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.

At the time of this interview, Isabel Otero was employed at the United Nations Development Programme Electoral Assistance Team in Sierra Leone. At the UNDP, she served as procedures and training adviser for the National Electoral Commission in Sierra Leone, a position that she held since 2006. Prior to working in Sierra Leone, she served in Liberia as a training and capacity building adviser. She also previously served as a training officer in Afghanistan, and during both the national constituency assembly election and the presidential election in Timor-Leste. Prior to working on electoral issues at the U.N., Otero worked on gender-equity issues in Colombia with various non-governmental organizations. She holds a master’s degree in philosophy. 

Amon Chaligha first began monitoring elections at the University of Dar es Salaam for the Department of Political Science and Department of Public Administration. The University had been involved in monitoring elections since its founding in the 1960s. At the time of the interview, Chaligha was an associate professor at the university, where he taught local government and administration and human resource management. Following his experience in monitoring elections, he was asked to join the National Electoral Commission of Tanzania as a commissioner. 

At the time of this interview, Victoria Stewart-Jolley was a legal adviser for the United Nations Development Programme's Electoral Assistance Team in Sierra Leone, a position that she had held since March 2007. She worked during the 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections as well as the 2008 local elections to create legal frameworks for electoral management. Prior to working in Sierra Leone, she was a lawyer for the Electoral Complaints Commission in Afghanistan. Stewart-Jolley also worked in international criminal law in Timor-Leste, and in World Trade Organization law in Indonesia. She holds a law degree and has a background in international public law and constitutional law.

At the time of this interview, Mangosuthu Buthelezi had been a member of parliament from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) since 1994. Following the elections after the apartheid regime relinquished power, Buthelezi served as minister of affairs and, during President Mandela’s absence, as acting president of South Africa. A member of the Zulu royal family, he became involved in liberation politics after his studies at Fort Hare University in 1950. He returned home in 1953 to assume chieftainship of the Buthelezi clan. As traditional prime minister of the Zulu nation, Buthelezi also holds the title Undunankulu Ka Zulu. He was named chief executive officer of the Kwazulu Territorial Authority in 1970. He organized the IFP in 1975 with support of the African National Congress (ANC). In 2004, President Mbeki offered Buthelezi the Deputy Presidency. Because this meant the IFP would lose its political position in Kwazulu-Natal, Buthelesze refused and the IFP left the unity government.

At the time of the interview, Kwesi Jonah, who holds a doctoral degree, was head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana, Legon, and was also a research fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance in Accra, Ghana. He has worked on several other projects related to governance.

At the time of this interview, Moi Sellu was the Program Officer of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems in Sierra Leone. He studied political science, after which he went on to teach courses in International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies. He went on to work as a researcher and commission officer for the National Forum for Human Rights, before joining the National Elections Commission (NEC) in of Sierra Leone 2006 as a public relations and voter education officer. 

At the time of the interview,  Alok Shukla had served as a deputy election commissioner in the Election Commission of India for around two years. He had previously served as the chief electoral officer for the state of Chhattisgarh. 

At the time of this interview, Kwadwo Afari-Gyan was the chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana. He was instrumental in overseeing all aspects of the commission's activities, including the formation of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee, a forum for political parties to meet with the commission to discuss changes in electoral rules and procedures. He joined the commission in 1992 as the deputy chairman of elections and took up the chairmanship the following year. Prior to his work with the commission, he was a professor at the University of Ghana, Legon, and before that he taught at Santa Clara University in the U.S.  He graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara.