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Guatemala has been plagued by electoral violence for decades. It includes intimidation of voters, and harassment, assaults and even assassinations of candidates, their families and activists by organized criminal groups and drug traffickers.
To help mitigate this violence in advance of general elections in 2011, the civil society group Citizen Action (Accion Ciudadana, AC) compiled data on early warning signs of potential violence, such as voter coercion or suppression and official electoral complaints, as well as incidents of violence over the previous three election cycles. The data, combined with findings from its own observers, was used to create maps to identify specific areas where there was the highest risk of electoral violence. AC then communicated this information to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Ministry of Interior, National Civil Police and political parties, which could take action to mitigate, deter or mediate potential violence.
As a result, AC’s risk mapping helped those responsible for electoral security make more informed decisions about where to deploy their forces before, during and after election day. AC is now strengthening this methodology in advance of general elections scheduled for next year by planning more frequent coordination and real-time communication with government, security and electoral authorities and by assessing what other early warning signs of potential electoral violence it should analyze and monitor.
AC’s story is just one of numerous examples of how nonpartisan citizen election observer groups monitor and mitigate electoral violence in important ways. Information about their efforts is included in a new NDI guide, Monitoring and Mitigating Electoral Violence through Nonpartisan Citizen Observation, that presents experiences and methodologies employed effectively by civil society groups. Written primarily as a practical guide for citizen election observers, it is also relevant for international donors, experts and practitioners involved in conflict mitigation and developing electoral integrity.
The guide outlines a framework that civil society organizations can use to design electoral violence monitoring and mitigation programs. In particular, it highlights how groups can monitor early warning signs of potential violence to bring them to the attention of relevant authorities, political parties and other stakeholders so action can be taken to prevent violence or reduce the potential for it.
The guide looks specifically at four key areas in which citizen observers can contribute to mitigating electoral violence:
- Long-term election observation;
- Monitoring traditional and social media, reporting on hate speech and other potentials for inciting politically motivated violence and contributing to media accountability;
- Crowdsourcing and visualizing (including mapping) electoral violence related data; and
- Grassroots electoral violence mitigation and mediation efforts.
The guide includes a chapter on ensuring the security of election observers in violence-prone environments. And it features a number of sample tools, practical guidelines and several country examples from across Asia, Latin America and Africa that provide direction on how to build on best practices and lessons from NDI and its partners around the world.
The guide, which was made possible by the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), draws upon lessons shared by citizen election observer groups at several NDI-facilitated regional working sessions, which were conducted in conjunction with the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM).
Published July 24, 2014
