Patrick Merloe

Basic info

Source

Patrick Merloe, NDI senior associate and director of programs on election and political processes, directs NDI's electoral programs, including constitutional and law reform projects regarding electoral issues, programs concerning domestic nongovernmental organizations and political parties in election monitoring and international election assessments and election observer delegations. He is also involved in NDI programs relating to rule of law and public policy advocacy.

Mr. Merloe's program activities in the last year have involved Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East and Latin America and the Caribbean. He has participated in or led 17 election observer delegations, 26 pre-election assessments and more than 40 training and program strategy missions for NDI. In addition, Mr. Merloe directs NDI's component of the Consortium for Election and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS, comprising the International Republican Institute, International Foundation for Election Systems and NDI), a $70 million programming vehicle.

Mr. Merloe has authored papers and articles on international standards for election process, including: "Lessons Learned and Challenges Facing International Election Monitoring" (NDI 1999) and "Democratic Elections: Human Rights, Public Confidence and the Level Playing Field"; (NDI 1995 and POLIS, Vol. 4(28); Moscow:1995); he co-authored a study entitled Guidelines for Election Broadcasting in Transitional Democracies (ARTICLE 19; London: 1994), and co-edited a volume entitled Press Law and Practice: A Comparative Study of Press Freedom in European and Other Democracies (ARTICLE 19; London: 1993). He also was responsible for the production of the NDI Handbook on How Domestic Organizations Monitor Elections: An A to Z Guide. He has published on other international and comparative law topics and served as pro bono and special counsel to a number of international human rights organizations.

Before joining NDI in 1993, Mr. Merloe was an attorney with, Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, one of the largest law firms in San Francisco. He has served as an adjunct member of the faculty of the University of San Francisco School of Law, where he taught international human rights law. He also has taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and at Temple University. He received his Juris Doctor Degree at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, completed graduate studies in public policy analysis at the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C., and received his undergraduate education at Temple University.

Recent history

Merloe led a group of more than 80 election observers to the Palestinian elections in January 2005. The head of the group were president Jimmy Carter, former Swedish Prime Minister Hans Bildt and Christine Todd Whitman. The delegation was a joint project between the Carter Center and NDI. NDI supplied about 10% of all election observers to the Palestinian elections. NB: the same group of election observers spent an extended period observing the elections in Ukraine.
[Source: YourCallRadio.org, January 10, 2005]