Following its groundbreaking work in 2015 as the first-ever citizen monitoring group registered in Burma/Myanmar, the People’s Alliance for Credible Elections (PACE) emerged as one of the country’s leading election monitoring organizations. Since then, PACE has continued to play a prominent role in promoting electoral integrity during parliamentary by-elections and municipal polls which further consolidated the country’s democratic transition. Having now mastered its own methodology, PACE has begun to mentor other Myanmar organizations to do the same.

We were able to pull all of our resources to help PoPP implement the municipal observation activities within five working days.

-PACE Program Manager Han Soe Tun

In May 2017, PACE trained a local organization, Pace on Peaceful Pluralism (PoPP), to monitor municipal council elections in Bago West. With hands-on guidance from PACE, PoPP was able to mount a systematic observation

using structured observer checklists to measure the electoral process as a whole. PACE also trained PoPP to implement a strategic election monitoring plan, craft observation checklists, train and deploy observers to every polling station in Bago West, and develop a data-entry framework to analyze observer election reports. NDI contributed to this effort by working alongside PACE to help PoPP report on its observation findings and recommend improvements for future elections.

We produced survey questionnaires, designed the training curriculum, conducted Training-of-Trainer trainings, initiated the deployment plan, and set up the data center by sharing PACE’s laptops. It was quite a challenge, but we were able to support nearly all aspects of PoPP's process in a very short amount of time because of the significant experience the PACE team has in observing elections.

-PACE Program Manager Han Soe Tun

Although PoPP initially reached out to PACE for help in analyzing municipal election laws, PACE recommended instead that PoPP use systematic observation findings to identify ways to improve the electoral legal framework. Citizen election observation can contribute significantly to promoting public confidence in an election and calming tensions in the post-election period. In a new democracy like Myanmar, the presence of observers also can help to cement an active role for citizens in monitoring their country’s political processes and in forging a new relationship between citizens and their government.

PACE’s rapid emergence as an independent authority on election observation is indicative of the rapid development of Myanmar civil society. With PACE and NDI assistance, PoPP gained valuable insight into how elections are administered, as well as data on voter registration, campaign developments and election day proceedings. Armed with this evidence, PoPP is planning to organize a meeting to review the municipal legal framework with other local community observation groups.