Electoral Reform Process Best Practices

The Question

This question is posted by ACE on behalf of Practitioners' Network member Thomas Cormier.

This question deals with electoral reform process good practices.  

A new legislative committee has been tasked with examining electoral systems to consider recommending changes, up to and including adopting a new system altogether. 

The committee has been given 90 days to perform this task, with the possibility of extending if needed.  A general election is planned approximately 12 months after the committee will issue its report.

We would like to therefore ask Practitioners' Network members to weigh in on the following questions:

• Are there any good examples of legislative committees (or other electoral system review processes) in other countries that have reformed electoral systems that can be referenced for inspiration (both good and bad lessons)?
• What types of stakeholders were consulted?  Did parties with no representation in parliament participate?
• How long did the review process take?  Is 90 days sufficient?
• Were any related to peace processes?  If so, what special representation of armed groups or parties to the conflict took place?
• Were there special provisions to encourage the participation of women and marginalized groups?
• Was there international technical assistance and experience-sharing?
• If a new electoral system was adopted, what was the timeframe for implementation?  Are there examples of countries where a new electoral system was adopted within one year of elections?
• Are there any reports that can be shared from such committees?

A couple more general questions are:

• What compelling questions should legislators be asking when it comes to considering changes to electoral systems?
• What general advice would you have for legislators about the importance of getting the process of electoral system reform right, before delving into the details about different electoral system types?  What is the importance of inclusiveness (political, ethnic, regional, etc) in consultation and how important is it for there to be a broad consensus of major political actors if major changes to the electoral system take place.  Is 50% +1 sufficient for electoral reform? 

This issue raised has posed so many dimensions of best electoral practices that it is hardly possible to treat them properly in this short commentary. However, the consideration of a new electoral system should have certain attributes consistent with best practices such as fairness, simplicity, functional, ability to address gender, ethnicity and minorities' issues. In this regard, consideration of mixed member proportional (MMP), list proportional representation, or if tradition and functional requirements allow it, the first past the post (FPTP) or other majority systems that allows for constituency or electoral districts system.

Perhaps, one of the best examples recently that embodies many of the questions raised is the Kenyan experience post 2007-08 election riots. It demonstrated an internal post-election conflict whose resolution gave rise to external involvement and technical assistance assistance. The various committees that produced a constitution in 2010 and electoral and boundaries Act in 2011 would be helpful to your proposed committee.   

• What types of stakeholders were consulted?  Did parties with no representation in parliament participate?
• Answer: All registered Political Parties, civil societies, media and relevant public authorities besides the general public.
• How long did the review process take?  Is 90 days sufficient?
• Answer: it should depend on how much time you have for  taking decision on the subject.
• Were any related to peace processes?  If so, what special representation of armed groups or parties to the conflict took place?
• Were there special provisions to encourage the participation of women and marginalized groups?
• Answer: it should be inclusive as possible amongst the legitimate stakeholders.
• Was there international technical assistance and experience-sharing?
• Answer: ideally a country is drafting laws for its own requirements and needs. its own people should be involved. over and above that an external expertise can be outsourced to get comparative benefit but the decision should be made by the nationals /voters and their representatives.
• What compelling questions should legislators be asking when it comes to considering changes to electoral systems?Answer: not to change or introduce a law/system etc for the heck of it but to promote democratic best practices only.
• What general advice would you have for legislators about the importance of getting the process of electoral system reform right, before delving into the details about different electoral system types?  What is the importance of inclusiveness (political, ethnic, regional, etc) in consultation and how important is it for there to be a broad consensus of major political actors if major changes to the electoral system take place.  Is 50% +1 sufficient for electoral reform? 
• Answer: any measure one adopts it may be be necessary to assure that majority will support and appreciate. any law or measure if it is meeting resistance or objection right at the time of introductory definitely will not be good. A sincere approach by all involved will be very useful.

These questions have different answers, the best practice is the one that better accepts everybody, so the summary of answer is going to depend on the commitment from each stakeholder and the will to enhance the reforms from each stakeholder, but most importantly the ones who will have to approve them. 

Certainty. One principle that will give confidence among the candidates and political parties is certainty in the terms and conditions of the electoral contest. the law and the procedures must be transparent and reliable that everybody knows what is legal and what is not. In Mexico, the law demands that reforms must be passed almost 18 months in advance the electoral process begins in order to  have the time to get the secondary laws approved and the EMB and other institutions involved to implement the law. One law may impact in diferent procedures or to get different material for electoral voting. The electoral process must have a specific calendar to fullfil if there is not enough time, more protests, not acceptance on the results or violence can erupt.

Who should be consulted? In this aspect there are two important issues to attend: consultation and decision-making. It is important to organize forums where stakeholders can express their views and perspective, as an example, Cameroon  has organized succesfully the National Forum of Electoral Stakeholders where they meet goverment, legislators, NGOs, etc. and draws up legislations agreed by everybody to pass to the goverment for its approval and then to the Assembly to enact them. It is important to develop different commissions, each one regarding a topic to be reformed and invite the important stakeholders from each sector.

