Mr. Charles O’Donnell was the principal of Holy Child Primary School in Creggan, Northern Ireland from 1990 to 2008. Mr. O’Donnell has a teaching certification and taught in another Creggan school, St. John’s, for the first part of his career. In his role as principal of Holy Child, Mr. O’Donnell assumed leadership in the community and after his school was selected as a polling place, was active in elections. At the time of the interview, he was retired and living in Creggan.

Khabele Matlosa began his studies in Lesotho before pursuing a Master’s degree at the University of Leeds in the U.K., and a doctorate at the University of Western Cape in South Africa. He lectured at the University of Lesotho and worked briefly with the South African Regional Institute of Policy Studies in Zimbabwe before taking up his role as director of programs at the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa.

South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission initially hired Howard Sackstein in February 1994 to investigate breaches of the electoral code of conduct in Mpumalanga.  Within a few weeks of joining the organization, he was promoted to coordinate the Gauteng office of the commission’s Investigations Unit, where he oversaw 36 lawyers.  After the 1994 elections, Sackstein was one of two people retained to shut down the operations of the temporary Independent Electoral Commission, before the creation of the permanent Independent Electoral Commission.  He played a key role in the 1999 elections.  In early 2010 he was running his own technology firm, Saicom Voice Services.

At the time of this interview, Khalfan H. Khalfan was executive director of the Organization of People with Disabilities, an advocacy group that he founded in 1985 in his native Zanzibar.  He became involved in disabled-rights activism after traveling to Singapore to attend a meeting for the disabled in 1981, the International Year of Disabled People.  Khalfan also founded the Eastern African Federation of the Disabled.  He was a member of the World Council of Disabled People International for more than 20 years, an elected vice chair for development and underrepresented groups of Disabled People International from 2002 to 2007, and chairperson of the Pan African Federation of the Disabled for 12 years.  Prior to his activism on behalf of rights for the disabled, he worked as a secondary-school teacher for almost 20 years.  He died in March 2009.

Limakatso Mokhothu was nominated by one of Lesotho’s main political parties to serve as an electoral commissioner in 2003.  She was one of three commissioners who oversaw Lesotho’s controversial 2007 election.  The following year she was appointed chairwoman of the commission.  Before joining the Independent Electoral Commission, Mokhothu worked on governance issues at the Irish consulate in Lesotho.