This question is posted on behalf of Stefan Gilbert, a user of ACE and member of a civil society organization.

Hi,

Context: We will soon be trying, as a third, external party, to bring civil society together in Madagascar to monitor and observe the electoral process. Civil Society in Madagascar is extremely divided and often politicised. Hence, the need for an external actor that can "coordinate" such a network.

I am looking for advice/examples of civil society coalitions that have engaged in monitoring and observation of elections.

Specifically, I would be very interested to know how they structured themselves, formally, informally, legally, etc. In other words, agreed upon "constitutions", or "mandates", or what have you, that may include internal dispute resolution mechanisms.

Any examples would be great.

 

Summary of responses
A number of replies stress the difficulty of establishing an effective civil society coalition in a context where civil society is divided and politicised. One practitioner goes as far as to warn of the dangers of attempting to form a coalition in such a context, fearing that it could lend legitimacy to politicised groups if they were to question election results that were unfavourable to them. Another emphasizes the importance of a coalition having clear goals and objectives, which should then inform its activities.

A coalition of civil society groups was formed in Georgia for the purpose of election monitoring. This cooperation was underpinned by the groups’ shared values and standards, which is seen as being a crucial ingredient for success.

The National Elections Watch in Sierra Leone is cited as a successful coalition, having monitored two successive elections. In Mozambique, the Electoral Observatory is comprised of eight civil society organizations and was established with external facilitation. It is noted that such external coordination may result in allegations of outside interference or partisanship, but that despite this the coalition in Mozambique has been a success, particularly in the area of parallel vote counting.

The 32-member Election Working Group in Bangladesh was established under the external guidance of the Asia Foundation. In terms of structure, the group has a shared three-person chairmanship, with the role of chair rotating every four months.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network is also described as a successful coalition and one with a clear structure with regards to its hierarchy, reporting mechanisms, what is expected from its members and the consequences for breaching the Network’s constitution. The Network is described as being membership driven and has a secretariat. And in Ghana, the example of the Coalition for Domestic Election Observers is given.  Nigeria is said to have several coalition bodies that monitor elections or election-related violence, while in Nepal the long-established National Election Observation Committee consists of dozens of civil society organizations. Indonesia has many such coalitions, with their own foci on different aspects of the electoral process.

Examples of related ACE Articles and Resources
Encyclopaedia
• Organized National Election Observation
• Types of Observation and their Purpose 

Consolidated Replies
• Regional election observation networks 
• Parallel vote tabulation (PVT) enhancing or undermining election credibility
• Election observation, monitoring and supervision 

External Resources
• Ghana Centre for Democratic Development

• National Election Observation Committee (NEOC) Nepal 

Names of contributors
1. Ecaterine Siradze-Delaunay
2. Staffan Darnolf
3. Dr. Noor Mohammad
4. Moi Sellu
5. Idi Boina
6. Marc De Tollenaere
7. Abdul Alim
8. Rindai Chipfunde Vava
9. Lawrence Lachmansingh
10. Kisimba Albert
11. Carl Dundas
12. Bhojraj Pokharel
13. Pipit Apriani
14. Julio Cesar Hernandez
15. Rosario Pavese

Hi, 

I can tell you about Georgian experience when we (I was representing one of the election monitoring organization) we joined our efforts to coordinate our election monitoring activities. However, you need to keep in mind that it is very difficult to work with many different organizations. Therefore creating a coalition with the civil society groups that share similar values and standards is very crucial basement for such kind of coalitions to be fruitful in their election monitoring effort.   

Greetings! I would suggest you reach out to NDI in Washington DC. They've been establishing such coalitions for well over two decades.

Staffan

Hi,

Given that "Civil Society in Madagascar is extremely divided and often politicised" it is a near impossible task.  You can possibly bring them together but their political leaning will never allow the observation/ monitoring to be objective. It will give legetimacy to the politicised groups, in the garb of civil society, to question a good election also, if the results are not favourable to them.

I think it needs to be looked at carefully.

Noor

The National Elections Watch (NEW) in Sierra Leone is a good example with a decade of election observation and monitoring of two successive elections. This coalition of Civil Society Organistions has in 2010 expanded through a Civil Society Election Strategy Engagement Process - CSEEP with funding from DFID, to widen its engagement beyond observation. I served as Deputy Project Manager on this for a couple of months. However, considering how extremely divided and politicized Civil Society is in Madagascar, it will definitely be a long term plan to get them to some form of independent monitoring and observation of the electoral process. Obviously, you will need an external actor to start the process of getting them together and work with them over a number of electoral cycles.

