Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
The biggest challenge to the MoIM was the new requirement to conduct national elections
on the same day. Previously, elections took place on different days in different
regions. The challenge was to standardize voting procedures and organise administrative
processes to achieve efficiency, and to conduct elections within the mandated legal
and democratic frameworks. Convenient polling booths had to be installed across
all regions, indelible ink had to be provided for casting ballots, votes would have to be
collected and stored in transparent ballot boxes, and individual photographic identification
cards would replace the simple voter card. The MoIM would also need to increase
staffing and train elections personnel in time for this nationwide undertaking.
The Solution
The initiative comprised four different strategies. The first was to make the administrative
changes that were required to conform to the new election laws. To accomplish
this, the MoIM worked to raise awareness of the new laws, build the capacity of its
administration and develop enabling policy frameworks. In a very short period—less
than three months—the MoIM was able to establish the Supervisory Committee for
Electoral Campaigns and develop standard operating procedures. It also trained over
11,000 polling officials and ministry administrators on new electoral procedures.
The second strategy involved carrying out administrative reforms to facilitate the
delivery of services. Valuing the effectiveness of technology in expediting administrative
tasks, the MoIM successfully utilized new technologies to achieve the desired
results. With the abolition of the voter card and the adoption of the national ID card
as the tool for voter identification, the MoIM equipped 26 national ID application
centres across the 26 electoral districts with digital-fingerprint stations to replace inkbased
fingerprinting. This mechanism decreased the rate of application rejections,
allowing the MoIM to produce around 7,000 IDs per day rather than the 300 per day
that were formerly possible. This new approach meant that the vast majority of citizens
could exercise their voting rights on Election Day.
The third strategy in the initiative to better manage parliamentary elections was to
include civil society in decision-making. The MoIM ratified numerous agreements
with domestic and international non-governmental organizations to provide expertise
and follow up on the Ministry’s work. Additionally, for the first time ever, the MoIM
set up an office for the civil-society participants in electoral reform, thus enabling
their direct day to day interaction and cooperation with Ministry officials.
The fourth strategy was to transform the image of the MoIM from a distant public
agency to a more interactive and responsive one that freely shares information. The
Ministry succeeded in this effort by adopting an open-door policy, both directly and
indirectly. Through the establishment of the media centre, the elections hotline, and
the Observers Coordination Unit, various stakeholders had the chance to interact,
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