The Question

 

This question is posed on behalf of a member of an international organization in Argentina.

• Is it advisable that local non-governmental organizations carry out both voter education activities as well as domestic election observation, particularly in terms of conducting independent election observation?
• Are there country examples of this? 
• Are there ways to manage a local NGO in order for it to carry out voter education prior to an election (such as civic education, trainings and dissemination of information on the right to vote, information about the electoral system etc.) and to conduct  independent domestic electoral observation as the election draws closer?

I am involved in Electoral matters for somtimes. I think there is no incompatibility doing both. I can give exemple in Mali and in Democratic Republic of the Congo where it has been done. It even gives more knowldge to the NGO members to enhance their capacity regarding the issue. So then the report they will broadcast will be non partisan. More over since there different type of electoral observation (long term and short term), I will advise them to make three fronts: civic and voter education; long term observers and short term observer.

We all agree that the involvement of the NGOs (Civil society) in the electoral process, is to make sure it's handle fairly and correctly. NGOs can bring trustness and ligitimity to the elected institutions.

I hope this point of view will have added value to your questions.

There is an obvious conflict of interest in that a domestic observer organisation cannot truly observe the voter education aspect of the election preparations if they are a part of it. Also they run the risk as being perceived as part of the election management. 

However, in many countries the only way domestic observer organisations can survive and get finding between elections is to be involved in other election related activities. Voter education, since it involves a large disseminated structure, much the same as election observation, is a fairly obvious route for organisations to go down, and one in which they can test out their logistical capacity.

The Pataforma nacional de assosiciasoes de sociede civil para eleicoes (PNASCE) in Angola did just this , quite successfully. I believe many of the organisations in southern Africa and in the former Balkans have also been involved in voter or civic education.

 

The key points to be aware of are:

Make sure you are involved in general voter education rather than specific voter information which is the prerogative of the election commission

Be careful where you get your funding. Do not take funding form national institutions for this activity so as to preserve your actual and perceived independence. 

Please check the example of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) in Ghana. More information can be found on the www.electoralnetwork.org site.

There is also a good example in Madagascar with the national NGO called KMF CNOE that does as well voters education and domestic observation.

I believe there is nothing wrong with the same CSO doing both voter education and observation. This has been the case in most of the countries were I have been, in the Americas, Africa and Asia. You have to be knowledgeable of the electoral process to be able to observe it properly, so best placed to undertake voter education. One main concern I have come across is the issue regarding human resources. If the same organisation or coalition does both activities, sometimes the strain on the members is very high and the implementation of both activities can suffer. So, it has to be decided early on when what activity is being undertaken by which group of supporters when, with clear allocation of human resources for both activities over a quite long period of time.

Il s'agit là d'une préoccupation importante qui met en avant la dualité des activités des ONG domestiques en matière d'éducation, d'information et de sensibilisation des électeurs avant le scrutin  et d'observation électorale le jour du scrutin. A première vue, on peut penser que ces deux activités sont antinomiques. Tout dépend de la gouvernance interne des ONG. En effet, une ONG bien structurer peux déployer deux équipes sur le terrain. Une équipe qui s'investit en amont dans l'activité d'éducation, d'information et de sensibilisation des électeurs au regard des textes relatifs au droit électoral et l'autre équipe,  en aval, est charger d'observer le scrutin en vue de s'assurer que les standards électoraux sont bien observés par tous les acteurs impliqués dans le processus électoral. Ce faisant, il devra mettre un point d'honneur  à son indépendance et à sa crédibilité.  Il est évident que le risque est grand que certaines ONG soient suspectées d'être les satellites de certains partis partis politiques. En ce cas, leurs agissements sur le terrain  outrepassent le cadre légal d'une observation électorale. Au Bénin par exemple,  pour les élections présidentielles  de 2001, 2006, des ONG locales sont intervenues dans la formation électeurs et dans l'observation électorale. Les difficultés que pose  cette double activité est la suspicion par le pouvoir en place et par l'opposition de certaines ONG d'être à la solde soit de la majorité présidentielle soit de l'opposition. Outre ce risque, je pense que dans presque tous les pays de l'Afrique de l'ouest où j'ai pu observer les élections, cette pratique est courante même si elle n'est pas de nature à plaire souvent au pouvoir en place. A mon humble, avis, tout est fonction de l'indépendance, de la neutralité et du professionnalisme affichés par les ONG nationales impliquées dans le processus électoral.  

