DEMOCRACY

AND

ELECTORAL

STUDIES PROJECT

ABOUT US

The Democracy and Electoral Studies Program at USP was established in 2004.

The 3 Year (2004-2006) program was funded by the European Union under its “Transforming Our Communities through Good Governance” Project.

Three major components

Establishing Research and Academic Programs in Good Governance;

Promoting Public Information and Awareness in Democracy and Electoral Systems; and

Establishing a Good Governance Knowledge Resource Base.

Major short term programs Data Collection on Elections and

Electoral Systems and Constitutions Elections Monitoring in the Pacific and

internationally Civic and Voter Education for Civil

Society and Schools. Training of staff of the Electoral

Offices Publications.

Long term objectives

Establish USP as a centre for expertise and information in elections and electoral systems and studies in the Pacific region

Establish USP as a centre for the promotion of Democracy in the Pacific and as part of the International Democracy Network.

Cont… Establish USP as the Voter Education and Civic

Education Curriculum Advisory Centre to ensure ongoing election education for schools, tertiary institutions and civic society to empower citizens to know and understand what voting is and also the principles of democracy and good governance in order to become effective and responsible citizens.

Establish USP as centre for networking and reporting on democracy, elections and electoral systems in the Pacific and internationally.

Major electoral issues

1. Electoral Reform-lack of commitment by sitting governments

2. Absence of integrated democracy and electoral systems with indigenous best practices that are proving effective

Cont…

3. existence of inappropriate electoral systems design.

4. Lack of permanent and independent Electoral Management Bodies (EMB).

5. Inflated/inaccurate Electoral Rolls

Cont…

6. Absence of Ongoing Civic and Voter education Programs.

7. Absence of skilled and knowledgeable Electoral Officers/Administrators

Framework for effective electoral systems In the Pacific an effective electoral system

for each country should have the support and confidence of all stakeholders and also be characterized by the following:

An election system established by the constitution from which responsible and respected national leaders are elected into Parliament and/or become the governing executive,

Cont… An independent electoral management

body with powers to hire and fire, raise revenue and control its expenditure, initiate reforms, train its officers, develop civic education programs after wide consultation with all stakeholders through an effective dissemination system to schools, voters and the public.

A credible, accurate and manageable voter registration system that ensures the integrity of the electoral rolls

Cont… A system that establishes and promotes

partnership and collaboration with government, political parties, candidates, media, civil society groups and voters in fostering participatory democracy.

A systematic result process that guarantees acceptance of the results by candidates, voters and the wider community and has an appeal system for candidates and voters to lodge and have their grievances fairly heard.

Recommendations The establishment of independent

statutory electoral management bodies as the overall authority responsible for vote registrations and the conduct of all elections.

The need for developing long term plans and timetable incorporating past shortfalls and weaknesses and positive prospects for the future for institutional strengthening and capacity building of the EMB and the officers.

Cont… Recognize parties, candidates, and voters as

important stakeholders in elections and encourage mutual understanding, cooperation and partnership to ensure corrupt free and non fraudulent but transparent, free and fair elections.

Introduce ongoing voter education programs for schools and communities in partnership with the ministries of education, Ombudsman’s offices, human rights advocates and other civil society groups such as Transparency International.

Cont… Establish Electoral Centers that depicts

important political events in the history of each country to educate and encourage the young generation of under 30 years to learn and appreciate their history rather than just learning about the history of foreign nations.

Develop and conduct regular training for elected officials, government and electoral officers, parties, voters and communities on their roles and duties as providers, receivers and custodians of democracy and/or electoral service.

Cont… Introduce and run BRIDGE Course Training

Modules to Pacific electoral administrators, members of Parliament, civil servants and polling officers to improve their understanding and knowledge on the importance of elections, election systems and polling processes as connected to Government, Parliament and overall development of a democratic country.

Introduce generic computerized voter registration systems to ensure concise and accurate roll to reduce costs of elections and also deter voters from casting multiple votes.

