IFES Conducts Nationwide Poll Worker Training Program In

FEBRUARY 2000

IFES Conducts Nationwide Poll Worker Training Europe ACEEEO ...... p. 2 Program in Kyrgyzstan Albania ...... p. 2 Belarus ...... p. 3 On 20 February, elections were held in Kyrgyzstan Bosnia and Herzegovina ...... p. 3 for the Legislative Assembly (including a party list Moldova ...... p. 5 ballot), the Assembly of People’s Representatives, Russian Federation ...... p. 7 and for oblast and rayon level councils in areas out- Ukraine ...... p. 10 side Bishkek. IFES activities over the last several Yugoslavia (Kosovo) ...... p. 11 months focused on these elections, and activities intensified during the month of February. Poll Caucasus/Central Asia worker training for members of Precinct Election Armenia ...... p. 12 Commissions was completed during the week prior Azerbaijan ...... p. 13 to polling day, during which time polling day proce- Georgia ...... p. 14 dures were also emphasized. In coordination with Kazakhstan ...... p. 14 the NGO Polisa, the distribution of the IFES Train- Kyrgyzstan ...... p. 16 ing Manual, the Violations Handbook, and the poll- Tajikistan ...... p. 17 ing station layout and procedure poster (both in Uzbekistan ...... p. 18 Russian and Kyrgyz) was completed by Election Day. Bishkek area polling stations. IFES Program Assis- tant Maggie McDonough also participated as an of- On polling day, 2 teams of observers visited 31 ficial OSCE observer in the Naryn oblast.

IFES Undertakes Voter Education Campaign for Elections In preparation for the elections, IFES completed a voter education campaign that concentrated on voter participation, voter rights, and the elimination of election law violations such as family voting. Both television and radio public service announcements (PSAs) were broadcast with cooperation from the NGO TV Crossroads. In addition, a print media campaign was conducted, including both leaflets and posters that were sponsored by IFES and their NGO partner Coalition.

Pollworkers at the Cholpon polling station in Naryn oblast, Kyr- gyzstan, register voters for parliamentary and local elections held on (Continued on p. 16) February 20.

Page 1 be found at their web site: www.aceeeo.com. EUROPE An exhibition of election technology, equipment, ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL AND and services will play an integral role in the conference proceedings. Worldwide participation in the EASTERN EUROPEAN ELECTION OFFICIALS exhibition is expected from companies involved in (ACEEEO) elections as well as those interested in entering the

field. For more information on the exhibition or to ACEEEO Steps Up Election Monitoring Activities request a registration form, please contact IFES’ Independent of IFES, the ACEEEO is taking steps ACEEEO Vendor Coordinator Matt Curtis by e- to undertake two major election-monitoring activi- mail at [email protected]. ties in Southeastern Europe. Promoting the professionalization of election management in that region as a means towards stabilization is a stated goal of ALBANIA the Association. Scheduled for April, the ACEEEO Secretariat in Budapest has initiated coordination IFES Helps Government of Albania Complete with the U.S. Embassy in Hungary to send 60 poll- Draft Election Law ing-site supervisors to Bosnia and Herzegovina During February, IFES, with drafters from the Gov- (BiH) to participate in local elections. Since 1996, ernment of Albania, completed a draft election law the Association has supported more than 400 ob- for consideration by the government as a document servers and supervisors in BiH alone. that would serve as the basis for discussion with political parties. This draft was further changed Building on this experience, the ACEEEO has sub- through an internal government review prior to re- mitted a proposal to the OSCE outlining the forma- lease to the Organization for Security and Coopera- tion of a consortium of intergovernmental and non- tion in Europe (OSCE) for distribution to political governmental organizations to observe the elections parties scheduled for 2 March. in Kosovo this fall. The model proposed by the ACEEEO would ensure the independence of ob- The finalization of a new election law for Albania servers, maximum coverage on the ground, and a continues to be a major source of dispute between credible reporting structure. the political parties. The major dispute centers on the composition of the Central Election Commis- ACEEEO Executive Board Will Meet in March sion (CEC), specifically that it does not follow the Representatives of election management bodies past model of equal representation among all par- from Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, ties. While the composition of the CEC is in com- Ukraine will meet in Warsaw at the ACEEEO’s Ex- pliance with the Constitution, opposition parties al- ecutive Board meeting in March. The Board will lege that the process has disproportionately favored address the formation of a Southeastern European the ruling coalition. No further progress on the de- sub-grouping of election officials, the financial sus- velopment of the CEC is expected until the election tainability of the Association, and preparations for law is finalized. the upcoming conference in Warsaw. Parties Agree to Technical Committee to Finalize IFES Prepares for ACEEEO Annual Conference Law Preparations continue for the upcoming Annual The U.S. Ambassador to Albania joined with Am- Conference of the ACEEEO, “Information Technol- bassadors of the Albanian Presence of the OSCE, ogy in Elections,” scheduled to take place from 14- European Union and the Council of Europe in en- 16 June 2000 at the Marriott Hotel in Warsaw, Po- couraging the formalization of an all-party working land. Election officials, information technology group to review a draft electoral law and approve a specialists, and other experts from over 25 countries final draft, acceptable to all parties, for submission are expected to attend the conference. The agenda to Parliament by the end of March 2000. An initial for the event will seek to address both practical and meeting of the parties was held on 21 February, at legal considerations tied to identifying and imple- which time all parties agreed to form a “technical menting new information technology into the elec- committee” composed of 5 entities from the govern- toral process. The event will be co-hosted by the ing coalition, 5 from the opposition coalition and 5 ACEEEO, the National Election Commission of from the international community. The committee Poland and IFES. Information on the ACEEEO can will be chaired by the OSCE. IFES is one of the 5

Page 2 international participants along with the OSCE, BELARUS ODIHR, the Council of Europe, and the European Union. The first meeting of the all-party committee IFES/Ukraine Project Director Visits Belarus is scheduled for 8 March. IFES/Ukraine Project Director David Earl visited Minsk in February and met with the American Em- Progress Made on Electoral Assistance Project bassy, Belarusian government officials, the Na- The management board of the Electoral Assistance tional Democratic Institute, and the International Project held its first meeting on 4 February. The Republican Institute to determine future areas of board is chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of development in Belarus. Albania and includes the Minister of Local Govern- ment; the Minister of Economic Development; Am- Mr. Earl gave the Belarusian officials an overview bassador Ahrens of the OSCE; Jan Walberg, Resi- of IFES’ activities in Ukraine as well as a summary dent Representative of the United Nations Develop- of IFES’ projects throughout the world. No guaran- ment Program (UNDP); Howard Sumka, USAID tees of assistance were offered during this visit, and Mission Director; and Dickson Bailey (non-voting), the prospect of developing programs in Belarus to IFES/Albania Project Director. Following the 4 promote democratic standards of transparency and February meeting, the Technical Advisory Commit- openness seems distant when considering the cur- tee (TAC), currently co-chaired by the Deputy Di- rent state of affairs. rector of UNDP and the Deputy Minister of Local Government has been meeting two to three times a While presidential elections are scheduled for 2000 week to finalize technical details and time lines. and the flaws in Belarus’ current Election Law seem to suggest many opportunities for IFES in- In February, IFES Senior Registration and Identifi- volvement, the current government’s control of Bel- cation Specialist Enrique Saltos returned to Albania arusian civil society lessens the likelihood of de- to work on planning for the commencement of the mocratic development in the foreseeable future. enumeration process. Mr. Saltos will be working Furthermore, opposition parties are currently uncer- closely with the management of the project on its tain as to whether they will participate in the elec- implementation. Additional staff will travel to Al- tion. bania as required to assist with other aspects of the registration project. The Norwegian government 1999 Public Opinion Survey Translated into has also provided a civil registry database specialist Russian to assist with the project, and further resources are The 1999 Survey of Public Opinion in Belarus has anticipated. been translated into Russian, and the Russian translation will soon be available for distribution. If you Impact Summary would like an English-language copy of the survey, The creation of a democratic election law, voter please direct requests to the IFES/Washington F. registration, and the CEC’s activities have a major Clifton White Resource Center. In addition, the impact on the democratic development of Albania survey will soon be available on the IFES web site and are closely tied to the requirements of the work (www.ifes.org). of the Friends of Albania and the implementation of the Stability Pact. Working closely with officials in the Government of Albania and in close collabora- BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (BIH) tion with the U.S. Embassy and OSCE, IFES has been instrumental in ensuring the completion of the IFES Voter Education Seminars Reach 10,267 draft law for the all-party committee and the initial BiH Citizens implementation of the Electoral Assistance Project. IFES voter education seminars are now in full Timely completion of these projects is essential to swing as the 8 April elections draw near. IFES’ the successful conduct of local elections, which will unique, grass roots approach works to ensure that likely be held this fall. As available time continues BiH citizens from large cities to the most remote to shrink, it is important that these projects proceed villages understand the electoral process and their and outstanding issues are resolved in time for elec- rights and responsibilities in that process. Since toral preparations to begin. shifting to a voter education mode, IFES trainers have conducted 758 sessions reaching 10,267 citizens.

