2006 Yemeni election observers [Archives:2006/988/Reportage]
Dina Al-Ameena
Yemen's Sept. 20, 2006 presidential and local council elections were conducted under the watchful eyes of numerous local and international observers. According to Yemen's Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER), as many as 45,000 NGO and political party members were accredited to observe the elections, including the National Democratic Institute (NDI), IFES, Sisters Arabic Forum for Human Rights, the Yemen Election Monitoring Team (EMT) and many others.
EU EOM
One of the most prominent observation groups is the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM), which contracted with the Yemeni government and the SCER for the first time to send a team to observe the elections – from the pre-campaign period until after the final results are tallied and announced.
Headed by Chief Observer, Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and its vice chairwoman, the mission involves three sub-groups: a 12-member Core Team, 40 Long-Term Observers (LTOs) and 40 Short-Term Observers (STOs). An additional 30 members from the diplomatic corps of EU member states were involved on election day, making a grand total of 120 EU observers.
The EU observers belong to 22 countries from the 25 EU member states, with only Cyprus, Luxembourg and Sweden not contributing members. Each observer has substantial election observation experience, with a minimum of three observation missions per person. They hail from various professional backgrounds, including lawyers, judges, professors, MPs, etc.
The 12 Core Team experts also have their own specializations, including law, elections and electoral systems, democracy, voter education/advocacy, political science, constitutional law, media, research/academia, security, the Middle East, peacekeeping, women's and human rights and international relations.
According to EU EOM press officer Fida Nasrallah, all EU observers are compensated by the European Commission, with funds coming from the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights.
As for timing, the Core Team arrived first, more than a month before the election, followed shortly thereafter by the LTOs in order to observe election preparations and finally, the STOs arrived the week before the election to increase the mission's observation capacities during voting, counting and tallying results.
Methodology
Such staged deployment of observers permits in-depth analysis and thorough assessment of the entire election process: its legislative framework, administrative preparations (including ballot printing and distribution), campaigning and related human rights issues, as well as voting, counting and aggregating results.
“EU EOM methodology doesn't rely on simply observing election day,” Nasrallah explains, “EU EOMs use a long-term methodology that aims to observe the entire electoral cycle, beginning with voter registration and ending with the declared election results.”
According to the SCER, Yemen has 5,620 polling centers and 27,000 polling stations and subcommittees, as men and women have separate polling stations and subcommittees.
“[The EU's] proven methodology doesn't require the presence of observers in all polling stations, as we're able to observe the pattern of voting and fraud, if there is one,” Nasrallah explains, “Other observation missions use a methodology that only relies on what happens on election day and as such, their presence and coverage needs to be extensive.
“Our methodology is vastly different – one in which election day is one day among many, although a special day, nevertheless. In the context of EU EOMs, the mission to Yemen is a very large one,” she concludes.
The observation mission has a mandate only to collect and verify information concerning the election process, analyze its observations and publish its findings following the elections. The EU EOM's purpose worldwide is to support the development of a nation's democratic institutions and procedures and assist its partner countries in their objective to conduct elections at a high standard.
In addition to Yemen, EU EOMs have observed Middle East regional elections in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, the West Bank and Gaza.
Observers
EU LTOs were sent to every Yemeni governorate in pairs of one male and one female observer. Nasrallah explains the reason for this: “The EU is committed to equal opportunity and attempts whenever it can to deploy an equal number of men and women. In Yemen, male observers won't be allowed to enter female polling stations, even if they're allowed. This is in order to be true to the gender methodology.”
This exclusion also applies to any opposite gender Arabic translators, which accompany the observers as necessary. “Translators may enter polling stations, but no men in female polling stations – even if they're translators,” Nasrallah clarifies. Security personnel also accompany some LTOs, but only where needed in certain Yemeni regions and not into polling stations.
Once STOs arrived in Yemen, they were paired with LTO teams already in place throughout Yemen's governorates. Core team members also go into the field to conduct their own research, request certain data be checked on the field, answer questions and provide support to field observers and receive daily reports from them.
Observer teams, as well as Chief Observer Baroness Nicholson, have met with various candidates and officials, both from the opposition and the ruling party. “We meet with everyone from the entire political spectrum, including President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and we've been welcomed by all,” Nasrallah notes.
All EU observers must abide by an election observers code of conduct, which includes maintaining strict impartiality in conducting their duties, conducting such duties in an unobtrusive and non-disruptive manner, refraining from making personal or premature comments about their observations to media or other interested persons, keeping records of all polling stations, etc., visited and basing all conclusions on well-documented, factual and verifiable evidence.
While in the field, observers clearly distinguish between complaints, rumors, accusations and verified facts, as only facts witnessed or observed by the EU's own international observers will be used in the mission's report. Nasrallah emphasizes, “We do not operate on rumors. If the allegations are proven, then we take them into account in our evaluation.”
Further, “We do not cooperate or coordinate with any other observation mission, whether domestic or foreign,” she adds.
A few days after the elections, the Chief Observer issues a public preliminary statement based on LTO and STO observations of the entire election process. Approximately one month after the elections' final results, the mission issues a more comprehensive report, which may include recommendations for improvements to the overall electoral process and democratic environment.
