An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.

The universal use of elections as a tool for selecting representatives in modern democracies is in contrast with the practice in the democratic archetype, ancient Athens. As the Elections were considered an oligarchic institution and most political offices were filled using sortition, also known as allotment, by which officeholders were chosen by lot.

Electoral reform describes the process of introducing fair electoral systems where they are not in place, or improving the fairness or effectiveness of existing systems. Psephology is the study of results and other statistics relating to elections (especially with a view to predicting future results).

Gwendolyn L. "Gwen" Ifill ( /ˈaɪfəl/; born September 29, 1955) is an American journalist, television newscaster and author. She is the managing editor and moderator of Washington Week and a senior correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, both of which air on PBS. She is a political analyst, and moderated the 2004 and 2008 Vice Presidential debates. She is the author of the book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

Ifill was born in New York City, the fifth child of African Methodist Episcopal minister (Oliver) Urcille Ifill, Sr., a Panamanian of Barbadian descent who emigrated from Panama, and Eleanor Ifill, who was from Barbados. Her father's ministry required the family to live in several cities throughout New England and the Eastern Seaboard during her youth. In her childhood Ifill lived in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts church parsonages and in federally subsidized housing in Buffalo and New York City. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1977.

Judy Woodruff (born November 20, 1946) is an American television news anchor and journalist. Woodruff is a Board Member at the IWMF (International Women's Media Foundation). She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Judy Woodruff began her journalism career at local Atlanta station WAGA-TV, once a CBS affiliate and now an affiliate of the Fox Network. Woodruff joined NBC News in 1975 and was originally based in Atlanta, where she covered the presidential campaign of then-Governor Jimmy Carter. She served as the chief White House correspondent for NBC News from 1977 to 1982, and covered Washington for The Today Show from 1982 to 83. In 1983 she moved from NBC to PBS, where for 10 years she was Chief Washington Correspondent for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. From 1984 to 1990, she was also the host of the PBS documentary series Frontline with Judy Woodruff.

In 1993, Woodruff joined CNN, where for 12 years she was the host of Inside Politics, the nation's first program devoted exclusively to politics.

Arvind Kumar Kejriwal (born 16 June 1968) is a retired Indian Revenue Service officer and an Indian social activist fighting for greater transparency in Government. He was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2006, for activating India's Right to Information movement at grassroots and social activities to empower the poorest citizens to fight corruption by holding the government answerable to the people. Kejriwal is also a Saathi (fellow) of the Association for India's Development, a Global Impact award winning NGO.

Arvind Kejriwal was born in a Marwari family in Hissar, Haryana in 1968. His father was an engineer and he spent most of his childhood living in small northern Indian towns like Sonepat, Mathura and Hissar. He did his schooling from Campus School. Kejriwal graduated from IIT Kharagpur as a Mechanical engineer in 1989.

Kejriwal joined Tata Steel right after his graduation from IIT Kharagpur. Kejriwal quit his job with Tata Steel in 1992^{[citation needed]} and spent some time working with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, the Ramakrishna Mission in the North-East India and Nehru Yuva Kendra.

Kiran Bedi (born 9 June 1949) is an Indian social activist and a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. Bedi joined the police service in 1972 and became the first woman officer in the IPS. Bedi held the post of Director General at the Bureau of Police Research and Development before she voluntarily retired from the IPS in December 2007. Bedi was the host and judge of the popular TV series "Aap Ki Kachehri" (English, "Your Court"), which is based on real-life disputes and provides a platform for settling disputes between consenting parties.

She has also founded two NGOs in India: the Navjyoti Delhi Police Foundation for welfare and preventative policing in 1988 which was later renamed as the Navjyoti India Foundation in 2007, and the India Vision Foundation for prison reformation, drug abuse prevention and child welfare in 1994. Bedi was awarded Ramon Magsaysay award in 1994 for Government service.

Kiran Bedi was born in Amritsar, Punjab, India. She is the second of four daughters of Prakash Peshawaria and Prem Peshawaria. Her three sisters are; Shashi, an artist settled in Canada, Reeta, a clinical psychologist and writer, and Anu, a lawyer.^{[citation needed]}