Page 3 IFES civic education trainers find that there is no plaining how to vote with the open-list ballot devel- substitute for personal visits since many places are oped by the OSCE in addition to copies of the can- without electricity and often villages that appear to didate lists. IFES brochures explain the general be abandoned are overlooked. For example, OHR process and address issues faced by displaced per- and the OSCE regarded a village in Bosanski Pet- sons. IFES has also designed a brochure specifi- rovac as still abandoned, but IFES trainers discov- cally targeted at youth explaining their role in the ered 250 people in residence who were registered to democratic process and encouraging them to exer- vote elsewhere. Recently, they were promised that cise their rights. In addition, IFES will also be a mobile registration van would arrive. The IFES working with local media. Eight radio stations have team advised them about registering, which they agreed to provide free airtime for Grupa Obuka now plan to do. Unfortunately, they will not be able Gradanas (GOGs), which IFES plans to direct to- to do so before the 8 April election. Another exam- ward young voters, returnees, and a general, typical ple is the Serb village of Kazanci, just over the session. Livno boundary in Bosansko Grahovo. When one drives by this village it appears that it is still aban- IFES Cooperates with Municipal Governments doned, with roofs blown off and some walls torn In February, the IFES team continued to cooperate away. However, off the main road connecting with cantonal and municipal government officials as Drvar to Livno, ten families are living in their a part of its civic education program. IFES repre- homes that are in various stages of repair and being sentatives met with government officials to explain rebuilt. Because there is no electricity here, at night the project and its activities. Ninety nine percent of no sign of life exists and obviously no media broad- the time, government officials declare support of casts can be received. It is expected that by May these efforts and indicate their support in writing. about 100 Serb families will return to this village. This month, the Governor of the Western Herzego- vina Canton, Jozo Maric, issued a press statement to IFES trainers are also finding that there is much this effect. His support was key to ensuring support confusion over the new open ballot system, which is from mayors of this canton; Mr. Maric has the being introduced in this election. In the Una-Sana power to remove mayors, which is unlike other can- Canton it appears that very few individuals or insti- tons where the municipal councils have that author- tutions, including political parties, understand the ity. Since his statement, IFES has received letters open-list ballot. Information about municipality from all four mayors in Western Herzegovina. lists is also overlooked to the disadvantage of dis- While IFES activity in a municipality is not contin- placed persons such as in the case of Sanski Most, gent on support from the mayor, it does enhance the where 84 displaced persons from other municipali- activity. ties currently reside. Information about who is on the various lists is not well known, as the local party IFES trainers also regularly attend municipal coun- presidents alone decide who gets on the list even to cil sessions and periodically produce reports on the exclusion of the party executive councils. Ten- these sessions, which are then distributed at GOGs. sion is present as indicated by the four bombs re- Municipal reports have been produced for the cently detonated at the office of the new Demokrat- Zenica and Doboj areas and are to come out soon ska Narodna Zajednica political party in Buzim. In for the Livno area. The trainers of the recently es- the Republika Srpska, political parties are doing tablished Bihac and Bijeljina offices have begun their best to convince voters that they should simply attending municipal council sessions and plan to vote for the party and not select individual candi- incorporate this material into their GOGs. dates. The parties believe that by advising people to mark only the party’s name, the first candidates on IFES Enhances Privatization Education Efforts the lists will be assured of being elected. This is IFES has been conducting education seminars on true, of course, if voters do not select individual privatization issues since June 1999. This month, candidates who would move up on the list if they 12 students who had participated in the IFES Civic get more votes than the straight party ballot. Education Summer Internship participated in a 5- part series television program sponsored by the As part of its efforts to ensure that BiH citizens re- USAID Privatization Program. It began airing on ceive correct and complete information, IFES has 24 February on BiH TV. The taping lasted two developed its own printed materials and will also be hours, and the footage of the students was inter- distributing approximately 100,000 brochures ex- spersed with footage displaying other citizen groups

Page 4 such as pensioners and women. Despite the fact Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI). The IFES that it was exam time, the IFES trainers were able to Field Representative familiarized the attendees with find seven men and five women who were enthusi- the AEOBiH and their planned activities over the astic about participating in the program. coming months.

In addition, IFES Civic Education Project Director IFES/Sarajevo staff met with OHR’s Legal Office Ed Morgan and members of his team have been co- and conducted a briefing on the status of the elec- operating with the USAID privatization staff in Sa- toral law. The BiH Parliament again rejected the rajevo on a survey form which is designed to assess draft Election Law at its session on 15 February. awareness of the privatization program. The result was 11 for, 12 against and 7 abstained. The vote was very similar to when it was rejected IFES/Sarajevo Coordinates with Association of on 18 January – a split between the Federation and Election Officials Serbs from the Republic of Serbia, with the Serbs’ The IFES/Sarajevo office, established in January, representatives voting in favor of the draft law. It is has been staffed with three local employees, the In- clear that the Serb delegates can accept the draft as stitutional Development Advisor, Jeppe Olsen, who a base for a future discussion on amendments arrived in Sarajevo after a series of meetings with (knowing that they, if necessary, can block the proc- the Association of Central and Eastern European ess at a later stage, according to some political ob- Election Officials (ACEEEO), and Field Represen- servers). Apparently, there will be no third attempt tative Beverly Hagerdon Thakur. to try to reintroduce the draft. It is up to the Parlia- ment to act. Upon receiving an invitation from the OSCE for 10 members of the Association of Election Officials MOLDOVA (AEOBiH) to observe the Train the Trainer seminar in Fojnica, 6 members were identified and sent to IFES, CEC Conduct Political Party Conference Fojnica on very short notice. The purpose of this In February, IFES, in conjunction with the Central event was to train the core and international trainers Election Commission (CEC), hosted a seminar enti- on how to conduct training for polling station and tled “Strategic Partnership: CEC, Political Parties, counting committees for the Municipal Elections. and Socio-political Organizations.” During the AEOBiH members were there to learn about train- seminar, speakers covered the impact of the choice ing techniques, which will help them repeat a simi- of electoral systems on the development of political lar procedure for the general elections. parties, campaign finance, media coverage of the election campaign, and the prevention of election Four AEOBiH members, representing all four violations. More than 60 participants, including branches and four standing committees, attended the representatives from 29 political parties, the mass Association of Election Administrators (AEA) an- media, public institutions, and universities attended nual conference in England from 27 February – 1 the seminar. March 2000. Areas of discussion encompassed educational, logistical, informational, and international/regional activities.

An introductory meeting was held at USAID in order to review the program of activities for the AEO- BiH in 2000. One of the issues highlighted involved the AEOBiH’s responsibility for training and professional development of the municipal election commission members.

A meeting was requested by USAID to discuss inter-agency coordination of voter information activities. Participants included the OSCE Elections De- partment, the OSCE Democratization Department, CEC Secretary Anatol Puica discussed the formation of electoral the OSCE Press and Information Office, IFES/ bodies at a conference hosted by the Central Election Commis- Sarajevo, IFES Civic Education, USAID and the sion and IFES for political parties.

