Voter Education Expert

The current support to Zambia's electoral cycle aims to consolidate the gains made by the 2009-2014 electoral cycle project, and the wider UNDP programmatic support areas such as the design and testing of the Electronic Information Management System (EIMS), support to the National Assembly of Zambia, Human Rights and the promotion of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). After the successful implementation of the 2015 Presidential elections there is impetus for a new project to (i) build on the capacity developed in the Zambian electoral administration (ii)  focus on assisting the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) implement the remainder of its 2010-2015 Strategic Plan and (iii) support its planning for 2016 to 2020. In its present Strategic Plan, ECZ commits itself to three Strategic Directions: Enhancing the electoral process; strengthening the institutional and organisational capacity of the ECZ; and, institutionalising the independence of the ECZ.

The new Programme intends to support ECZ and other stakeholders in supporting the organisation of the 2016 tripartite elections due to take place on 11th August whilst also ensuring electoral support beyond the elections themselves. Certain activities in the current programme workplans are specifically relevant to the pre-electoral phase, such as voter education, voter registration and support to dispute resolution mechanisms. Other foreseen activities will be largely tackled after the electoral event itself, such as the decentralisation of ECZ, the capacity building of electoral parties and ECZ's long-term strategic planning

Voter education is a key element of disseminating information to all eligible voters and is a key function of ECZ.  On-going efforts in this area of activity are essential if the worrisome trend of decreasing voter turnout is to be addressed. ECZ was supported during the 2015 Presidential Election with the printing of voter education materials that had been developed during the electoral cycle 2009-2014 project.  The streamlining and reduction of the time to release results during the 2011 Elections to within 48 hours was as a result of support that had been provided towards the development of a New Voting, Counting and Procedures Guide.

Furthermore, the Voter Education Strategy developed back in November 2011 was informed by the USAID Voter Education Needs Assessment published in July 2011. This strategy resulted in developing materials that were deemed more user-friendly to communicate including a reference manual, a facilitator’s guide, a 15-topic Flip Chart and a series of 8 posters. The posters were translated into the 7 main local languages. The changes to the Voter Education Materials addressed the gaps identified in International and Domestic Observer Mission Reports during the 2006 and subsequent 2008 Elections. It transpires that voting errors in the 2011 Elections reduced to 1.43% compared to 1.8%  in the 2006 General Elections.

The Commission’s information on the success of these voter education tools remains limited to the garnering of data of the interventions implemented by the 1,422 Voter Education Facilitators (VEFs), 103 District Voter Education Committees (DVECs) and the single National Voter Education Committee (NVEC). There is currently an inability to determine the effectiveness of the voter education campaign through these different structures by the ECZ until only after an election takes place during post-election reviews