This project is funded

by the EU

Electoral assistance 2015

A crucial contribution The eight organisations in STEP Democracy have worked to-
gether to enhance constructive debate on the political and
STEP Democracy and the Myanmar elections electoral environment in Myanmar by regularly providing
briefings for Heads of Missions and, in the broader com-
In the first year of a three-year project, Support to Electoral
munity, by hosting a debate held in Myanmar language on
Processes and Democracy ( ) made a crucial
Visions for Myanmar’s Democratic Future. This event was
contribution to the holding of peaceful, transparent and
held on the International Day of Democracy, and attracted
credible elections in Myanmar. The voter turnout on 8
more than 150 people and media representatives who
November was high, in what national and international
were enlightened by eminent Myanmar thinkers.
observers have termed largely successful polls.
Hornbill Organization (HBO), Myanmar Egress (ME), Schol-
How did STEP contribute? ar Institute (SI) and Naushawng Education Network (NSEN)
took centre stage in educating marginalized communities
STEP Democracy, supported the Union Election Commis- on their rights as voters. With the support of Democracy
sion (UEC) in carrying out its operations in a number of Reporting International (DRI), the Myanmar Institute for
areas. Democracy (MID) produced in depth analysis on election
reporting and Charity Oriented Myanmar (COM), Peace
STEP assisted the efforts of the Myanmar electoral admin- and Justice Myanmar (PJM), Hornbill Organization (HBO)
istration to meet best electoral practices and standards, and the Kachin Observer Network (KON) deployed a total
including by supporting the Union Election Commission in of over 1600 observers on election day.
the introduction - sometimes for the first-time in Myanmar
– of measures increasing the freedom and transparency of
the process, such as the development of a fully-fledged ob-
server accreditation mechanism, the setup of electoral risk
management mechanisms, the production of informative
materials for voters, media, observers, and the internation-
al community.

Political parties and party agents were trained on essential

aspects of the election cycle.

Through the establishment of a multi-dialogue platform

STEP supported the endorsement of a Code of Conduct.
The programme assisted five Domestic Election Observer
groups to implement evidenced-based observation based
on international best practices. STEP Democracy, through
voter education training, empowered a community of
informed voters through change agents in remote areas of
nine States and Regions.
“We didn’t know that the election would be important
to us. We just thought it will be just like before that the
ruling party planned to win for themselves, but now we
are aware of our duty and rights as a citizen. Therefore we
will participate in this election.”

Participant of voter education training

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Electoral assistance 2015

Empowering a community of • To satisfy high demand, HBO, NSEN, SI and ME further

replicated voter education trainings by providing TOTs
informed voters for CSOs working on civic education in their respective
regions. These CSOs have gone on to replicate our voter ed-
• The Friedrich Naumann Foundation and its four partners,
ucation trainings as multipliers, further spreading informa-
Hornbill Organization (HBO), Myanmar Egress (ME), Schol-
tion to Myanmar voters.
ar Institute (SI) and Naushawng Education Network (NSEN),
implemented the largest voter education programme
prior to the 2015 Myanmar General Elections, conducting
171 voter education trainings reaching more than 10,000
direct participants in nine states and regions.

• Furthermore, through replication and dissemination,

FNF and its four partners reached an additional 200,000+
people with important voter education information before
the general elections on 8 November.

• Voter education materials produced and distributed by

FNF and its partners have been downloaded more than
130,000 times through Shaetho Myanmar’s social media
page and website.

• Participants were positive about the voter education

trainings: 90.5% found them useful or very useful, and
over 80.75% stated that they planned to share with others
what they had learned and that they would encourage
others to participate in the elections.
• Voter education information was further disseminated
and replicated when our voter education video clips were
broadcasted for three days before the General Elections on
the DVB TV channel and through our voter informational
cartoon book. Together with the Civic and Voter Education
Training Manual they were posted to the Wun Zinn mobile
reader application, which reaches more than 50,000 peo-
ple every day.
“This was the most amazing training I ever attended, as it
gave us a lot of useful information regarding voting mat-
ters and civic education. As you know, in remote areas,
only few people know about what voter education is and
why the election is important for our country. We all are
struggling all day in the farms. We don’t have enough
time to go and attend trainings in faraway cities. We need
more trainings for other villages. We feel lucky!””
U Kyin Thein, 55 years old, Patkyaw Village,
Hline Bwe Township, Kayin State.