Since 2006 elections, and according with the Mexican Federal Electoral Law, the Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico (IFE) have been supported a specific program about civic education conducted by non-governmental organizations. Most of these organizations also have been accredited as electoral observation groups.

 

Enclosed please find proper regulations for 2012 Mexican federal election, IFE’s General Council Agreement and Regulation, both in Spanish (sorry, we don’t have these documents in other languages).

 

This kind of programs helps to increasing engagement citizens in elections, as a promoter of voter participation, among other benefits.

 

I agree with Barbara. Perhaps one of the most important things to check is possible conflict of interest of domestic observer organization that observes the voter education procedures of EMBs. Also, I think it is important to be careful about possible support to candidates or parties. Civic education programs cannot be targeted to influence the electoral preferences of citizens, for or against political parties. 

There is likely to be conflict of interest, even if the person/persons are professionals of the highest quality. In elections, perception of conflict of interest quickly turns into partisanship or bias and so such a situation should be avoided. Sometimes participation in election technical support to an EMB raises a similar concern if one subsequently participates in observation of the elections. I happened to have participated in technical assistance roles and as leader of the support group to Commonwealth observer group in South Africa (1994), Malawi (1994) and Nigeria (1998-99), but as the leader of the support team to the observer group, I was not an observer properly so-called. 

It is a common practice in few country I am familiar with, including my own Mozambique where local organization do carry out voter education and election observation. This has not been peaceful though because when the ruling part identified a potential benefit, it started creating NGOs to carry this task for its own benefit. Instead of general voter education these NGOs created by the ruling were mobilizing people to vote for the ruling part. This was the reason why many of these were discredited and became irrelevant. On the other hand, it is convenient to have domestic election observer who can follow the whole process not only part of it as it is done by the international observer who, very often, land in the country few days before the actual voting and leave just after the announcement of the result and issue statement declaring the fairness and transparency of the process. There is a need to build a strong partnerships between domestic election observers (quite often with limited resources and skills) and the international observer missions (who are qualified, but with limited knowledge of the reality on the ground and always rushing against the clock). These partnerships would lead to a complete analysis of the electoral process, with the domestic actors doing the ground work which can be complemented by the international observer.

I would take a look at what the Election Working Group did in Bangladesh during the 2008 elections.  The coalition was very involved in voter education for voter registration and later observed the elections.  While there were some discussions on conflict of interest issues early on, it never became an issue.  The Asia Foundation or international observer reports would have some information on this, or see the attached report.

There is nothing wrong with the same ngo doing both voter education and election observation. This will not impede in monitoring how the public institutions are doing voter education. More, the NGO can set a higher standard in how a voter education should be done (is most the case in newer democracies).

As an example I recommend to peruse www.apd.ro, internet page of Pro Democracy Association from Romania, a national ngo (there is an english version). There are examples of projects regarding elections since 1990, after the fall of communism in Romania (The Revolution)and the set up of the organisation. There you will see the impact of such an ngo over electoral issues, starting from voters educations and monitoring elections, then improving the electoral law, proposing new laws to improve electoral process, an electoral code, proposing a body to supervise electoral process etc.

Also I will underline that also important are projects after elections to supervise accountability of the elected and mediate an efficient communication between voters and their elected representatives.

To counter some prior affirmations I may say that voters educations does not mean to lend a working hand to an EMB. 

I think The romanian example will be most relevant to argentinian reality (a revolution, communist representatives were still active on political arena,  there are problems with officials corruption and it is a latin country).

Bangladesh is one of the best examples of such practice. In Bangladesh there is a network of domestic election observers. The network observes elections as well as carry out voter education. Before the last parliamentary election in 2008, the network signed an MoU with Bangladesh EMB to carry out voter education throughout the country.

