Costs of elections include costs incurred in undertaking activities in support of the
functions of the electoral cycle – including among others voter registration, boundary
delimitation, civic and voter education, professional development and training, voting
operations, result tabulation and transmission of results, audits etc. Substantial sums are
spent on the procurement of goods and services in support of these activities.
The most expensive type of elections
are ‘first generation’ elections carr
ied out in post-conflict countries
or in newly formed States. The
most expensive activities
typically relate to the setting
up of the election administration
and its territorial
structure (the so
called “securitisation” of
the elections), the first
voter registration exercise
of eligible voters
from new, the procurement
and distribution
of election materials, the
recruitment and training
of inexperienced staff, the
development of an initial
stakeholders’ capacity, extensive
voter information and
education campaigns.
Other relevant costs that might have a
big impact on the budget are transportation
(including vehicles, boats, helicopters, charter
planes) and security, especially in relation to the specific electoral event. In some extreme
cases like Afghanistan and Iraq, these costs might reach almost 50% of the budget.
Second or third generation elections might still incur high implementation costs
related to, for example, higher voter registration costs and systematic improvements to
existing technology but in general terms, cost reductions should arise over time due to
improvements in planning and training, and the re-use of equipment (polling station
kits and the like). Ideally, a country should aim to bring its electoral costs down from one
electoral cycle to the subsequent one. The reduction might be expressed as a percentage
of the total costs of the previous election, such that cumulative reductions will enable
national appropriation of the total costs. However, there are many relevant logistical
(e.g. security concerns, geographical extension of the country, weather conditions) and
technical/political factors (e.g. electoral systems and voter registration systems) that
might keep costs high. Other key operational decisions to be taken by the EMB can
considerably affect the electoral budget, such as the decision to increase security features
to be applied to ballot papers (increasing design and printing costs), or to increase the
level of technology to be introduced from new.
Procurement costs constitute a bulk of electoral budgets. Tracking the costs of procurement
and establishing a well-functioning budget, however, are complex tasks. While the price
of the goods and services to be bought can be well-known, procurement officers need
to take into account less visible costs related to, for example, acquisition, installation,
maintenance, storage and disposal. These costs also include training of electoral staff
using technology, and consequences that can occur if training has been poor. Hidden
costs equally include supervision (operational and technical).
Consecutive electoral cycles need to be taken into consideration when estimating the
following distinctive costs in the budget:
- Total cost of procurement
- Total cost of operations
- Total cost of maintenance (between post and pre electoral periods, e.g. storage and
refurbishment costs)
These are all costs which impact sustainability and constitute the so called ‘Total Cost of
Ownership’ (TCO). Erroneously, often only purchase price is taken into account in assessing
value for money. Cost effectiveness, involving direct and indirect costs as mentioned above,
need to be well understood. At the same time TCO may be difficult to quantify, where
“Creative” TCO calculations are also a possible source of tender manipulation and inflation
of prices. Applying common sense – especially in cases of big discrepancies – can help.
