Towards sustainable observation of Myanmar elections: reforming the framework
One of the key recommendations of the Myanmar National Post-Election Conference of March 2016 was that “observers’ rights and duties should be part of the electoral laws and related by-laws”. Thus, on 1 August 2016, International IDEA and Democracy Reporting International (DRI) provided support to the Union Election Commission of Myanmar in initiating a discussion on how to enshrine the role and duties of domestic election observation to civil society organizations (CSOs). International IDEA and DRI are two of a group of organizations that are implementing the European Union-funded STEP Democracy programme in Myanmar.
The one-day workshop gathered over 30 members of the Union Election Commission (UEC), Bill Committees of the Lower and Higher Chambers of the Parliament, as well as its Legal Issues and Special Cases Commission, Myanmar civil society and electoral observation community. It was the occasion for participants to discuss opportunities that domestic observation offers to credible elections and the corresponding legal framework conducive to its realization. It also allowed for the identification of the possible contribution of domestic observation groups to each phase of the electoral cycle. It also enabled participants to exchange views on the priorities for improvement of the current legal framework related to election observation, based on international examples.
A key outcome of the workshop is that participants agreed to keep coordinating with the objective to ensure the observation of upcoming by-elections (2017) and elections (2020). There was also agreement to establish a working group to develop a set of recommendations for the amendment of the legal framework related to observation. Based on the recommendations of that UEC-International IDEA-DRI joint workshop, an actionable report will be developed to inform electoral reform efforts in the coming period.
