Briefing Manual for PVT Observation Supervisors. Republic of Zambia Presidential By- Election 30 October 2008

Transcription

1 Briefing Manual for PVT Observation Supervisors Republic of Zambia Presidential By- Election 30 October 2008 Prepared by FODEP Lusaka Important Contact Numbers: National Hotline: Supervisor Reporting Hotline:

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction PVT Supervisor and Observer Manuals Serving as an PVT Supervisor PVT Supervisor Timeline The PVT Observer Forms Transmitting PVT reporting Forms Transmitting PVT Incident Forms Transmitting Reporting Forms over the Phone Communications Test PVT Supervisor Deployment PVT Observer Allowances After You have Collected All of your Reporting Forms Thank You Important Information Code of Conduct INTRODUCTION Thank you for agreeing to serve as an PVT Supervisor for the FODEP for the 30 th of November 2008 Presidential by election. You will play an important role during the election to help ensure that every Zambian is able to exercise fully his or her right to vote as enshrined in Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as Article 13 of the African Charter on Human and People s Rights. Being an PVT Supervisor is hard work. You will be the eyes and ears of FODEP on election day. The information you transmit from PVT Observers to the FODEP Command Centre will be used by FODEP to issue statements and reports to provide the people of Zambia with non-partisan information on the electoral process and the degree to which it complies with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. PVT SUPERVISOR AND PVT OBSERVER MANUALS This manual is specifically for PVT Supervisors and is only being distributed to PVT Supervisors. It contains additional information on the role PVT Supervisors will play in the PVT Exercise. In addition, every PVT Supervisor is being given a PVT Observer Manual. This manual provides more detailed information on the Election and on the role of the PVT Observers. This information is not included in this manual. As an PVT Supervisor you need to read and be knowledgeable about both the content of this manual and the content of the PVT Observer manual. SERVING AS A PVT SUPERVISOR As a PVT Supervisor you will be assigned a number of PVT districts. You are responsible for ensuring that the PVT exercise is properly undertaken at each of those districts. In some districts voting will be split into multiple voting streams. In that case you are

3 responsible for ensuring that the PVT exercise is properly undertaken at every stream within that district. Specifically, you are responsible for the following: 1) Ensuring that there is an PVT Observer at every stream in the PVT polling district that has been assigned to you 2) Collecting and transmitting PVT Incident Reporting Forms as received from any PVT or non-pvt observer during the day. 3) Completing and transmitting PVT Incident Reporting Forms based on incident you witness yourself. 4) Collecting and transmitting PVT reporting observation Forms from all PVT Observers from all of your assigned PVT polling districts. The three most important functions of the PVT Supervisors are: 1) to ensure that all polling streams in PVT polling districts have a PVT Observer; and 2) to rapidly transmit the Incident Form to the National Command Centre 3) to rapidly transmit the PVT observation reporting Form to the National Command Centre. At your training you will be given a list of specific PVT polling districts for which you will be responsible for during the election. You are only responsible for these polling districts! Do not collect information from polling districts not on your list. Each polling district has been assigned a unique eight digit number. This number must be used any time you are transmitting information about to the National PVT Command Centre. All of your assigned PVT Observers will be given pre-printed PVT reporting Forms with the names of the polling districts appearing on the forms. You will be given additional copies of these forms in case extras are needed. You will be in routine contact with the National PVT Command Centre. Thus, you are the only link between the National PVT Command Centre and the PVT Observers. PVT SUPERVISOR TIMELINE Date Activity Pre-Election October 2008 Attend PVT Supervisor training 26 October 2008 Train PVT Observer and meet with the PVT Observers assigned to your polling districts October 2008 Travel to your provincial centre Collect vehicle (if any) and financial resources from the Provincial Command Centre 28 October 2008 Participate in PVT Reporting Simulation 3 of 10

