The Commonwealth Electoral Network aims to ensure elections around the 53-nation Commonwealth community are fair, credible and transparent.
The Commonwealth Electoral Network aims to ensure elections around the 53-nation Commonwealth community are fair, credible and transparent, by helping electoral management bodies to share, and implement, best practices.
Launched in 2010, the network supports electoral management bodies by providing a forum for collaboration, support and knowledge-sharing, to strengthen their independence and promote greater professionalisation.
Election officials in Commonwealth countries can use the network to improve their understanding of successful voter education initiatives, the use of technology in elections, voter registration and campaign financing, among other technical issues.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma was instrumental in conceptualising the Commonwealth Electoral Network (CEN) and has spoken of his desire that it establishes a “gold standard” in elections management.
“Our aim is to ensure that Commonwealth electoral management bodies are a force for good and uphold the highest electoral standards,” says Dr Josephine Ojiambo, Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General. “It is with this in mind that we established the CEN.”
“The quality of a country’s election depends to a large extent on its electoral management body. When the institution is independent, capable and transparent, it can play a crucial role in ensuring the credibility of an election as well as the confidence of the public and political parties."
According to Mr Ahmed Issack Hassan, who heads the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya, officials working at one electoral management body often find that they are dealing with similar scenarios and challenges to peers in other countries.
“The network is of enormous benefit,” says Mr Hassan, who currently serves as Chair of the CEN’s steering committee, “because it encourages peer-to-peer learning, promotes the development of good practice guides and, in some cases, helps to identify areas where targeted technical assistance is necessary.”
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The Commonwealth Electoral Network’s Steering Committee, chaired by Mr Ahmed Issack Hassan from Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, met at Marlborough House on 17 April 2015.
One election official who believes that the CEN has a valuable role to play in disseminating international best practice is Ms Amina Zakari, from the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria. For the country’s March 2015 presidential, national and state elections, permanent voter identification cards and card reader devices were introduced to cut the risk of voter fraud.
“We learned from Ghana, which already uses a card reader, and Kenya, which has also used technology to verify their registered voters,” says Ms Zakari, who believes that other countries may wish to learn from Nigeria’s “example”. “With more interactions among CEN members, countries will be able to further improve their elections,” she says.
As part of the CEN, a Commonwealth Junior Election Professionals (JEP) Initiative is training nearly a hundred young electoral professionals from over 40 different countries. Regional workshops have been held in Australia, Jamaica and India, and an Africa workshop is planned for later in 2015.
In the long-run, this direct assistance stands to benefit not only junior officials, but also other permanent employees, as well as temporary election officials brought in to work at polling stations and other facilities ahead of polling day, as best practices are shared among all electoral commission employees.
Mr Marc Mayrand, Chief Electoral Officer of Elections Canada, another CEN steering committee member and former Chair, says the initiative is contributing to the greater professionalisation of election officials. “Electoral management bodies are now recognised institutions but also professional institutions, and that comes with certain expectations,” he says. “The Commonwealth is helping to support the professionalisation through the JEP programme.”
As well as a Biennial Conference, the CEN has established working groups on vote counting and tabulation processes, voter education and campaign finance, among other issues. These working groups have already proved instrumental in helping countries to import good practices, says Mr Mohamed Hussun, Commissioner for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of Kenya.
By way of example, Mr Hussun points to his home country. It was thanks to a CEN workshop on campaign finance, which the Commissioner attended, that he and his colleagues were able to persuade Kenyan parliamentarians that a draft law on campaign finance, which had previously failed to garner support, in fact met international standards.
“By learning from the experiences of other jurisdictions, we were able to talk with authority about campaign finance and convince colleagues and those entrusted and authorised to make the law,” Mr Hussun says. “We could give reassurance that the law as drafted would not in any way restrict the democratic process and actually went a long way to creating a level playing field by removing the influence of excessive use of funds and illegal funds, ensuring disclosure and setting limits on money spent during a campaign."
Kenya’s landmark Election Campaign Financing Act was subsequently passed in 2013. “For me, that was a good takeaway from the Commonwealth Electoral Network,” says Mr Hussun. It is emblematic of the support provided by the CEN, he says, and proof that the network is delivering on its aim to help countries share experiences across borders.
“You have 53 countries who are spread the world over who have different contexts and legal frameworks, but which are able to create common standards, observe and give confidence to one other,” he says. “The CEN provides that opportunity.”
