In an ideal world every ballot would be protected, every vote kept safe, and every election above reproach. In reality, however, no vote can be completely free of all fraud and we must keep a constant watch for anything that would cast doubt on the legitimacy of the electoral process.
This is especially true in post-conflict and transitional states, as we have seen over the past two years in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Kenya, Nigeria, Moldova, Thailand and Pakistan. The allegations of electoral fraud that have plagued these and many other countries recently not only derail the political progress being made, they often results in bloody political violence.
The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), which has assisted in electoral law reform, election administration, election complaint adjudication, and voter education around the globe for over two decades, has developed a groundbreaking framework for identifying, preventing, and repairing the damage from electoral fraud. This project is the work of three of the world’s most respected election experts, Professor Rafael Lopez-Pintor, Dr. Staffan Darnolf, and Alan Wall. This systematic framework for attacking all aspects of electoral fraud will be presented in a series of white papers to be issued in the fall of 2010.
Electoral fraud is only one of many forms of political corruption, but it is also the most insidious and harmful to the democratic process. That is because unlike corruption in the form of graft, embezzlement, nepotism or cronyism, electoral fraud directly undermines the integrity of the vote, and as a result can cloud the legitimacy of an entire governmental system.
IFES and its electoral experts agree that building voter confidence in the electoral process in general and in the Electoral Management Body (EMB) in particular is the strongest defense against electoral fraud. Confidence in the credibility of the process leads to confidence in the legitimacy of the government, which in turn leads to increased respect for transparency, openness, and the rule of law. When devising a program against electoral fraud, however, different sectors, such as civil society and the legal infrastructure, must also be taken into consideration.
Further, an anti-fraud program must also contain safeguards against frivolous allegations of fraud because these types of allegations can be just as corrosive to the electoral process as actual fraud. Often, calibrating the program so that it not only detects fraud but also recognizes frivolous allegations is one of the greatest challenges.
During the years that IFES has been assisting election management bodies around the world, anti-fraud measures that address specific needs have been included in most of our programs. However, the new IFES framework will go much further as it will generate clear, tangible and actionable guidelines for how USAID and other donor agencies planning and implementing electoral support program can strengthen the anti-fraud component of its programming activities. Furthermore, it will develop practical tools for election officials when stamping out electoral fraud. To date, some countries receiving technical election assistance have been non-committal in tackling electoral fraud problems, while international assistance programs have tended to deal with specific instances of electoral fraud on an ad hoc basis. This framework will help countries better understand and break out of the cycle of fraud and lack of legitimacy and help strengthen the effectiveness of international technical election assistance.
The series of white papers will be divided into three sections, each one written by one of the three electoral experts mentioned before. Below is a summary of what each section will cover.
Fundamental Rights
The project begins with Professor Lopez-Pintor’s framework for understanding and identifying electoral fraud. Properly understood, electoral fraud is more than a simple matter of civil or criminal law. Electoral fraud infringes on the political rights that are guaranteed by international public law documents including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Under these conventions, the right to vote and participate in government is as fundamental a human right as due process of law or freedom from torture.
Any system that hopes to prevent and remedy electoral fraud must begin by approaching the problem in light of these fundamental human rights. Respect for these rights is vital to legitimizing an electoral process. This is as true in stable, mature democracies as it is in emerging democracies. Dr. Lopez-Pintor proposes a tiered model for categorizing fraud based on the stage of the electoral cycle that it occurs in, the degree to which it affects the outcome of the election, and the relative political freedom enjoyed by the voters. We can only create an effective plan for dealing with fraud once the potential for fraud has been evaluated in light of these factors.
Deterrence, Detection and Mitigation
Understanding where, when and how electoral fraud can arise is only the first step in the process. Dr. Staffan Darnolf will discuss the steps EMBs should take to deter electoral fraud. Deterring fraud before it happens is always preferable to detecting it after the fact because once electoral fraud has occurred, the disenfranchisement has already happened and the outcome of the election has already been tainted. While it may be possible to remedy the effects of electoral fraud, this may not always be the case, the remedies may be incomplete, and the underlying sociopolitical effect of undermining confidence in the legitimacy of the process has already happened.
Even if an EMB can devise an effective deterrent program, it must also be prepared to seek out electoral fraud that might have happened despite the deterrent measures. Detecting electoral fraud is not an exact science, and Dr. Darnolf offers suggestions of several methods that EMBs can use. Additionally there must be a system of remedies in place to mitigate the effects of the electoral fraud to whatever extent is possible.
The International Community
The final piece of the anti-fraud puzzle involves the role, if any, of international stakeholders, mainly international observers and technical assistants in the anti-fraud process. Alan Wall will discuss the important part that international actors and organizations can play in dealing with electoral fraud. Local laws, customs, or politics might preclude any or all organizations from taking part in the electoral process even as witnesses and matters can be further confused by the vagaries of international politics. Nonetheless, election assistance organizations have a duty to the countries they work in to do whatever they can to prevent fraud and detect attempted fraud. Anti-fraud work is as vital to the electoral process as any other step, and we at IFES and our peers at other organizations must not shy away from it.
Democratization is a long-term process, and there are no shortcuts or quick fixes that will get around that. The same is true of preventing electoral fraud: the framework IFES is preparing will not be a panacea or magic bullet, doing away with fraud overnight. Dealing with fraud is a lengthy and complex process, but IFES’ framework will provide the guidelines for true and lasting reform.