It is important for an EMB to foster close cooperation with its stakeholders to ensure their support for its policies and programmes and to strengthen their confidence in the EMB’s performance. While some EMBs have at times sought to distance themselves from participants in the electoral process in the belief that their ‘independence’ calls for such an approach, this has typically not proven to be productive. Unless the EMB works hard to create and sustain sound relations with its stakeholders, there are likely to be misunderstandings and suspicions about its activities. This may ultimately generate lack of public confidence and trust in the EMB and the electoral process.
Legal frameworks in countries such as Indonesia obligate the EMB to communicate with stakeholders. Even without such legal requirements, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has published formal commitments on how it will deal with stakeholders (Figure 11).
Like any business, an EMB needs to undertake consultative activities that will help it ‘know its market’ — that is, what the EMB’s stakeholders (its customers) expect of it. But consultation alone is not sufficient. An EMB needs to develop an operational culture that makes it responsive to the expectations and needs of its stakeholders. This will generate support for and goodwill toward the EMB’s policies and practices, and enhance its credibility. For example, an EMB may organize an election that, technically speaking, is of very high integrity and flawless in implementation, but if stakeholders are not involved and kept ‘in the loop’ about the process, their suspicion and distrust may lead to the rejection of the election results.
The combined power, influence and interest of a stakeholder can be referred to as its stakeholder value to an EMB’s policies and practices. Stakeholder value is the basis on which an EMB can develop an appropriate strategy for promoting sound relationships with each stakeholder. For example, political parties in general are a high-interest/high-power stakeholder in elections (though in a particular country parties can vary greatly in size, salience and influence). If a significant political party rejects an election result because it mistrusts the way in which an EMB conducted an election, the EMB may come under attack. Thus EMBs must take their relationships with political parties very seriously. The EMB may be less focused on its relationships with low-interest/low-power stakeholders that have only a peripheral interest in its activities.
An EMB’s strategy for dealing with each individual stakeholder will also be guided by each stakeholder’s attitude toward the EMB. For example, if a stakeholder supports the EMB’s policies and practices, the EMB may find it useful to involve it in as many of its activities as possible. This would not be appropriate where stakeholder involvement could damage an EMB’s independence of action. If a stakeholder is marginal, and has little influence on EMB policies, the EMB needs to monitor it and keep it informed of the EMB’s activities, but may not need to invest too much effort in involving it. Where an EMB identifies a wholly unsupportive stakeholder, it will need to analyse that stakeholder’s potential intentions and reactions to EMB activities and develop a strategy for including the stakeholder, and an appropriate defence strategy, should this be unsuccessful.
An EMB can take a number of basic actions to maintain good relationships with its stakeholders, including:
- maintaining open, two-way communication with stakeholders;
- being sensitive to stakeholder needs and concerns;
- seriously considering stakeholder views when making decisions;
- treating stakeholders equitably, so that none are unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged by EMB activities;
- acting transparently, with meetings open to scrutiny and follow-up;
- maintaining the highest standards of ethics, respect for human rights, impartiality and care in its relationships with stakeholders; and
- equitably resolving any conflicts between the needs of EMB members and staff and those of other stakeholders.
A relatively low-cost way in which an EMB can foster its stakeholders’ awareness of its activities and gain their loyalty is through a sustained effort of promoting open communication and dialogue. This could be by sharing its publications such as annual reports, election reports, financial reports and newsletters with all stakeholders, and regularly organizing information meetings to which stakeholders are invited.
An EMB can also adopt a formal policy on transparency, which can reflect the rights of stakeholders and emphasize to EMB staff the importance attached to this objective (a value that is not necessarily recognized in all public service institutions), as well as clarify how it is to be achieved. A key element of such a policy can be the practice of preparing and issuing formal statements of reasons in support of major decisions. The need to prepare such statements can improve the quality of an EMB’s decision-making by helping to sharpen thinking on complex or sensitive questions; their publication can facilitate stakeholders’ understanding — and more ready acceptance — of the reasoning underlying difficult decisions.
