ADR Case Study: Guatemala

This case study shows how a targeted ADR-type initiative led by the EMB (here, specifically for security issues) and good inter-institutional coordination can be valuable resources to prevent conflict and fight impunity in elections.

During several recent elections, the EMB (the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, or TSE) has led the Inter-Institutional Technical Working Group on Election Security. The working group brings together various public bodies to monitor, map, prevent, and resolve electoral conflicts.190 It covers the close of voter registration, candidate registration, and materials delivery, as well as voting and counting. Trained TSE inspectors at the national, departmental, and municipal levels take on a coordination role in the working group together, with TSE structures at all levels, the police, prosecutors, security forces, and other government agencies. Together they monitor and map the risks of electoral conflicts using information from their on-the-ground presence, media monitoring, and tracking where violations of the electoral law are alleged to have taken place. In 2019, an app was launched, allowing members of the public to report violations to the working groups, including unlawful campaign materials. The majority of the cases are localized community disputes between rival parties and their supporters.

The inspectors coordinate the prevention and resolution of all such conflicts, ensuring the appropriate bodies are tasked as necessary. The inspectors are trained in mediation, analysis and transformation of conflicts, and constructive communication techniques. They seek to resolve conflicts before they become formal complaints that go through the established EDR system (in which complaints are determined by different levels of the TSE), thus reducing the burden on the TSE. The multi-agency coordination has also been helpful in tackling impunity for electoral crimes, by ensuring that relevant cases are passed to the specialist electoral prosecutors quickly.

Citations

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190 Memoria de Elecciones Generales 2019. (2019). Tribunal Supremo Electoral Guatemala. https://www.tse.org.gt/images/memoriaselec/me2019.pdf