Elections and local media account for 42 of 106 democracy checks

What the count covers

Electoral integrity occupies 25 numbered questions in the Council of Europe’s local-democracy dashboard. Local media has 17. Together they account for 42 of the 106 items counted here, or 39.6%. Our chart follows the document’s nine themes in their published order, with shortened labels for readability.

A reproducible tally

The method is deliberately narrow: count each numbered item under Key indicators once. Exclude the separate guiding question for each theme, explanatory text and reference lists. A numbered item containing several clauses still counts as one. The sum is 9 + 9 + 25 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 13 + 6 + 17 = 106.

The Congress announced adoption of the instruments on 27 October 2026. Its subsequent World Forum address connects early-warning work with participation and democratic renewal. Our count describes the structure of one published framework; it is not a new adoption date or an assessment of the speech’s impact.

Use the framework with evidence

Question counts reveal where the document asks for more detail. They cannot establish official weights, national risk levels or rates of democratic backsliding. Topics overlap, and the source calls for cumulative interpretation across themes. A future comparison should identify evidence from a named monitoring report, retain the matches and explain disputed coding before offering any country-level judgment.