strategy against proxy and family voting

8/3/2019 Strategy Against Proxy and Family Voting

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STOPFAMILY AND PROXY VOTING

STATE ELECTION COMMISSION


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Skopje, December 2010


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This is a product of the:

Centre for Research and Policy Making and the State Electoral Commission

The Strategy is a product of the project My vote my decision, which is being implementedby the Center for Research and Policy Making in partnership with the Women Civic InitiativeANTICO and supported by the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights of theEuropean Commission.

Project coordinator:Marija Risteska, PhDSanja Vrbek, MES

Project assistant:Bashkim Bakiu, MA

Analyst:Ana Mickovska Raleva, MPhill

Communications ofcer:Riste Zmejkoski

We would like to appreciate to all the participants involved in the consultative process about

the analysis. The list of consulted institutions and organizations is annexed to the strategy.

Layout: Stefan Nikolovski | [email protected]

Published by:

Center for Research and Policy MakingCico Popovic 6-2/9 1000, Skopje

l/fax +389 3109932www.crpm.org.mk | [email protected]


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CONTENTS

1 Introduction 1

1.1. Reasons for developing a Strategy against family and proxy voting 11.2 Goal of the Strategy 5

2 Analysis of the Situation 6

2.1 Previous activities 6

2.2 Problems identied 7

2.3 Factors of inuence 9

2.4 Target groups 15

3 Action platform in m astering the fam ily and prox y voting problem 17

4 Anex

List of consulted stakeholders in the process of making the Strategy against

family and proxy voting

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union.The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the Center forResearch and Policy Making and can in no way be taken to reect the views ofthe European Union.


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Strategy a ga inst family and proxy voting

4

1INTRODUCTION

1.1. Reasons for developing a Strategy against family andproxy voting

Ever since 1998, when they were noticed for the rst time, family and proxy votinghave been seen as negative features of the election process in Macedonia. These phenomenaundermine the democratic capacity of the country and make it impossible for elections to becarried according to the democratic and international standards.

The State Election Commission (further: SEC) recognizes this problem as a matter ofgreat importance, which should be handled appropriately and efciently until it is eradicated.The current condition impairs the free exercise of the rights of particular group of citizens(these are mostly marginalized women from the rural parts in western Macedonia). Conse-quently, it has a negative impact on their equal status, as well as on their unhindered practiceof civil and democratic rights.

At present, there is no strategy that would lay down a clear and denite frameworkfor addressing this problem. Measures that have been undertaken untill now were only theones initiated by foreign donors in cooperation with the relevant institutions.

To insure its leadership position in ghting the problem and to allow sustainability ofthe measures undertaken for this matter, the SEC has initiated the process of formulating aNational Strategy against Family and Proxy Voting1. Its aim is to ensure a consistent frame-work for all government and donor projects that address the family and proxy voting problem.

The National Strategy has been created through a transparent and participative pro-cess. At the same time, it aimed to involve all relevant factors at its production, as well as tointegrate all aspects and factors causing the problem.

1 The National Strategy against Family and Proxy Voting came out of the project My vote My decision, stop the family

and proxy voting, nanced by the European Commission through the Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights(EIDHR) in partnership with the Center for Research and Policy Making, the Women Civic Initiative - Antico and theState Election Commission (SEC).


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STOPfamily and p roxy voting

1.2. Goal of the Strategy

The Strategy against family and proxy voting is a general document that expresses theintention of the SEC policy to surpass the problem of family and proxy voting. It builds uponthe experiences of the previous projects in the eld.

Its goal is to provide a framework of continuous activities that will be actualized di-rectly or indirectly by all the concerned parties and to adequately address the causes of thisproblem for the period 2010-2012, i.e. till the next parliamentary elections. Therefore, theStrategy responds to the expectations that this problem must be dealt continuously, way be-fore the election cycle take place.

