On November 10 to 11, 2014, the National
Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) and the National
Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) conducted the Asian
Citizens’ Election Monitoring Organization
(ACEMO) Workshop at the Dusit Thani Manila, Makati City.
The workshop aimed to help newly-formed citizens-led election monitoring
organizations from six different Asian
countries transitioning to more democratic states, to address the
growing challenges that they face. To attain this
objective, NAMFREL resource persons discussed the status and emerging
challenges to Asian democracy and the
importance and role of election monitoring organizations (EMOs) in this
context. NAMFREL also shared how it was
able to help restore the faith in the electoral process in the
Philippines through engagements, projects and an
established relationship with its election management body, the
Commission on Elections (COMELEC).
Michael McNulty, NDI Senior Program Manager for Elections and Political
Processes, wrote in his letter to NAMFREL
days after the event that, in addition to presenting theories and
history, NAMFREL was also able to “demonstrate in
practice those principles” by involving the members of the organization
from the leaders to the volunteers in the
organizing of the ACEMO and the succeeding event, the 9th Implementation
Meeting of the Declaration of Principles
on International Election Observation (DoP-IEO), and (the) leveraging of
private sector sponsorship to help support
the cost of the two events. “This ‘leading by example’ approach helped
the citizen observer participants, many of
whom are fairly new groups, see first-hand how they can build a
sustainable organization that have real impact on
electoral integrity and broader democratic processes,” he added.
The following organizations participated in the ACEMO workshop : the
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights
(NCDHR-India), Democracy and Elections Watch (DEW-Nepal), Transparency
International – Cambodia (TIC), Jaago
Foundation (Bangladesh), Myanmar’s People’s Alliance for Credible
Elections (PACE), Afghanistan National
Participation Organization (ANPO), Afghanistan Youth National
Participation Organization (AYNSO) and Transparent
Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA). |