It is also advisable to develop international forums with international specialists in each topic of the reform in order to get the experiences compiled over the in field experience and all stakeholders be invited to participate in them.

The international technical assistance from one country, organization or multilateral is very important when it has been in practice, so they will advise on what is needed to apply the law, for example, computer systems and ITC, costs or even to train a group of officers in the new fields.

Inclusion. if there is the exclusion of any stakeholders, this group won't recognize the legitimacy of the reform, so it is important to include to all stakeholders in order to get the majoritarian support. 

If the reform will imply the change of political and electoral system, it will imply more time and to get to know what are the implications and impact, and it won't be possible to do it when the electoral process is on going. It is not to reform the constitution, it takes to make new secondary legislation and not only at a central or federal level, the new law or system has to get down to the subnational level and it will take time and even time to inform to the citizens on the new mechanisms to vote and how their votes will be transformed into representation.

It is important to take into consideration that maybe the law approved doesn't fulfill the highest expectations, but the one who got the majoritarian support and the back up of the stakeholders in general.

A pesar de que los aportes anteriores de los colegas son muy precisos y ajustados a sus preguntas, sería interesante saber si lo que pretenden hacer en 90 días es un reglamento funcional para las elecciones venideras, para complementarlo tendría que adicionarle temas como operativos funcionales de la participación de partidos, votantes, jurados de mesa, y si se tiene participación de la tecnología, en identificación, voto, escrutinios, recolección rápida de datos electorales etc., se deben  ajustar los procedimientos de cada tema, para la reglamentación.

Pero si lo que se pretende es cambiar la normas y leyes actuales que tienen que ver con las elecciones, es un tiempo relativamente corto, además que me atrevería a sugerir que se debería planear una encuesta del nivel local, para por lo menos saber o establecer cuál es el pensamiento de los actores electorales en el país, hacer el seguimiento de la problemática en las anteriores elecciones y con esa información construir el proyecto que pasaría a las modificaciones y aprobaciones si llegara a ello, en las cortes o establecimiento legislativo.

Kenya would be a good example. Following the 2007 general election, the Country exploded into violence following the controversial announcement of the Presidential result. The electoral commission was disbanded and a Commission of inquiry was established. You may wish to look into the Kriegler Report which investigated the post election violence and made a raft of recommendations touching on the Elections and Electoral Commission. A successful Referendum was held in 2010 to amend the Constitution and a new form of governance embraced creating the National Government and County Government. 

Increasing elective positions from three to six and elections to be held on the same day. This was followed by legislation of a new Elections Act and Regulations. Other other important Legislation were the Political Parties Act and the Campaign Finance Law. Regulations governing pre election Dispute Resolution were also put in place.

In development of the Legislation various stakeholders were invited to participate; all Political Parties, Civil Society, the Judiciary and other stakeholders. The Constitution also makes provision for Gender quotas and provides for a threshold of at least 2/3 gender representation. This necessitated engaging in discussions with target groups including Women groups with a view to finding a solution to minimise the need for gender top up.... Formula was developed for allocation of special seats through the party list. Technology in the conduct of elections was also introduced albeit too close to the election posing several challenges.

Following the 2013 general election the Kenyan EMB is currently conducting post election evaluation involving stakeholders with a view to review it's processes and the electoral legislation. This may translate into recommendations which will be submitted to Parliament for amendment of electoral law. The Constitution requires a 50+1 to be garnered by the winner in the Presidential race including a majority win in more than half of the 47 Counties.

IFES is a useful Partner and so is International IDEA, not to mention UNDP.

Pakistan's case could be interesting as some aspects of the reform process were a good practice. 

One of the positive aspects was formation of the specialized legislative committees which were to propose concrete legislative actions to reform the electoral system (not system of representation necessarily). The negative aspect was that the House sub-committee which was first formed became inactive very soon, so the Senate picked up the task and formed Special Committee on Election Issues. They requested technical assistance (int'l) and started conducting their business in unprecedented manner, by opening sessions and even conducting public hearing to which broad public was invited, albeit under tight rules - i.e. only those who submitted written proposals could present their case, within determined time-frame. All the proposals were then reviewed, analysed and internal report was produced, before the final report of the Committee was issued.

Implementation of the Committee report - well, that did not happen, mainly because the Senate Committee started with the initiative too late - by the time it produced the report, elections were called and the work was never properly finalized. What backfired, as one can see in the news these days. However, even before the recent Imran Khan's march on Islamabad, the Parliament has decided to pick up where the Senate left it, and formed Parliamentary Committee for electoral reforms. However, not-so-peaceful protests organized by Imran Khan's PTI again made sure that the issue becomes very politicized, even more than this topics usual are.

In any case, if interested, here are few files which might be of interest:

Public hearing proposals: http://democracy-reporting.org/publications/country-reports/pakistan/public-hearing-on-electoral-reforms-october-2012.html

Committee report: https://db.tt/IUbhfEP2