Conflict of interest will arise when voter education degenerates into political campaigns. It is possible as long as voter education is about deepening the understanding of voters about the election procedures and how to vote peacefully during election day. On election day, observation is primarily focused on the voting process with a pre-developed questionnaire to be used by the observer in a way to reduce subjectivity. In short, it's very possible to conduct voter education and election observation as long as they are both done professionally and with integrity.

In Ukraine, we also have the same practice. Several local organizations conduct trainings for voters and memebers of district and pricinct electoral comissions and also conduct observations during elections. There were no problem during last decade with this.

This is practiced in almost all the countries I have observed elections and very common in Cameroon. Transparency International in 2011 had funding from EU to conduct voter education and also election observation. My concern is the duration of both mandates. When do they start and end voter education and when do they start  observing the electoral process. At times some NGOs conduct voter education and information. Election observation is not limited to E-Day and the post election periods. For an NGO to actually come up with credible findings and recommendations to improve the electoral process, it should define its mandate because most local NGOs are faced with problems of human resource and expertise.

CODEO in Ghana started observing  voter registration process and proceeded to the post elections period and their findings, assessments and recommendation were laudable and credible. Though come have been infiltrated, coalitions of domestic elections observer groups have proved to produce more results in terms of the quality and approach to observation and reporting.

 

In Uganda, the EMB accredits NGO's to undertake voter education for the entire electoral process. The work of the EMB is to monitor the activities of the NGO's to ensure compliance with the m.o.u signed by the two parties. However some of the NGO's turn round and apply for accreditation to serve as election observers. There is nothing wrong with this so long as the NGO is principled in its work and uses personnel whose credibility and impartiality is not doubted by the political parties and candidates involved in the election. During the 2011 general election where I served as a Returning Officer in one of the electoral districts, a consortium of  NGOs called Gulu NGO FORUM took part in both voter education and election observation but came out with a well balanced report at the end of the day with clear recommendations. Therefore the issue of conflict of interest only comes in when the NGO is a partisan one.

In Cambodia, we, committee for free and fair elections in Cambodia (COMFREL), do whatever we can to dedicate to voter and civic educations in all electoral cycles. We had just finished to the training course on electoral observation to electoral watchdog/monitor to concerning NGOs and Party proxies since National election committee do nothing with regard to the above question.

In countries where EMBs do no actively pursue voter education, involvement of the civil society becomes imperative. The outreach of NGOs and CSOs may also be wider than that of the EMB itself which makes them useful partners for voter education. In Pakistan, the civil society and NGOs have been working on voter education with or without collaboration with the Election Commission. Coordination between EMB and NGOs surely a better model to follow. As the Election Commission of Pakistan took greater ownership of the voter education function for 2013 elections, it relied on government, semi/non-government departments, as well as private corporations like banks to promote messages/materials designed by the Commission. Having a central set of voter education messages/materials designed by EMBs could reduce duplication, reduce costs at both ends and promote standardization in the voter education campaign. 

The largest domestic observation group, a consortium of 42 NGOs, has been involved in voter education and election observation since 2008 - http://www.fafen.org. Where the NGOs are working on both these electoral functions, the question of funding and political neutrality is definitely important. 

Christine NDAYISHIMIYE du Burundi

Dans mon pays, différentes organisations de la société civile s'impliquent dans l'éducation civique et électorale. Seulement, pour ce qui est de l'éducation électorale l'EMB doit veiller à ce que la matière dispensée soit conforme à la loi. Nous avons une organisation appelée COSOME ( Coalition de la société civile pour le monitoring des élections) son objet même est de s'occuper des élections à travers toutes les étapes y compris l'éducation électorale et l'observation. Jusqu'aujourd'hui cette organisation s'est montrée professionnelle, elle n'a jamais été critiquée pour une quelconque prise de position partisane.

Obviously there is conflict of interest and in case the loosing party petitions it will be hard for the said NGO to testify or be a respondent in court without appearing to be on the side of the looser,look what happened in kenya recently. I think its better to have NGOS specializing in different areas e.g if its voter education,let them concentrate on that in order to give it enough time and resources then lets have those that do election observation.

