious prize at International Electoral Affairs Symposiums

Daniel Stockemer, Full Professor in the School of Political Studies and Konrad Adenauer Research Chair in Empirical Democracy Studies participated in the 19th Annual International Electoral Awards Symposium and Ceremony at Lisbon, Portugal on November 15th and 16th 2023.

Organized by the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) and the Portuguese National Electoral Commission, the symposium gathered representatives from the electoral democracy community, electoral management bodies, and academics to share best practices in the conduct of elections.

Over the two-day symposium, participants discussed various topics including electoral norms, advancements in voting technologies, and combating disinformation strategies for protecting the integrity of the electoral process. The event also provided ample space for networking between the different stakeholders in the election world. In particular, it allowed senior election officials to connect with academics.

Finally, as the key event, the symposium hosted the International Electoral Awards Ceremony: an annual event dedicated to acknowledging the tireless efforts of the international electoral community to foster free and fair elections and access to all across the globe.

This year, the ICPS gave out 12 awards, which honored remarkable contributions in the field of elections. The University of Ottawa is very proud that Daniel Stockemer won one of these prestigious awards – the First-Time Voter Award – which Stockemer received jointly with Aksel Sundström from the University of Gothenburg.

The award celebrates long-lasting contributions to youth’s political participation and representation in the democratic process. The award recognizes Stockemer and Sundström’s work linking youth political participation to youth representation as well as for the publication of the World Age Representation Dataset: the most comprehensive dataset on age representation in national parliaments worldwide.

Stockemer and Sundström received the award from Thomas Hicks, Election Commissioner of the United States of America. The University also wants to highlight Stockemer and Sundström are the only two individuals from the academic community to receive one of these prestigious International Electoral Awards. Most of the nominees and awardees for the other 11 awards were national or subnational Electoral Commissions, Electoral Management Bodies and International Organizations such as the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.