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 This project is funded
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Electoral assistance 2015

Supporting a modern, accountable and • Helping to make comparative knowledge available, and
understand post-election scenarios and the role of religion
transparent electoral administration in the campaign. Producing infographics on women and
ethnic minority participation in Myanmar elections.
Embedded in the Union Election Commission (UEC), STEP
Democracy through International IDEA (IDEA) has provided
• Establishing of a Election Risk Management Unit within
technical support and expertise in:
the UEC and production of regular Electoral Risk reports,
as well as the setup of an adhoc hotline system and media
• The development of regulations and accreditation sys-
monitoring cell, enabling the collection of 78 risk alerts
tems that enable, for the first time, the conduct of electoral
during the voting operation period.
observation in the country, including the accreditation of
51 domestic organizations, which nominated more than
• Training 104 members and staff from 80 township, dis-
11,000 domestic observers in all states and regions; six
trict and State level sub-commissions, in advanced media
International Election Observer Organizations, that togeth-
and strategic communications in Yangon and Mandalay
er nominated 467 observers; and 33 diplomatic missions,
regions, and Mon, Shan and Kachin states.
with 490 accredited observers. Support was also provided
for a delegation of 22 ASEAN EMBs’ and ASEAN Secretar-
iat’s representatives to undertake a Study Elections Visit
Program during the polling days.

• Producing four animations, which were aired through

major private and public TV stations on: general infor-
mation about the 2015 general election, national voter
list display; rights and duties of electoral observers; vote
counting procedures. Radio spots on the same topics were
produced in eight additional ethnic-minority languages.
“We didn’t know that the election would be important
to us. We just thought it will be just like before that the
ruling party planned to win for themselves, but now we
are aware of our duty and rights as a citizen, therefore we
will participate in this election.”

• Producing and distributing 3,000 Information Kits con- Participant of voter education training
taining 17 essential documents for domestic and interna- .
tional observers, diplomats, electoral assistance providers,
local and foreign journalists.

• Producing and distributing 120,000 electoral infor-

mation booklets about the rights and duties of voters,
candidates, election agents, domestic election observers as
well as electoral offenses and malpractices and campaign
finance regulations.
“I had experience in answering media questions in
2010 and it was easy then. It was the same in 2012. But
in this election, I had to answer questions about the
number of advanced voters and number of voters in the
list, as well as the number of polling stations in our area.
This is more difficult.”

A election subcommission chairman in Yangon

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Electoral assistance 2015

Strengthening civil society reporting
on the 2015 elections
• Democracy Reporting International provided technical
support to five domestic election observer organisations -
Charity Oriented Myanmar (COM), Peace and Justice Myan-
mar (PJM), Hornbill Organisation (HBO), Kachin Observer
Network (KON) and Generation Wave (GW) - in the deploy-
ment of over 1600 observers on election day. This included
more than 20 in-house technical trainings by eight interna-
tional subject experts, who provided expertise on numer-
ous issues related to election observation, such as internal
communication and reporting, Long Term Observation
(LTO) methodology and LTO reporting forms, Short Term
Observation (STO) training methodology and reporting
forms, data analysis and report writing. The in-house advice
included over ten written products developed for and with
key partners, such as STO/LTO forms, comments and review
of preliminary reports, and press releases.
• DRI supported three observer groups (COM, PJM, HBO)
in their media outreach, press conferences and strategic
communication with media. As a result, partners received
media coverage in over a dozen media outlets, such as
Mizzima, RFA, MRTV and many others.
Media monitoring
DRI worked with the Myanmar Institute for Democracy
(MID), to establish a media monitoring unit and issued
three monitoring reports before election day, which were
covered by major broadcasters and print media.
DRI’s experts accompanied MID’s media monitoring
throughout the project, training MID on media monitor-
ing methodologies, public and media outreach, and data
preparation for MID’s three reports. DRI supported MID´s
press conferences, including advice on drafting press
releases and training on how to present findings to media.
MID was interviewed by Channel News Asia and regularly
received coverage in main media such as Irrawaddy, DVB
and RFA.
In addition, in response to their demands, DRI trained
three other CSOs and provided limited in-house support to
MYANFREL in developing their media monitoring method-
ology and data analysis.