El tema de la observación se puede definir como complicado, no solo por lo que los colegas exponen, sobre financiación y demás, también tiene que definirse el conocimiento de los observadores que  son replicadores de sus propios conocimientos  adquiridos y no pueden llegar a aprender o explicar cosas diferentes que el proceso electoral propio.

 

La observación que tiene que ver con el funcionamiento de cada etapa del proceso, debe estar acompañad de una auditoria técnica, si además el proceso en alguno de sus pasos cuenta con tecnología de la información,  lo que hoy día des muy común.

 

En cuanto a la capacitación yo creo mejor es la pedagogía electoral,  que es una responsabilidad de los organismos electorales, de los partidos políticos en contienda y del sistema educativo de cada país, cuando desde temprana edad se enseña y se  estimula, los logros se perciben, cuando la persona se somete al aprendizaje por necesidad o por dinero las cosas cambian y los resultados son diferentes.

 

In countries like Zimbabwe, the involvement of civic organizations in both voter education and election monitoring have immensely contributed to both the increase in citizen participation and the safeguard of electoral integrity. The EMB has a broader and unbridled mandate to conduct voter education, but practice has shown that due to pronounced resource constraints, the electoral commission normally embarks on voter education only in the last few weeks before an election. This is despite the fact that voter registration in Zimbabwe happens on a continuous basis. This leaves an interval of about 4 years without meaningful voter education especially to potential first time voters. Consequently, the NGOs in Zimbabwe have filled that gap in between elections, of course after accreditation from the commission, but would simultaneously be preparing to monitor how the EMB would be conducting its own voter education outreaches as well as the voter registration drive usually conducted during the last 3 months before a given polling day. Towards the election day such NGOs would also train and deploy monitors to observe election proceedings on election day. The NGO involvement in both voter education and election monitoring has contributed tremendously towards safeguarding electoral integrity through ensuring that voters are generally informed of the importance of voting and the related voting requirements at the same time assist towards deterring and detecting possible electoral fraud.

Estimados colegas:

 

Sobre las cuestiones planteadas opino lo siguiente:

 

1.       Las ONGs pueden realizar únicamente aquellas actividades que les permite la legislación del país. Caso contrario, se puede considerar  como injerencia en los asuntos internos. Entonces, lo primero que se debe determinar  es el marco jurídico que permite las actividades de las ONGs en un país determinado.

 

2.       Si el marco jurídico lo permite, una ONG puede realizar actividades de educación cívica o educación en valores democráticos, en sobre el ejercicio de los derechos políticos. Es mejor si estas actividades se desarrollan en coordinación con entes públicos locales, y hasta privados, pero manteniendo siempre la neutralidad e imparcialidad en los asuntos políticos locales.

 

3.       La educación a los votantes (capacitación electoral) es una atribución del organismo electoral y también su obligación. Pienso que no debe ser realizada por ninguna otra institución. Me parece que en esta actividad no debería involucrarse directamente una ONG porque se pone en riesgo su imparcialidad y neutralidad. Además puede causar reacciones negativas en los sujetos políticos. Creo que es mejor que una ONG busque líneas de apoyo al organismo electoral en esta materia, pero que las actividades las ejecute el organismo electoral competente.

 

4.       Generalmente los organismos electorales acreditan a los observadores para los procesos electorales. La observación será positiva si se realiza de manera técnica e imparcial.

 

I am one of the long term observers of the European Union. I have participated in 10 missions, basicly in Latin America and Africa.

Such practices exist in Bolivia, Perú, Paraguay, Ecuador , Guatemala and Uganda - I was working there. I could suggest to visit websites of electoral management bodies of these countries, because you could identify your partner NGOs involved in voter education and domestic observation. Direct consultations would be the most useful for You.

Personally I am not seeing mayor difficulties of practicing both of the mentioned activities, taking into account that none of them sould be partisan ones. It is the base , methodologies are obviously different country by country.

