This section of the Cost of Registration and Elections (CORE) Project contains the main findings and conclusions drawn from case studies on electoral costs in 10 countries. The countries were selected as illustrative of election management within different democracy environments—from stable to transitional to post-conflict, because they were also examined in a previous UNDP study published in 2000 and other countries, meanwhile, were added based on geographic location and size of the electorate.
Stable Democracies: Large- and medium-sized electorates
Australia; India; Spain
Stable Democracies: Small-sized electorate
Sweden
Transitional Democracies: Large- and medium-sized electorates
Mexico
Transitional Democracies: Small-sized electorate
Guatemala
Conflict Environment: Large- and medium-sized electorates
Iraq; Afghanistan
Conflict Environment: Small-sized electorate
Cambodia; Haiti
A standard case study methodology was followed. A panel of authors and election specialists was selected on-site1. Panel members were guided by a checklist template as well as documentary sources and individual informants for consultation. The case studies were researched in the field and written between September 2003 and January 2005. The case study reports generally include an outline of the current structure of each nation’s EMB, including appointment procedures, terms of office and scope of responsibility, followed by a description of the legal framework for elections—primarily concerning budgeting and funding provisions (i.e., reference to voter registration, polling operations, campaign expenses by political parties and candidates and financing of media access). The reports assess how the legal provisions regarding election funding are actually followed in practice. They also consider the main obstacles— political, financial, administrative or technical—to the application of the law in the proper management of the electoral budget.
The case studies describe the electoral budgets and procedures of EMBs in both non-election and election years. Voter registration costs, especially new registration operations in conflict environments, are considered separately. The cost of polling operations in the most recent general election is scrutinized by disaggregating budget figures by main items and comparing them to previous elections to discover the main reasons for change, if any. The cost of external voting operations is analyzed when it can be separated from the aggregate electoral budget. International funding of electoral budgets is categorized by area of application, i.e. whether awarded to the EMB or to other election-related actors, such as domestic and international observer missions. A number of cutting-edge issues are examined whenever information is available. Among the questions directly addressed are the following:
Are costs related to political party finance for general operations and campaign funding part of the electoral budget, or considered separately?
What are the costs of planning and introducing new technologies? And are they envisioned as cost-reducing strategies?
Is civic education a cost in the budget of the EMB, a cost to political parties or cost to NGOs or other civil society entities? Does the EMB share civic education costs with other national or international actors?
Finally, the case studies offer an overall assessment of current and most recent practices in election budgeting, funding and cost handling, by describing election items that have proved either more susceptible or more resilient to cost-saving measures. Documentary resources most often consulted in the preparation of the case studies included constitutions, electoral laws, laws on political parties, organization charts of the electoral authorities, election bylaws and electoral budget documents. Professional literature and Web sites were also consulted. And finally, informal and semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with electoral authorities and specially qualified informants, academics and practitioners.
Note:
1The authors are academics and practitioners with long experience in the field, most of them related to electoral authorities as senior staff or international consultants.
