Secondary stakeholders of the EMB are those who, although part of the environment in which the EMB operates, are more loosely connected with the EMB, such as:

EMB suppliers

While, on the one hand, the EMB is a service provider to the various customers who are its primary stakeholders, it is itself a customer to many other service providers. Just as the EMB’s actions affect its primary stakeholders, the actions of the EMB’s service providers also affect the EMB. The EMB needs to ensure that suppliers’ actions do not adversely affect its performance or image.

The EMB relies on many suppliers, such as those who supply products such as technology equipment, vehicles, election materials, and services such as consulting, cleaning, security, and transportation. Unless the EMB maintains good working relations with these suppliers, its activities may be adversely affected by suppliers who either do not keep deadlines or who supply sub-standard products and services.

The following are steps which an EMB can take to maintain good relations with its suppliers:

• ensuring transparency, professionalism, and efficiency in the invitations for expressions of interest to supply goods and services;
• sharing information with suppliers and prospective suppliers on the EMB’s values, such as strict adherence to integrity, dignity, professionalism, and efficiency. This information may foster suppliers’ trust and goodwill in tendering for EMB goods and services;
• arrange suppliers’ information forums to discuss EMB-suppliers’ concerns and to formulate mutually workable solutions to such concerns; and
• paying suppliers within the deadlines contractually agreed.

In some countries, standard terms of supply are receipt of payment within 30 days after products or services have been satisfactorily delivered, while in others the period is shorter. Late payments by the EMB, especially for large contracts, can adversely affect a supplier’s financial position. This can lead not only to bad publicity for the EMB, but may make suppliers less willing to participate in future tenders or contracts to the EMB, or make them raise prices, in order to cover expected costs of late payment.

The public at large

The EMB’s various constituents include the general public. As an organisation promoting democratic values and improved governance, the EMB has responsibilities to be a good corporate citizen.

In its external and internal working relationships, the EMB has a responsibility to be a good-practice model of the values that it represents: such as democratic decision-making processes; respect for rule of law; non-intimidatory practices; honesty and incorruptibility; transparency; accessibility for all societal groups, including those marginalised through disability, illiteracy, remoteness, and similar disadvantages; and promotion of gender balance.

An EMB can seek to develop programmes of social responsibility through ploughing back into the community the skills, knowledge, and other resources at its disposal. It could sponsor media campaigns promoting issues such as women’s empowerment and civic education, and against violence, fraud, and manipulation. As a socially responsible organisation, the EMB could share its technology with other public institutions, and donate funds or second its staff to assist in other public social projects such as population census, campaigns on violence against women and children, immunisation campaigns, and HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.

Good corporate citizenship also demands that the EMB design policies and practices which are environmentally friendly and do not cause pollution and other environmental hazards. It also means that the EMB strives to promote actions and policies which do not present health hazards to the general public: for example, using poorly ventilated or weather unprotected venues as voter registration venues or polling stations, or using venues which lack access to clean water and lavatories. The EMB needs also have the safety of the public in mind when determining polling station sites and, where lives are likely to be threatened by violent incidents, the EMB needs to be ready to discontinue polling in order to protect lives and property.

Regional and international networks

Over and above its local stakeholders, the EMB has other stakeholders who do not form part of its immediate environment but which have a bearing on its policies and programmes. EMBs’ linkages with the international community have become more emphasised over the last few years following intensified international cooperation in the area of democracy and electoral assistance. The creation of regional and international electoral networks over the last few years has opened up opportunities for EMBs to meet regularly at conferences and workshops and to undertake study visits and other joint projects. Regional electoral networks which regularly bring EMBs together include the AAEA, ACEEEO, PIANZEA, and SADC ECF [spell all out]. Such contacts and networking expose EMBs to innovations and good electoral practices, present opportunities for partnerships in sharing knowledge and materials and in the processes of peer review and evaluation, and have triggered electoral reforms in many countries.

Other regional groupings such as OAS, Council of Europe, AU, ECOWAS, SADC, and OSCE also set standards and norms for democratic elections which member countries are encouraged to adopt. A good example is the SADC Heads of State Principles on Democratic Elections of August 2004, which were used by election observers as the yardstick to judge the 2005 Zimbabwean elections. In seeking to comply with the spirit of these new norms, the Zimbabwean government set up an ‘independent’ EMB; introduced one-day polling and translucent ballot boxes; and counted the votes at the polling stations.

International treaties and conventions also have an influence on EMB operations. For example, the 1948 UN Declaration on Human Rights provides for the EMB to ensure that elections are conducted in a manner that reflects the will of the people and guarantees the legitimacy of elected governments to rule in the name of the citizenry. The 1952 Covenant on Political Rights of Women also compels the EMB to guarantee that women are entitled to vote and be voted for and also to eradicate all forms of discrimination against women.

Such international and regional instruments have in the recent past served as the basic yardstick for assessing the quality of elections and have been widely used by election observers. Therefore, an EMB that seeks to maintain a good reputation needs to align its practices and policies with internationally recognised principles, and be aware of global trends in electoral management.

International and regional instruments are a basic yardstick for assessing the quality of elections and have been widely used by election observers. The Global Declaration of Principles and Code of Conduct for International Electoral Observation, adopted by the United Nations and by global and regional organisations in October 2005, is an example. An EMB that seeks to maintain a good reputation needs to align its practices and policies with internationally and regionally recognized principles, and be aware of global trends in electoral management.