Bonjour cette question est intéressante, mais cette situation est partout en particulier en Afrique Francophone, comme mon pays les Comores et en Amérique latine, en particulier en Haiti. J'ai eu des tels cas; mais tout problème a de solution. 

D'abord,-   identifier ces acteurs avec leurs mouvements intéressés pouvant appuyer l'observatoire national, qui est le maître de l'opération, car ce dernier a en principe les techniques et certes possède de l’expérience; Organiser des séances de formation en matière de discipline des membres et la déontologue électorale ainsi que les questions de sécurité, de l’intégrité et de la transparence du processus et du financement  etc et enfin leur donner les outils en observation électoral tenant compte du contexte. Dans un tel pays, si le temps et les moyens financiers vous permettent, il faut aussi envisager des module de formation dans le cadre du règlement des conflits, et de la médiation car c'est un environnemental sensible au point de vue, politique, sécuritaire et économique surtout que Madagascar est un grand pays et qui ne cesse de connaitre des situations politiques très complexes durant ces 15 derniers années. UN GRAND TRAVAIL DOIT SE FAIRE SUR LA COMMUNICATION ET SUR LA SENSIBILISATION DU PROCESSUS. Identifier les responsable des groupes à partir des méthode de formation participative à des petit groupe avec des exemples et des exercices d’entrainement en observation. Si vous aviez des moyens pour une formation de longue durée c'est faisable, vous auriez les personnes qu'il faut pour être les chefs de groupe dans les différents département, centres et bureaux de vote. la cohabitation est d'habitude très bonne car, il  y a toujours une compétition des mouvements et des membres de mieux faire plus.

The Electoral Observatory in Mozambique is a coalition of around 8 organizations that was established with external facilitation in 2003. It still exists and acquired its own status as organization more recently. SDC, The Carter Center and EISA have played external facilitating roles in different phases, but collaboration has not been easy. External facilitation easily results in the claim that the coalition is instrumentalised by foreigners and there is the not to be underestimated competition between organizations (a new platform is quickly considered competition for financial resources), but the bottomline is that the Electoral Observatory despite all its problems has allowed civil society to play a meaningful role in the past electoral processes. In particular because they produced (with external TA) reliable parallel vote counts. Go for it, but facilitate rather than organize and prepare for a bumpy ride.

Hi, I can provide you Bangladesh experience. 

In Bangladesh there are more than 50 national NGOs/CSOs observe/monitor elections. In 2006, under the guidance of The Asia Foundation, a network of of these organisations was established. The network is called Election Working Group (EWG) Currently the EWG has 32 members. The network conduct huge awareness programme, election observation before the 9th parliamentary election in Bangladesh. Every year the members of the EWG  form a 3-members co-chairmanship. One of the co-chairs play the role of chair for a period of 4 months. The chair chairs the meetings of EWG and represent the network outside.  

After 9th parliamentary election, EWG arrange some dialogues in the area of electoral reforms with assistance from UNDP. The network is now facing financial problem.

 

In Zimbabwe we have the Zimbabwe Election Support Network of which I am National Director and this is a coalition of 31 Non-Governmental Organisations which was formed in the year 200 to standardize election observation methodologies in Zimbabwe. Prior to the formation of ZESN election observation was taking place with different sectors doing different things and it therefore became difficult to come up with comprehensive election reports under this scenario. ZESN has managed to observe all the elections in Zimbabwe since 2000 with no problems regardless of the fact that it is a coalition. It is important to put in place a structure that not only shows the hierarchy of the coalition but also the reporting structure and how the other partners are to contribute to the coalition. In the case of ZESN all the members second observers during elections and these are managed by the secretariat so that the work is done in an orderly manner, and given that ZESN is not just a coalition that is put in place towards elections the legal and constitutional matters have been dealt with and these are clear on how each member contributes to the coalition and if there is a breach the constitution is also clear on what course of action will be taken.

In terms of structure ZESN is totally membership driven and the work of the secretariat is placed under Taskforces which are comprised of all the members of the network. In dealing with conflicts as I have already stated there is a constitution and a number of policies that deal with those issues and when an organisation is accepted into the membership they automatically become subject to these legally binding documents.

In Ghana there is also the Coalition for Domestic Election Observers, which has developed an enviable reputation as an observer group that emphasises objectivity through the use of quantitative techniques.  They may be found online through the website of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development - www.cddghana.org

Agreed with Staffan that you should connect with someone from NDI as well.

