LADE

The Lebanese Association for

Democratic Elections (LADE)
Founded in
Lebanon in 1996
Civil, independent
and nonprofit
organization
specialized in
promoting free
elections and
enhanced
democracy
monitoring all
forms of elections
and advocating
for better
electoral systems
ANDE
LADE is a founding member of the
Arab Network for Democracy of
Elections (ANDE)
ANDE currently works to achieve
electoral reform and observe
elections across the Arab world
Maintaining impartiality
The following recommendations are based on experiences from more than
12 observation missions inside and outside Lebanon since 1996
A complex challenge crucial for the credibility and sustainability of election
observation groups, highly dependent on context
Multi-layered topic that extends beyond election day (E-day); not only
involves how a group presents itself in general, but extends to the details of
who is monitoring, how information is verified, who takes decisions on what
is published, how information is reported and presented, etc.
Lebanese Context
Supportive Challenging
Layers and levels
Post Election Reporting and Complaints Process
Statement review process Forums to be released
Evidence to be provided
and how
Follow-up activities
selection process
E day
Deployment of observers and control
mechanisms
Information sharing and internal
communication
External communication
Election Observers
How they are recruited How they are trained
Who the partners in the monitoring
coalition are
LAuL
Members Board
Staff and projects other than
observation
LAuL
Actual face of the NGO especially in the regions, thus
credibility starts with them
l -
members
Recruited through various means (project, friend
referrals, local partners)
Prospective members have to have their application form signed by
two current members
Volunteers and members unit arranges to have a discussion session
with prospective members
New and prospective members participate in less sensitive, local
observation missions (university elections for example), in preparation
for national election observation
Membership: examples and lessons
learned
Systematic influx of members from one region, one political view
Influx of members just before elections, or after a training for a
certain political party (2007 By elections in Metn Lebanon. 20
new membership forms in one week)
Trust can only be built with time and experience. You can never
do enough to check before recruitment, you can always do
more to control and absorb cases of impartiality internally

LAuL 8
executive team
Six elected each year for two year term
Bylaws stipulate that board members must not have a
position in a political party
Attempts are made at being inclusive (regional, religion,
gender, age, etc.)
Represent the NGO and take major decisions
Thoroughly checks press releases and external communication
Board is legally responsible for what is published
Impartiality major criteria for recruitment
Most contact with political parties and media happens
through projects
Executive team and projects
Board and staff: examples and
lessons learned
LAuL 8, as the board members are
usually well known in the civil society sphere and get the most exposure
(board members and media interviews\technical vs. political profile)
Ensure that the background of each is carefully assessed, their profiles
are politically balanced, and individuals are active and responsive at all
times
Working on electoral reform and being available to advise political
\

M -

Election observers: recruitment
Everyone knows everyone
Lebanon is a
small country
1 LAuL
credibility has been tested through
previous missions
Each observer is personally
interviewed by them
Local
coordinators
for regions are
primary
decision makers
Election observers: Training
Giving a chance to the coordinator to know him\her more
Three mandatory workshops for each observer
Defining observation and its importance
Differentiating between having a political opinion and allowing it to
influence conduct as an observer
Defining non-partisanship
Signing the code of conduct
Explaining electoral law
1
st
workshop
Technical training on monitoring methodology and tools, including forms
and any technology employed (SMS, smart-phone applications, etc.)
2
nd
and 3
rd
workshops
Election Observers: examples of
lessons learned
The more space you give to observers to have a
political opinion, the more they stick to not showing
it publicly
The training workshops need to be interactive to

prospective observers
We have experienced cases when we had to

important illustrate this in trainings to emphasize
the message that this is a real possibility
E-day: General
Most challenging day as exposure is not controlled or restricted
to trusted staff and members
C :
Putting enough checks and balances in place in deployment and
data management strategy
Not deploying observers in their own district area/village but in a neighboring
one
Challenge is to put enough control yet not too much
Losing important information
Not being timely
Becoming too bureaucratic
E-day: Deployment
Observe in teams of three (mobile observers) always have

Support teams present for sensitive decisions and oversight -

Major violations reported to central data monitors
Forms ensure\guarantee coherence of data and give little
space for personal opinions (proofs..)
E-day:
Communicating violations
Internal communication
Strong data management strategy:
Violations reported to a team of data managers, who verify the info before
passing it to a secondary filter (experienced observers) before publishing
External communication
Only specified members can speak to media
Beware when to answer accusations
Make sure media is fed centrally and given directions and
contacts on who to contact in regions
E-Day: examples of lessons learned
Anticipate hot zones and put more teams and man
power there (Zahleh 2009 parliamentary elections
case and how this helped us)
Decisions on E-day are the most important and
influential on impartiality. Responding to
Saida 2010 municipal
elections and Akkar municipal elections 2010
Credibility with EMB (Ministry of Interior in our
case) established when they noticed our priority to



Post Election Reporting and
Complaints Process

Time taken
Who is doing it ? Who takes final decision on what to put ?
Statement review process
Timing
content
tone
Forums to be released
One of major contributors to impartiality is quality of evidence and proofs submitted
Evidence to be provided and how
Regional volunteers
Follow-up activities selection process
Other important practices for
maintaining impartiality
Adopting a
funding policy
that maintains
equal distance
from all sides
of the political
spectrum and
their foreign
allies
The board
maintaining
good relations
with all sides of
the political
spectrum
Addressing
rapidly any
problem that
may hurt the
image of LADE
or bias
perception
Challenges
Open data sharing and social media have
raised new challenges
Live tweets and pictures uploading, lack
of filtering
8 L

threatening your impartiality
Your experiences:
Context you
observe in
Challenges facing
impartiality that
your organization
has
Specific examples
on any of the

Kindly
share with
us the