Last Thursday morning, IDEA’s Myanmar country Head of Office Jorge Valladares walked into the IDEA office at the Union Election Commission in Naypyitaw to find makeshift beds and half-drunk cups of coffee. The team had been up all night working with UEC staff to scrutinize election observers, and they had no plans of quitting anytime soon.
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom continues to support credible, transparent and inclusive elections in Myanmar.
As part of STEP Democracy, FNF and four local partners – Naushawng Education Network, Hornbill Organization, Scholar Institute and Myanmar Egress – have distributed 8,000 educational cartoon books, 1,000 DVDs, and 1,000 voter education manuals. The cartoon books alone reached approximately 200,000 members of the public. In September, 50 voter education trainings were conducted reaching approximately 3,000 participants in nine states and regions.
FNF and its local partners are gathering steam online as well. There have been more than 10,000 downloads of voter educational materials and 45,000 followers on Facebook. Furthermore, the Civic and Voter Education Training Manual and an additional voter information cartoon book have been selected by Wun Zinn Mobile Reader Application Company for a mobile app that reaches more than 50,000 people daily.
DIPD: electoral agents trained around the country
All the STEP Democracy partners have been extremely busy in the weeks and months running up to the elections, and the Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy was no exception. In the third quarter of 2015, DIPD participated and contributed to regular UEC-parties consultation meetings on top of organizing a series of outreach sessions, “Preparing Political Parties for the Election” and “Election Observation and Multi-Party Dialogue”, in both Myitkhina and Mandalay.
In the meantime, DIPD trained polling agents in several regions and states. The one and a half day training program focused on helping polling agents perform their duties in areas where there are likely to be few observers, including Sagaing, Ayayarwady, Kachin, Shan and Chin. Other targets include the well-observed but critical cities of Mandalay and Bago. DIPD also supported the printing and distribution of 20,200 copies of the IRI’s polling agents manual, a useful tool for party candidate agents on election day.
MID releases election coverage report
On November 6, just two days prior to the elections, the Myanmar Institute for Democracy (MID) released its third media monitoring report, in cooperation with STEP Democracy partner Democracy Reporting International. A final report on media election coverage will be released within two weeks after the election.
In possibly the most ambitious media monitoring project in Myanmar to date, MID monitored four state-owned and one independent broadcaster, six radio stations, ten daily and weekly news journals and several current affairs websites. The report plays critical a critical role in ensuring an accountable and effective state media that strengthens the cause of freedom in Myanmar.
