The Zambia Elections Information Centre (ZEIC) project is a multi-stakeholder platform funded by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), that brings together key elections stakeholders drawn from civil society, independent management bodies, church mother bodies, development partners and political parties to work together on elections observation, monitoring, rapid response and pr
oactive advocacy ahead of the general elections in Zambia. The Project was established with the vision to provide timely and relevant information on the election situation across the country through an ICT based communication platform. ZEIC is hosted at Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAF), regional communication for development non-governmental organization that promotes informed and inclusive participation of communities in public policy dialogue and decision making processes and has an executive made up of representatives from seven (7) leading Civil Society Organizations working on elections in Zambia namely;
Foundation for Democratic Processes (FODEP)
Southern Africa Centre for Conflict Resolution and Dialogue (SACCORD)
Transparency International Zambia (TIZ)
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
Non-Governmental Organizations Coordinating Council (NGOCC)
Zambia National Women’s Lobby
Law Association of Zambia
Elections are key to the strengthening and growth of democracy because they provide a platform for popular involvement which gives democracy its legitimacy and credibility. To ensure peace and political stability, elections must be credible because lack of credibility causes civil unrest and instability. Elections in Zambia have often been characterized by speculations of logistical issues that would affect voting, vote counting and general vote safety. The delays in receiving information, validating it and transmitting it to the relevant duty bearers leads to a delay in addressing the situations that arise during the electoral process thereby, raising questions on the credibility and fairness of the elections. The Zambia Election Information Centre (ZEIC) seeks to respond to this problem by setting up an innovative way of generating timely information, verifying and analysis as well as timely dissemination to relevant stakeholders to stimulate response reaction. OUR OBJECTIVES
To support and enhance the efforts of the Electoral Mother Body mandated to administer elections in Zambia to conduct credible elections that will be acceptable to all Zambians. To establish an ICT-based communication platform for receiving and disseminating evidence based information on the election situation across the country. To generate and make available to citizens, real-time accurate information on the electoral process and reduce the risk of misinformation and tensions. To enhance and strengthen stakeholder collaboration around the electoral processes. To facilitate timely response action by engaging various stakeholders and relevant authorities to address the problems and situations encountered during the electoral process that require immediate action. To enhance the process of information and knowledge sharing as a vehicle to promote free and fair elections. PROJECT BUILDING BLOCKS
Effective content management system
ICT and SMS application in election observation and monitoring
Stakeholder identification and characterization
Training of the media, stakeholders, community members and citizen journalists
Training and deployment of observers
An Election Situation Room for information and knowledge management, media monitoring and early warning system
Expert analysis, validation and dissemination of real-time information
