The
political and logistical requirements of such undertakings pose complex policy
questions for the organizers of an election. They also give rise to
constellations of countries and organizations uniquely brought together for
each such event.
Country
and organizational constellations
Every
effort or programme of refugee enfranchisement will naturally involve a
constellation of countries, both the countries from which refugees have fled and
the hosts for the refugee populations. On both sides, wide-ranging negotiations
will be required. Topics for negotiation include transit agreements to
facilitate visa-free travel (if refugees are to vote in the country of origin),
Temporary Protection Status, and agreements on dual citizenship. Although
standards can be established, there is no single model that can be employed for
host country assistance and cooperation. Some parameters are specified by
national law and will vary from country to country.
Although
voter registration, political campaigning and balloting are conducted within
another country’s borders, there must be no violation of the host country’s
sovereignty. These events can also be costly for the host governments.
Memoranda of understanding are useful tools for describing the roles of each
partner in the enfranchisement initiative.
This
constellation can also be defined to include the range of international and
non-governmental organizations that are involved in the process. For example,
the International Organization for Migration (IOM) managed the voting by
refugees in the elections in Bosnia and
Herzegovina in 1996–7, the Popular Consultation for East Timor in 1999, and the external voting in the
election in Kosovo in 2000. The League of Women Voters conducted refugee
balloting for Bosnian refugees residing in the United States in 1996.
In some
cases, special administrative structures must be established. For example, in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
under the terms of the Dayton Agreement, refugees were given the right to vote
in the municipality where they were resident in 1991 or at some future intended
municipality of residence. Refugees residing anywhere in the world were
afforded the right to vote and the Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe (OSCE) established the Refugee Elections Steering Group to oversee
out-of-country voting. Another instrument required for the implementation of
the Dayton Agreement is the Sub-Commission for Future Municipalities,
established for the 1997 elections, which adjudicated all claims for future
intended municipality registration. In Kosovo, the Joint Registration Taskforce
(JRT) of the UN and OSCE has a unit that is devoted to out-of-Kosovo
registration of electors. The IOM has two liaison officers working in the JRT
facility.
Information
One
particular challenge for a refugee information programme is finding sufficient
resources to reach pockets of people in far-flung areas. The multidimensional
politics associated with refugee voting is at once domestic, regional and
international in scope. The information campaign should be scoped accordingly.
It must be broadly based in order to reach all the different gender, age,
language, regional and ethnic sub-populations that comprise the refugee
populations.
The
politics of displacement
New tactics
in the politics of displacement can develop. This was the case with the
displacement of people during the 1999 UN-sponsored Popular Consultation for East Timor. Under the usual scenario, a population is
driven from its homes as a result of a conflict. After the conflict is
resolved, a reconciliation election is held and the rules regarding their
enfranchisement are decided. However, in the case of East
Timor, these individuals were displaced for the purposes of the
Popular Consultation ballot: they were unwillingly moved from their homes or
were rounded up by militias and evicted. The estimates of the total number of
internally displaced ranged from 30,000 to 50,000. On the basis of 450,000
registered electors, that could mean that as many as 10 per cent of the
electors were displaced. Obviously, the enfranchisement of that percentage of
the electorate was an important objective and essential to the credibility of
the election outcome.