The Strategy promotes these values:

Participation, which reects itself in the involvement of all concerned parties in the processof producing, delivering and implementing the Strategy;

Equal opportunities for all people (men and women) in free exercise of their voting rights;

Sustainabil ity or feasibility and continuity in the process dealing with the problem of familyand proxy voting;

Leadership , recognized in the role of SEC as a leading and coordinating actor in the pro-cesses of implementing the Strategy and at the same time inuencing and stimulating all

concerned parties to contribute in the effectiveness and success of the Strategy.

This Strategy has three specic goals:

1. To provide detailed analysis of the condition regarding the factors which inu-ence the occurrence of the problem, as well as of the successes or failures ofthe former activities in surmounting it.

2. To provide action platform in dealing with the problem. It resembles an ac-tion plan that envisions activities, expected results and achieved impacts with theimplementation of the mentioned activities. This action plan is not a wish list , buta concrete agenda proposing feasible activities that will be implemented not only

by SEC, but also by partner institutions and organizations. In this matter SEC is go-ing to be responsible for the coordination of the activities mentioned in the actionplan, for monitoring and evaluating the implementation as well as for suggestingrevision of the action plan every year, according to the data obtained by followingand evaluating of the implementation.

3. To serve as a platform for cooperation with different stakeholders that will ap-pear as partners of SEC in the Strategys implementation.


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For a while, Macedonia cannot overcome the negative assessments of the electoralprocess in terms of enabling a permanent and free voting in certain election districts. Thisstate of affairs is commonly registered in the reports of OBSE/ODIHR2, by the parliamentaryelections observation missions of the European Council, as well as from the international re-ports that inform about the status of women3 etc.

Family and proxy voting became noticeable at the beginning of the 1990s, as a nega-tive trait of the Central and Eastern Europes4 newly formed democracies facing the hugechallenge of transition from communist regime to plural liberal democracy.

This Strategy uses the term family voting as dened by the Council of Europe. It re -fers to the practice of a male heads of family inuencing other family members, in particularwomen, in the course of voting. Family voting occurs in three ways: by a male family mem-ber accompanying one of more women relatives into a polling booth group voting; familygroups voting together in the open open voting; and a male family member obtaining ballotpapers on behalf of family members- principally female relatives, and marking them as hesees t proxy voting

2.1. Previous activ ities

In the last seven years around 15 projects aiming to deal (among other things) withthe family and proxy voting problem have been implemented. The activities have reacheddirectly to 100.000 people through educative workshops, focus groups, direct door-to-doorapproach etc. Almost all projects included indirect measures of approaching to the target

2 Statement of preliminary ndings and conclusions, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Presidential and Mu-nicipal Elections, First Round - 22 March 2009, International election observation mission; Statement of preliminaryndings and conclusions, Election Observation Mission The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Presidential andMunicipal Elections, Second Round, 5 April 2009; etc.

3 UN Commission for Elimination of Women Discrimination, Closing comments of the Commission for Elimination ofWomen Discrimination: Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, February 3th 2006.4 Consolidated response on the prevention of family voting, International knowledge network of women in politics.

2ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION


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group, for instance through campaigns for raising the public awareness about the problem.This approach used primarily informative yers as a means for reaching out to the public,but sometimes involved also more complex activities, such as contents delivered by the massmedia (TV and radio advertisements, etc). Nevertheless, the number of citizens to whom themessage has reached cannot be precisely determined, because such evaluation of the activi-ties inuence has never been made. Most of the regions covered with these activities arelocated in the western part of Macedonia (Tetovo, Tearce, Zelino, Debar, Rostuse, Struga etc.)where the family voting problem occurs most frequently, according to the reports of the civicassociationMOST and SEC. But, part of the activities were conducted also in eastern Macedo-nia (for example, Sveti Nikole), although there have not been any ofcially registered cases offamily voting.

The latest project I have a right to vote civic education for women and childrenand One voter one vote implemented by UNDP in the 2007-2009 period had the followinggoals: (i) to raise the question of family and proxy voting within the political agenda throughseminars series on high level with the relevant factors; (ii) to increase the capacity of the au-

thorized institutions that work on the elections as well as of other participators that inuencethe process; (iii) to raise the voters awareness.

