GNDEM Exchange Session 1 - Impartiality

7/31/2019 GNDEM Exchange Session 1 - Impartiality

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LADE

The Lebanese Association forDemocratic Elections (LADE)

Founded inLebanon in 1996

Civil, independentand nonprofitorganizationspecialized in

promoting free

elections andenhanceddemocracy

monitoring allforms of elections

and advocating

for betterelectoral systems


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ANDE

LADE is a founding member of theArab Network for Democracy of

Elections (ANDE)

ANDE currently works to achieve

electoral reform and observeelections across the Arab world


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Maintaining impartiality

The following recommendations are based on experiences from more than12 observation missions inside and outside Lebanon since 1996

A complex challenge crucial for the credibility and sustainability of electionobservation groups, highly dependent on context

Multi-layered topic that extends beyond election day (E-day); not onlyinvolves how a group presents itself in general, but extends to the details ofwho is monitoring, how information is verified, who takes decisions on whatis published, how information is reported and presented, etc.


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Lebanese Context

Supportive Challenging


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Layers and levels

Post Election Reporting and Complaints ProcessStatement review process Forums to be released Evidence to be provided

and howFollow-up activities

selection process

E day

Deployment of observers and control

mechanisms

Information sharing and internal

communication External communication

Election Observers

How they are recruited How they are trainedWho the partners in the monitoring

coalition are

Members BoardStaff and projects other than

observation


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Actual face of the NGO especially in the regions, thuscredibility starts with them

-members

Recruited through various means (project, friendreferrals, local partners)

Prospective members have to have their application form signed bytwo current members

Volunteers and members unit arranges to have a discussion sessionwith prospective members

New and prospective members participate in less sensitive, localobservation missions (university elections for example), in preparationfor national election observation


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Membership: examples and lessons

learned

Systematic influx of members from one region, one political view

Influx of members just before elections, or after a training for acertain political party (2007 By elections in Metn Lebanon. 20new membership forms in one week)

Trust can only be built with time and experience. You can neverdo enough to check before recruitment, you can always domore to control and absorb cases of impartiality internally


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executive team

Six elected each year for two year term

Bylaws stipulate that board members must not have aposition in a political party

Attempts are made at being inclusive (regional, religion,gender, age, etc.)

Represent the NGO and take major decisions

Thoroughly checks press releases and external communication

Board is legally responsible for what is published

Impartiality major criteria for recruitment Most contact with political parties and media happens

through projects

Executive team and projects


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Board and staff: examples and

lessons learned , as the board members areusually well known in the civil society sphere and get the most exposure(board members and media interviews\technical vs. political profile)

Ensure that the background of each is carefully assessed, their profilesare politically balanced, and individuals are active and responsive at alltimes

Working on electoral reform and being available to advise political\

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Election observers: recruitment

Everyone knows everyoneLebanon is asmall country

credibility has been tested through

previous missions Each observer is personally

interviewed by them

Localcoordinators

for regions areprimary

decision makers


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Election observers: Training

Giving a chance to the coordinator to know him\her moreThree mandatory workshops for each observer

Defining observation and its importance Differentiating between having a political opinion and allowing it to

influence conduct as an observer Defining non-partisanship

Signing the code of conduct Explaining electoral law

1st workshop

Technical training on monitoring methodology and tools, including formsand any technology employed (SMS, smart-phone applications, etc.)

2nd and 3rd workshops


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Election Observers: examples of

lessons learned

The more space you give to observers to have apolitical opinion, the more they stick to not showingit publicly

The training workshops need to be interactive toprospective observers

We have experienced cases when we had toimportant illustrate this in trainings to emphasizethe message that this is a real possibility


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E-day: General

Most challenging day as exposure is not controlled or restrictedto trusted staff and members

:Putting enough checks and balances in place in deployment and

data management strategy

Not deploying observers in their own district area/village but in a neighboringone

Challenge is to put enough control yet not too much

Losing important information

Not being timely

Becoming too bureaucratic


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E-day: Deployment

Observe in teams of three (mobile observers) always have

Support teams present for sensitive decisions and oversight -

Major violations reported to central data monitors

Forms ensure\guarantee coherence of data and give littlespace for personal opinions (proofs..)


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E-day:

Communicating violations

Internal communication

Strong data management strategy:

Violations reported to a team of data managers, who verify the info beforepassing it to a secondary filter (experienced observers) before publishing

External communication

Only specified members can speak to media

Beware when to answer accusations

Make sure media is fed centrally and given directions andcontacts on who to contact in regions


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E-Day: examples of lessons learned

Anticipate hot zones and put more teams and manpower there (Zahleh 2009 parliamentary electionscase and how this helped us)

Decisions on E-day are the most important andinfluential on impartiality. Responding toSaida 2010 municipalelections and Akkar municipal elections 2010

Credibility with EMB (Ministry of Interior in ourcase) established when they noticed our priority to


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Post Election Reporting and

Complaints Process

Time taken

Who is doing it ? Who takes final decision on what to put ?

Statement review process

Timing

content

tone

Forums to be released

One of major contributors to impartiality is quality of evidence and proofs submitted

Evidence to be provided and how

Regional volunteers

Follow-up activities selection process


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Other important practices for

maintaining impartiality

Adopting afunding policy

that maintainsequal distancefrom all sides

of the politicalspectrum and

their foreignallies

The boardmaintaininggood relations

with all sides ofthe political

spectrum

Addressing

rapidly anyproblem thatmay hurt the

image of LADEor bias

perception


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Challenges

Open data sharing and social media haveraised new challenges

Live tweets and pictures uploading, lackof filtering

threatening your impartiality


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Your experiences:

Context youobserve in

Challenges facingimpartiality thatyour organizationhas

Specific examples

on any of the

Kindlyshare with

us the

Documents

GNDEM Exchange Session 1 - Impartiality