Current Project

2008-2011 Funded by the Australian Agency

for International Development (AusAID)

Six main objectives

Build and maintain the confidence and trust of governments and electoral management bodies in the Project;

Identify appropriate electoral reforms for Pacific countries, where necessary; Identify necessary reforms of voter registration systems;

Assist in the development of civics curricula for primary and secondary schools; Assist Pacific countries in establishing electoral education materials and programs for use in educating the public;

Introduce/showcase and run BRIDGE Project Training Modules for Pacific electoral administrators, members of Parliament and civil servants to improve their understanding and knowledge of the importance of elections, election systems and polling processes;

Deliver BRIDGE methodology short-term training courses to Pacific countries for electoral administrators and other persons involved in elections, as well as the media, and;

Monitor and observe parliamentary elections in the Pacific and report to governments

Thematic activities

Research into Improving Electoral Systems and Performance;

Civic Education Needs Assessment; Professional Training; Election Monitoring and Pacific Islands’ Electoral Systems

Information Dissemination.

Networks Regional1. USP member states2. PIANZEA (Pacific Islands, Australia and

New Zealand Electoral Administrators Network) member states

3. BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy Governance and Elections) Project

International1. BRIDGE Project2. International IDEA3. Global Elections Organizations

1. Research ELECTORAL SYSTEMS REFERENCE

GROUP MEETING – SCHEDULED FOR 20-25 October, PORT VILA, VANUATU

The purpose of this meeting was to bring electoral administrators and officials plus electoral systems specialists together to look at what current systems are offering and put thoughts together for future effective democracy and elections in the Pacific.

Lessons Learnt

Democracy and elections are sensitive issues to governments, electoral administrators and officials, political parties and people. Therefore the choice of participants as well as topics must be carefully researched.

Consultation with existing networks and contacts on any new proposal or event is healthy in strengthening and maintaining a strong partnership. It is also a vital component that will ensure the sustainability of the work carried out by the Democracy and Elections Project team.

Consult with BRIDGE workshop participants the topics of the ERG

Proposals for the future

Incorporate other forms of consultation/survey into the training workshop program, ie, schedule them for evenings.

Make proposals to the PIANZEA Network Secretariat on important topics on electoral systems to be discussed at the next PIANZEA network meet in April 2009.

Develop survey questionnaires for BRIDGE workshop participants’ feedback

Incorporate evening sessions for consultation with BRIDGE workshop participants on topics of the ERG

2. CIVIC EDUCATION NEEDS ASSESSMENT (CENA) A total of three (3) CENA were conducted in: Cook Islands, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu The Cook Islands CENA was pioneer and the

lessons learnt assisted in redesigning the CENA Questionnaire template and approach for Tuvalu and Vanuatu. There are lessons learnt from each country and the project considers these positive attributes for further improvement in the design and delivery of the CENA in remaining countries.

Lessons Learnt

Design a questionnaire that can be read and easily understood by Pacific people.

Questionnaire should have age, level of education, number of languages spoken, ethnicity, what type of medium of communication suits each respondents, etc. to help project design and disseminate both generic and country specific civic education curriculum and materials.

Lessons Learnt cont… Survey must include samples from all

levels of the community, ie, urban, rural, remote, educated, under educated, youths, voters, students, children, women, indigenous communities, chiefs, churches, other religions, business houses, political parties, government ministries and departments – especially of education, all ethnic groups in a country.

Questionnaire should be targeted to primary and secondary school children.

Proposals for future

Allocate at least three (3) weeks for CENA in each country context.

Ensure inclusive national survey involving all levels and groups in society.

Involve primary and secondary school children in the survey.

3. BRIDGE REGIONAL PROFESSIONAL

TRAINING WORKSHOPS A total of seven (7) regional

training workshops were in the 2008 work program.

Five (5) workshops were conducted 2 Train-the-Facilitators (TtF), Media and Elections, Civic Education Gender and Elections.

Output 114 participants from around the

Pacific were trained. 39 participants of the TtF became

semi accredited facilitators, 7 participants received full

accreditation, and 2 accredited active facilitators

were promoted to Level One.

Lessons Learnt

Seven (7) regional workshops in six (6) months is too many, too costly and time consuming for three (3) member team to effectively and efficiently deliver in other four areas of the project.