Noticeable about the projects dealing with this problem in the last 7 years is that theyput an accent on the awareness raising issue and work with the marginalized groups, po-tential victims of family voting. However, the issue of family and proxy voting is usually raisedbefore elections, when solid public response is achieved. The UNDP activities were successful,especially in the part ofraising the question on the political agenda and its actualiza-tion. The shortcomings of the projects made in the past few years about this issue is plannedto be overcome with the Strategys proposed activities that refer mainly to: (i) l imited cover-

age of the political parties as factors/abettors that inuence the family and proxy votingphenomenon; (ii) including election rights contents with in the civic education in thehigh schools; (iii) strengthening the sanctions.

2.2 Problems identied

The undertaken activities most often imply direct approach to the target group, ac-companied with awareness raising campaigns by distributing promoting materials etc. Never-theless, there is usually a lack of systematic evaluation of the effects of such activities . Theachieved results are given either in a technical format (e.g. XX women informed about theirvoting rights, XX ayers distributed etc.) or arbitrarily (e.g. the women are more aware abouttheir rights as voters), without being measured and without evaluating the inuence of theactivities . Pre- and post-evaluation, which would accurately assess what the program effectsare, is not made.

Another problem that is encountered is the lack ofinterest of the media. Thepublic awareness campaigns are mostly accepted by the media (with no need of nancialcompensation) in the period just before the elections, while the issue is not considered to beinteresting in the non-election periods, although continuous reporting and promoting of thesubject is crucial for the change of the attitudes and habits.


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The dissonant action of the system institutions about the problem is often seen as adifculty in actualizing the activities and following the effects. Same goes for the negligence ofthe issue evident in its sweeping under the carpet and not paying attention to dealing with it.

Likewise, the problem of reaching out to the most m arginalized groups of

women is often highlighted as a key factor, so it is not clear if the persons covered with theactivities are in fact members of such groups.

The informative materials that are distributed as yers or printed messages onitems are often in written form , what hinders the message to get through to the illiterate,who are most affected with this problem. Also, they usually speak to the w omen , under-estimating the role of men as instigators of the problem.

Given that most covered places with the activities are those in rural areas, the im-pression is that urban settlements are omitted , which are also inhabited by marginalizedgroups (for example, Gypsies), as well as those regions where proxy voting pressured by the

political parties is noticed.

The political parties, although recognized as one of the main initiators of the prob-lem, have not been involved as a group in the projects. Besides the Code for fair anddemocratic elections that has been signed by all political parties in Macedonia and whichcondemns the practice of family and proxy voting, within different projects female parliamen-tary representatives were approached discussing the problem as a women issue, there areno activities that would involve the higher instances from the parties in the process. Anotherdeciency can be stressed here, namely that the participation of the female representativeswas limited to forums, held on a higher level and therefore had no impact on the marginalized

groups, potential victims of the family or proxy voting. The position and the authority of thefemale representatives, although is a positive example for women success story, were notutilized for the purpose of delivering the message to the most marginalized women in ruralareas.

When we talk about the direct approach to the target groups, the duration of theactivities in the form of trainings or forums is often short and lasts no longer than one dayand is insufcient for achieving serious goals, for example, changing the attitude of the peo-ple included within the activities. On the other hand, it is not clear if the media campaigns,which are intended to constantly discuss the issue, reach the target group at all, and even

more important, it is not clear whether they are properly understood. Additionally, thecomplete duration of the projects is relatively short, which hinders in achieving greatereffects, as well as securing enough time for valuation of the inuence.

It can be noticed that there is a lack ofactivities undertaken for achieving sus-tainabil ity of the projects (e.g. involving the activities in the state institutions programs) anda lack of actual mechanism in monitoring the progress. Therefore, a recommendation for thefuture is to work in collaboration with the authorized institutions in order to secure budget re-sources for continuous training, awakening of the public opinion and including larger numberof institutions working on the problem.


