PLENARY SESSION - PARLIAMENTARY LINKS THROUGH THE COMMONWEALTH
Election observation, electoral commissions & the Commonwealth Electoral Network
In this and other aspects of our work, a powerful Commonwealth advantage is our ability to forge partnerships between member states which, although from different corners of the globe, share much in common when it comes to institutional arrangements and legal frameworks. This enables us to offer one another support and allows fruitful cross-pollination of ideas.
It can be seen in action in the widely acknowledged aspect of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s work with and for parliamentarians – our role in convening and supporting election observer missions. These teams of distinguished Parliamentarians and other eminent Commonwealth personalities bring together knowledge and experience drawn from throughout the worldwide family of the Commonwealth. In the period since 1990 we have sent more than 100 Observer Groups to presidential and parliamentary elections. These are highly valued by member states, which also see our observers as encouraging credence and legitimacy to the electoral process – and can also serve as a calming influence when tensions are high.
In March this year we continued this with a Caribbean regional seminar in Trinidad and Tobago on the role of Parliamentarians in the promotion and protection of human rights. One welcome outcome was the establishment of the Commonwealth Caribbean Parliamentary Human Rights Group.
The essential fact is that the contemporary UN structure for examining the human rights situation in any given member state can only benefit from an active role by Parliamentarians. And we are happy to partner in this.
Over the past year we have observed elections in Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Grenada and Pakistan. We have also received invitations to observe forthcoming elections in Maldives, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Swaziland and Cameroon later this month.
The proper conduct of elections depends to a large extent on the capacity and resourcing of national election management bodies. The Commonwealth is committed to raising their performance so that they are a force for good, and upholders of the highest electoral standards. I have in the past referred to the Electoral Commission in any member state as the filament that must endure tremendous heat at election time.
If and when it endures, the election result can enjoy credibility and support; when it breaks, the credibility of the election result is jeopardised. With this in mind we have established a Commonwealth Electoral Network, bringing together election management bodies from across the Commonwealth. The Network is a new resource through which technical expertise in managing key processes of democracy can be exchanged. Our aim is to create peer-support mechanisms that promote good practices and sharing of experience to overcome common challenges.
The Network is one of the hundred or so communities of practice that now populate “Commonwealth Connects”, our secure cloud-based digital platform. This is all about the Commonwealth playing to its fundamental strength – its networks, its diversity, and its collective practical advancement – in both a contemporary twenty-first century way and the tested way of Commonwealth solidarity. “Commonwealth Connects” will enable people to build interactive working partnerships using internet- enabled communication devices such as desktop/laptop computers or mobile smartphones. And it facilitates pan-Commonwealth collaboration across countries, organizations and partners. Information can be stored centrally and become accessible to any network member.
We are making this ground- breaking Commonwealth product available to all including the CPA. Our goal is that existing and future Commonwealth networks are not only informed and in touch with each other, but can also collaborate, transact, and forge creative partnerships online.
Government and opposition workshops
Honourable Parliamentarians, the manner in which business is conducted once elected is as important for entrenching the culture of democracy as the process of election.
That is why the Commonwealth Secretariat has worked with the CPA for many years on regional Government and Opposition workshops. Both have valuable contributions to make in deepening the democratic process, through their respective rights, roles and responsibilities.
Our intention now is that these workshops should move from a regional focus and become more targeted and country oriented in approach. The aim is to consolidate the practice of a more constructive relationship between governing and opposition parties, conducive to their working more productively together in the joint interest of national harmony and national development. Parliament is the primary forum where the voice of the people, especially the poor and marginalized has to be heard with absolute clarity. Confidence that Parliament truly understands, and is able to address the aspirations and interests of the people, is a paramount guarantee of social peace and stability. Such confidence is secured when Parliamentarians – of both the majority and minority parties – show a common purpose in representing the interests and concerns of their electorate as a whole, when holding the Executive to account, and when improving and enacting legislation. Distinguished Commonwealth Parliamentarians, I conclude by paying tribute to your public service and duty, and in expressing respect for it. Your high calling, and your continuing care and commitment in the service of all, help ensure that in the world of tomorrow none are excluded from the life of the community in which they live, learn, and work, or are left behind in the onward march of social and material progress.
That is the noble purpose of our collective effort: to find inclusive and lasting solutions to Commonwealth development challenges, so that the fruits of prosperity and progress are shared, freely and with equity, by all our people and all nations.
Thank you again for your time and for the courtesy of inviting me.
The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue Four | 253
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