Community organisations, with their links to and knowledge of the grass roots of society, are well placed to deliver, or assist in delivering, some voting operations services. Especially in the voter information, staff training and observation fields, they may have skills or past experience that are easily transferable to the current voting operations environment. In involving non-government organisations (NGOs), electoral management bodies have to be aware that they, like private contractors, may well operate in a different manner from state agencies and, therefore, may not be used to the accountability, impartiality and probity frameworks of electoral management.
The mandates of NGOs used for voting operations functions need clear and mutually understood definition, with accountability and performance frameworks for their operations put in place by the electoral management body. Adherence to the electoral management body's administrative code of conduct should be mandatory.
Performance Monitoring
Joint electoral management body and NGO initiatives can easily become bogged down in the widely differing agendas of individual NGOs. It may be more feasible to allow, within strict performance and materials monitoring, some flexibility to NGOs in developing their own programs rather than for the electoral management body to attempt to enforce a rigid plan. Care in selection of suitable NGOs for voting operations service delivery is necessary, especially in obtaining evidence of their financial, technical and management capacity, standing within the community and in considering any biases in their past or current activities that may affect perceptions of election integrity.