In terms of the specific case of Madagascar, where you describe there is mistrust among groups, extra care has to be taken in the design of the coalition.  Apart from the obvious exhortation towards national ownership for the notion of a coalition, you may want to begin by exploring the strategic objectives.  If the goal assessed as important is to assess the quality of the electoral process, for example, then consider encouraging a small coalition of technically competent groups that have or can generate a sufficient level of inter-group trust in order to work together.  If the goal is less technical, perhaps to promote greater national confidence in the electoral process, then a larger coalition that does less complex things (e.g. voter education) can be encouraged. 

In the end, a lot of effort will be needed to ensure that the strategic objectives are met and that various dangers are avoided (e.g. coalitions that form merely to access donor funds, or coalitions that end up disintegrating in a nasty public way).  Bottom line is that if the situation is not ripe for a coalition you might do well to try another tactic.

 

Je sais que les malgaches sont trop chrétiens et que l’influence religieuse est très grande, il est donc important d’utiliser cette piste interne avant d’envisager le recours aux « experts » extérieurs. Chaque pays a ses réalités que souvent les personnes extérieur ont du mal a les percevoir et apporte une expertise souvent erronée. Aucunes société civile n’est cohérente, elle se met d’accord pour un objet précis avant de finir dans les querelles créent par le politique. Je te suggère d’utiliser les chefs religieux et à la rigueur les ONGs comme le NDI, IFES, EISA qui sont représentées chez vous.

There are many examples of civil society bodies which have come together to monitor and observe elections in Nigeria, for example, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG). The consist of several tens of CSOs which observe all aspects of elections. We have a group of CSOs called National Association for Peaceful Elections in Nigeria (NAPEN) which operate several hubs and under IFES' sponsorship that monitor gubernatorial election violence. There is also A group of CSOs which monitors political finance in gubernatorial elections in Nigeria.

National Election Observation Committee (NEOC) in Nepal is an example of the coalition of dozens of civil society organizations and distinguished individuals actively operating last two decades in election observation as well as election related other monitoring work. I suggest to directly contact them for further details and also to visit their web site http://neocelection.org/index.php?page=content&id=3 

Thank you,

Bhojraj

Hi, 

I would like to add some experience from Indonesia regarding the coalition of civil society of election monitoring organisation. First at all, we should know, what is the aim of building such coalition in a respective country. Mr. Gilbert is as a third party, I assume, the coalition is to conduct a certain program. 

I myself come from KIPP (Komite Independen Pemantau Pemilu) or Independent Committee for Election Monitoring, the first and the biggest election monitoring organisation in Indonesia. established  in 1996. Now, there are more than 21 organisations work on election monitoring. They have their own concentration.  Some works on legal reform, some works on affirmative action for women representation in parliament, some works in financing of campaign and political party, KIPP works of course in all cycle of electoral process (if it is possible) especially before, on and after voting day. 

The CSOs realize that election is complicated issues and need much work, and it is better to work together in their own expertise. It is like puzzle, then. So the idea of building of CSOs network in Indonesia comes from the CSOs themselves. 

In case of Madagascar,  it is a bit difficult if the CSOs are extremely divided. But there is always solution. Why don't try to make a gathering for some CSOs that have good relations each other. Let them make their own common goal in election observation, search their expertise and let them complete each other. Perhaps they have lack of full picture of election and election observation. It is also the reason, why the CSOs there can be politicised.

The CSOs coalition in Indonesia have been doing some judicial review of some paragraphs of electoral laws, suggest some inputs for some regulation for Election Management Bodies, again regarding our own expertise, do some observation etc. I write in my blog about the activity of this coalition, however still in Indonesian language. I plan to write about this in English, too. You can visit my blog www.forum-democracy.blogspot.com. Some posts were written in English.  

 

La experiencia de Honduras se realiza un acuerdo con las organizaciones legalmente reconocida por el estado con el organismo supremo electoral del estado se compate información electorales censo de votantes centro de votación se diseña el mapa de observación se hace una muestra representativa de la división electoral se monitorea mediante una red de comunicación las percepciones electoral se capacita a los ciudadanos se firma un código de principio y ética electoral se diseña una boleta para cacturar información electoral se prepara las bases para que los partidos politicos se comprometan a cumplir los instrumentos legales nacionales e internacionales sobre todo la convención de derechos humanos derechos civiles y politicos aprobados por las naciones unidos julio cesar Cabrera presidente del foro permanente de organizaciones de sociedad civil de Honduras centro américa 

Creo que sería importante que consultes la experiencia Colombiana, la MOE, Mision de observacion electoral de Colombia realiza una gran tarea y coordina una enorme coalición de actores que incluye periodistas, medios, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, universidades, etc.

I think you should check on the colombian experiencie: MOE

http://moe.org.co/