Election observers have raised concerns over their safety and security during the observation of international elections. Africa has a long history of political instability and electoral violence and there are fears that foreign observers could become targets.
As such, election observers play a crucial role in ensuring free and fair elections.
Speaking during the ongoing Election Watch Symposium to discuss challenges and recommendations for safer, more transparent, and credible elections in Africa, Election Support Network of Southern Africa (ESN-SA) Secretariat Rindai Chipfunde emphasized the need to ensure that observers are adequately protected during elections as they remain vulnerable to attacks and threats.
“Electoral security – especially that of observers – remains a primary cause for concern in Southern Africa.
“This conference is important for improving electoral integrity by bringing together some of Africa’s most experienced electoral integrity experts to address the fundamental challenges around electoral insecurity, disinformation, political finance transparency, inclusivity, and competitiveness of elections – all concerns that the Election Support Network has raised time and again,” Chipfunde said.
As election season approaches, which will see 10 African countries going to polls to elect new presidents in 2023, the safety of election observers will remain a top priority for international organizations and regional governments.
The success of free and fair elections on the continent will depend on the ability of observers to carry out their important work without fear of violence or intimidation.
During elections, poll observers face increased risks of attack, both physically and online, which is a growing concern for ESN-SA.
The UN Special Rapporteurs directly call on UN Member States to provide election observers with the same protections afforded to other human rights defenders.
As such Member States “should therefore enable independent and impartial election observation by all monitors, including from abroad.”
The Special Rapporteurs further explicitly urged Member States to “take all necessary steps to establish conditions that allow national and international election observers to effectively do their work, and to protect them from any violence, threats, retaliation, adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of the legitimate exercise of their rights and freedoms.”
The statement was issued marking the 17th anniversary of the first commemoration of the Declaration of Principles (DoP) for International Election Observation and 10 years since the commemoration of the Declaration of Global Principles (DoGP) for Nonpartisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Organizations
Meanwhile, International Republican Institute (IRI) Senior Advisor for Elections, Jessica Keegan lamented how corruption is affecting the electoral processes and subsequently tarnishing the election outcomes in the region.
“Holding routine elections is now the norm across most of sub-Saharan Africa, but concerns remain over campaign corruption and violence,” said Keegan.
“Southern Africa has the potential to lead in peaceful, multi-party elections, but corruption, lack of transparency, and misinformation undermine fairness and public confidence in electoral outcomes, which the ESN network is working to address,” she added.
The Election Support Network of Southern Africa (ESN-SA) is a regional network of fifteen non-governmental organizations working in elections in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, established in January 1998.