Page 5 The conference was the first in a series of seminars these provisions violate private property rights. to be conducted by the CEC for political parties to During the roundtable it was noted that many de- increase their understanding of electoral issues. In mocratic countries regulate private media coverage the upcoming months, IFES and the CEC intend to of election campaigns in cases such as when sta- conduct similar regional seminars for representa- tions agree to allocate airtime to candidates. These tives of political parties, poll workers, local public regulations do not violate private property laws administration officials, and judges. The next semi- since the stations have voluntarily agreed to involve nar is scheduled for April in Balti County, with nine themselves in the electoral process. Upon their de- more to follow in April, May, and June 2000. cision to become involved, they are required to abide by the law and grant airtime to all contestants IFES and the CEC also continued to meet regularly according to the same conditions and prices. These to discuss several proposed modifications to the conclusions were also presented during the seminar Electoral Code. hosted by IFES/Moldova and the CEC.

Focus Turns to Electoral Code The third roundtable considered alternative electoral This month IFES and the Juridic Direction of Par- systems for Moldova. Parliamentary factions op- liament hosted three roundtable discussions on the pose adopting a multi-mandate system based on sec- proposed modifications to the Electoral Code. Draft ond level administrative-territorial units since the laws have focused on amending the Code in the fol- current proportional system based on one national lowing manner: constituency is beneficial for them. Parliamentary parties also support increasing the representation · Establishing a procedure for local elections threshold to six, or even eight, percent while main- consistent with modifications to the Law taining the current threshold of four percent for in- on the Administrative-Territorial Organiza- dependent candidates, thereby making it more diffi- tion of the Country; cult for smaller parties to gain representation in Par- · Granting military personnel the right to liament. vote in local elections; · Increasing the threshold of representation Electoral School Engages Youth in Political to eight percent for political parties and Process decreasing it to two percent for independ- During February, IFES/Moldova continued to work ent candidates; with the local NGO Stars of Europe to educate · Prohibiting the use of foreign mass media youth representatives of political parties about the in campaigning and disqualifying candi- fundamentals of the electoral process. One lecture dates found guilty of such violations; and at the weekly meeting of the Electoral School fo- · Introducing a proportional electoral sys- cused on procedures for initiating a referendum, tem. legalizing initiative groups, and collecting signatures. The topic was especially timely given that After considering the above revisions to the Elec- the leaders of the Republica movement recently toral Code and discussing the provisions with IFES, submitted petitions containing 500,000 signatures in the Juridic Direction indicated their disapproval of support of a constitutional referendum to President amendments increasing the threshold of representa- Lucinschi. tion and allowing military personnel to vote in local elections. Another session of the Electoral School was dedi- cated to local referenda: who can initiate them and Upon the request of Vladimir Ciobanu, Secretary of how to verify the legality of the results. Much dis- Parliament’s Permanent Bureau, a roundtable on cussion focused around the President’s appeal to the regulating private mass media coverage of elections Constitutional Court regarding Article 150 of the was conducted. The draft law amending pertinent Electoral Code, which specifies who can declare a provisions of the Electoral Code was passed in the referendum. The Constitutional Court has ruled that first reading, but several questions remain to be re- while the President and citizens have the right to solved during the second reading. Several deputies initiate a referendum, only Parliament can declare have criticized the provisions that regulate the activ- one. During the session, it was suggested that the ity of private radio and television stations in their Code should be revised to grant citizens and the coverage of the election campaign claiming that President a means to override the decision of Parlia-

Page 6 ment should it decide not to declare a referendum tion for the December 2000 presidential elections. initiated by the President or citizens. Other lectures covered electoral technologies and the impact of the By establishing a means of communication between selection of electoral system on the political proc- political parties and the CEC, the conference hosted ess. for political parties by IFES and the CEC helped familiarize participants with election legislation and IFES Continues to Cooperate with Other NGOs procedures. Currently, several political parties do Victoria Antoniu, Public Administration Program not completely understand the Electoral Code, par- Coordinator, SOROS/Moldova, requested IFES’ ticularly provisions regulating media coverage and expertise regarding local public administration. SO- campaign finance. Through this conference, as ROS intends to organize a series of training semi- well as the several regional conferences planned for nars for public administration bodies at which IFES the upcoming months, IFES intends to ensure that will moderate and distribute elections-related litera- the various players in the electoral process are in- ture. formed about their roles and responsibilities during the election campaign. Consequently, the potential IFES continued to support the NGO Public Service for confusion and the occurrence of election viola- Certification Commission in February. The Com- tions that result from a lack of understanding of the mission’s activities were focused on the draft law proper procedures is decreased. on non-commercial organizations. Finally, IFES’ ongoing participation in the Electoral Civic Voice Radio Programs and Newsletters Keep School continues to engage young people in the po- Moldovan Citizens Informed litical process by informing them of pertinent legal Throughout February, IFES and the League for the and political issues. The weekly sessions prepare Defense of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) the participants to take an active role during the up- continued production of the radio program Civic coming election cycle and in civil society in gen- Voice, which is broadcast weekly on ANTENNA C eral. Chisinau Municipality Radio Station. Radio guests reviewed the local elections held in Taraclia County RUSSIAN FEDERATION on 23 January and the importance of domestic observers for the electoral process in Moldova. Other CEC Chairman Veshniakov Comments on Cam- issues considered included the role of international paign Violation Complaints organizations in Moldova and how to improve the relationship between public bodies and citizens. The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation (CEC) has received a number of com- IFES/Moldova also interviewed Constantin Tanase, plaints from individuals and organizations claiming Editor-in-Chief of the Flux newspaper, for the 28th that Gennady Zyuganov and Vladimir Putin have edition of the Civic Voice newsletter. Mr. Tanase violated campaign rules, CEC Chairman Alexander focused on the difference between political party- Veshniakov reported at a recent news conference. affiliated press and independent press. He also dis- He refused, however, to clarify what is the essence cussed the relationship between the reader, the of such violations, other than to say that they relate press, and public officials, stating that all three com- not so much to the candidates themselves as to the ponents are important. However, he noted that the ways the mass media cover their activities. press sometimes unintentionally manipulates the readers due to a lack of access to information. The CEC “cannot but notice some troubling mo- ments that can be observed in the election cam- Impact Summary paign” said Veshniakov. He reminded reporters Through its cooperation with the CEC and the Ju- that pre-election campaigning officially begins on ridic Direction of Parliament, IFES is helping 25 February in the printed mass media, and on 3 amend the Electoral Code to clarify ambiguities and March in the electronic mass media. Veshniakov strengthen the electoral process in Moldova. The added that issues referred to in the complaints roundtables provide a forum for discussion, analy- would be reviewed at future CEC meetings. sis, and comparison so that participants are more aware of the impact of the proposed amendments CEC Rules Out Proposed Referendum and better able to improve the process in prepara- The CEC declined the possibility of holding a refer-

Page 7 endum proposed by the Union of the Right-Wing 10. Yevgeny Savostianov Forces (SPS). SPS had suggested holding a referen- 11. Umar Dzhabrailov dum to enhance guarantees of private property, re- duce the immunity of Duma deputies, abolish the Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democ- use of unpaid military draftees in local conflicts, ratic Party of Russia (LDPR), was later added to the and introduce changes to the Constitution to limit ballot after winning a Supreme Court ruling against the right of the President to dismiss the government. the CEC. Zhirinovsky had earlier been refused registration for having failed to include certain family The CEC reported that it had identified more than assets in his financial statement, required at the time 1.8 million invalid signatures in support of holding of registration. The CEC has appealed the court the referendum out of the 3.6 million submitted. ruling. Out of the “flawed” signatures, 938,000 lacked supporters’ full dates of birth as required by the federal law “On Referenda of the Russian Federation.” Primakov Declines Run for Presidency