4 Election Day PVT SUPERVISOR MANUAL Thursday 30 October 2008 Morning Day Night Visit as many of your assigned PVT polling districts as possible to ensure that all have a PVT Observer present. If any PVT Observers are denied entry to their assigned polling district or are not permitted to use their PVT reporting forms you must work with the presiding officer to allow the PVT Observers into the polling districts and to use their PVT reporting forms. If a PVT observer does not turn up, you must find an observer from a nearby polling district and bring them to the PVT polling district. In that case you should give the observer the PVT Observer Manual. Visit as many assigned PVT polling districts during the day to check on PVT Observers. Collect any completed PVT Incident Reporting forms from PVT Observers and transmit them immediately to the National PVT Command Centre. If you witness an incident yourself complete a PVT Incident Reporting Form and transmit it immediately to the National PVT Command Centre. PVT Observers have been instructed to remain at the polling district after counting. Remember all incident reporting forms should be transmitted to the national command centre as soon you collect or receive them. THE PVT OBSERVER FORMS There are two different PVT Observer forms. The following forms should be submitted or transmitted after counting finishes: 1. PVT Observation form 2. PVT incident forms (including those that were already reported.) AFTER YOU HAVE COLLECTED ALL PVT REPORTING FORMS FROM ALL OF YOUR ASSIGNED PVT POLLING DISTRICTS YOU SHOULD YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY TRANSMIT THEM TO THE NATIONAL COMMAND CENTRE AND PROCEED RETURN YOUR CAR, ACCOUNTING, AND TO RECEIVE YOUR ALLOWANCE. 1) PVT Observation Form: This is the most important form and must be completed from every single PVT Observer. This form is pre-printed with the name of the polling district where each observer must observe. The form also has printed on it a unique polling district identification number (PD ID) assigned by FODEP in the top of the page. 2) PVT Incident Reporting Form: This form should only be used to document a serious incident which occurs at any polling district, not just PVT polling districts. A serious incident is one that would cause us to question whether the results at that polling station will reflect the will of the voters. This form should be completed by an 4 of 10

5 Observers or a Supervisors whenever an incident occurs. You must record the polling district identification number (PD ID) assigned by FODEP and the stream number on the Incident Reporting Forms. Immediately call or beep the hotline to report your incident. You have been given extra copies of the PVT Observation Form in case a PVT Observer loses his/her forms. You need to write down the PD ID and stream number on the top of these forms before you give them out. You have also been given multiple copies of the Incident Form to report on incidents which you observe. Remember you must include the eight digit polling district identification number you have been given for the polling district on your report. See the PVT Observer manual for more information about completing the PVT Incident Form. PVT Information Flow Wall Chart (to monitor calls received) Supervisors (150 Constituency Managers) 2. Report Information Supervisor calls Data Center to report observer forms Phone Operators/ Data Entry Database Analysis 1. Collect Information Supervisor goes to Observers PD and collects forms Data Recovery Identify incomplete or incorrect information, then phone operators call back Supervisors Observers DETERMINING POLLING DISTRICT RESULTS To avoid long lines, large polling districts are broken into several streams. In these large polling stations the voters list is divided evenly by last name and voters are directed to the appropriate stream to vote. The majority of polling districts have only one stream. If you are responsible for PVT Polling District with more than one stream, then you are responsible for the information about setup, voting and counting for every stream in that polling station. You must ensure that there is an observer in each stream and you must collect and transmit their forms at the end of the day. The ECK has advised presiding officers that in polling stations with multiple streams, counting should be done in a single location. In that case observers should all witness the counting and should record the full numbers on each PVT Observation Form. In this case they would select Answer A. to Question #. When you arrive at the polling station you should compare the results on the PVT Observer Form to those on the ECZ GEN 9 Protocol posted and the polling station and report any discrepancy. 5 of 10

