The Question
This question was posted by an Electoral Consultant for UNDP

I am looking for examples of concept papers for the establishment of an elections operations center. Any relevant documents or references would be greatly appreciated.

Summary of responses
Several replies refer to South Africa as an example where an election operations centre is routinely established by the electoral commission during elections, e.g. the 2009 presidential and legislative elections, and 2011 municipal elections. Liberia in 2004-05, Nepal 2008 and Indonesia in 1999 and 2004 are cited as other examples.

The importance and value of such an operations centre and the transparency it provides is stressed, especially with regards to facilitating political harmony in the immediate post-voting environment in transitional or post-conflict elections.  It is also noted, however, that the sophistication and technical capacity of such operation centres can vary considerably, largely depending on an EMB’s budget.

Examples of related ACE Articles and Resources
Encyclopaedia:
• Communicating results to national level 
• Publishing interim election results
• Publishing official final results

External Resources
• UNDP Indonesia 
• Election results nerve centre opens, BuaNews 

Names of contributors
1. Kevin Evans
2. Carl Dundas
3. Bucumi Julius
4. Bhojraj Pokharel
5. Susana Dione Ngole Epie
6. Pamela Mapondera

In browsing through my archives, I have come across a draft elections operations concept paper with involved all the salient election operation activities in organizing an election from scratch. In such a case most of an EMB's operations would constitute an operation centre in practice. The case which I came upon was Liberia in 2004-05. I attach the draft concept paper for good measure in case you find the elements contained therein would be useful in designing your Operations Centre. 

Dear Kevin,

This idea to create a centre for Elections Operations is good and great. Here in Burundi, we do not have such Centre which requires much means in terms of ICT.and human ressources.

I do advise you to contact South African Electoral Commission to get the information you need. I have been there in 2009 to oberve presidential and legislative elections , i saw there a such Centre.

Best regards

Julius Bucumi

During the 2008 Constituent Assembly Elections in Nepal, ECN had established and operated a functional command center. So, I am advising you to contact them (Election Commission of Nepal) directly to get further details. 

Bhojraj Pokharel

Thanks for the replies they are very helpful.

That is true, it is a common practice for the South African's EMB, so if you cannot contact the EMB of South Africa, go to google or any search machine and introduce (elections operations center/South Africa). Goodluck.

Election results nerve centre opens

12 May 2011

With less than a week to go to South Africa's 2011 municipal elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has opened its national results operation centre in Pretoria.

The centre, which opened at the Tshwane Events Centre on Wednesday, will be the hub for all the IEC's operations on election day, 18 May, serving as the focal point for the media, political parties, IEC officials and other stakeholders as the election results come in.

TV and radio stations are expected to broadcast live from the centre, while other media will work from offices there during the election period. In addition, 12 political parties will be hosted at the ROC.

IEC commissioners and officials will relocate from their offices to the centre until the final results are announced.

IEC Chief Electoral Officer Pansy Tlakula, speaking at the opening of the centre, said that as result slips are captured at municipal electoral offices across the country, the data will be transferred to the IEC's computer systems through the national IT network infrastructure and stored in a central base.

State-of-the-art IT and GIS applications will rapidly make the data available for it to be communicated to political parties, the media and IEC staff at the centre in Pretoria and the provincial results operation centres.

Data will be displayed on two huge projections screens at the centres.

Tlakula said one of the reasons for having such a centre was because the credibility and transparency it brought to the results process.

"We hope that stakeholders such as political parties and the media will be able to visit the centre in the coming week so that they can bear testimony that indeed, we did everything possible to safeguard the freeness and fairness of these elections," she said.

IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam said the IEC was particularly pleased with the significant increase in the number of parties, voters and public participation in South Africa's "electoral democracy".

"This increase signals that our democracy is maturing," Bam said.

"From our side, we commit to do our utmost best in delivering this year's elections and to ensure that transparency, accountability, professionalism and independence characterise the running of these elections."

Earlier, Bam introduced Judge Thami Makhanya as a new IEC commissioner. Makhanya was appointed by President Jacob Zuma to the position left vacant after the death of Judge Herbert Msimang.

Source: BuaNews

Dear Colleague

If the type of centre you are referring to is what all the other contributors have given, most EMBs normally establish what is commonly termed as the National Command Centre where all the national results will be sent from the various polling and collation centres around the country. What might differ is the equipment found in each of those depending on the affordibility of the EMB. Some would establish highly electronised centres while others would have faxes, telephone receivers which would include hot lines and computers which would be used to collate and aggregate the national result in case of Presidential results. But if it is to do with a permanent centre where the public would use as a walk-in centre where election inforamtion including election results of previous elections as well as voter registration woud be done, we are still to see such a centre. I do not think that there is any EMB which has established such a centre.

Pamela Mapondera (Mrs.)

It is a brilliant and very useful idea and I would advocate for such centres as they would be very useful espcially for historical trends on elections pertaining to respective countries. I think important information is lost over time if it is not captured or collected and put in one place for use by future EMBs and generations