Conduct of national workshops will build capacity of more people in country both in terms of upgrading and accrediting facilitators and exposing more people to BRIDGE methodology and also training in democracy and electoral governance.

Use of accredited BRIDGE facilitators outside of Democracy and Elections Project is costly.

Proposals for future

Conduct only one training workshop every three months.

Conduct national or sub-regional training workshop rather than regional ones.

National training should be linked to needs identified by each country during BRIDGE scoping mission, from CENA and also election observation reports.

Secure accredited expert facilitators 6-12 months before each training.

Build facilitator capacity in the project.

4. ELECTION MONITORING

Amongst the USP Member countries - Tonga had general elections in April, Niue in May and Vanuatu in September

Pacific region under the PIANZEA Network (USP became a member in 2005) other elections due in 2008 were New Zealand, Palau, Guam and other US territories.

Lessons Learnt

The USP Democracy and Elections Project team is too small to be able to conduct a fair observation or monitoring mechanism of the election process in each country.

Use existing domestic in-country networks to monitor the election process.

Election management bodies in the Pacific share generic problems, many are administrative and thus do not require legal redress. There is so much to share and actually learn from each other by visiting and observing and learning from what the others do effectively to strengthen their own.

Proposals for future

Develop a network of domestic monitors or observers for monitoring the processes of elections through partnership with USP campuses or centers, ombudsman offices, branches of Transparency International and other civil society groups in each country.

Partnerships should be negotiated and established at least 6-12 months before the election year so that domestic monitors or observers could be selected and trained.

Invite three members of the election management body to observe the polling process with the USP Democracy and Elections Project to be the secretariat at least 5 months before the election month.

5. PACIFIC ISLANDS ELECTORAL SYSTEMS

INFORMATION DISSEMINATION (PIESID)

The primary objective of this activity is to store data on Pacific Islands’ electoral systems in the appropriate section of the “Governance Portal” which has been developed by the Governance Program in the School of Governance and Development Studies.

Types information/data

Election Results of all elections held so far in their country – soft copies if available or national/other websites that the Democracy & Elections Project team can access results from;

Election Reports (both Electoral Commission , domestic and international observer reports or other reports) of all elections held so far in their country – soft copies if available or national/other websites that the Democracy & Elections Project team can access reports from;

Cont…

Constitutions and Electoral Acts plus all amendments and all regulations to date – hard copies if available or national/other websites that the Democracy & Elections Project team can access these documents from;

Party posters, policy platforms, etc. Full package of your country’s Voter

Education curriculum, materials, brochures, posters, video, DVD, Liftouts, etc.

Lessons Learnt

1. Because of the lack of permanent and independent Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) and electoral staff throughout the Pacific region, more concerted efforts must be made to retrieve information/data and materials and to store them on the Governance Portal using both formal and informal networks.

2. There is a need for EMBs around the Pacific to update their own electoral data/information and be more information access-friendly. The need for FOI legislation in this regard cannot be over- emphasized as this will greatly enhance information/data gathering efforts by the Project team.

3. Gaining the trust and confidence of EMB officials and government officials in the Pacific region through networking, training and advocacy will help to strengthen the Project teams’ sustainable efforts at retrieving information/data and materials and at building the electoral database for the region.

Proposals for future

1. Use networks, both formal and informal, to sustain the Project team’s efforts at information gathering in 2009 by visiting EMBs, writing to the heads of EMBs again, following up and soliciting the assistance of EMB staff that have attended this year’s BRIDGE trainings/workshops and also those that will attend the two BRIDGE foundation modules scheduled for 2009, and through other means.

2. Allocate more time and resources to focus on and consolidate this activity in 2009. This year, the BRIDGE training workshops utilized a considerable amount of the Project team’s time, resources and energy, resulting in the neglect of other activities. Being understaffed also was a major contributing factor to the inability of the Project team in meeting all the expected outputs/outcomes.

Conclusion The period July to December 2008 has been

busy for the Democracy and Elections Project team in terms of planning, administering and delivering regional BRIDGE professional training, undertaking Civic Education Needs Assessment (CENA), Election Monitoring and also attempting to collect and compile electoral data for dissemination via website.

Despite many challenges, the team was able to accomplish the completion of most of the target activities.