• In order to respond to the growing demand for technical

support, DRI trained over 150 observers of over 10 differ-
ent CSOs on topics ranging from how to plan and deploy
an election observation mission to data management and
legal framework analysis.

• Six publications distributed to 50 CSOs (Key issues on

Reporting on Domestic Election Observation; Key issues
in Developing STO Training Guide; Key issues in Data
Management for Domestic Election Observers; Key issues
on Drafting Interim Reports and Statements; Key issues on “We are very happy with the support of DRI because we
Dealing with Media; Manual on the Legal Framework for work together so that we can achieve our objectives. Thanks
Elections). for understanding us!”

Chan Nyein Aung, COM Chief Executive Officer

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Electoral assistance 2015

Building dialogue, finding solutions
together
In the lead up to the election, support to political parties
led by the Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy
(DIPD) focused on nationwide polling agent training;
multiparty dialogue at state and regional level; Code of
Conduct Monitoring Committee field visits; and technical
needs of political parties on election-related issues.
• Over 800 party polling agents from 43 parties in eight
cities in seven states and regions were trained. Over
22,000 party polling agent manuals and 800 copies of
a set of party polling agent materials were printed and
distributed, which included sample observation forms, the
Political Parties Code of Conduct, the FAQ on Campaign
Finance Guide, and polling station vinyl posters.
• Nine Multiparty political dialogues were integrated into
party agent training in seven state/regions. The dialogues
provided a valuable platform to build trust across parties,
and resolve any concerns identified.
Ayeyarwaddy Region, Bago Region, Mandalay Region, and
Shan State.
Support for field visits of the Code of
Conduct Monitoring Committee
• DIPD provided technical assistance to and convened a
meeting of parties for the development and drafting of the
Code of Conduct, including the components related to the
media and political finance.
• Two field visits of the CoC monitoring committee in
Mandalay and Taunggyi were organised to gather issues
for their reporting on the campaign period.
• Technical assistance to CoC monitoring committee was
given, to identify contentious issues in the campaign peri-
od and document these in MCOM reports.

• Three political cafes (roundtables) on media monitoring,

campaign finance, and public opinion polling were held.

• Two national level dialogues on Women in Politics and

Coalition Building in Yangon were organised; the former
provided tools for women candidates and political leaders
to set the agenda for women politicians and activists, and
the latter provided parties with tools and strategies to use
for coalition building in the pre- and post-election period.

• To ensure nationwide coverage of party agent training

DIPD’s efforts were coordinated with ongoing International
Republican Institute (IRI) initiatives.
• Areas where domestic observer reach was limited were
targeted specifically. These included Sagaing Region,
“I had never experienced this kind of multiparty dialogue
in my life before. This is the first time in our region. I sup-
pose this dialogue is a sign that we are all willing to work
together for Democracy.”
Participant from National League for Democracy
(NLD), Shwe Bo

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 This project is funded
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Electoral assistance 2015

About STEP Democracy
Strenghtening the democratic transition
in Myanmar
Support To Electoral Processes and Democracy – STEP
Democracy – supports inclusive, peaceful and credible
electoral processes, and enhances the capacity of stake-
holders to strengthen the democratic transition in Myan-
mar. It is an integrated programme closely coordinated
with all key national stakeholders – with the Union Election
Commission (UEC), with political parties, with civil society
organisations involved in domestic election observation,
voter and civic education, and advocacy for reform, and
with media organisations.

STEP Democracy is unique in bringing together national

and international expertise, and firmly entrenches local
ownership throughout all phases of the electoral cycle.
STEP Democracy is founded on solid cooperation between
international and local organisations, and with democratic
stakeholders in Myanmar. Its methodologies are proved to
make knowledge transfer sustainable through comprehen-
sive technical advice, capacity development, voter educa-
tion, and dialogue promotion.

In the STEP Democracy programme, the European Union

provides support via eight organisations; four international
organisations, International Institute for Democracy and
Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the Danish Institute for Parties
and Democracy (DIPD), Democracy Reporting International
(DRI), and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF);
and four local organisations, Myanmar Egress, Hornbill
Organization, Scholar Institute and Naushawng Educa-
tion Network, which are implementing voter education
programmes with FNF. STEP Democracy has a strong
commitment to a flexible approach to democratic reform
which is mindful of the rich history and cultural diversity of
Myanmar.

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