The Inclusive Society Institute (ISI) hosted its annual lecture on 8 December 2022. The event was hosted in hybrid format, with the in-person presentation being made at the conference facilities of Deloitte in Cape Town with other guests joining via Zoom.
The keynote speaker was Professor Jørgen Elklit, who spoke on the topic on ‘Election systems and democracy as tools, to promote social cohesion’.
Professor Elklit
Professor Jørgen Elklit is a professor of political science at Aarhus University in Denmark, where he attained his doctoral degree. His research and teaching have focused on political parties, Danish national and local politics, elections, electoral systems, electoral administration, the German minority in Denmark, and democratisation and democracy support to countries in transition.
Professor Elklit has since 1990 also been active as an advisor on democratisation and elections, electoral systems, and electoral administration in a number of countries, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan, China (village elections), Kenya, Tanzania, Lesotho, Jordan and his native Denmark.
Professor Elklit was an international member of the South African Independent Electoral Commission in 1994 and of the country’s Electoral Task Team 2022-3 and was Secretary to the Independent Review Commission in Kenya 2008. He has also had research fellowships abroad and been a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town. He has written and/or edited or co-edited more than 20 books and has a number of articles in professional journals as well as book chapters on his list of publications.