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The Coalition of Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations for Elections (CECOE) was established in 2019 with the aim of augmenting and coordinating the role of Ethiopian CSOs in election observation – monitoring, voter education and preventing post-electoral conflicts. Following its establishment, the CECOE opened a new chapter in the country’s CSO sector by systematically observing the Sidama referendum which took place in the same year of the coalition’s establishment. Building upon this experience, during the 6th Ethiopian general elections the coalition had implemented several seminal projects that tectonically shifted the role of Ethiopian CSOs in electoral processes.

During the Sixth National and Regional Elections of Ethiopia, CECOE recruited and deployed over 3,500 long-term and short-term observers to nine regional states and two city administrations which participated in the June and September 2021 elections as well as the South West Ethiopia referendum for a status of statehood. Furthermore, the Coalition implemented a media monitoring initiative which monitored election related information on seven selected mass media outlets, 40 political party social media accounts and 40 CSO organisations. In addition, the coalition also reached over 25 million online users and several million citizens using mainstream media outlets in its voter information and education program.CECOE also coordinated the financing of voter education campaigns implemented by its members, securing over ETB 1,200,000.00 for VE activities in different regions. 

CECOE has also successfully observed the referendum that was held in the six zones and five special woredas of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region (SNNPR) in February 2023. In a bid to systematically observe this referendum, the CECOE recruited, trained and deployed 434 stationary and 76 mobile observers.

Based on its elections and referendum observation findings and studies.., CECOE engages  stakeholders in the public and CSO sectors in several electoral reform and advocacy activities. . To that end, the Coalition has organised several consultation forums, validation workshops, published policy briefs and commentaries, produced and aired tv advertsisments. 

Currently, CECOE is working on a wide array of short-term and long-term programs related to elections, good governance, peacebuilding. One of the projects that comes at the forefront in this regard is the “Women Political Participation” project which CECOE co-implemented with Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) with a fund secured from the European Union.