6 In some cases the presiding officer may decide to allow each stream to count their ballots separately. In this case observers should stay in their streams for counting and should record the votes for that stream. In this case they would select Answer A. to Question #. When you arrive at the polling station you should sum the results of the PVT Observer Forms and should compare the sum to the results indicated on the ECZ GEN 9 Protocol posted and the polling station and report any discrepancy. TRANSMITTING INCIDENT REPORT FORMS As a PVT Supervisor, you must visit every one of your assigned PVT polling districts during the day and collect and report any incident forms as soon as possible. Incident forms should be immediately transmitted to the national command centre by phone. Do not wait until you have incident forms from all your assigned PVT polling districts to start transmitting them to the PVT Command Centre. If you are able to transmit them one by one then you should do so. To transmit Incident Reports, beep the Supervisor Reporting Line listed on the front of this manual and you will receive a call back from the next open phone. TRANSMITTING OBSERVER REPORTING FORMS Your PVT Observers must remain at their polling stations after counting until you collect their forms. You must collect forms for each stream in a PVT polling district. All PVT reporting Forms must be transmitted to the PVT National Command Centre as soon as possible. DIFFERENT WAYS OF TRANSMISSION For PVT Supervisors outside of Lusaka you should: 1 If you have a signal on your cell phone, beep or SMS the Supervisor Reporting Line listed on the front of this manual. This will let the PVT Command Centre know that you have one or more reporting forms which you are ready transmit. You will receive a call back from the next open phone. 2. If you have not been called back in 20 minutes then beep, SMS, or call the National Hotline. 3. If do not have a cell phone signal then you should drive to where you will have a signal and follow the instructions for Option 1 above or find a landline phone that you can use and call the Hotline (you will be given this numbers at the PVT Supervisor training) 4. If you are unable to contact the PVT Command Centre by cell phone then you should drive the forms to your FODEP Provincial Command Centre (you will be told the locations of the FODEP Provincial Command Centres at the Supervisor Training). Never leave forms unreported. It is vital that you keep trying to get the information through. For PVT Supervisors in Lusaka, you should: 6 of 10

7 1) Drive to the National command centre to submit all your forms. When you are transmitting the information on the Forms the first piece of information you will be asked to give is the PD ID which appears in the upper right hand corner of the forms. TRANSMITTING FORMS OVER THE PHONE Transmitting the information on the forms over the phone must be done in a very systematic way to ensure that it is done quickly and accurately. We don t want to lose any of the information that you are providing. Don t provide non-observation information or information from non-pvt polling districts. The National Command Centre will be receiving information from 150 PVT Supervisors and any unnecessary information will clog the system. The first question the data receiver at the PVT Command Centre will ask you for, regardless of the form, is for the polling district identification number as assigned by the FODEP (PD ID). This appears pre-printed on the top of the PVT Observation Form (Item A). This number must be entered on the Incident Form either by the PVT Observer or PVT Supervisor. After you say the polling district identification number the data receiver will repeat the number back to you to confirm he/she heard you correctly. If what the data receiver responds is different from what you said then you must correct the error. Afterwards the data receiver will go through the questions one by one. The data receiver will say the question number (as printed on the form). You will say the response from the form. After recording all answers the data receiver will read through each question and answer to confirm. Example of how to report the numbers and data: 1) Beep or text the Supervisor Reporting Line. An operator will call you and ask you for the first Polling District that you have to report. This is the FODEP Command Center. What polling district are you ready to report? PVT supervisor reports code as: One, Two, Seven, Five, Eight. PVT Supervisor does NOT say Twelve Thousand Seven hundred Fifty-Eight! Operator repeats the code, one-two-sevenfive-six If operator repeated the code incorrectly Supervisor says: Incorrect! And repeats the code again. Remember! You should start to report from the PD ID. 7 of 10

