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Publication
Report/Paper
Targeted Assistance to the Voter Registration Process: IFES Final Activity Report May 2000-June 2002
This report is a narrative of IFES Albania program activities under the CEPPS I funding mechanism from May 2000- June 2002. During the period covered in this report IFES was involved with the CEC in preparation for the local government elections of October 2000; the revision of the national voter registry; preparing for and administering the election to the National Assembly in June 2001; the 'clean-up' of the national election including an assessment of the process and identification of future activities of the CEC; and conduct of surveys of local election officials and the judiciary. This document reports on all of these items.
July 31, 2002
Publication
Report/Paper
From Civil War to Civil Society: Lessons from the IFES Democratic Development Programs in Deeply Divided Societies
Introduction Citizen participation in the political system is one of the cornerstones of modern democratic governments. Although participation through voting, lobbying, referenda, interest group formation and a variety of other forms is often taken for granted in the established democracies of the West, within transitioning nations lacking experience with democracy such concepts can be so unfamiliar as to turn people away from involvement with the political system. Thus, in order to help a democracy survive after an initial transition, the individuals who have recently become “democratic citizens” must be made familiar with the rules, institutions, operations and points of access of their newly crafted political system. Such familiarization takes time and significant effort. To cite Giuseppe Di Palma: “. . . just as it takes time to craft an agreement, so it takes time and habituation before the agreement is secure and any danger of failure, stemming from the transition or its antecedents, is removed.”1 Therefore, international organizations interested in promoting the survival of regimes after democratic transition must be prepared to commit themselves to helping individuals of a state become active citizens in the political process. Within many transitioning nations, however, there is another obstacle complicating the promotion of civic activity in a democratic system. A history of ethnic and religious tension, often resulting in periods of violence, introduces a number of potential problems for the development of civil society and political cooperation among citizens. The wars of secession in the former Yugoslavia, the ethnic genocide in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the civil conflicts in Indonesia—just to name a few—are all very recent demonstrations of how deep and explosive differences among ethnic and religious groups can be. Each of these is an example of how the difficulties of democratic transition, an uncertain and volatile process itself, are exacerbated by histories of deep ethno-religious divisions and hostility. Each of these is also an example of the difficult tasks facing international organizations attempting to promote democracy with aid and technical assistance in deeply divided societies. If democracy depends on cooperation, agreement on the “rules of the game,” and a unified vision of the state, how can these notions become a reality in countries where recent violence and genocide has been branded onto the minds of their people with all-too-real force? What follows is an examination of one of the methodologies for inculcating democracy in deeply divided societies. With an initial focus on Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the program for civil society promotion introduced by the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), a number of observations can be drawn that will help further what is known about democratic promotion in states with deep segmental cleavages among their populations. These observations are then extended to a comparative analysis of other civil society promotion programs that are being conducted by IFES in Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burundi in order to show how the lessons learned in Bosnia can be applied to other deeply divided states in transition. Ultimately, this will help to introduce and analyze a type of approach that international organizations can use to help countries that are separated by ethnic hatred realize a unified vision of democratic tolerance and cooperation. The first chapter is dedicated to operationalizing the theoretical concepts that define ethnically divided societies undergoing democratic transition. More specifically, this section deals with operationalizing amorphous terms such as “civil society” and “deep division” so as to avoid analytical confusion that these words might produce. This is followed by a second section that reviews the methods employed in this study in order to further crystallize the process of analysis and how conclusions were reached. Chapter three is comprised of an in-depth look at civil society promotion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which serves as a case study for highlighting the civic education methodology used by IFES from 1996 to 2002. By highlighting this approach, this case study will not only show how organizations might approach civil society promotion in ethnically divided societies, but will also serve as a basis for extracting lessons that can be applied to other areas facing similar circumstances. Chapter four is an application of the lessons learned from Bosnia-Herzegovina to other countries in which IFES is currently working to promote democracy through civil society in deeply divided contexts. The three cases in this study are Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. They serve not only as examples of ethnic and religious division, but also as a representative sample of the many other parts of the world that are undergoing democratic transitions from authoritarianism. By filtering the lessons learned in Bosnia-Herzegovina through these cases, formal conclusions about civil society promotion in deeply divided states can be drawn. I conclude with a discussion about the conclusions reached in the preceding chapters. More specifically, this section highlights the findings of this evaluation of democracy promotion and civil society development programs, and emphasizes the 10 crucial role that context plays in determining the methods that an international organization might employ in an effort to assist and promote democracy.
July 31, 2002
Publication
Electoral Assessment
Palestinian Elections: A Pre-Election Assessment Mission Report (2002)
The International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), as well as a representative of the Government of Norway, jointly organized a pre-election assessment mission to the West Bank and Gaza between July 14 and July 24, 2002. The purpose of the mission was fourfold: 1) to evaluate the pre-electoral environment and identify the requirements of the Palestinian Authority, political parties, civil society and the international community to establish a meaningful electoral process; 2) to identify the elements of the process that are most vulnerable and the obstacles that must be overcome; 3) to assess the state of technical preparations for elections; and 4) to recommend electoral reform measures that could enhance the transparency and credibility of the process.
