Apr 24, 2023 | news
As the post-election phase is an integral part of any democratic elections, CECOE is observing the post-election environment in parts of the country where elections and referendums were held on 30 September 2021.
CECOE is conducting the post-election environment observation by deploying 50 highly trained observers. Using the checklist, they are provided with, the observers will assess if there are disputes over the probity of the election process or complaints on the official results. Furthermore, due to the nature of election cycles communicating elections and referendum results may be a long-drawn-out process. This characteristic of elections makes post-election observation instrumental in the bid to observe elections systematically.
CECOE’s post-election observation will last for three consecutive weeks, and during this period each observer will send six observation reports to the data center. Once all the data collected from observers, it will be cleaned, organized and analyzed using the Apollo software. The findings of the post-election observation will be incorporated in CECOE’s final election report and announced to all germane stakeholders and the general public in the coming few weeks.
Apr 24, 2023 | news
As part of its efforts to set an exemplary election observation system in Ethiopia, CECOE established an Election Situation Room (ESR) in which it received and analyzed election observation data sent via text from observers.
It is to be recalled that CECOE deployed close to 1000 observers to observe the September 30 elections and referendum. On the voting day, the observers, who went through meticulous training on election observation and reporting, were sending observation data to the ESR in real-time. Over 40 data – clerks who were working in two shifts were also receiving, organizing and analyzing the received data. The data was analyzed using Apollo software and the findings were communicated to media outlets, members and partners on 2 October 2021.
The Election Situation room was visited by many stakeholders including Danish Ambassador to Ethiopia Ms. Kira Smith Sindbjerg, representatives from the UK, Finish, USAid, Irish and French embassies. The visitors were briefed upon arriving at the situation room. . The visitors commended what CECOE has done in order to observe the election systematically and professionally.
Apr 24, 2023 | news
On 27 August 2021, top management members of Ethiopian Media Council visited the Coalition of Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations for Election – CECOE Media Monitoring Unit (MMU). The visiting delegation was composed of well-known media executives, inter alia, such as Amare Aregawi, founder and owner of the leading Ethiopian private newspaper ‘The Reporter’; Tamirat Hailu the founder and managing editor of Kumneger Media. The purpose of the visit was to forge a partnership whereby the two organizations share expertise and resources.
CECOE strongly believes that the media is one of the cornerstones of a solid democratic system. Taking this into account, CECOE’s MMU has been monitoring and analyzing election related media coverage of 7 selected media outlets. The selection was made based on their reach, legal status and linguistic diversity.
Public Televisions: ETV + ETV languages (only from 2 to 4 pm), Amhara Media C and OBN TV.
Private Televisions: Fana BC, Walta and OBS
The unit was set up with financial and technical support from European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES), one of CECOE’s key partners. With its 9 seasoned media professionals, the unit has been monitoring election media reports in 5 languages. During the election and post-election periods, the unit monitored hate speech or inflammatory language – either reported on or originating from the media themselves – to assess whether the media acted as agents of pacification or rather contributed to increase any potential tensions related to the elections. In order to understand and interpret the performance of the media, the monitors also observed the use of social media by political actors during the campaign.
During the visit the council’s representatives had a fruitful discussion with CECOE and ECES representatives on ways of capacitating media professionals in the areas of election reporting, good governance and media monitoring. Thus, an agreement was reached to organize a series of training and experience sharing forums.
Apr 24, 2023 | news
On 6 September 2021, Coalition of Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations for Election – CECOE gave training of trainers to its lead trainers who will train election observers. The observers will observe the upcoming elections slated to be held in SNNPR, Somali and Harari regional states on 30 September 2021. The lead trainers have been trained on how to train short term observers to observe and report the election day process.
Checklists and critical incidents form are developed to enable the trainers and observers to capture raw data about the elections process in a systematic manner. On election day, the collected data will be sent to the Addis Ababa data center via text message for further analysis and data cleaning. Once the analysis and data cleaning processes are completed, CECOE will announce its observation findings to key stakeholders: National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), Media and Partners.
In the coming few weeks, the lead trainers will be travelling to each training location in the Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s Region SNNPR, Harari and Somali regional states to provide trainings to observers.
It is to be recalled that in the first rounds of elections polling did not take place in some constituencies. Elections did not take place in Somali and Harari regions while parts of Oromia, Amhara, and SNNP regions were also left with the same fate. The South West referendum was also postponed.
Background
The Coalition of Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations for Elections(CECOE) is a collaboration of networks of Civil Society Organizations with focus on electoral support in Ethiopia through promoting citizens’ participation and free elections. Driven by its desire to serve in the prevention, mitigation and management of election-related conflicts and potential violence in the run up to, and following the coming elections, CECOE works in all regions and city administrations to enhance the institutional capacity that enables member organizations to engage in voters and civic education and election observations.
Apr 24, 2023 | news
On 7 August 2021, CECOE gave trainings to its Long-Term Observers (LTO) drawn from different Zones and Woredas where the second phase of elections is scheduled to be held in September 2021. The major objective of the training was to familiarize the observers with the CECOE’s election observation and reporting methodologies. Once the LTOs have completed their trainings, they will observe the different phases of the second-round elections: voter registration, voting and post-election.
Long-term observation is the more effective method, as the observation group acquires knowledge of the context within which voting and the counting takes place. Observers can thus provide more informed opinions on the election outcomes and more comprehensive guidance on relevant future improvements.
One of the core values of CECOE is inclusion, which covers the vital role that women play in political and election processes. The coalition strives to attain and sustain gender equality in all its election observation activities. As a result, in many of the trainings provided by CECOE women represent a significant number of trainees.
