Elections | Kimpact

ELECTIONS

An election is an integral part of representative democracy that by and large prevail across the world. It remains a stabilizing factor in any democratic society. It is almost impossible to talk about democracy without making implicit reference to the election. KDI believes elections constitute the body, soul, and spirit of democracy. However, how credible and peaceful an election is; determines its democratic measurement. KDI has close to a decade of experience working on elections; we support election management bodies and other relevant stakeholders. KDI promotes free and fair elections. Facilitates and intensifies voter education sensitization to deepen electoral democracy in Nigeria. KDI election program is carved up into five key pillars

Election Conflicts and Security

KDI seeks to see active and peaceful participation in elections; given this, KDI’s violence tracking initiative is deeply rooted in international instruments and standards, which protect the right of all people to participate in the electoral process in a peaceful and safe environment. In every election, KDI through VTrack powered by Nigeria Election Violence Report uses a scientific approach (in-depth research) to gather electoral violence data by trained citizens to monitor and report electoral violence. These data are disaggregated to provide an impartial voice on electoral violence with the ultimate goal of ending the culture of impunity and informing relevant stakeholders in numbers why security of lives and properties matters during elections. KDI, in her electoral conflict, prevention, mitigation, and resolution approach, provides stakeholders and influencers with the necessary tools and skills needed to anticipate, mitigate and prevent violence around elections through peacebuilding activities.

Electoral Justice

The effective resolution of electoral complaints is integral to the integrity and legitimacy of an election. If the rules governing the resolution of the election do not provide for effective remedies, or if judges are biased or poorly trained, the adjudication process can destabilize governments, undermine public trust, and engender violence. To avoid all of these, KDI monitors the Election Petition Tribunal (EPT) process to ascertain the tribunal’s compliance to EPT guidelines, the Constitution, Electoral Act 2010 as amended, and other extant laws and policies. KDI deploys trained monitors using quantitative and qualitative data gathering tools; a comparative analysis would be done with previous tracking efforts to proffer recommendations for the electoral systems

Electoral Research

KDI conducts quantitative and qualitative research on elections to contribute to the body of knowledge on elections. Furthermore, in every election, KDI deploys her pre-Election Election Security Risk Assessment (ESRA) tool to elicit citizens’ views and opinions towards projecting factors and actors that could constitute violence in elections. KDI electoral research efforts drive advocacy on electoral reforms undertaken by election management bodies, parliaments, civil society, media etc. KDI research findings are usually published and made available in all our events and websites.

Citizen Participation

KDI inspires citizen-led democratic development by building active and informed citizens. Citizens are at the core of our initiatives; this is obvious in electoral violence prevention and mitigation interventions, policy advocacies, workshops, and media engagements. Also, KDI uses the high-quality civic learning experiences of Kimpact Democracy School to build next-generation leaders who nurture and protect democracy. Furthermore, this is done periodically to facilitate increased and informed youth political participation. Likewise, KDI thrives that her programming leaves no one behind. Women make up 49.6% of the entire world population and with this understanding, KDI is intentional about barriers that hamper women from reaching their full potentials, especially politically. Gender inequalities and women’s political under-representation have been a global issue that requires attention. Although, there has been progress over the last decades: More girls are going to school, more women are serving in parliament and leadership positions, and laws are being reformed to advance gender equality. Despite these gains, many challenges remain: discriminatory laws and social norms remain pervasive. Women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership. Violence against women in elections and politics persists. KDI programming seeks to see increased women’s political participation by advocacy for the removal of legal barriers, KDI also build strong participatory VAWIE prevention strategy.