The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

Forbes magazine has recognized NDI Program Officer Kathryn Peters as one of the “30 under 30” making their mark in the field of law and policy.

Peters was recognized for founding TurboVote, a web service that makes voting by mail as simple as renting a DVD from Netflix. TurboVote provides free email and text message reminders for all elections and sends users completed voter registration forms and absentee ballot request forms by mail, along with pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelopes.

In Mali, a new series of citizen forums aims to solve community problems and incorporate women as full partners in the process.

Mali transitioned to democracy 20 years ago, but citizens are becoming increasingly disenchanted with their government. Voter turnout was about 30 percent when local elections were last held in 2009, and many people feel that elected officials don’t represent them. Some 45 percent of Malians say they are dissatisfied with the way democracy works in their country, in part because the nation remains very poor and they don’t believe their elected representatives are working to create jobs or spur development.

NDI mourns the passing of former Czech President Václav Havel. The Institute recognized Havel in 1991 with its W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award, honoring him for his years as a dissident, political essayist and leading figure in the Velvet Revolution of 1989 — the bloodless end to communism in Czechoslovakia.

NDI Delegation Notes Administrative Improvements and Less Campaigning in Polling Centers

Voting in region two of the Egyptian People’s Assembly elections showed continued enthusiasm on the part of Egyptians to exercise their right to select the candidates and parties of their choice in Egypt’s first open parliamentary elections, NDI said in a statement released in Cairo.

Burkina Faso has awarded its highest national honor to Aminata Kassé, NDI senior resident director in the west African country.  The National Order (l'Ordre National), which recognizes personal merit and eminent service to the country, was bestowed on Kassé on Dec. 10 in recognition of her contribution over the past seven years to the people of Burkina Faso, and especially to the country's women leaders and activists.

The first-time opportunity to question their elected members of parliament (MPs) was so important to residents of South Sudan that some of them brought their own chairs to standing-room-only constituency dialogues organized in November by the South Sudanese Network for Democracy and Elections (SuNDE), a nonpartisan coalition of community groups.