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2.3 Factors of inuence

This phenomenon of family and proxy voting is often ascribed to post-conict societ-ies, divided by ethnic, regional and social differences5. In such context most group membersare voting for a candidate from their own community/group to protect themselves from theothers. Usually, in the rural parts of these societies a prominent group representative, whois supported and respected among their own, decides which candidate should be supportedby the citizens of that place. Family and proxy voting thus becomes a safe tool for deliveringelectoral support. In this sense, the pressure from the community/group imposed on its mem-bers, intended to hold the group as compact as possible, is considered to be stronger than thevalue of the secrecy of the voting process for them. At this point another problem emerges- the level of internal democracy in the political parties, which are the main generator of theproblem. Namely, the less party hierarchy there is, there are also less expectations that thelocal powerful persons will try to prove themselves in front of their leaders with the numberof votes they have collected in their districts. So the election violence (and family and proxyvoting are considered as such type) will be replaced with the power of the arguments in front

of the electorate, but inside the party structure not by implying electoral violence in order togather votes.

In the case of Macedonia we can recognize most of the aforementioned factors:deeply divided society along ethnic lines, which is reected on the political scene, patriarchalrural areas where women are disadvantaged compared to men due to their unfavorable socialand economic position, intra-party democratic deciency (a common characteristic for all ofthem is the administration of a strong leader who practices their power from above).

The table mirrors the exact picture of the factors that inuence the family voting prob-

lem and the measures undertaken by now for its preventing and eliminating.

5 Ibid.


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Factor6Possible measures for

improvement 7Temporary situation in Macedonia

Weakele

ctorallegislativeframew

ork,whichhindersthepossibilityofhaving

astrongan

dadequateprotectionm

echanismf

orpreventing

familyvotingaswell

asotherviolatio

nsoftheelectionprocess

Reforming the electoral leg-islation in the direction ofstrengthening the mechanismsfor ensuring that voting will besecret and inviolable; adoptinga regulation that determines theaccess to the polls as well asacts that claim voting as person-al and that only one person canstand behind the polling booth;strictly forbidding open voting;establishing easy implemented

sanctions for the violators whopractice family voting, open vot-ing and all other activities, whichintrude the voting secrecy ortry to inuence the voter in anyother way; training the electionadministration for implementingthe new procedures etc.

The Macedonian election legislative isgenerally positively evaluated in termsof guaranteeing the secrecy and invio-lability of the voting (a. 3; a. 40; a. 273etc. from the Criminal Code). The mainproblem is recognized in the inefcientimplementation of the law in this part.8Article 107 strongly forbids voting forother person (except for the cases an-ticipated by the law, article 112).Article 108 clearly states that the votersapproach for voting one by one.

Because of some allegations of cellularphones and camera misuse at the lastelections 2009, SEC9 has forbidden theiruse in the polls. However the imple-mentation of this instruction is hard tofollow. 10

With the Criminal law (a. 160; 161; 163)and the Election law (a. 191) there aresanctions considered for any cases of

family and proxy voting.

The main problem here is the inefcientsanctioning. One of the reasons is thedisproportion between the sanctionsconsidered and actual offence. It leadsto the situation that judges are unwill-ing to impose a penalty in these cases.However, many times the election com-mittees are the culpable ones, becausethey dont react in a situation when thevoting secrecy is being disrupted.

6 These factors are based in these documents: Family and Proxy voting in Macedonia; ACE project, The electoral knowl-edge network, last visited on 18.05.2010. http://aceproject.org/electoral-advice/archive/questions/replies/77098994

7 Ibid.8 Consolidated response on the prevention of family voting, International knowledge network of women in politics.9 Instructions for voting, State Electoral Commission; http://www.sec.mk/images/upatstva_pravilnici/UPATSVO_ZA_

GLAS JE-06.03.2009.pdf10 Prof. Gordana Siljanovska, Viktor Ulom, Sabit Kranli, Vanja kori; Comment on the election legislative; Civic associa-tion MOST; 2009; p. 152.


