Fourth Virtual Seminar - 6 March 2023

A fourth virtual seminar took place on 6 March 2023 and focussed on "Commissions in times of stress". The pre-seminar outline can be found here. A presentation from Dr Faisal Hazis, Electoral Commission of Malaysia, can be found here).

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Summary of Discussions

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This fourth virtual conference follows on from previous virtual discussions on managing elections during the pandemic. Those earlier discussions demonstrated that Commissions have managed to handle the challenges of the pandemic without compromising the integrity of the elections, using novel solutions and processes, many technologically based, that are likely to be integrated into future electoral processes. At the same time, new challenges to democracy have emerged, with increasingly authoritarian actors focussed on retaining power or perverting the course of elections.
 

Recognising that the conduct of national elections is itself a source of considerable stress and potential crisis, participants noted that electoral crises can arise from a number of sources depending upon the jurisdiction. These might include:

• natural disasters—while much focus has been on the pandemic in recent years, natural disasters such floods, earthquakes, fires and so on should be an acknowledged possibility;

• legal constitutional crises affecting the ability of an electoral commission to conduct an election regarded as credible by all stakeholders, particularly political parties;

• political pressure applied to both the executive and operational level staff;

• fragmented electoral landscape at both federal and regional levels with unstable political parties and/or coalitions of political parties, potentially leading to multiple elections;

• the risk of political violence and the failure of law enforcement authorities to manage that violence;

• the potential failure of technological solutions which are increasingly relied upon in electoral processes;

• local actors at the regional and sub-regional level acting to disrupt elections at the polling place; and

• the emerging crisis of misinformation and disinformation to influence the electorate, democracy and human rights.

​A number of elements were noted as potentially enhancing the capacity of electoral commissions to manage crises. These include:

• a genuinely independent, transparently appointed and accountable electoral commission trusted by voters and political parties alike—it was noted that the Indian Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, had recently clearly laid out the mode of appointment of electoral commissioners to protect and bolster the independence of the Electoral Commission of India (the decision of the Supreme Court of India on the independence of electoral commissions can be found here);

• resilient, unwavering and positive leadership based on values of free, fair and credible elections is paramount;

• an electoral reform agenda that prioritises reform of the electoral commission above other changes;

• an agreed (between political parties and the Electoral Commission) code of conduct outlining the behaviour expected of political parties;

• a comprehensive strategy to combat disinformation and misinformation encompassing not only media responses but also education of the electorate and relationships with social media companies and traditional media companies, with regulation as a last resort;

• recognising that the unexpected can happen and ensuring that broad policies are in place in advance to deal with each eventuality. This includes having a ‘crisis management plan’ and a ‘decision making framework’ assigning key roles and relevant authorities to staff;

• informing all staff of the core principles and procedural elements on the crisis management framework, including who to contact and when;

• critical first actions include quickly ascertaining the facts and informing key stakeholders in an open, timely and frank manner;

• keeping both staff and relevant external parties informed of the facts of the crisis and actions taken to manage it;

• ensuing that communication processes are sufficiently agile and responsive; and

• learning the lessons of the crisis and building those into future electoral processes.