This question is posted on behalf of Nancy Molina Caceres, EMB member from Ecuador. The question was originally posted in Spanish (please see below).

What strategies could be applied to deal with absenteeism among polling staff on election day?

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Cuáles pueden ser las estrategias que se puede aplicar para mejorar el ausentismo de miembros de juntas receptoras del voto en el dìa de las elecciones?

Absenteeism of polling staff is faced by every EMB.  There are two ways to meet the problem:

1. Have about 10% additional persons be trained and stationed at strategic locations as reserves and deploy them wherever shortage of polling staff is reported; and/or

2. Authorize the Presiding Officer of a Polling station to recruit persons locally and assign them jobs which does not require specialised training. 

THIS INDEED IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM. IF PROPER STRATEGY IS NOT PUT IN PLACE TO DEAL WITH THIS SITUATION, THE ELECTORAL PROCESS CAN BE DISRUPTED. ABSENTEEISM OF POLL OFFICIALS CAN NOT BE AVOIDED SINCE NO ONE IS IN CONTROL OF EVENTUAL OCCURRENCES.

TO THIS END, IT IS PROPER TO PUT IN PLACE STRATEGY TO DEAL WITH ANY EVENTUALITY.

THE FIRST THING TO DO IS TO TRAIN AND KEEP IN PLACE A RESERVE LIST OF POLLING STAFF.

THE SECOND STRATEGY IS TO ASSEMBLE ON THE EVE OF ELECTION, ALL DEPLOYED POLLING STAFF TAKE A ROLL CALL IDENTIFY THOSE ABSENT AND REPLACE FROM THE RESERVE LIST.

OFFICIAL MONITORS OF THE ELECTIONS SHOULD SEND FEEDBACK TO THE ELECTORAL OFFICER ON THE FIELD SITUATION ESPECIALLY AS REGARDS THE POLLING STAFF AT THE VOTING CENTERS.

THIS TO A GOOD EXTENT WOULD DEAL WITH ABSENTEEISM OF POLLING STAFF ON ELECTION DAY.

La réponse à cette question est essentielle pour la réussite des élections le jour du scrutin. pour contrer l'absentéïsme et même le présentéïsme des membres du bureau de vote, il convient de dépolitiser leur recrutement, les recruter sur la base des TDR, les déployer sur terrain la veille du scrutin et s'assurer qu'ils y sont, faire en sorte que la majorité des présidents des bureaux de vote soient des femmes, les payer en fonction de leur performance. Il est entendu que les superviseurs devront être dynamiques et actifs sur le terrain.

To hold election is an obliagtion of result for the EMB. Any problem must find solution including absenteeism of the polling staff.

Absenteeism of polling staff can be tackled in the following ways:

1. Train the polling staff on their noble responsibility on the polling day. This is the matter of civic education where every citizen is required to assist, to contribute for the progress of the country.

2. To train more people than required for eventual intervention if case of absenteeim of polling staff.

3. If mens allow it, give incentive to the polling staff who report to the job

4. Hold responsible the polling staff of their absenteeism and edict some penalties.

5. Use any present voter for easy jobs like puting indelible ink on the fingers to fill the gap.

6. In case of high perccentage of absenteeism, trsain the staff in a such way any trained person can be presiding officer. The trained staff can be deployed in different polling stations to preside the polling station.

The EMB will appreciate the appropriated ways to be used according to the election and country environment.

Julius Bucumi, Inspector of Justice in Burundi.

While it is not very clear what the causes of staff absenteeism in large numbers may be, I assume that the causes are casual and not occasioned (e.g., strike or boycott). Where the reasons are simply related to perceived lack of importance foer the electoral events, training more people than required and incentivising actual attendance is proposed. However, this is ocassioned, it is perhaps instructive that an even bigger pool of resuitment be considered in advance, for example, recruitment from ordinary citizens who enjoy public trust, civil servant and where conceivable, members from other structures of the different spheres of government.

Staff absenteeism on the eday is indeed a general problem even across the African continent. the EMB should really tackle this issue, because it cause a lot of trouble on the running of the process.

The tentative solutions i guess are as follow:

- The selection of this staff should be very strict, i.e. only serious an really engage people should be selected even there is a need of an assessment  or an enquiry before selecting them;

- Many EMB's in some countries usually train their pooling staffs a couple of days before the eday. They should be deployed in their respective area of working before training them. that mean EMB's should decentralize their training sessions. The advantage here is that the polling staffs would be already a their position, in contact with the EMB's local officer. 

- Another aspect is the motivation of these staffs, indeed the EMB's have to make sure those staff once appointed are motivated and committed to their job. One of the way of getting there is their accommodation, their meals, their DSA, etc...

When this last aspect is fulfill, the polling staff will be against any temptation and will be able to work properly.

I thank you

Guy Cyrille tapoko

as stated earlier by sevral respondents it is important to train more than the required number and have them strategically placed for deployment in areas where there are shortages.

in addittion, in jamaica each returning officer conducts a meeting with the poll workers the day before the election to provide final briefing. while it does not provide a gurantee, it usually provides an indication of the persons who have no intention of working as they usually miss this meeting.

Para hacer eficiente el trabajo, la asistencia de los miembros de junta, tambien llamados jurados de mesa y finalmente quienes tienen el peso del trabajo electoral, se deben implementar campañas de publicidad, indicando las labores, facilitando la llegada al lugar de trabajo y haciendo publico cualquier incentivo legal para ellos, como descansos en sus labores diarias etc-

Facilitarles las labores electorales, mediante herramientas tecnologicas, cambiar la conformacion de las personas en la mesa en las difrentes elecciones, no sie-

mpre las mismas, incluos nombrar personas que sean mayores de edad, segun los requerimientos de ley, que esten en establecimientos educativos (estudiantes), para ejercer las labores, con algunos incentivos-

Cordial saludo

Dado que las diversas respuestas han sido muy detalladas, sólo quisiera enfocar a tres aspectos importantes:

Si la ley no obliga la participación que conlleve una sanción específica, es importante hacer una campaña de promoción muy fuerte en la cual se enfatice la importancia de la participación: tanto de responsabilidad civil, su contribución a la democracia y a la traspaso pacífico del poder, así como para evitar el fraude y la corrupción.

Asimismo, la difusión de que la falta de participación también le resta su valor a criticar. 

Finalmente, es importante una campaña permanente de educación cívica, a todos los niveles de educación, en la cual todos los ciudadanos tengan un conocimiento general del proceso y algunas funciones generales de los funcionarios de mesas receptoras del voto, para que todos los ciudadanos sean aptos para fungir como tales el día de la elección y tomarlos incluso de la misma fila.