8 2) The polling operator will ask if that Polling District has one stream or several. If there is only one stream the operator will go through the PVT Observation Form questions one by one and taking your response. If there are multiple streams, the operator will first ask for the vote total for the Polling District. Read the results numbers that you determined as in the Determining Polling District Results section above. After that the operator will ask go through the PVT Observation Form for the first stream, reading the question numbers one-by-one taking your response. 3) After completing the first PVT Observation Form the operator will review the answer with you. You should correct any mistakes that you hear. Operator says, OK. I have question 1 as No, Question 2 as No, Question 3 as Yes... Supervisor interrupts: Incorrect. Question 3 is meant to be No 4) Once the information is confirmed you can begin the PVT Observation form for the next stream if there is one. Otherwise you could move to a new polling station. Once you are finished, end the conversation by informing the operator that there is no additional information: PVT supervisor when finished says, reporting is over. PVT SUPERVISOR DEPLOYMENT All PVT Supervisors must visit the FODEP Provincial Command Centre for their assigned province before election day (you will be given the location of your FODEP Provincial Command Centre at the PVT Supervisor Training). At your FODEP Provincial Command Centre you will be given your vehicle for use during the elections, any additional financial resources for PVT Observer transport; and cell phone airtime. You will be required to sign various forms and contracts for these things. In addition you will be given financial resources to give all of your assigned PVT Observers their allowance upon receipt of all of the PVT reporting Form. These will be distributed when you collect your vehicle at your FODEP Provincial Command Centre. PVT OBSERVER ALLOWANCES PVT observers will receive 50% of their allowances upon deployment from the supervisors and 50% upon collection of properly completed forms. AFTER YOU HAVE COLLECTED ALL OF YOUR REPORTING FORMS 8 of 10

9 Once you have collected and transmitted the PVT reporting Forms from all of your assigned PVT polling districts you should head for your provinces FODEP Provincial Command Centre (you will be given the location of your province s FODEP Provincial Command Centre at the PVT Supervisor Training). When you arrive at your province s FODEP Provincial Command Centre you will return your vehicle, give them all of your PVT reporting forms and any accounting materials. Upon receipt of all of your materials you will receive your allowance. PVT Supervisors will receive their allowance ONLY upon the return of their vehicles, all reporting forms, and accounting materials to their assigned FODEP Provincial Command Centre. TRANSIMITTING THE PVT FORMS TO THE NATIONAL COMMAND CENTRE The Provincial Command Centre will maintain a record of all forms received. Once all the forms are` received they should immediately be forwarded to the national Command Centre. If they can be driven they should be driven or sent by courier. At the command centre the forms will be received and signed for by the data base manager. THANK YOU In advance of election day FODEP would again like to thank you for participating in this very important exercise. It is only with your help that the FODEP can help defend the rights of Zambians to vote and help ensure that Zambia complies with the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. FODEP recognizes that being a PVT Supervisor is not easy work. We greatly appreciate your dedication, hard work and the sacrifice you are making to ensure that every Zambian is able to exercise his/her right to vote. IMPORTANT INFORMATION The Supervisor Reporting Line: The National Hotline: The Provincial Command Centre Number is My Provinces Command Centre is located at: The National PVT Command Centre is located at: 9 of 10

10 CODE OF CONDUCT PVT SUPERVISOR MANUAL FODEP Code of Conduct for Monitors (The Roles of Monitors) (i) To attest to the Electoral Code of Conduct by signing the appropriate declaration form (ii) To respect the laws of the land (electoral regulations and electoral laws). (iii) To be non-partisan in their actions, observations and reporting. (iv) To promote peace and employ non-violent actions or methods of monitoring. (v) To report truthfully and accurately on all situations. (vi) To be punctual. (vii) To remain sober throughout the Election Day. (viii) To act confidently and calmly. (ix) To avoid disruption of the voting and counting process. (x) To cooperate with electoral officials such as the presiding and returning officers and other monitors/observers both local and international. (xi) To refrain from speaking to the media unless prior permission has been obtained from their respective organization. (xii) To work closely at all times with the local members and not undertake unilateral action without prior authority and consultation. (xiii) To refrain from engaging in activities that can be seen as partisan or beneficial to political parties or candidates (xiv) Not accept bribes, gifts or favours from political parties, candidates, organisations or people involved in the electoral process. (xv) Wear identification throughout the electoral process. (xvi) Not display or carry any material identifying them with any particular party or candidate. (xvii) Not carry any arms or weapons. 10 of 10