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FactorPossible measures for

improvementTemporary situation in Macedonia

Weakimplem

entationbytheelectoralauthorities;lackoftrain

edrepresentatives;

enablingviolat

ionsoftheprincipleofse

crecy,

individualisma

nd

thefreedomo

fchoice

duetoth

elackofadequateandju

stimplementationofele

toralprocedures

Improvement of the electoral

procedures, clear denition ofthe forbidden and punishableacts, clear denition of theentry in the polls, issuing oneballot paper per voter, allowingapproach to the polling boothonly to one person at a time.Improvement of the electoraladministration professionalismby maintaining trainings andcapacity building activities. Pro-

duction of informative materialsfor the electoral administration,in order to distribute them at thepolls: it will send clear messagethat certain acts are forbiddenby law; production of posters/stickers that will be placed in thepolling places and will deliverthe following messages: voterswill be served one at a time,

only one voter at a time canstand at the polling booth.

At this moment a working group of the

Ministry of Justice, comprised of Ministrymembers and experts on elections isworking on amendments to the elec-tion law. These amendments shouldstrengthen the mechanism that guaran-tees secret and inviolable voting.Within the UNDP program One vote one voter, trainings were conducted forthe electoral administration.


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Lackofawa

renessofthevulnerable

partsoftheelectorateabouttheprinciples

andtherightsofsecretvotingandfreedomo

fc

hoice.

Implementation of a broadeducational campaign that willreach out to the wider public: itshould be in a position to reachthe illiterate voters by televi-sion, radio etc. With this actiona message will be sent thatno one can inuence the waypeople vote; and will use clear,direct and persuasive sloganssuch as your decision is ex-clusively yours; your vote is

secret; no one will know howyou vote; you can vote onlyin person; only one voter ata time is allowed to approachthe polling booth; your vote isyour decision, not a decision ofyour husband.

Since 2002 till today (with special con-centration of activities in the period of2008-2009) several awareness-raisingcampaigns have been carried, address-ing the marginalized groups, especiallyfor women from the rural areas, wherefamily and proxy voting occurred. It ishard to evaluate the effects of the cam-paigns, but generally it can be pointedout that the campaigns were largelyfocused on the female population,whereas the men were omitted despite

being an important factor; the outreachof the campaigns has had limited impactin terms of getting in touch with thelargest number marginalized women andmen, who are most affected with thisproblem.

A qualitative evaluation of the imple-mented campaigns is missing. Id shouldprovide estimation of the changing con-

sciousness within these groups


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Politicalpartiesas

instigatorsofthisproblem

Utilization of the political par-ties legitimacy for eradication ofthe problem. Solutions can befound in improving the internaldemocracy in the parties, as wellas making them more sensitiveregarding gender issues. Espe-cially important in this part willbe the role of women who havealready succeeded in politics.They will have to provide a posi-tive example and encourage the

self-condence of the womenvoters.

Most of the political parties have proce-dures that regulate the internal demo-cratic process. Nevertheless, the partypresidents still play the dominant rolein the parties. The participation of menin politics and in parties leadership incomparison to that of women is stillunbalanced.There is a trend of enhancing the roleof women in most of the political parties.It is seen in the fact that most of themhave appointed women to the positions

of coordinators of the parliamentarygroups. Female parliamentary represen-tatives have participated in electorateawareness raising campaigns about theproblem of family and proxy voting.Until now, the parties themselves havenot taken any measures in the battleagainst the family and proxy voting.

Factor Possible measures forimprovement

Temporary situation in Macedonia

Lowa

warenessleveloftheelectorate

aboutitsvo

tingrights

Continuous education on demo-cratic values is needed, with anemphasis on the meaning of theelections in a democratic society.The involvement of the young-est, the pupils, is the most effec-tive way for achieving long-term

results. With the increased levelof education on election rights,it is expected the problem to besolved. The research undertakenon educated women has shownthat the attempts to affect orinterfere their voting right arediminished or non-existent.

