Knowledge empowers democracy

What started back in 1998 as a project to make material on elections available worldwide – the Administration and Cost of Elections (ACE) Project – has become the most dynamic collection of information in its field, currently accessed on the internet by 1.2 million visitors per year. Now called the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network, the project provides a platform for global, regional, national, governmental and non governmental players to share expertise on electoral management.

How big should a polling station be in relation to the number of voters it serves? What size budget is required for voter registration? What is the best format for ballot papers? What needs to happen to allow for voting from abroad?

These are all questions ACE can provide answers to, or a range of options on. “The goal is not to provide election professionals with a prescription of what to do,” explains Ola Pettersson, Assistant Programme Officer at International IDEA, “but to facilitate informed decisions.”

And, as if ACE isn’t encyclopaedic enough, it is constantly being expanded and updated. Most of this work is done by the ten ACE Regional Electoral Resource Centres located throughout the world. These Centres ensure that ACE is a living, growing resource by adding material based on developments in their own regions and in their own languages.

Adding to its appeal is the facility for people to obtain advice direct from some 200 electoral experts located around the world. For example, when the Zimbabwean Electoral Support Network (ZESN) sought guidance in 2009 on what constituted fair rules for appointing a new electoral commission, they used that advice to put pressure on the government.

IDEA is one of the original ACE partners, hosting the secretariat and continuing to participate in its growth. The present partners include the Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa (EISA), Elections Canada, the Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico (IFE), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the UN Department for Social Affairs (UNDESA), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Electoral Assistance Division (UNEAD), with the European Commission as an ex-officio member.

ACE is supplemented by other web based resources developed by IDEA and its partners such as the Voter Turnout database, a statistical compilation of voter turnout in all presidential and parliamentary elections since 1945, the iKNOW Politics (International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics) network that aims at increasing the participation and effectiveness of women in political life, among others (see box).