International considerations

In non-English-speaking locales, there might be more than one local language. In your feeds, though, we require at least two languages: the primary language(s) spoken in that location, referred to here as "the local language," and English. We ask for English for the following reasons:

• It's likely that a number of people in that country also speak English.
• Many of our internal systems are designed in English. If the feeds are in English as well, this makes it easier for us to troubleshoot and debug.

For example, the primary language in Japan is Japanese, so we require the data in Japanese and with English translations. However, if a candidate or party doesn't have official names in English (or the local language), don't add your own English (or local language) translations. We only accept official names both in English and the local language.

In countries where there are multiple local languages, we need at least the primary local language first. If the official names are available in any additional languages, you can then provide those names.

Content in English

All single-string Name fields, such as Party, need to be in English. All InternationalizedText fields need to include a Text instance with an English language translation or transliteration. These include, but aren't limited to, the names for the following entities:

• Contests
• Office and ReportingUnit
• Party and Coalition
• Person and Candidate

Exceptions

Abbreviations, when allowed or required, must be abbreviated in the local language. For example, the Worker's Party in Brazil would have Name values in English and Portuguese, but the InternationalizedAbbreviation field would be set to PT, for "Partido dos Trabalhadores."

Local language content

When available provide translations for InternationalizedText fields, including but not limited to names, in the local language. Additional notes are included for each entity.

• Election and Contest

  • Translate these, but see the election contest and event naming guidelines. The expectation is that names of contests and events use language and terminology that people from that country would expect to see, for example Lok Sabha election as opposed to Lower House election.
  • Ballot measure contests have their special rules highlighted separately.

• GpUnit

• Party and Coalition

  • For party names, do what makes sense for speakers of the language regarding translation and transliteration. For example "Indian national congress" should be translated to Hindi as "भारतीय राष्ट्रिय काङ्ग्रेस" . Whereas "Bharatiya Janata Party" should be transliterated in Hindi as "भारतीय जनता पार्टी".
  • For party abbreviations or aliases, if it makes sense to someone who lives in the country and whose first language then it is fine to include these in multiple languages.

• Person

  • Don't include local translations of candidate names or the names of other people unless those translations represent a transliteration into a different character set. For example, for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, include the Person FullName element like the following:

  <FullName>
    <Text language="en">Shinzo Abe</Text>
    <Text language="ja">安倍晋三</Text>
  </FullName>
  

  • Additionally names of people should be included in all expected languages for a given country. In practice this means that it is expected that names may be repeated, for example:

  <FullName>
    <Text language="en">Jeroen van Wijngaarden</Text>
    <Text language="nl">Jeroen van Wijngaarden</Text>
  </FullName>
  

• Office

  • Translate names of offices, but again use official sources if a name is available in multiple languages. For example "Member of Lok Sabha" instead of "Member of Lower House".

• BallotMeasureContest

  • Text fields for ballot measures and referenda, including titles, should not be translated as the text has a legal meaning. If this results in not being able to deliver English that is fine.
  • If there are officially available translations they should be included.