Education about the democratic values,especially about the meaning of theelections for a democratic society, hasbegun. Non-governmental organizationswith the nancial support of the EU andother donors are implementing activities.Introduction of election rights as subject

in the curriculum for primary and highschool can lead towards creation of anenvironment that systematically doesnot allow inuences on the individualsright to vote.


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The most problematic part of the former approach was that it was led by the foreigndonors and the NGO sector, with formal involvement of the authorized institutions, but with-out their substantial inuence on the process. SEC recognizes that a mindset change musthappen in order that satisfactory results can be achieved and the state institutions as bearersof change should be aware about it. These changes can only be achieved in cooperation of

the state institutions with the donors, NGO sector and the political parties.

According to the analysis made and the inuencing factors and activities, SEC hasdened the ultimate beneciaries of the National Strategy against family and proxy voting.

2.4. Target groups

1. Electionadministration

The election administration will be properly trained about therights and obligations during the election process, as well asabout the mechanism for protection of the voting inviolabilityand secrecy. The already prepared materials will be used, afterbeing properly adjusted to bring closer the theory to the electionadministration, using simulations and exercises to complementthe theory.

2. Politicalparties

Several steps will be undertaken considering the political parties:rst, work will be done on achieving gender sensitivity, from theaspect of their foundation, structure and functioning; second,they will be stimulated to become major driving force in eradica-tion of the problem. Their members should take proactive role inspreading the message against family and proxy voting amongthe electorate. Especially active contribution in this second seg-ment will be expected from the female party members, whoshould reach out to the marginalized groups of women by differ-ent types of activities on the ground and in the media.

2. Pupils/Students

Students will be educated about the democratic values, espe-cially about the meaning of the elections for a democratic soci-ety, is seen as a basis. The follwing themes must be necessarilyincorporated in the high school curriculum, as a part of thealready existent subjects: voting principles, ways of proper vot-ing, meaning of the regular elections for the democratic society,reasons for and dealing with election irregularities.


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3.Marginalizedgroups (men and

women)

Organized awareness raising campaigns for the marginalizedgroups. It is especially important for the campaigns not to beconcentrated exclusively on women, but on men as well. Thecampaigns will result from the previous activities evaluation and

based on the lessons learned from successful approaches. Thusthe campaigns level will be improved and will aim towards moredistinctive and thriving results.

4. Media

The media should be more active in terms of delivering themessages against family voting during elections, but as wellin the time between electoral cycles, when this problem is notvery appealing. In this sense, they should play educative rolein delivering the call to cherish democratic values, raising the

voters self-condence etc.


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NATIONAL STRATEGY AGAINST FAMILY AND PROXY VOTING

Target >>> Securing a comprehensive and continuous approach in solving thefamily and proxy voting problem, which should bring efcient results regardingall of the involved target groups

Time frame >>> 2010-2012

3

ACTION PLATFORM FOR MASTERINGTHE PROBLEM OF FAMILY AND PROXYVOTING


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Project Activities Target groupQualied institutions as

implementersExpected results/effects

Indicators for measuringthe success

Democratization

of political parties

____________

I mprovement of

the gender equal-ity in political

part ies

____________

Active participa-

t ion of t he pol it i -

cal part ies in th eel imination of t he

family and proxy

voting

1. Analysis of internal democracy inthe political parties (structure, deci-sion making, representation)

2. Activities to reform the acts thatinternally regulate the political par-ties, according to the analysis and therecommendations for democratization

3. Gender analysis of the politicalparties (strategic documents, plansfor gender equality improvement, as-sessment of the gender sensitivity inthe parties)

4. Gender sensitivity training for thepolitical parties (focus both on themale and female party members;training embracement on all partieslevels, especially the higher ones)

5. Field and media activities of theparties representatives with a goalto raise the awareness for combatingfamily and proxy voting, as well as

their relation to the electorate.

