OneWorld's election monitoring initiative in action again
Image by OneWorld
Local Election Monitor at a Polling Station in Bissau on Election Day, 18 May 2014
The vote was intended to seal the country’s return to civilian rule, after the military’s seizure of power mid-way through the 2012 election.
This time the contest was between two candidates: former finance minister José Mário Vaz of the powerful PAIGC party, who won 41 per cent in the first round, and independent candidate Nuno Nabiam, who won 25 per cent.
Vaz won 62% of the vote on 18 May, on a turnout of 78%, down from the 90% the first round.
In the first round on 13 April, 335 specially trained “citizen monitors” sent 1,842 SMS reports from every region of the country, even from the remote island district of Bolama-Bijagos.
Their reports covered the pre-electoral campaign rallies of all the candidates, public education campaigns run by the election commission and civil society, and media coverage of the campaigns. They also sent reports on specific incidents of violence, corruption, suspicions of fraud, and voting disturbances.
This fulfilled one of the project’s targets: to spot problems as soon as they occurred, instead of leaving claims and counter-claims to be disputed long after the election is over.
The monitors’ coded SMS messages were sent to a "Situation Room" set up by OneWorld in the capital, Bissau.
As part of the operation, a data verification team of about 15 people from member organisations of the Group of Civil Society Organisations for the Elections (GOSCE) – which the OneWorld platform is supporting – were on standby. Their job was to phone individual citizen monitors to manually verify any messages that arrived with irregularities or to request more information about any important incidents that were reported.
Thanks to the programme’s real-time feedback – part of a monitoring programme described by the then described by then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as "perhaps the most sophisticated ever deployed in Africa or anywhere else” – meant that by 10pm on election night the Group of Civil Society Organisations for the Elections (GOSCE) was able to publish a statement saying the election process had been generally peaceful and had been underpinned by the civic participation of the Guinean people (see:http://www.bissauvote.com/imprensa).
The GOSCE statement noted that:
- the election campaign -- particularly rallies by political parties and presidential candidates – was conducted peacefully and without significant incidents. In general, the speeches of the candidates and parties were peaceful rather than inflammatory and focused on political agendas
- the private and community radio stations that had been monitored tended to be neutral in their coverage
- civic education activities conducted by civil society organisation and the National Electoral Commission helped improve voters' understanding of the electoral process
- on election day, 93 per cent of monitors reported that polling stations opened on time and the voting process began relatively well
- thirteen incidents relating to lack of voting materials, including ballot papers and indelible ink, were reported by monitors and sent directly to the National Electoral Commission to enable it to sort out the problems
- another 84 incidents were reported by monitors, many relating to inconsistencies between voter lists at polling stations and voter registration information
- monitors reported a relatively high voter turnout.
During the voting, the "Situation Room" aroused considerable interest and visitors included Ambassador Joaquin Gonzalez-Ducay, head of the European Union delegation to Guinea Bissau; Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos-Horta, the head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau; US Embassy First Secretary James Garry.
Representatives of international election monitoring missions from the European Union, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, East Timor and New Zealand; and the International Organisation of Francophone Countries also paid a visit to see the system in action.
Mohamed Dansoko, democracy, human rights, and governance team leader for the US Agency for International Development in Senegal, commended OneWorld “for promoting the use of technology to strengthen public participation and empower civic groups to effectively carry out their vital mandate.
“I am especially impressed and pleased to see that the wonderful experience in Senegal is being spread around the sub-region,” he added. “USAID is proud to have played an important role in initiating and implementing this effort in Senegal and hopes to be part of many more productive efforts in the future."
Fafali Kudawo, director of the Voice of Peace media training organisation in Guinea Bissau, commented: "I have been very impressed by the seriousness of this monitoring operation. It's a positive tool to support civil society's participation in the democratic process."
The GOSCE monitors have again been reporting from their communities since 14 May, keeping an eye on campaign rallies, media, and civic education activities and the general atmosphere on election day as well as any specific incidents.
OneWorld's Jeffrey Allen says "local election monitoring organisations have some real advantages over international monitors. They can be everywhere; they know the terrain; they speak the language; they can recognise when something is not right because they know their local area, the local people, and the local dialect."
+ OneWorld's election technology was previously used in Senegal (www.senevote2012.com), Sierra Leone (www.salonevote.com) and Mali (www.malivote.com).
+ Media monitors are associated with Voz de Paz (Voice of Peace), one of the six GOSCE member organisations participating in monitoring. Other monitors are associated with Tiniguena, Alternag, National Youth Council, Guinean Human Rights League, and ASV-CPLP.
+ The Guinea Bissau monitoring project is implemented by OneWorld and GOSCE with funding from the European Union.
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