The referendum initiative group is considering the Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeniy Prima- possibility of referring the matter to the Constitu- kov, who is also known for having paired up with tional Court to clarify the procedure of applying the Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov last year to lead the law’s provision on supporters’ full dates of birth on Fatherland–All Russia (OVR) political movement, petitions. CEC Chairman Alexander Veshniakov has made “a final decision” not to participate in the has stated, however, that despite the CEC’s rejec- presidential election. Primakov made the announce- tion of the referendum on technical grounds, “the ment on 4 February on the RTR “Vesti” news pro- initiative has found considerable support among the gram. voters and does deserve serious attention.” Primakov stated that this decision was “not an easy Vladimir Putin, the acting President of Russia, has one to make.” He added that he had lost interest in been reported to support the idea of holding the ref- the presidential post, “having realized how far away erendum. He made a declaration to that end at a Russians were from a civil society, from a genuine press conference held in Irkutsk: “I support the ini- democracy,” and that “the situation is very unlikely tiative of SPS and I agree that Russian citizens to radically change within the course of several should be given an opportunity to express their months.” opinions on such important issues for the country.” The OVR leader stated that his decision not to participate in the election “does not mean that I will Registration of Presidential Candidates Complete stop giving all my efforts, knowledge, and experi- The CEC of the Russian Federation has completed ence to serve Russia and Russians - at any post.” the registration of candidates running for the office of President of the Russian Federation. The last to Over 800 International Observers Set to Monitor register were Yuri Skuratov, the former Prosecutor Presidential Elections in Russia General; Yevgeniy Savostyanov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Moscow Fund of Presi- At a press conference held on February 14, CEC dential Programs; and Umar Dzhabrailov, co-owner Chairman Alexander Veshniakov informed the of the Radisson-Slavyanskaya Hotel, bringing the press that he had invited OSCE officials to observe initial total to eleven. They are: the 26 March presidential election. In addition to the OSCE contingent—by far the largest—at least 1. Gennady Zyuganov 65 organizations from over 50 countries will send 2. Alexey Podberyozkin observer missions. Veshniakov added that the CEC 3. Vladimir Putin would prepare a special report for parliamentarians 4. Aman Tuleyev based on the results of the two election campaigns 5. Konstantin Titov in which election legislation will be analyzed and 6. Stanislav Govorukhin measures for improvement will be discussed. 7. Grigory Yavlinsky Veshniakov said he would recommend that a special 8. Ella Pamfilova parliamentary hearing be held in the fall of this year 9. Yuri Skuratov to discuss the two campaigns, the lessons and re-

Page 8 sults of the elections. At the same time, he con- cluded that, “We should not detail electoral proce- Although the CEC initially allowed the candidates dures any further” with additional legislation. to select their debate opponents based on their personal preferences, preliminary consultations demon- Campaigning Begins in Print Media strated that this might cause some problems, there- fore it was decided that a drawing should be held. A new stage in the presidential race has begun—as The CEC has finally ruled that candidates may ex- of 25 February candidates running for the top state change their pre-scheduled debate opponents by office may start their pre-election campaigning ac- mutual agreement of the parties. Should any of the tivities in print mass media. In accordance with the candidates decide not to participate in a televised federal law “On Election of the President of the debate his/her free airtime is automatically can- Russian Federation”, pre-election campaigning in celled. This provision has affected acting-President the print media is conducted exclusively at the ex- Vladimir Putin, who has refused to participate in pense of candidates’ election funds (unlike advertis- debates. ing in broadcast media, in which candidates are al- lotted a limited amount of free time). Fees charged The law allows the presidential candidates to con- by newspapers and magazines for the placement of duct their pre-election campaigning activities in the candidate advertisements are established by the me- electronic mass media within the period of 3-24 dia, but must be equal for all candidates and uni- March. The free airtime has been apportioned in form throughout the election campaign. morning, afternoon, and evening blocks on week- days only. CEC Chairman Alexander Veshniakov has repeat- edly stated that any violation of campaigning rules Out of the 11 candidates only two – Ella Pamfilova on the part of the candidates may lead to serious and Yuri Skuratov – attended the drawing in person. consequences, including cancellation of registration. The latter expressed his firm intention to take part in At the same time, several media outlets have al- televised political debates with other candidates, ready committed a “false start” – the Sovetskaya preferably with Putin and Zyuganov. Rossiya and Pravda newspapers published in mid- February contained campaign materials in support of Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist CEC Approves Election Ballots Party (KPRF). The CEC has issued campaign vio- On 28 February, the CEC approved the text on the lation statements to the editors-in-chief of these ballots that will be used in the presidential election. newspapers. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, which in early The names of all 11 candidates for the top state of- February published an article in support of Vladimir fice are listed in alphabetical order. Opposite each Putin, has received a warning from the Ministry of candidate’s name is his or her date of birth, place of Press. residence, current occupation, and information about the initiative group that nominated the candi- CEC Apportions Free Airtime to Presidential Can- date. The last line on the ballot states: “Against all didates candidates.”

On 28 February, the CEC approved the apportion- Each ballot must be signed by at least two members ment of free airtime on state-owned TV and radio of the precinct election commission and carry an channels among the presidential candidates. The official stamp. Approximately 111 million ballots schedule of free airtime is based on the results of a are to be printed by 8 March, although the number 24 February lottery that was held with participation of ballots to be used in Chechnya has not yet been of the candidates’ official representatives. determined due to a lack of precise data on the number of eligible voters currently in the territory. No The CEC decided that each candidate will be later than 10 March, Subject Election Commissions granted 80 minutes of free airtime on each of the must transfer the printed ballots to Territorial Elec- TV channels owned by the state: ORT, RTR, and tion Commissions, who in turn will pass them over Television Center. In addition to that, it has been to Precinct Commissions. decided that candidates must dedicate at least 50% of their free airtime to televised political debating. CEC Promises to Count Votes Overnight

Page 9 At a press conference recently held at the Russian scale. Ultimately, it is IFES’ hope that the program “Novosti” news agency, Alexander Veshniakov, will be approved by the Ukrainian Ministry of Edu- Chairman of the Central Election Commission of cation as an obligatory course of study in the secon- the Russian Federation, announced that voting re- dary school curriculum. To evaluate the program, sults for half of the election precincts will be known IFES is distributing a questionnaire to teachers who by 0200-0300 hours. By 0900 hours the next morn- have used the civic education modules. ing the CEC intends to have “almost the entire pic- ture”. Chairman Veshniakov believes that a com- In February, IFES began to focus on the second paratively small number of candidates may expedite stage of the program, student government elections. the process of the vote count. He mentioned that Such opportunities will allow students to express 94,500 election commissions would be involved in their concerns about and hopes for the future of the preparation and conduct of the presidential elec- their schools by electing representatives to student tions. The formation of all election commissions is governments. The student governments will be au- to be completed in early March. thorized by the students to resolve school issues and express student concerns to school boards. After Impact Summary the student government elections have been com- In February, IFES/Russia continued its longstanding pleted, IFES will conduct a students’ conference programs in technical election assistance, NGO de- where all participants will have the opportunity to velopment, and journalist training. IFES focused on share their opinions about the program. preparing for the 26 March presidential election by offering analysis and advice to the CEC and by conducting training for various international observer groups. During the month IFES also sought to increase the independence and sustainability of the Institute for Election Systems Development (IESD) by providing them with financial and management training and discussing possibilities for a new sub- grant. More information on IESD and their programs is available at www.democracy.ru.

