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Being an Election Observer

Commonwealth observers often live and work in fairly rough places. They may be posted to small towns or villages in remote places up rivers, in jungles or by beaches.

Deployment of Observers Malawi 2004They travel by car, truck, small planes or boats to wherever polling stations are located. All the time they speak to ordinary people, election officials, security officers, journalists, women's groups and political parties to gauge how well the elections are being organised in their area and whether people will be able to vote freely.'

The Commonwealth Secretary-General carefully chooses each observer group from skilled and experienced politicians, lawyers, electoral officials, members of non-governmental organisations or journalists. They come from all over the Commonwealth, bringing with them different experiences in elections and electoral systems. The group is balanced between men and women. Very often, a former head of government chairs the group which can be very small (seven in Seychelles in 1993) or much larger (60 in South Africa in 1994).

For two weeks or so, Commonwealth election observers stay in a country to assess and analyse all aspects of the elections. On Election Day, they visit as many polling stations as they can. They consider whether electoral officials are efficient, and whether voters' names are on the register, whether the ballot is secret, if there is any fraud or whether voters are being threatened. At close of the poll they observe whether the ballot papers are counted properly and whether the results are communicated accurately and speedily.

After the count, the group meets up again. They discuss the electoral laws and regulations, the efficiency of the election organisers, whether all parties were able to campaign freely and fairly, the effectiveness of educating people on how and where to vote the fairness of the elections and ballot counting. Based on this, they decide whether the elections as a whole were conducted fairly and whether people were able to vote freely for the representatives of their choice. Sometimes, they may make recommendations for change in laws or election systems.

Commonwealth observers are welcomed as independent assessors of elections and their recommendations are often accepted in order to strengthen democracy.'

Extract taken from 'The Commonwealth: A Family of Nations' published by the Commonwealth Secretariat.
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