Through a wide-range of initiatives, this project promotes sustainable electoral change in Lebanon following the 2009 parliamentary and ahead of the 2010 municipal elections. The Compact for Election and Democratic Assistance and Reform (CEDAR) II project builds upon the well-received work of the initial CEDAR I project. During CEDAR I, IFES supported expert contributions to the work of the National Commission for Electoral Law (known as the Boutros Commission), the Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform and the Administration and Justice Committee of the Lebanese Parliament.

The three core objectives of CEDAR II are:

1. Reform and adopt new parliamentary election law and discuss initiatives for municipal election law reform
2. Strengthen the capacity of the election management bodies for the next parliamentary elections
3. Support the work of civil society organizations (CSOs) and other stakeholders on electoral reform initiatives

Under this project, IFES has written numerous briefing papers and conducted assessments on various electoral reform issues. Most recently, IFES issued briefing papers on the issue of reducing voting age, initiating out-of-country voting and alternative models of mathematical formulae for assigning seats under the draft municipal law's proposed proportional representation electoral system.

Recently, IFES undertook assessments on the framework for electoral dispute resolution in Lebanon in the light of the 19 challenges to the Constitutional Council in relation to the 2009 parliamentary elections and prior to the 2010 local elections. IFES will also explore measures for enabling and strengthening transparency for voters, observers, candidates, media and other stakeholders.

Throughout this project, IFES has worked closely with civil society partners in their efforts to support electoral reform initiatives. IFES collaborated with Nahwa al-Mouwataniya (Na'aM) to raise awareness of electoral and democratic issues among secondary school students and young adults.

Currently, IFES is partnered with DevIneMedia, a Lebanese CSO, with its project on "The Art and Design of Voting." The project seeks to promote the adoption of standardized ballot papers through an innovative approach to studying the design aspects of ballot papers. It also seeks to support other reform initiatives through a series of workshops and the conduct of an election reform fair to increase discussions on various recommended reforms.

This project is funded by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the US Department of State and will be implemented by IFES through July 31, 2011.