The primary purpose of an electoral calendar is to help an EMB keep its planning and preparation on schedule in order to meet its statutory or administrative deadlines. The calendar will also inform the public, political parties and the media about key dates, thus enhancing transparency and the EMB’s public image.
Electoral calendars convey the range and sequence of EMB activities. An EMB may produce calendars with different levels of detail for internal use (e.g. dates for receiving election forms from printers) and for different stakeholders. A political party may only be interested in dates for voter and candidate registration, campaigns and campaign funding, voting, vote counting and determination of the results.
A simple summary calendar, such as those shown in Figures 9 and 10 (on pages 162 and 163), can enhance media and public understanding of electoral processes, whereas publicly distributing a highly detailed document may be confusing. However, in the absence of security concerns, there is no reason why the EMB could not give stakeholders, such as political parties, candidates, election staff, NGOs and donor agencies, access to copies of its internal administrative calendar, if requested.
Project management software can help an EMB develop a comprehensive election calendar that functions as a sophisticated electoral operations plan with clear milestones, time frames, individual staff responsibilities and interdependence of activities. This type of calendar can be shared with stakeholders and among staff as the basis for managing their progress and completing tasks.
An electoral calendar is especially helpful for ensuring the timely procurement of voter registration and polling supplies and materials. It is also a useful guide to political parties in countries such as Kenya and Nigeria, where political party primaries or other internal candidate selection processes have to be undertaken before nominating candidates for election, and where such political party events have a bearing on the election timetable.
A thorough review of the electoral calendar after each election or other electoral event will help identify where changes to the organizational structure, resource allocations, or the legislative or regulatory frameworks would improve electoral operations.
