Marking halfway point of 2025

The year 2025 is a testing ground for democracies around the world on whether or not the lessons of the 2024 super election year would be taken into serious consideration. Halfway through the year, several countries including South Korea, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and the Philippines, have conducted elections.

In Sri Lanka and the Philippines, ANFREL members have engaged in the electoral process through various efforts including voter education programs and election observation missions. As several key elections scheduled to be held in the second half of the year and in early 2026, including the highly anticipated Bangladesh general election, these engagements continue.

ANFREL members are also continuing critical work pushing for electoral reforms and continuous engagement with electoral stakeholders that encourage better participation in the electoral process.

Here are highlights of programs and activities that ANFREL members implemented and conducted in June 2025:

• [Bangladesh] Odhikar, in a statement for the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, expressed solidarity with individuals subjected to oppression, torture, and all forms of cruel, inhuman, and violent acts across the globe and their families.
• [India] Lokniti welcomed a new cohort of interns and started a week-long summer school for researchers on survey-based analysis.
• [Indonesia] PERLUDEM released a statement on the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the separation of the conduct of national and local elections. PERLUDEM also shared insights on and election observation experience from the 2025 Philippine elections.
• [Malaysia] BERSIH organized the Sabah leg of their Road to Reform program with a series of workshops and forum. They also gathered key stakeholders to chart Malaysia’s electoral reform roadmap.
• [Maldives] Transparency Maldives marked the World Whistleblowers Day.
• [Philippines] LENTE has been meeting different stakeholders in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to discuss voter education plans and potential collaboration ahead of the BARMM Parliamentary Elections scheduled for 13 October 2025.
• [Philippines] NAMFREL opposed the postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections in the Philippines. The elections are scheduled for 1 December 2025 but there is a push to postpone the elections.
• [Sri Lanka] PAFFREL conducted a series of meetings with district leaders to discuss promoting financial independence and strengthening the electoral calendar in Sri Lanka.
• [Taiwan] CCW staff member who served as one of the international election observers during the ANFREL IEOM to the 2025 Philippine elections reflected on what he learned from the experience.

Know more about the programs and activities that ANFREL members implemented and conducted in the June 2025 issue of the ANFREL Members Roundup. Subscribe here to get the latest updates!