Political

parties

Prot and non-protorganizations

Political parties

(NGOs, Universities,Consultancy compa-nies, Political founda-tions etc.)

1. Establishing principlesof internal democracy inthe political parties

2. Raising the level ofconsciousness in politicalparties for the need ofgender sensitivity ap-

proach in their function-ing

3. Raising their con-sciousness level abouttheir proactive role incombating family andproxy voting (emphasiz-ing the problem on plat-forms, in their speechesin front of the citizensetc.)

4. Actual activities un-dertaken by the politicalparties in direction ofdelivering the messagefor family and proxy vot-ing prevention

- Quality of the strategicdocuments regarding theirgender aspect, plans forgender equality improve-ment within the parties

- Accepted and integratedsuggestions for integrat-ing the gender sensitiveprinciples

- Number of participantsat the training (includingmen and women)

- Quality training (insideand outside evaluation ofthe trainings)

- Number and type ofactivities of the partiesrepresentatives

- Position and gender ofthe representatives thatparticipated in the eldand media activities


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6. Making and broadcasting avideo advertisement in whichexamples of successful womenpoliticians will be presented (fromall political parties), to raise theself-condence of the femalevoters.

(The video will review the reasonsfor entering into political waters,dealing with problems whichwomen face, etc. The video

should be carefully prepared andit is of great importance to avoidparty advertising, stressing partysuccess or failures of the politicalrivals)

- Media presentation ofthe video

- Quality of the video

- Clearly delivered mes-sage by the video


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Project Activities Target groupQualied institutions

as implementersExpected results/ef-

fectsIndicators for measur-

ing the success

Raising the aware-

ness among mar-

ginalized groups ofcitizens victim s

or potential vict ims

of family and proxy

voting

1. Trainings with marginalizedwomen and men (specially targeted)

- Trainings with women. For thispurpose the main topic of thediscussion will be the issue questionof special interest to the women, ontopics such as women health issues,

looking after the children etc., afterwhat a discussion about political andcivic rights can be raised, with focuson the election rights and obliga-tions.

- Organized trainings for men, whichin creative way, by meeting in thelocal communities or organizationswhere the majority is comprised ofmale members (agricultural, crafts-men etc.), sets a discussion on top-ics of their interest. The discussionwill be directed towards the issuepolitical and civil rights and focusedon election rights and obligations.

2. Field awareness raising cam-paigns, door to door approachprinciple, properly made promotionmaterials

Marginalized wom-en and men fromthe election dis-tricts where familyand proxy votingwas registered asa problem

Non-prot organiza-tions

Local institutions

- Campaign coverageof the largest numberof marginalized layersof women and men

- Raised awarenessof the problem andimproved knowledge

of the election rights

- Signicant decreasingof the family and proxyvoting percentage onthe next election

- Number of organizedtrainings with womenand men

- Number of womenand men that have at-tended the trainings

- Demographic struc-ture of the trainingsparticipants

- Quality of the train-ings

- Quality of the promot-ing material

- Number of election ir-regularities (family andproxy voting) on thenext elections


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Project Activities Target group

Qualied institu-tions as imple-

mentersExpected results/effects


Raising the aware-

ness and creating

skills for appropriat ehandling of t he elec-

tion irregularities by

the election adminis-

tration

Trainings with the election adminis-tration dealing with family and proxyvoting, comprised of:

- Adapted training material on alanguage simplied and suitable ac-cording to the needs of the electionadministration

- Focus on practical exercises and

simulations during the training- Including representatives of allpolitical parties that will participatein the election committees structure

Trainings for the election administra-tion, public prosecutors ofce andthe courts that are to implementsanctions against family and proxyvoting:

- Training for trainers

- Training for discovering cases,ling of criminal charges, securingdocumentation and prosecutingcases of family and proxy voting

Electionadministration

SEC, in coopera-tion with NGOs,consultancy com-panies etc.