UKRAINE IFES/Ukraine Project Director David Earl and Professor Sergei IFES Implements Student Government Elections Ryabov of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy meet with teachers to in Civic Education Program evaluate the implementation of a pilot civic education program. In February, IFES/Ukraine participated in a roundtable discussion on civic education at the Canadian IFES Participates in Mass Media and Elections Embassy. IFES/Ukraine presented an overview of Conference its civic education program, which is geared toward On 2 February, IFES/Ukraine attended a roundtable making young Ukrainians aware of the importance discussion entitled “Media and Elections,” which of elections as a way for citizens to express their was sponsored jointly by the International Renais- will to the government. In a developing yet fragile sance Foundation and the Society Center. Members democracy such as Ukraine, it is crucial that stu- of the mass media, the Central Election Commis- dents understand the value of voting and political sion, senior government officials, and representa- participation. tives from the Institute of Political and Sociological Sciences attended the roundtable along with repre- To this end, IFES has developed a pilot civic educa- sentatives from non-governmental organizations. tion program that is currently being run in three The discussion addressed such topics as the role, Kyiv secondary schools. The implementation of this behavior, and influence of the mass media in the program will allow Ukrainian teachers to use teach- Ukrainian election process; a geographical analysis ing methods such as group discussion and student of the 1999 Ukrainian presidential elections; and the role-playing to enhance students’ understanding of media’s rights to freedom of choice and freedom of the importance of civil society; it will also allow speech. IFES to evaluate strengths and deficiencies of the program, should it be implemented on a larger The geographical analysis of the elections gave

Page 10 IFES and other organizations the opportunity to skills in order to become active electoral partici- analyze the role of voters in Southern and Western pants and future leaders of Ukraine. In one of Ukraine in solidifying President Kuchma’s reelec- IFES’ pilot schools, students organized their own tion victory. Discussion participants also noted that elections for student government as a result of their the President’s support is weakest in Central enthusiasm for the civic education program. Feed- Ukraine. back from a seminar for participating teachers, and an upcoming conference for students who have par- Most Ukrainians do not currently possess a strong ticipated in the program, will help IFES determine idea of what role the mass media should play, and future areas of improvement and further develop- discussion participants debated whether the Ukrain- ment of the project. ian media should try to pursue the American model of privatized mass media and anti-monopoly legis- In addition, IFES’ recent participation in a mass me- lation, or the European model of relatively strong dia and elections conference allowed members of civil control over the media. Since Ukraine has yet the Ukrainian mass media to understand how the to define the role of the media, mass media organi- NGO community views the influence of the media zations are more susceptible to abuse and manipula- in Ukrainian civil society. By encouraging the me- tion by politicians and oligarchs; this, in turn, im- dia to develop independently of the government or pedes the democratization process and hinders the of political parties, IFES is helping to promote the development of free speech in Ukraine. establishment of a reasonably objective, independent press in Ukraine. This will result in a higher IFES Continues Work with Parliament, Prepares quality and greater quantity of information being for Information Fair distributed to Ukrainian citizens, which will allow IFES/Ukraine participated in Parliamentary Assis- them to make more educated and informed choices tance Coordination Group meetings throughout the in future local or general elections. month of February. The meetings allow IFES to discuss recent programming with members of the YUGOSLAVIA (KOSOVO) Verkhovna Rada and be informed of Rada political activities. In addition, IFES is preparing for an an- IFES Deploys Election and Registration Experts nual Ukraine “Information Fair” with the Verk- IFES deployed a team of eight election and registra- hovna Rada. Informational materials on IFES action experts led by Jeff Fischer, IFES Senior Advi- tivities will be printed and distributed for approxi- sor and Director of Registration and Elections in mately 500 fair participants. Kosovo. IFES experts are assisting the UN and OSCE to implement the operational plan for regis- IFES Continues to Work Closely with CEC tration and elections developed by IFES and the While IFES/Ukraine has had no direct involvement OSCE. In particular, they will be working closely in the referendum process, IFES’ close working re- with the Joint Registration Task Force (JRT), set up lationship with the CEC has allowed for limited ob- by the UN and OSCE, to develop technically feasi- servation of the referendum preparation process. ble parameters and standards for the civil registra- IFES’ highly successful poll worker training pro- tion--a process that has been delayed since the be- gram for the 1999 presidential elections will be used ginning of last summer. as the basis for an upcoming training program for poll workers for the 2000 referendum. The implementation of the operational plan will be one of the most technically challenging undertak- Impact Summary ings IFES has conducted in recent memory and will IFES’ civic education program is intended to rem- be carried out in a constantly shifting political envi- edy the disillusionment of the youth in regards to ronment. IFES staff continues to assist in the devel- the political process and community development. opment of the Election Commission structure, du- While informing students of their rights and respon- ties and rules, and comment on draft legislation for sibilities, the program also equips the students with polling at the municipal level. The Foundation an- the necessary critical thinking skills to prepare them ticipates opening offices in Pristina shortly to focus for active and informed participation in the coun- more directly on this long-term programming. try’s social and political development. In IFES’ 1999 focus groups, Ukrainian voters cited the im- IFES Helps Joint Registration Task Force to Pre- portance of allowing young people to develop these pare for Registration

Page 11 The completion of the Document Consolidation dents. At the same time, alternatives are being ex- Project, which is consolidating data from Elektro- amined. Kosova, telephone records, data sets from CRS/ Albania and CRS/Macedonia, and social security CAUCASUS/CENTRAL ASIA information, will mark an important step in the registration process. Plans are also being made to iden- ARMENIA tify and deploy personnel in preparations for registration. International Municipal Records Officers IFES Submits Comments To Working Group On (MRO) are scheduled to be deployed in Kosovo’s Electoral Code Amendments 29 municipalities in March. At the same time, inter- During February, IFES/Armenia submitted com- national trainers will be assigned to assist with the ments on amendments to the Universal Election sorting of documents at the municipal level. Over Code to the Parliamentary Committee on State and 2000 local staff will be recruited to work on the reg- Legal Issues. Remarks were coordinated with the istration process in approximately 400 registration United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and sites. the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The comments focused on three IFES Heads Information Technology Activities amendments proposed by Central Election Commis- All information technology including network ad- sion (CEC) Chairman Artak Sahradian on the fol- ministration, hardware maintenance, help desk sup- lowing issues: port, database development and other IT projects will be consolidated under one department, headed 1. What to do about voters whose jobs forced by IFES IT Specialist Mike Yard, who will handle them away from their home precinct on all information technology-related activities. This election day, such as policemen and poll department will work with SAGEM (a fingerprint workers? (Response: add advisory lan- equipment vendor) on issues concerning database guage that these workers should be as- programming specifications, equipment configura- signed close to home whenever possible.) tion, training requirements, and Central Database 2. How to rationalize the participation of the site considerations. In March, Yard will conduct a election committees and various courts in series of tests to determine whether SAGEM has the appeals process? (Response: the entire met contract requirements before accepting delivery issue of electoral appeals needs to be con- of equipment from the factory. The department will solidated into a new section of the code also work with Thomson (an identification card rather than fine tuning the existing and printer and digital camera vendor) and other compa- chaotic system of current law.) nies that have yet to be selected. Bids have been 3. Should the right to appeal decisions of requested for a data capture company to enter infor- electoral committees be left in the hands of mation from approx. 1.6 million registration forms, domestic observers, the media, and prox- both within Kosovo and out of the area. ies? This right, contained in the current code, would be removed under a CEC rec- Public Information Activities are Underway ommendation. (Response: this right should Numerous visits to international and local NGOs, be maintained, but with language reiterat- minority communities, and OSCE field offices will ing that observers cannot interfere with the be conducted in order to assess opportunities to work of electoral commissions.) reach women, youth, and minority groups. The OSCE plans to use both radio and posters in its out- The next phase will be discussions with the political reach efforts in March. A survey of citizens’ atti- factions in the National Assembly regarding more tudes is also in the planning stages. politically sensitive issues involving the mixture of seats in Parliament, the composition of electoral Out-of-Kosovo Registration May Prove committees, etc. Final action on code amendments Problematic is not expected until the end of the year. A formal agreement has yet to be signed with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia concerning the reg- IFES Presents at Caucasus Links Conference istration of Kosovar residents living in Serbia and IFES/Armenia Program Manager Jeffrey Swedberg Montenegro. Diplomatic efforts are underway to gave a presentation at a conference entitled prevent the possibility of a boycott of these resi- “Democracy in Armenia: Crisis or Renewal” on 24-