July 31, 2002
Election Material
Election and Political Party Law
Macedonian Election Laws
Macedonian Election Laws
Publication
Report/Paper
Electoral System Proposed in Draft Election Law: Multi-Member District Proportional Representation and Open List Voting
This report is an analysis of newly proposed election laws in Indonesia. The document details various voting methods, the selection of the number of seats in parliament and voter districts.
June 30, 2002
Publication
Report/Paper
United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara: Approaching the Eleventh Hour
This paper explores the strategies, operational considerations and political options available to the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to complete its mandate. These options are further elaborated into a plan of action to end the current stalemate over issues of voter eligibility associated with the status referendum. MINURSO’s principal implementing partners are the government of Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia el Hamra y Rio de Oro, or Frente POLISARIO. The threat of violence emanating from both camps has been an undercurrent to the implementation of the Settlement Agreement. This threat has taken the form of human rights violations and intimidation of Saharawis, as the inhabitants of Western Sahara are known, and extends back to the 1960’s. According to Human Rights Watch, “In Morocco/Western Sahara, both civil society and state institutions are engaged in a lively debate over how to reckon with the legacy of gross human rights abuses committed during the reign of King Hassan II, notably during efforts to suppress leftist dissidents and advocates of self-determination for the disputed territory of Western Sahara between the 1960s and 1980s. These abuses included hundreds of cases of ‘disappearances’ that remain unresolved today, prolonged arbitrary detention, torture and long-term imprisonment on political charges.” The Frente POLISARIO has kept the pressure on the conflict by its longstanding threat of resuming military action if progress is not made on the political front. After voter registration was temporarily suspended in May 1996, the Frente POLISARIO stated, “If POLISARIO decides to recommence its military operations, then it is entirely justified in doing so. POLISARIO has shown in recent years that it wants to choose the path of peace, but in the absence of a political solution it is now left with no choice but to fight for the rights of the Saharawi people.” Such instability is not in the interest of the region or the international community. A vacuum in governance can create a haven for transnational crime and terror networks, which have become a focus of international concern since September 11. An eruption of violence on the western edge of the Mahgreb States threatens further destabilization in Algeria and creates another external concern for Egypt, already managing internal security problems while attempting to exert influence on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Therefore it would seem that the time is ripe for the international community to generate the political will to hold the referendum and reach a final settlement. However, for more than a decade, the referendum has been stalled on the key issue of voter identification. Each side has a distinct view of how the electorate should be determined. This impasse illustrates a general principle: the importance of establishing personal identity for the conduct of democratic processes. It is the first of four issues related to personal identity in electoral processes: 1) identity establishment; 2) identity confirmation; 3) identity theft; and 4) identity cleansing. The second phenomenon, identity confirmation, is by far the most common and is carried out every time a voter presents his or her voter ID card at a polling station. Identity theft, also known as voter impersonation, occurs when an identity is stolen for the purpose of casting a ballot. Identity cleansing is the systematic and widespread confiscation or destruction of identity documents to disenfranchise and displace significant populations of people. The impasse in Western Sahara centers on the first category: identity establishment or the recording of an officially recognized identity with public authorities. This task is complicated in Western Sahara because of large refugee and displaced populations and differing definitions of who are the legal residents of the territory. By solving the technical and political issues associated with the identification and registration of eligible voters, a resurgence of violence can be avoided and a political process established to peacefully broker the conflicts between the two parties.
June 30, 2002
Publication
Survey
2001 Nationwide Survey of Zone and Local Government Election Officials
The aim of this report is to present key findings from the first nationwide survey of local election officials, held in November and December 2001 in Albania. During this period, both local government and zone election officials were interviewed, with the objective of seeking their views on a range of topics relating to election administration and their experiences during the parliamentary elections in 2001. This report has been produced for the Central Election Commission, following an extensive analysis of the results and the extraction of key findings by the International Foundation for Election Systems. The survey findings highlight various improvements as identified by the election officials and potential focus areas for the Central Election Commission, local election commissions and political parties, leading up to the local government elections in 2003. This report contains three sections. Part one contains a brief overview of the election officials survey project, the structure of the questionnaire and the classification system used for grouping responses in this report. Part two of this report highlights key findings based on data collated and analyzed by IFES. For easy reference, findings are presented both as percentages and totals, in one of seven topic areas. In part 3 of this report, IFES offers comments and observations in a number of areas in the context of future requirements for the improvements of the democratic electoral process in Albania.
June 30, 2002
Election Material
Election and Political Party Law
Political Party Law
Law of the Republic of Indonesia number ... of 2002 concerning political parties.
Election Material
Ballot
Bolivia General Election Ballot 2002
Ballot for the 2002 Presidential and General election in Bolivia. Main candidates in the election were Gonzalo Sanchez de LOZADA, Evo MORALES, Manfred Reyes VILLA, Jaime Paz ZAMORA, Felipe QUISPE, Ronald MACLEAN, and Alberto COSTA Obregon.
Publication
Report/Paper
Workshop on Civic Education for Elections in Rwanda (2002)
With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Consortium for Elections and Political Processes Strengthening (CEPPS), the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) supported the organization of a civic education on election conference in Rwanda. The Civic Education Conference, organized jointly by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and IFES in Kigali from May 15 to 18, reached the NEC objectives of ensuring the participation of governmental institutions as well as civil society organizations in the drafting of a national civic education campaign plan.
May 31, 2002