An other idea : you could looking for contacts by some think thanks dealing with this issues like IDEA International ( Sweden), ERIS (UK), as well - they have broad databases of NGOs worldwide.

I will be ready for further consultations , if You need it.

 

In Burundi, the local NGOs and civil society contribute a lot in both voter education and domestic observation. These bodies are trusted in by a good number of the population for they are together on ground and are recognized as being neutral pressure groups.  It is of great interest to imvolve them in civic and voter education and observation for many reasons:

- Therefore, their observations or declarations are considered by the population and international community as being impartial and true.

- Throughout the world, the domestic obervers are many and cover all polling stations,

- Domestic NGOs and civil sicieties  especially in african countries, receive sponsors from donors to monitor ,observe elections and cover somes activities pertaining to election process. This reducess the budget for election in hands of the EMBs.

- It ensures the EMBs that all the popuation got the civic and voter education.

But watch out! For the success of the operation as we do in Burundi, the EMB prepare the modules and gives them to the NGOs and civil society for civic and voter education. Some times, those NGOs and civil societies prepare the modules and submit them to the EMBs for approval. This helps to give the same message by all trainers and every where in the country  and avoid misleading messages by the people of bad faith who may do obstruction to the electoral process.

Even when the EMB is training its staff, it is better to involve  and train also the members of all elections partners to get same messages and focus the same target.

 

Try and you see that the electoral process will be credible and transparent.

Julius BUCUMI

Inspector of Justice, Burundi

A mon avis, je trouve logique voire même impérative que les ONG qui font de travail de l'éducation électorale continuent dans l'observation proprement dire des scrutins. Puisqu'en ce moment là, il y a une sorte de continuité du travail, qui pourra être un indice palpable de juger l'état d'avancement de la conscience démocratique d'un pays. Confier les deux missions tous à des ONG confirme la non implication de l'Exécutif dans ce processus d'éducation électorale. Un acquis amorcé dans les pays en voie de développement sur le continent africain, à partir des débuts des années 1990, après la Conférence de La Baule. Ce qui est à l'origine de la création des commissions ou conseils nationaux électoraux indépendants.

L'expérience malgache, avec une plate-forme dénommée "Consortium des observateurs électoraux" lors des élections présidentielles de décembre 2001 opposant Didier Ratsiraka et Marc Ravalomanana (les deux premiers en tête), même si le Consortium n'a pas fait long feu. 

C'est bien qu'il y a un Consortium ou une Plate forme, pour éviter qu'un seul ONG "monopolise" les missions, et de surcroît seul bénéficiaire d'aides de la Communauté internationale. C'est le cas du problème avec le KMF - CNOE (Education des Citoyens et Comité national d'observation électorale),  à Madagascar comme elle avait cité Christine Melly le 24 mai dernier. Tous les financements des extérieurs tombent dans la caisse du CNOE, qui est certes expérimenté; mais entre temps d'autres ONG ont fait aussi leurs preuves.

Le KMF-CNOE est en fait le premier ONG en question, crée en 1989 après les présidentielles de mars 1989. 

La gestion d'un ONG en question mérite un aspect particulier. Je pense qu'il faut dans ce sens pousser les organismes des Nations Unies de former les responsables des ONG en question s'ils souhaitent réellement des élections libres et crédibles. Puisque la motivation et l'abnégation ne suffisent pas, et de par mon expérience, il y a beaucoup des ONG, surtout dans les régions de Madagascar, au-delà de la capitale, qui sont déterminés mais bloqués par cette compétence de gestion.

A priori, rien n’empêche les ONG locales a concilier ces deux activités qui ne sont pas contradictoires, elles traduisent à mon avis le souci de la société civile de participer au travail de crédibilisation des processus électoraux afin qu’ils obéissent aux normes standards internationaux. L'exemple du Sénégal est à prendre en considération ou on a vu beaucoup d’ONG s’impliquer dans la campagne d'inscription sur les listes électorales et également pour le retrait des cartes d'électeurs ou pour la fiabilisation du fichier électoral et en même temps bénéficier d'un statut d'observateur pour les élections bien que ce soit assez récent.

