gndem exchange session 1 - impartiality
TRANSCRIPT
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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