Observation Mission

SADC ESN Observation Mission to Madagascar

The SADC-Electoral Network Support (SADC-ESN) conducted an observation mission during the presidential elections in Madagascar on 25th October 2013 where more than 7 million of voters choose their future president among 33 candidates. The SADC-ESN is a network of organisations at country level and at regional network composed of country networks, working in the field of democracy and elections, established in January 1998. In its early formation, the SADC-ESN focused mainly on domestic election observation and thereafter on regional election observation and building capacity of network members to design and develop voter and civic curriculum.

The network is the main beneficiary and partner together with leading partner ECES and EISA in the PEV-SADC project. A delegation of three electoral expert from SADC-ESN was deployed in the region of Analamanga during the Election Day in the framework of the observation mission namely Kundai Chingara from Zimbabwe electoral support Network (ZESN), Mathibe Goitseone from the women's organisation EMANG BASADI in Botswana and Idryss Katenga from RENOSEC, DRC. The delegation worked closely with the SADC ESN member organisation in Madagascar namely Malagasy National Commission of Electoral Observation, KMF/CNOE, for this observation mission. During the Election Day, the election observers from SADC-ESN went to several polling stations in order to observe the Election Day closely including the preparation before the opening of the polling station, the opening the polling station, the functioning and the closing of the polling station, capacity of the agents in the polling station, the counting of votes and the general environment during the Election Day.

The delegation targeted different polling station identified as particularly sensitive polling stations, accommodating more than thousand voters, in a dense populated area. The aim was to have an overview of the unfolding of the election in order to identify problems, which could possibly compromise the transparency and credibility of the election. Several meetings were conducted with KMF/CNOE before and after the Election Day to exchange impressions of the course of events of the election. A statement that sums up the main findings will be produced by the SADC ESN delegation in the framework of this observation mission