Dr Ferran Martinez i Coma joined the Griffith Asia Institute in late December 2016 after almost four years working as a Research Associate at the Electoral Integrity Project at University of Sydney.

His area of research is comparative politics, with an expertise in democratization, voting behaviour, turnout and electoral integrity. He is also interested in expert surveys.

Dr Martinez i Coma is currently working on two strands of research. The first is on turnout from a comparative perspective.

“I think that although there has been great work published, we still do not know much about the differences on turnout rates around the world. Asia is not an exception.”

The second strand of his research is on electoral integrity. Jointly with Indian academics, he is leading an expert survey on electoral integrity at the state level.

“In this long term project, we are gathering data on the perceptions of electoral integrity in the Indian states. Such research is oriented to improve the electoral process in India as well as to understand the differences on performance between states.”

His research has appeared in international academic journals such as the European Journal of Political Research, the Electoral Studies, and Party Politics. He is founding member and regular contributor of the blog Piedras de papel (in Spanish) and has contributed to ABC and SBS radio. Originally from Barcelona and now in Brisbane, Ferran has lived in Madrid, Boston, Mexico City and Sydney.

Article by Griffith Asia Institute and Centre for Governance and Public Policy Research Fellow Dr Ferran Martinez i Coma.