User:Elisabetta La Gala/The electoral cycle

The electoral cycle

The electoral cycle is a visual tool aiming to present the electoral process as a sequence of different phases interconnected one with the other. It helps the election management bodies (EMBs) as well as donors understand the complexity of the process and identify the interconnection among the different blocks. Its conceptualization stems from a new holistic approach for the electoral assistance lying on the assumption that elections are not a one-off event but rather a complex and lengthy process and that the assessment of the elections should be a comprehensive exercise taking into consideration all its different phases and the variety of stakeholders participating into it.

History

Following the fall of the Berlin wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, several Countries underwent a transition phase and faced for the first time in years the challenges posed among the others by the reforms of their electoral systems.

Donor countries and international organizations, in primis OSCE and EU, provided assistance to those countries by observing and supporting the organization of elections.

Over time, electoral assistance has become a key area of assistance in different geographic areas of the world and main donors made extraordinary efforts to help countries prepare credible and transparent elections.

Indeed, elections are considered as a key component of the democratic development of a state as through the vote citizens participate in political life. The art. 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 provides for the right of all citizens to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

On the basis of the lessons learned from the first decade of electoral assistance, European Commission (EC) and International IDEA electoral specialists conceptualized in 2000 the electoral cycle approach. It helps visualize the sequential and interdependent steps, components and phases that make up electoral processes and provide guidelines for the organizations and agencies that intend to deliver assistance to a country at any stage of the electoral process.

The development and implementation of the Electoral Cycle Approach represents a critical shift in international electoral assistance from short term, event-based support to longer-term comprehensive assistance with increased focus on sustainability, through the development of the capacities of the electoral stakeholders (Electoral Management bodies, media, civil society organizations etc.) as well as increasing sustainability of the process in the long term.

The electoral cycle was used for the development of training for the EC and UNDP staff in 2005 and was adopted in the electoral assistance project funded by the European Commission to the benefit of Sierra Leone and Nigeria in 2005.

The electoral cycle approach was officially adopted jointly by the European Commission and the United Nations Development Programme in 2006.

The importance of the approach was acknowledged in the bi-annual report of the UN Secretary General to the General Assembly in August 2007:

"It is often unrealistic, especially in post-conflict environments, to expect that effective and independent electoral institutions and inclusive electoral processes can be built on the basis of assistance to one election. A cyclical approach to electoral assistance will help ensure sustainability. The success of this approach also depends, to some extent, on donors maintaining interest in electoral assistance through local elections and between elections, recognizing of course that the primary responsibility for funding and supporting electoral institutions and processes lies with the Member State itself[1]"

Rationale

The electoral cycle is a visual tool aiming to help electoral management bodies, donors and assistance providers understand the cyclical nature of elections and the relative challenges.

According to the electoral cycle, elections are a complex and continuous process composed of 8 different blocks spanning the entire electoral period: the pre-election period, the election-day and post election period.

The proper organization and implementation of each of the eight block is key for conducting genuine and credible elections and hence contribute to democratization, rule of law and respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms at large.

The assessment of each phase provides meaningful insights and indications on the electoral climate in general in terms of public confidence in the process, credibility of institutions, but also provides specific inputs on technical gaps and weaknesses that can be addressed and improved for the future elections.

The electoral cycle has no fixed starting or ending points, which is also true for the three periods and for the phases within the cycle. Albeit in general one cycle ends when another beings, some post-electoral period activities may still be ongoing when activities related to the subsequent electoral cycle commence.

The various phases of the electoral process see the involvement of different stakeholders interacting one with the other. Hence, the conceptualization of the electoral cycle lies on a strong interdependence/interconnection among the various phases and the stakeholders meaning that the collapse of one phase impact the others and the overall process at large. Similarly, a poor performance of one of the electoral stakeholders can affect the performance of the others as well as the electoral process at large. For example, the lack of skills from the Election Management body staff in communicating and informing the public can result in a poor voter education and hence in the lack of knowledge from the voters.

[1] Bi-annual report of the UN Secretary General to the General Assembly, August 2007