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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 confer- ence 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 profes- sionalization 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
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