Citizen Election Observation Towards a New Era

Abstract

After the 2005 Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, another key milestone in election observation history was marked in 2012 with the signing of the “Declaration of Global Principles for Non-Partisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Organizations.” This Declaration highlights an irreversible shift toward a process-oriented approach by citizen groups in their assessments and their desire to be accountable – and be perceived as such – to a highly ethical and forceful set of principles. In the past, this ability has not always been recognized to them by the democracy assistance community. The reached awareness of the potential enshrined in citizen observation is further underlined by the usage of new digital tools, particularly crowd-sourcing techniques. This trend will open up a whole field of new possibilities, provided that citizen observers continue to maintain central to their assessments the international obligations for democratic elections.