Page 12 25 February. The conference was organized by the international NGO Caucasus Links. IFES was rep- CEC Releases December 1999 Municipal resented on a four-person panel, along with Alexan- Elections Results der Iskandarian of the Caucasus Study Center, for- The Central Election Commission (CEC) released mer CEC Chairman Khachatur Bezerjian, and party results of the municipal elections. While the docu- leaders Payrur Hairikian of the Self Determination ment contains 140 pages of voter turnout and regis- Union and Vigen Khachatrian of the Liberal De- tration statistics and 3 pages of results at the territo- mocratic Party. The topic was “Lessons Learned rial election commission level, it does not include a from the 1999 Parliamentary Elections.” Swed- single result of any municipal contest. berg’s presentation focused on the role IFES has played in Armenia since 1995 and its work, in par- IFES Anticipates Repeat Municipal Elections ticular, on a revised election code, which demon- In support of the CEC, IFES produced additional strated its value in the improved processes seen in copies of Voting Day Guidelines for Precinct Elec- the 1999 parliamentary and local elections. Swed- tion Commissions (PECs) and voter information berg pointed out that such reforms as the elimina- posters for use in voting stations. The posters are tion of the supplemental list has led to significant designed to inform voters about voting procedures problems with the voter lists. He also pointed out as well as to teach voters how to mark ballots. that problems such as the continued presence of un- authorized personnel inside and outside the polling IFES Prepares for November 2000 Parliamentary station, the partisan propensity to remove precinct Elections committee members, and the convoluted and con- During the month of February, IFES/Washington fusing appeals procedures suggest the need for fur- staff and other international organizations met at the ther adjustments to the code. International Republican Institute’s headquarters with senior officials from major opposition parties-- IFES Begins Analysis of Possible Referendum on including Musavat, Popular Front, and Azerbaijan Constitutional Amendments National Independence Party - to discuss the No- At the request of the U.S. Embassy, IFES began vember parliamentary elections. The discussion translating the Armenian Law on Referenda in included the parliamentary election framework, preparation for a possible referendum on a package CEC and political party laws, opposition coopera- of constitutional amendments. Numerous amend- tion for the parliamentary elections, and effective ments are currently being drafted by political fac- methods of obtaining accurate election results from tions in the National Assembly and by the Office of the 2000 parliamentary elections. the President. At issue is the constitutional relationship between the President, government and Parlia- New Laws Translated and Distributed ment, in particular the current ability of the Presi- IFES staff finalized the translations of municipal- dent to dissolve the Parliament after a year has related laws and decrees on finance. Copies were elapsed following the election of the National As- distributed to embassies and interested local and sembly. Under current law, the President will be international organizations. In addition, IFES/ able to dissolve the Parliament on 31 May, 2000. Azerbaijan translated the DemCongress draft of a parliamentary elections law. The new draft law on Impact Summary political parties was obtained, translated and distrib- IFES’ discussions with the CEC and leaders of the uted as well. This draft is similar to the former law, National Assembly are clarifying issues for future but drops some restrictions–public employees in- activities. In addition, through comments made to cluding military personnel and police can now be the National Assembly at the earliest stages on pro- party members, and the President can be a member posed changes to an election code, IFES was able to of a political party. Amendments proposed by gov- impact legislation amendment work on the Univer- ernment members include a 500 percent increase in sal Electoral Code from the outset. the number of members required to form a political party.

IFES Assists Local NGOs IFES staff met with the director and senior aca- AZERBAIJAN demic staff of the private Azerbaycan University to

Page 13 discuss accessing IFES resources and materials for a all 17 members of the Commission in a small group new course on electoral systems and frameworks. format. IFES began participating in the university’s regular Sunday democracy-oriented seminars and shared As in the post-election conference that IFES/ views on legislative development. Georgia conducted following the 1998 local elections, the questions posed during the series of inter- Impact Summary view sessions addressed specific areas. These in- In preparation for the repeat municipal elections, cluded: IFES worked with the CEC to increase voter information and transparency through production of · Legal structure for elections and the re- voter education materials. To support reformed sponsibilities of the CEC; election legislative development for the November · Planning, organizing, and managing the 2000S parliamentary elections, IFES is working elections; with the presidential apparatus, the CEC, and oppo- · Voter registration and identification; sition leaders to review draft laws. In addition, · Training of election commission members; IFES has entered into discussions for making elec- · Voter education and voter motivation; tion results transparent and widely available. · The adjudication of election complaints; and GEORGIA · Public trust in the election process.

IFES and the CEC Launch New Website During the interview process, IFES suggested to At the request of the USAID/Caucasus Mission, Commissioners that a post-election conference that IFES/Georgia continues to assist the CEC with the would bring together all members of the Commis- installation of an Internet network intended to in- sion in a single venue be scheduled following the 9 crease the Commission’s transparency prior to and April presidential elections. IFES hopes that such after the 9 April presidential elections. The 2000 an event would serve to focus those interested in the Presidential Elections of Georgia web site has been electoral process on legislative and procedural re- created to improve public access to CEC resolutions form. and instructions and to increase overall transparency in the elections process. The web site includes: CEC Prepares for Presidential Elections The CEC continues to prepare for the 9 April presi- · Copies of all election laws governing the 9 dential election amid protracted negotiations among April presidential elections; majority and minority factions in Parliament regard- · Procedures for filing election complaints; ing proposed amendments to the laws that will gov- · Contact information for district and pre- ern the upcoming poll. cinct election commissions. Candidate registration closed on 20 February, with In addition, important voter information and regu- the CEC having received applications from 17 can- larly updated news about CEC activities will also be didates for the presidency of Georgia. Included found on the site. Following the 9 April elections, among the 12 candidates that were certified on 29 preliminary and final results will be posted on the February upon submission of 50,000 signatures of site to provide citizens and journalists alike with the support are the incumbent President Eduard most up-to-date information regarding election out- Shevardnadze, former General Secretary of the comes. The web site can be accessed at Communist Party of Georgia Jumber Patiashvili, http://www.cec.gov.ge/index.htm. and the leader of the Autonomous Region of Adjara, Aslan Abashidze. IFES Conducts Post-Election Review During the month of February, IFES/Georgia under- Working closely with the CEC, IFES plans techni- took a post-election review to help the Central Elec- cal assistance in support of the 9 April election in tion Commission (CEC) identify lessons learned the areas of elections administration training and from the conduct of the October 1999 parliamentary voter education. During the past month, IFES Voter elections. From 14-24 February, IFES/Georgia Pro- Education Consultant Catherine Barnes began plan- ject Manager Antonio Spinelli and Deputy Project ning and executing a national voter information Manager Michael Svetlik conducted interviews with campaign that will be comprised of two phases.

Page 14 Phase I of the campaign will provide voters with Project Manager Dr. EilRs Ward. Dr. Ward joined information on how to make appeals to the voters’ IFES as a specialist in the area of civil society and lists, which are on public display one month prior to civic education after obtaining her doctorate at Trin- election day. Phase II, set to begin in mid-March, ity College in Dublin, Ireland. Dr. Ward will over- will focus on voter motivation and technical proce- see IFES’ on-going civic education programs in Ka- dures. zakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Election Complaint Adjudication Activities Civic Education and Curriculum Development Planned Project Continues From 7-11 March, IFES/Georgia will hold a series IFES efforts in February focused on continuing the of roundtables and workshops aimed at clarifying curriculum development project by expanding the the judicial and administrative procedures for adju- civic education program in all high schools. On 7 dicating election complaints. These activities are a February, Marat Bigaliev and Baghlan Yerzhan met major component of IFES’ technical assistance in with Zhukeshev Kanat Muratbekovich, a member of support of the 9 April Presidential elections, and the Educational Methodical Council from the Altyn- will involve collaboration with a number of local sarin Institute, who recommended the IFES Civics partner organizations. textbook for publication. Mr. Zhukeshev shared the Ministry of Education’s plans to develop a new sub- More than 160 participants have been invited to par- ject called the “Fundamentals of Social Science,” or ticipate in 5 separate sessions. Participants will in- “Civics,” comprising 102 academic hours, and said clude representatives from the Supreme Court of that IFES’ civics program could fit this subject as an Georgia, District Courts, the CEC, District Election alternative subject for special schools oriented to- Commissions, Georgian NGOs, international ward social and humanitarian science. He also said NGOs, election observer groups, and representa- that there is a great demand for Law Science sub- tives of the Georgian media. jects.

