2015 elections: mandate protection

As its contribution to this important issue, Kaduna based Gender Awareness Trust GAT organised a Training of Trainers TOT workshop on mandate protection on January 8 2015 at the BBS Diamond Suites Kaduna. The workshop was supported by the National Endowment for Democracy and participants were drawn from Giwa, Chikun and Jemaa Local Governments, representing […]

As its contribution to this important issue, Kaduna based Gender Awareness Trust GAT organised a Training of Trainers TOT workshop on mandate protection on January 8 2015 at the BBS Diamond Suites Kaduna. The workshop was supported by the National Endowment for Democracy and participants were drawn from Giwa, Chikun and Jemaa Local Governments, representing the three senatorial districts of Kaduna State.
The event began with a welcome address from the Executive Director of GAT Dr Lydia Umar who welcomed participants and outlined the objectives of the workshop which are:  To summarize the roles of election stakeholders and the steps of the electoral process within the legal framework of the Electoral Act; to outline responses and strategies the electorate can use to protect their votes from fraudulent and corrupt electoral practices; and to offer ideas for interacting with election management bodies, security forces, political parties, election observers, community leaders, and the media to air grievances and seek remedies for electoral fraud.
 She highlighted the importance of elections in deepening democracy and emphasized that voters in various communities should be provided with the skills they require to make informed decisions and to understand the roles of all the stakeholders in election administration.
As the workshop facilitator, I led the participants through setting ground rules for a participatory and successful workshop. I also reminded participants that they would be replicating the training in their communities and urged them to keep this in mind and enrich the workshop by sharing their knowledge with all participants. There were three plenary sessions and another three for group work after which participants reported the outcome of their discussions. The sessions were on Protecting your Mandate through Holding Election Stake holders Accountable, the Pre and Post Election Phases of Activities and the first session which was an Introduction to Democracy, Elections and Mandate Protection.
I started it with a brainstorming session to elicit participants’ views on the topic. The workshop then explored definitions of democracy and linked it with elections as means of influencing the process of governance. ‘Democracy simply means “people authority” or power of the people. It could be defined as the “the government of the people, by the people and for the people”. It is a type of government in which eligible citizens have the right to contribute to making policies and laws affecting their lives. Here, the citizens are considered as the centrepiece and their opinions, voices and contributions are essential in making laws and policies that govern them. The citizens influence these by choosing their representatives through periodic elections’. Also discussed were the fundamental principles that cut across the various forms of democracy. They include: active and quality participation by all citizens, freedom of association, speech and movement, equality before the law and level playing field for all members in political parties. These generated a lively discussion as participants cited the paradox of the absence of internal democracy within the political parties from the ward to national levels. They also mentioned several examples of manipulation in choice of delegates, imposition of candidates by money bags and some king makers within the parties and outright disregard of the party’s rules by its own members. Other vital principles of democracy which also suffer varying levels of infringement are multiparty system, electoral competition; respect of fundamental human rights the rule of law, transparency and accountability.
Democracy is thus a political system of governance that, through a number of democratic institutions and procedures, secures its citizens a range of civil and political liberties and regularly allows them to participate and compete in free and fair elections.
           On elections, the workshop identified it as the process of making choices of representatives of the people and underscored the need for it to be free, fair and credible because through it the people are able to communicate their aspirations to the candidates and use it to also hold their elected officials to account based on performance and the promise made.
          On mandate protection, the workshop defined it as   the ‘relationship between the people’s votes and the outcomes of an election; people’s votes and their participation in the electoral process represent their giving consent to the candidates for whom they vote to govern on their behalf.
Candidates who win a majority of votes are considered to have won the people’s mandate to govern. The people’s right to choose and reject representatives at the ballot box should be respected, and participating in an election is a fundamental right. However, it is also citizens’ responsibility to engage in the electoral process, to stand up against malpractice, and to ensure that the elections in their country are meaningful.
To “protect the people’s mandate” refers to the combination of mobilizing and organizing citizens to insist that election stakeholders operate within the law and monitoring, exposing, and challenging election fraud and abuse at every step in the electoral process. Effective mandate protection is not an individual effort or event; it too is a process, which demands ongoing communication among civil society and election management bodies, police, political parties, and the media to air grievances and seek remedies for electoral fraud.’ Participants developed action plans for replicating the training at community level.