PACTE - Project d’Appui à la Crédibilité et a la Transparence des Elections (Project to Support the Credibility and Transparency of Elections) is an 2,100,000 EU funded project designed to foster a more professional, impartial and systematic management of the Madagascar electoral process, through the strengthening of the capacity of local electoral stakeholders, such as civil society organisations (CSOs), media, political parties, electoral candidates, lawyers and the CENIT (Independent National Electoral Commission for Transition).
The project is implemented by a consortium led by ECES in partnership with the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) and Electoral Reform International Services (ERIS). Activities benefit from contributions from: l'Académie RFI-F24-MCD (a Malagasy organisation involved in voter education and election observation), Osservatorio di Pavia, and Comité National d’Observation des Elections – Education des Citoyens (KMF-CNOE).
The specific objectives of PACTE are to support:
- Inclusive and well-informed participation of the civil society in voter awareness and education;
- The pooling of resources and capacity building to civil society organisations, for professional, systematic and non-partisan observation during all phases of the electoral process;
- The creation of a media monitor unit to analyse media content in term of equal coverage of electoral candidates, respect of professional deontology and to register electoral promises by candidates;
- Effective electoral dispute management mechanisms in order to reduce the potential for electoral violence; and
- The consolidation of lessons learned and post electoral reform.
The project responds to the needs identified by Malagasy electoral stakeholders, and is based on the electoral cycle approach whereby activities will be implemented before, during and after the elections.
The main results of the activities can be classified into the following 5 axes:
- Voter awareness and education;
- Media monitoring and the training of journalists;
- National election observation;
- Training and awareness raising on electoral dispute resolution; and
- Support for the formulation of recommendations for post electoral reform.
Over the course of 18 months, the project was implemented in all 22 regions of Madagascar to accompany the organisation of the 2013 general elections in Madagascar. Recently, the project has been extended for another 4 months in order to consolidate lessons learned and support CSO in advocacy and lobby work based on their recommendations for post electoral reform.
For more information, please visit the dedicated project website www.pacte-madagascar.eu or send an email to pacte@eces.eu