IFES has invited two distinguished officials from IFES staff met with Mr. Ashimzhan Akhmetov, the United States Department of Justice to partici- Vice-minister of Education and Science, on 10 Feb- pate in this series of workshops: Craig Donsanto, ruary in Astana. The purpose of the meeting was to the Director of the Election Crimes Division of the introduce Mr. Akhmetov to the on-going IFES cur- United States Department of Justice, and Barry riculum development project and discuss further Weinberg, the former Deputy Head of the Voting activities in this area. Arrangements were made for Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Both IFES to obtain an official memo to be sent to each Mr. Donsanto and Mr. Weinberg have presented at of the education departments and IFES pilot schools several international conferences on election com- throughout the country. Mrs. Rakhimzhanova, plaint adjudication and election law development. Head of the Methodological Department of Ministry of Education, also attended the meeting. Impact Summary During the month of February, IFES/Georgia con- Marat Bigaliev and Baghlan Yerzhan attended a tinued to achieve substantial progress with the CEC seminar for the directors of high schools that was in support of the upcoming presidential election, organized by the Association of Initiative Schools including planning a nationwide voter education (AIS) of the Republic of Kazakhstan on 8 February campaign, preparing a series of workshops on elec- at pilot school #38, Almaty oblast. At the seminar, tion complaint adjudication led by USDOJ officials, IFES representatives attended the lesson on a joint IFES/CEC training of election administra- “Elections and Referenda in Kazakhstan” and dis- tors, and the installation of a CEC internet network, cussed the use of interactive methods of teaching as all of which will encourage transparency and add to well as the IFES Civics textbook and reading mate- the legitimacy of the election process in Georgia. rials. The teachers of the civics course said that they find IFES’ materials very useful and helpful because the issues presented are not covered in local KAZAKHSTAN textbooks. This was followed by a roundtable with

participants of the seminar, where AIS and IFES IFES/Kazakhstan Welcomes New Project made presentations. Manager

IFES is pleased to announce the arrival of our new IFES/Almaty was informed that Nagzhan Rakhimz-

Page 15 hanova of the Ministry of Education has developed Impact Summary and submitted a new State Program “On Education” IFES has continued civic education activities with to the President of Kazakhstan for approval. As she the cooperation of the Ministry of Education, pilot mentioned, civic education is one of the priorities schools, and local and international NGOs, thereby among other educational policies of the state pro- contributing to the long-term development of civil gram “On Education.” The program will be pub- society in Kazakhstan. With continued advice from lished in the media in one month. the Altynsarin Methodological Institute, IFES anticipates the expansion of its curriculum during the IFES Prepares for Civic Education Event in Coop- 2000-2001 school year. During the month, IFES eration with the Association of Initiative Schools also focused efforts on developing new civic educa- Preparations commenced for a March civic education initiatives with international and local NGOs in tion event that will include both a Civic Education order to increase youth participation in social and Tournament for top Kazakh students and a teacher political life. seminar on the civic education curriculum. IFES staff met with Shamen Akhimbekova, Director of KYRGYZSTAN the Association of Initiative Schools in order to dis- (continued from p. 1) cuss a draft format for the tournament among IFES pilot school students. Ms. Akhimbekova provided On 10 February, in cooperation with the Kyrgyz IFES with a detailed format of the day-and-a-half State National University (KSNU), IFES high- tournament that includes tests, written assignments lighted student election education at a candidate de- and final oral presentations by students. Most of the bate at KSNU for candidates for the Legislative As- test questions and assignments are based on the sembly in that constituency. IFES textbook and readings. The civic education tournament and teacher’s meeting is tentatively Approximately 500 students and local voters at- scheduled for the end of March. IFES Vice- tended the lively debate, which was also covered by President Juliana Pilon will attend the tournament as three television channels and the national newspa- one of the presenters and judges. per Slovo Kyrgyzstana.

University Level Mock Elections Project Discussed IFES Drafts Election Dispute Adjudication Man- IFES/Almaty staff met Lyudmila Adilova, Candi- ual date of Historical Sciences at the Kazakh National The drafting and printing of the Election Dispute State University “Al-Pharabi,” to discuss a student Adjudication Manual was also completed in Febru- mock elections project at the university level. ary. A training event to educate judges in the use of Adilova has an interest in cooperating with IFES on the manual was undertaken at the Judicial Training conducting an “Elections of a University Akim” Centre on 14-16 February 2000. This activity will program. According to the program proposed by be important to both courts and plaintiffs in the Adilova, more than 360 students would be involved weeks immediately following the elections as elec- in the electoral process. IFES would provide them tion grievances are filed. with technical information related to election law, campaigning and electoral administration. The con- Impact Summary cept will be discussed further with new Project IFES strategies have been aimed at increasing both Manager EilRs Ward. the professionalization of election administrators and informed participation in the election process Administration and Cost of Elections (ACE) Vote by voters. The training of poll workers has resulted Counting Module Translated in a vast improvement in election administration The ACE Translation group submitted all of the ma- since the October 1999 local elections. The Election terial on vote counting on 10 February. The transla- Dispute Adjudication Manual is now being used to tors shared their views with regard to the quality of strengthen the judiciary by training judges in admin- the English version of the text for updating and re- istering acceptable standards of election dispute advising the ACE project. Currently, IFES is in the judication. The voter education campaign contrib- process of printing and editing the text of the Rus- uted to increased voter awareness, particularly in sian version. young voters, and stressed the importance of voting individually to play a role in building a stronger

Page 16 country. This program is also helps strengthen the various NGOs with which IFES has partnered in an The questions were given to each party, and each effort to sustain Kyrgyzstan’s civil society. party was given several days to submit their responses. The responses were included in the pam- TAJIKISTAN phlet for mass distribution.

Parliamentary Elections Held on 27 February IFES Completes Polling Station Commission The parliamentary elections took place as scheduled Procedures Manual without reports of any major incidents of violence During the month of February IFES/Tajikistan com- or intimidation. The peaceful atmosphere experi- pleted the final draft of the polling station proce- enced throughout Tajikistan could be attributed to dures manual and submitted it to the CCER. Pursu- the desire of the general population for peace. The ant to the request of the CCER, 3,100 copies of the OSCE has released a preliminary report, including manual were printed, which contained both Russian conclusions about the election process. and Tajik translations of the manual. The CCER cooperated in distributing the manual to all its poll- IFES Produces Voter Education Campaign for ing station committees. Reports from UNMOT, February Elections OSCE and JEOMT confirmed that the manual was In preparation for the February parliamentary elec- in wide use on Election Day. IFES/Tajikistan staff tions in Tajikistan, IFES undertook a widespread also observed the manual at the polling stations vis- voter education campaign that included both the ited on polling day. print and electronic media outlets. Using print media sources, 6,000 copies of a poster entitled "Secrecy of Voting" and 6,000 copies of a poster explaining the voting process were printed and distributed. Each poster consists of the same text in Tajik, Russian and Uzbek. All of them were ready by 19 February for distribution in the week before the elections.

IFES also produced six television and six radio spots for the election, focusing on themes such as “Your vote is our children’s future,” “Your vote is protected,” “Vote on February 27,” and “The future of Tajikistan is in your hands.”