- Appropriate materials interms of their approachand the language used ,intended to be accept-able and understandablefor the election adminis-tration

- Quality (long term)training of the wholeelection administration

- Training participationby the parties represen-tatives who participate inthe work of the electioncommittees.

- Quality training ma-terials

- Training that coversthe whole election

administration

- Effect of the training(by following the workof the election admin-istration on the nextelections)

- Number of election ir-regularities on the nextelections


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as implementersExpected results/effects


Properly

addressed

problem of t hefamily and proxy

voting as part of

the curriculum for

civic education

- Estimation and recommendationabout the way the prepared UNDPmaterials should be integrated in thecurriculum for the high schools.

- Introducing the materials in thecurriculum for the high schools.

High school

pupils

Ministry of educationand science, Educa-tion developmentofce, high schoolsin cooperation withsubject experts

- Preparation of analysisthat will provide adequateand practical recommenda-tions for the most appro-priate integration of thedeveloped materials in thecurriculum.

- Supplementing the ma-terials with several interac-tive methods (discussions,simulations etc.)

- Enacting a decision onthe integration of thedeveloped materials in thecurriculum and its imple-mentation.

- Quality of the analysis/assessment for integrat-ing the developed mate-rials in the curriculum

- Decision taken by therelevant institutions

- Quality of the

decisions

Implementation

- Level of following therecommendations givenin the analysis/assess-ment, considering theimplementation


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Training of

journalists about

the elections issue

Training of journalists from thepolitics desks of national and localmedia in order to prepare them tobe able to report on the electionsproperly, adequately and in a neutralmanner, overcoming stereotypes

Journalists Prot/non-prot insti-tutions

(Consultancy compa-nies, NGO, expertsetc.)

- Wider focus on the familyand proxy voting problem

- Reporting without stereo-types

- Educational approach

- Number of news thatcover the problem offamily and proxy voting

- Way and quality ofreporting


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Media campaign

against fam ily

voting on locallevel

____________

National media

campaign

Joint campaign led by the localmedia on the territory of the electiondistricts where family voting tookplace. Besides video and radio clips,the campaign should tackle the issuein the informative programs (de-bates and discussions) as well as toensure discussion of the issue in theprograms that are not exclusively

informative.

Campaign on three national televi-sions (Albanian and Macedonian)which will consist of broadcastingseveral video clips throughout a lon-ger period of time. The broadcastingof the video materials should beaccompanied with discussion of theissue also in programs that are notexclusively political/informative (i.e.contact shows, daily and morningprograms, debates etc.)

Local

population

The wholepopulation ofMacedonia

Local media

Media/productions

- Raised awareness of thelocal population from theelection districts

- Population informed aboutthe gravity of the problem,as well as of the conse-quences and the sanctions

that follow

Raised awareness on na-tional level

In-depth and long-termtreatment of the issue (thebrief reporting about theproblem on the election dayshould be thus avoided)

- Press clipping

- Level of ratings

Valuation of the audi-ence inclusion in casethere are contactsshows


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4

ANEXLIST OF CONSULTED STAKEHOLDERS IN THE

PROCESS OF MAKING THE STRATEGY AGAINSTFAMILY AND PROXY VOTING

State actors Non state actors

NGO Political parties

Ministry of interior Beka center DUI

Ministry of labor and social policy MOST lPM

State electoral commission Antiko DS

Ministry of justice Akcija Zdruzenska VMRO-DPMNE

Ministry of education and science Association of Roma

Parliament of Republic of Macedonia DOM

Coordinator of the women Parlamentmembers club

PEI

DPSM

SDSM


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[ ]CIP- . ,

342.841 (497.7)343.415 (497.7)

STRATEGY against family and proxy voting of the state electioncommission. Skopje : Center for research and policy making, 2010. 25 . : : 20

. Myvote my decision

ISBN 978-608-4586-16-6

a) COBISS.MK- ID 86149898


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strategy against proxy and family voting

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