Il n’y a pas de façon de gérer ces questions qui soit codifiés, tout dépend de l'organisation interne des ONG , du niveau et de la qualité des ressources humaines dont elles disposent. Maintenant, dans certains pays, il peut arriver que compte tenu de la nature des relations de certaines ONG avec les pouvoirs en place qui les considèrent comme des "empêcheurs de tourner en rond", cette exercice soit rendu difficile et qu'on ne leur reconnaisse pas le droit de participer à l'observation électorale nationale, car ne pouvant être juge et partie.

L'éducation des élections consiste à informer les électeurs:

-le processus électoral, l'inscription des électeurs, l'obtention de la carte d'électeur, le jour et le lieu du scrutin, le déroulement du scrutin, le fonctionnement d'un bureau de vote.

-leurs droits et devoir pertinents en matière électorale.

L'observation des élections est une activité qui droit être menée avec indépendance cet impartialité. Les observateurs sont des témoins neutres.

Les rôles de l'observation des élections est:

-d'accroître la confiance de la population et rassurer les partis et les électeurs quant à la régularité du scrutin l'indépendance, l'équité, la justesse et la transparence du vote

-détecter les possibles irrégularités,  fraudes, tricheries, manipulations et intimidation

-évaluation la légalité du processus électoral et des résultats conformément aux normes internationalement acceptées notamment le secret du scrutin, l'impartialité, l'indépendance du vote, le respect du droit de vote;

-augmenter les chances de renforcement de l'Etat de droit conformément aux principes et normes internationalement acceptées;

-favoriser l'acceptation des résultats des élections au niveau national et international;

-contribuer à réduire les perturbations du processus électoral et les conflits avant, pendant et après les élections;

-améliorer la transparence et la crédibilité des élections et ainsi contribuer à leur légitimation

-favoriser un climat serein,  propice au bon déroulement  du processus électoral plus particulièrement ses phases importantes comme la campagne électorale, le scrutin propément-dit en vue de s'assurer une période post électorale apaisée.

La respuesta  es que no debería ser excluyente siempre y cuando estén las actividades dentro del marco Legal de cada país, pero también hay que tener en cuenta no solo el patrocinio o las donaciones de la ONG, pues se puede dar el caso que la fundación y creación este a cargo de algunos intereses electorales.

 

La otra parte que se debe cumplir es que la capacitación y el entrenamiento a participantes de las elecciones sean funcionarios, testigos, escrutadores, informadores o pregoneros de partidos, sea coordinada pues se estaría impartiendo conceptos diferentes entre la Organización Electoral, que sabe que quiere y como lo dice un colega tiene la función de hacerlo, lo otro es que debe existir una intermediación de control que verifique que lo que se enseño es lo que se está aplicando en el proceso .

 

Ya en anterior intervención, decía, que lo mejor que se puede hacer con este tema de capacitación y entrenamiento electoral, es generar conciencia en las instituciones educativas para implementar una clase de pedagogía electoral que indudablemente debe tener el diseño y participación de los que saben y entienden el proceso.

 

Je suis pertinamment convaincu qu'une Organisation Non Gouvernementale peut assurer convenablement les deux missions à la fois: l'éducation des électeurs et l'observation électorale. Il n'y aurait aucune incompatibilité si les deux activité sont envisagées en même temps par une même ONG. Neanmoins, les deux activités ne doivent pas être effectuées par les mêmes individus pour permettre une bonne observation. Ou bien les deux activitées peuvent se passer à des moments différents, ce qui n'empêche que les mêmes individus puissent participer dans l'une ou l'autre activités, les deux n'ayant pas les mêmes objectif. 

Même au BURUNDI, les ONG locales aident beaucoup dans l'éducation électorale avant les échéances et contribuent dans l'observation électorale pendant les échéances.

Pour que tout cela soit possible, les gestionnaires des ONG locales doivent donner des consignes claires à leurs membres pour que chacun execute la tache qui lui est demandée dans le but de promouvoir l'intérêt de toute la nation.