Finally, IFES produced a brochure on political par- The Chairman of Polling Station Number 1 in Kofarnihom, Taji- kistan references the IFES polling station manual on election ties, including the answers to five questions that were posed to each party. The questions were: IFES Sponsors Political Party Forum Events § What will be the top 3 priorities of your political On 5 February IFES sponsored a political party fo- party in the next Majlisi Oli? rum at the Hotel Dushanbe, with a follow-up forum on 7 February in Kurgan Tyube. For both of these § How will you improve the lives of women and events, IFES staff reported that all six political par- children in Tajikistan? ties were represented. Saifullo Safarov, Deputy Chairman of the PDP, was in attendance. The par- § What are the ways in which your party will en- ticipation of the PDP was noteworthy, because from courage economic growth and thus create more jobs a political standpoint the PDP would seem to have in Tajikistan? little to gain from an exchange with other political parties. By participating, the PDP was sending an § How will your party improve relations with Taji- important positive signal to international observers kistan’s neighbors and work for regional stability? of the democratic process in Tajikistan.

§ How will your party work towards national recon- In attendance from the diplomatic community were ciliation if elected to the Majilisi Oli? representatives from the US, Indian, and Turkish

Page 17 Embassies, along with German Ambassador Meyer. rights to elect and be elected). That provision was UNMOT also had several persons in attendance included in the Tajik election law due to the unsta- over the course of the day. ble post-war situation in the republic.

A representative of Television Tajikistan (TBT) ap- Impact Summary proached Project Manager Frank Vassallo and Po- IFES activities increased greatly during February in litical Party Development Expert Phil Griffin at the anticipation of the parliamentary elections. end of the event and requested that IFES sponsor a Through its continuing work with the CEER, the debate between the parties on TBT. This idea came judiciary, media, local NGOs, and political parties, to fruition when the candidate debate was conducted IFES effectively increased understanding about and aired on the English news in a 7:30 a.m. pro- election day procedures and candidates. The voter gram on TBT. The following day, a 10-minute education campaign, along with efforts focusing on summary of the debate aired in Tajik. One week the professionalization of election administration later, a second round of debates were televised dur- and observation, contributed to a more transparent ing the week before the elections. Several private election process for February elections. Through TV stations also aired the debate. activities such as the judicial training seminars, IFES and ABA/CEELI demonstrated their commit- Election Dispute Adjudication Project Continues ment to strengthening the independence of the judi- with a Training Seminar for Judges ciary in Tajikistan, as well as their support of judi- On 24 February, IFES and ABA/CEELI co- cial reforms. Finally, IFES’ assistance to all politi- sponsored a training seminar in Khudjand regarding cal parties for pursuing constituent outreach strate- the election laws of Tajikistan, specifically those gies will contribute to an increased sophistication of governing the adjudication of election disputes. The the electorate. seminar was conducted by Justices Isroilov and Khodjaeva of the Supreme Court of the Republic of UZBEKISTAN Tajikistan. Approximately 35 judges from the Leni- nabad region and 15 representatives of the regional IFES Plans Student Action Committee Projects in Department of Justice attended the Khudjand train- Samarkand ing seminar. IFES/Tashkent Project Coordinator Lola Maksu- dova commenced preparations for student action Mourodjon Radjabov, Chairman of the Leninabad committee (SAC) activities in Samarkand in part- Regional Court, Justice Isroilov and Justice Khod- nership with the NGO Center Ayol. Ayol was regis- jaeva offered opening comments, followed by train- tered in August 1998 and began its activities in De- ing sessions aimed at familiarizing judges in atten- cember 1997. Since that time, Ayol has gained a dance with the processes for submitting and appeal- reputation as one of the most prominent and suc- ing an alleged electoral violation. According to the cessful NGOs on women’s and youth rights, pro- laws of Tajikistan, complaints must first be brought moting civic education not only in Samarkand but to the local election commission before appeals can all over Uzbekistan. Its leader, Victoria Ashirova, be made to the CEC and, finally, the Supreme participated in NGO leaders’educational programs Court. Judges also discussed the sometimes over- in the United States with the help of the U.S. Gov- lapping jurisdictions between the courts and the ernment in 1997 and 1998. She has also attended election commissions. The participants also dis- numerous international training programs conducted cussed more unusual problems with interpreting by SOROS and the OSCE in Uzbekistan and election dispute legislation. For instance, Justice abroad, including the United Kingdom, France, and Isroilov stated that persons taken into custody Germany. should have no right to nominate a candidate or be nominated only when they are charged with espe- The mission of the organization is to promote social cially grievous crimes. In all other cases the defen- innovation, informational, and educational activities dants shall have equal rights to nominate candi- among women and youth in order to promote their dates. At first sight, this provision of the Tajik elec- consciousness and active participation in the de- tion law may seem to contradict the Tajik Constitu- mocratic challenges of society. Ayol has its own tion, Article 27, Paragraph 4, which states that per- youth program. The Youth Club Leader was created sons sentenced to imprisonment by a legally binding specially to implement this program. Members of court verdict shall not have electoral rights (i.e. the the club are students in the 10th and 11th grades of

Page 18 education establishments of Samarkand. IFES Participation Planned at ACIE Conference Lola Maksudova had a meeting with Brendan Dal- As part of the organization’s efforts to implement las, Director of Teacher Programs of the American new interactive methods of teaching and work with Councils for International Education. Lola Maksu- young people, Ayol approached IFES to develop a dova received the conference proposal on “Civics partnership aimed at creating a network of SACs and Interdisciplinary Education” from the American which would teach and encourage students how to Council for International Education. The one-day identify issues of local importance and enlist local conference will be held 10 March at the Ferghana governmental bodies in addressing those issues. University. Igilik Kosymbetov from the Karakalpak Ministry of Education in Nukus is expected to speak IFES Contributes to NGO Development about curriculum development projects and the need Lola Maksudova served as a facilitator at a Febru- for civic education in Karakalpakstan. ary OSCE training session/meeting on NGO Strat- egy Development, at which many international do- Impact Summary nors--including USAID--participated. The NGO IFES/Uzbekistan continues to focus its efforts on Strategy meeting was the first internationally spon- civic education. IFES and its local NGO partners sored meeting to build an NGO coalition in Uzbeki- will monitor progress of the project throughout the stan. All the prominent NGOs of Uzbekistan created rest of the school year and make preparations for a coordination council and agreed to work on three editing and translation of all materials. These con- areas: technical information cooperation, improve- tinued civic education activities, along with NGO ment of legislation framework, and NGO sustain- development, contribute to the creation of a civil able development. society in Uzbekistan.

Page 19 IFES/Washington ENI Staff:

Scott R. Lansell, Director ([email protected])

Steve Connolly, Senior Advisor ([email protected])

International Foundation for Election Systems Phylis Greenfield, Senior Advisor 1101 15th Street, NW ([email protected]) Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20005 Michael Conway, Senior Program Officer Tel. (202) 828-8507 ([email protected]) Fax (202) 452-0804 Alexander T. Knapp, Senior Program Officer IFES provides technical assistance in the promotion of ([email protected]) democracy worldwide and serves as a clearinghouse for information about democratic development and Anthony C. Bowyer, Program Officer ([email protected]) elections. Since its inception in 1987, the Foundation has worked in more than 100 countries. IFES activities Jeffrey Carlson, Program Officer are made possible, in part, by the U.S. Agency for In- ([email protected]) ternational Development. Alexandra Levaditis, Program Officer PLEASE VISIT THE IFES ([email protected])

WWW PAGES AT: Lewis Madanick, Program Officer ([email protected]) Washington, D.C.: www.ifes.org Matthew Curtis, Senior Program Assistant ([email protected])

ACEEEO: Maggie McDonough, Program Assistant www.aceeeo.com ([email protected])

Chad Vickery, Program Assistant Armenia: ([email protected]) www.ifes.am Irina Zaslavskaya, Program Assistant ([email protected]) Bosnia: www.oscebih.org Carrie Ellis, Program Assistant ([email protected])

Georgia (CEC): Sonia Pastuhov-Pastein, Program Assistant www.cec.gov.ge/index.htm ([email protected])

Russia: Sarah Hirschman, Program Assistant ([email protected]) www.ifes.ru

IESD (Russia): www.democracy.ru

Ukraine: www.ifes-ukraine.org

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