Women seeking office and those running elections in Ecuador, Chile and Germany faced coordinated online harassment, threats, manipulated images and sexualised content generated by artificial intelligence, alongside misogynistic and racist abuse.
Those attacks formed part of a wider strain on elections in 2025, when 39 countries held national votes. A review by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, produced with the Electoral Integrity Project, examined those elections in its report, ‘Review of the 2025 Year of Elections: Inclusivity, Transparency and Trust’.
The report recorded mis- and disinformation narratives in at least 62 per cent of the 39 national elections it monitored. In Moldova, Ireland, Cote d'Ivoire and Australia, the material included fraud allegations, misleading claims about candidates, AI-generated deepfakes and cyber-enabled disinformation. Misleading political material also circulated on platforms including WeChat and RedNote.
Gender-based violence appeared in national election settings in at least 22 countries monitored. The online abuse directed at women candidates and election officials included sexualised AI-generated content.
The report also described harassment of opposition candidates, interference with election authorities and fraud at polling stations as pressures on elections.
Weather and other natural hazards added a separate obstacle. Floods, heatwaves, tropical storms and other events affected 12 national and local elections in 11 countries monitored, including elections in Ecuador, the Philippines, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Campaign finance was another weak point. The review highlighted persistent irregularities in spending, limited oversight and enforcement of existing rules, and interference by corporate and foreign interests. Australia, Albania and Romania were among the notable examples.
The findings sit alongside a broader decline in democratic safeguards between 2020 and 2025. The International IDEA assessment found the widest deterioration in institutions including Credible Elections, Effective Parliament, Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Press.
About one in five countries saw the credibility of their electoral processes decline over that period. About one in five also saw their legislatures become less able to check executive power.
Almost one quarter of countries experienced declines in Freedom of Expression or Freedom of the Press. The report linked restrictions on speaking out to threats and violence against journalists, ‘foreign agents’ laws, censorship and internet shutdowns.
In the US, major measures of democracy, ranging from press freedom to judicial independence, reached their lowest levels in 50 years.
The report found that public views of electoral safeguards can differ sharply from the way those protections work in practice. It said confidence among voters depends on how governments and electoral management bodies respond when challenges arise.
Overall election quality nevertheless remained broadly stable, the review found.
Its warning is that democratic regression is widening the conditions for conflict within countries and between them.
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