Marginalized electorates – Internally displaced Persons -Essay – Master’s in Electoral Policy and Administration

Individual essay (scenario-based)
/ Assessed

Objective

The scenario-based
activity is immersive and you act as the main character. Therefore, you are to
perform the tasks assigned to you as if they were actual challenges you face in
your work place.

The objective of the
electoral scenario exercise is allow students to gain working familiarity
with the major policy decisions required for the development of electoral
processes involving displaced electorates; and to assemble these decisions into
a plausible Action Plan that describes enfranchisement issues and options for
these voters.

Description

The cases that will be the subjects of the Action Plan exercise will be
drawn from current and upcoming elections involving displaced electorates.
Participants will be provided with a background paper that will illustrate the
relevant details for their case. Participants are encouraged to supplement the
details of the Action Plans with current research.

The Action Plan typically comprises the following steps:

Step One – Profile
the Displaced Electorate

In this step, the policy- makers and practitioners will identify the
size, characteristics, and locations of the displaced electorate. By
identifying the displaced electorate as accurately as possible, the scope and
complexity of the registration and elections operations can be determined.

Step Two: Assemble
the Legal Framework

The electoral framework includes the constitutional, legislative,
regulatory, and jurisprudential and management rules that govern the electoral
process. Electoral frameworks address: the electoral system; district
delimitation and apportionment; voter registration; legal status and codes of
conduct for candidates and political parties; balloting procedures; counting
and results reporting; and resolution and adjudication of disputes. The outcome
of this step is an agreement of the components of the relevant legal framework
as it pertains to displaced enfranchisement. The framework should, at a
minimum, address the following questions:

·       
The electoral system to be employed and
corresponding issues of delimitation and apportionment;

·       
The nature of citizenship and residency requirements
to be employed;

·       
The documentation requirements for registration and
how to address issues of post or destroyed documentation;

·       
Whether to allow absentee balloting operations for
the internally displaced;

·       
Modalities for external registration and balloting
operations;

·       
Political party codes of conduct for campaigning in
displaced communities;

·       
Election Security;

·       
Voter Information;

·       
Balloting and counting procedures.

Step Three: Inventory
of Obstacles, Responses, and Timelines

Implementation options should be identified in this step. This step
recommends that the program administrator make note of possible problems and
solutions that they might encounter during the implementation of the Action
Plan.

·     
Examples of internal program obstacles include
identifying the voters, providing timely and accurate voter education and
providing electoral security.

·     
Examples of external program obstacles include
negotiations and agreements with host countries, international logistics, and
extraordinary electoral monitoring programs.

·     
In general timelines for displaced voting programs
differ from those of traditional voting programs. Timelines must accommodate
extra time for internal and external ballot retrievals, movement, and
tabulation.

Step Four: Perform a
Cost Projection

Enfranchising displaced electorates will have budgetary implications.
Election administrators, national authorities and donors may be working with a
variety of different national and international funding sources. The EMB will
need to manage the electoral financing accounts and develop line item
projections and corresponding resource availability.

Step Five: Identify
Support Organizations

There are a surprisingly wide variety of possible support organizations.
Possible partners might include Bilateral donors, UN system & multilateral
organizations, other government agencies – such as welfare ministries or the
police, international technical assistance NGOs such as IFES, humanitarian
organizations (especially those working directly with the displaced), and
domestic civil society organizations. The unique configuration will vary. EMBs
are entrusted with the operational challenges of coordinating a variety of
assistance organizations in order to provide a comprehensive electoral program.

Step Six: Establish a
Consensus

Political will is critical, but it can’t be legislated! After the
principal resource and participant stakeholders are identified, the EMB can
take the lead in drafting an operational concept. It should look to other
partners to help mobilize popular support to enfranchise a displaced
electorate.

Examples of
country-specific Action Plans

Examples of country-specific Action Plans conducted by the International
Organization for Migration under the Participatory Elections Project are
available at: http://www.geneseo.edu/~iompress/?pg=press_pep_outputs.html

One or more of these examples should be assigned reading prior to
commencing the Action Plan.