Election day
Observer teams in every Yemeni governorate visit polling stations to observe procedures regarding opening, voting, counting and aggregating results. According to Nasrallah, observers fill out lengthy and detailed reporting sheets with numerous questions regarding respect for polling center opening procedures, ballot counting and ballot box handling procedures.
Factors considered during the actual voting process include whether there was any intimidation or disruption/disorder outside the polling center, whether any campaigning activities occurred in the vicinity of the polling center, whether there were any breaches of secrecy involving the vote, the presence of any underage voters, if any voters were using pre-marked ballots, if any registered voter was excluded or prevented from voting and if women voters were unveiling themselves for identification.
The EU has adopted various criteria to assess elections, including the degree of impartiality shown by the election administration, the degree of freedom for political parties and candidates to assemble and express their views, fairness of access to state resources made available for the elections, the degree of media access – particularly state media – for political parties and candidates, any other issue concerning the elections' democratic nature (campaign violence, rule of law, legislative framework), voting conduct and vote counting.
Media monitoring
The EU EOM's final report also will include an overall analysis of Yemeni media conduct during the election process obtained by monitoring state radio and television stations and gathering data from daily and weekly newspapers. For this purpose, the EOM in Yemen is relying upon Italian media expert, Giuseppe Milazzo, and his team of trained media monitors.
Such media monitoring focuses on factors like coverage of candidates, political subjects and groups, quality of coverage, any bias in coverage, campaign issues, civic and voter education materials produced for voters and compliance with laws regulating media election coverage, including granting free broadcast time and honoring the campaign silence period on election day.
As the EU mission's media expert, Milazzo and his team were to meet government officials, journalists, editors and executives of both public and private media outlets, as well as national and international NGOs working in this field. He also sought to gather information to assess any complaints made by parties about quantity or quality of media coverage and how competent authorities dealt with such complaints.
National Democratic Institute
NDI is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization working to strengthen and expand democracy worldwide, including in Yemen. The group calls on a global network of volunteer experts, many of whom are veterans of democratic struggles in their own countries and able to share valuable perspectives, to provide practical assistance to civic and political leaders to advance democratic values, practices and institutions. It seeks to build political and civic organization, safeguard elections and promote citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.
It does this via two main programs: political party capacity building (conflict resolution, group facilitation, election campaign planning, professional conduct, strategic planning, computer and skills training) and women candidate trainings (strategic planning, campaign tactics and techniques, campaign resources and materials, time management, communication, skills training, training trainers). For the past two years, NDI has conducted numerous workshops for Yemeni men and women in these two areas.
During Yemen's most recent elections, NDI partnered with several organizations and called in national Yemeni observers to assist in the election monitoring process. According to its web site, “International cooperation is key to promoting democracy effectively and efficiently. It also conveys a deeper message to new and emerging democracies that while autocracies inherently are isolated and fearful of the outside world, democracies can count on international allies and an active support system.”
In safeguarding elections, political parties and governments have asked NDI to provide technical assistance to parties and civic groups to conduct voter education campaigns and organize election monitoring programs. “NDI is a world leader in election monitoring, having organized international delegations to monitor elections in dozens of countries and helping to ensure that polling results reflect the will of the people,” its web site states.
IFES
Another U.S.-based international nonprofit organization dedicated to building democratic societies, IFES, is providing technical advice to the SCER during these elections.
According to a Sept. 22 statement on the organization's web site, IFES Chief of Party Paul Harris said the SCER made some key strides in this election, but there's still much more to do to. He cited SCER's ability to influence state-run media to give opposition candidates more coverage as a positive step.
The SCER estimated that 58 percent – or more than 5 million of Yemen's 9 million registered voters – turned out to vote in presidential, governorate and local elections.
According to a Sept. 19 web site statement, IFES advised the SCER as it prepared to hold the three elections simultaneously for the first time. “One of the key challenges was that Yemen has both single-member and multi-member districts within the same constituencies. In other words, some voters will choose one representative for their local councils while voters in a neighboring district will choose up to three representatives.”
As a result, the SCER had to print ballots for more than 5,600 different races within about 10 days and then deliver them to an estimated 27,000 polling stations throughout Yemen's rugged countryside. Additionally, voter education efforts had to be tailored to individual constituencies, instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.
However, Harris said the “complex and difficult exercise” appeared to have been completed in time.
In addition to its advisory work with the SCER, IFES encouraged Yemen to provide more polling sites accessible to voters with disabilities. As a result, the SCER tested tactile ballots allowing blind or visually impaired voters to vote independently and secretly for the first time. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) printed the ballots.
Harris stated that the elections' low number of female candidates was disappointing. Yemen's political parties had agreed to nominate women for at least 15 percent of candidate slots, but in reality, the figure was less than 1 percent. There were no female presidential candidates and only 149 women ran for local councils, as compared to more than 20,000 male candidates.
“I think the parties will be coming under scrutiny from the international community on how they allowed that to happen,” he added.
Election day violence was also an issue, Harris noted, although the level of violence appeared to be less than during the 2003 parliamentary elections, with the SCER reporting at least three individuals killed in election-related violence, including at least one opposition local council candidate.
Sisters Arab Forum
The Sisters Arab Forum will hold a workshop this Wednesday afternoon to hear from various human rights groups and organizations, who will report their election monitoring their findings regarding any electoral violations involving women and women candidates.
Sources:
www.eueom-ye.org
www.ndi-yemen.org
www.ifes.org
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