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Centre for Monitoring Election Violence around the world
Posted by Namita Singh on Apr 01, 2010
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Quick Look
URL: http://cmev.wordpress.com
Twitter account: CMEV
An election watchdog group that monitors violence and voting irregularities to CURRENTLY TRACKING
ensure an informed electorate.

Founders: Centre of Policy Alternatives (CPA), Free Media Movement (FMM), 63 CASES
Coalition Against Political Violence (CAPV)
Language: English
Beginning Date: March 1, 1997
How many unique hits per month?: 6000 FILTER BY COUNTRY
Project Scale: National
Actor: Executive branch
Case Studies
Function: Elections
Types of Tools: Collect data, Visualize, Connect and engage All GO
Specific Tools: Facebook, Google Maps, Twitter, WordPress
Location: Sri Lanka Other Projects
All GO

Context
OTHER PROJECTS
Sanjana Hattotuwa is a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), an organization that was one of
the the founding members - along with Free Media Movement(FMM) and Coalition Against Political Violence(CAPV) - These listings are brief descriptions of
of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) in Sri Lanka in 1997. CMEV has since become the country's projects we have not researched but
leading organization in reporting about election-related violence and voting irregularities Sri Lanka. that may be of interest to others in
the technology for transparency field.
In his own words, their approach has been to gather information from ground-zero, cross-verify, and 'name and
shame' candidates and political parties involved in any kind of malpractice, including violence, by publishing detailed
ROSPIL
information to help voters make informed decisions. CMEV works round the clock during election time, constantly
Location: Russia
verifying and publishing reports as they are submitted. They use a combination of maps, audio podcasts and blog
"This community aims
posts to stimulate debate and inspire pubic interest, while archiving information for further use in research and
to catch and punish the
review.
state employees who
are using state purchases and calls for
tender for their own personal gain."
Media
I PAID A BRIBE
Location: India
“Bribed? Didn't bribe?
Powerless? Victimised?

POLLITIKA
Location: Croatia
Pollitika is a collective
anti-corruption blog as
well as a database of
public information.

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What are the biggest obstacles to your success?:

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Centre for Monitoring Election Violence | Technology for Transparency Network 29/5/11 7:44 PM

What are the biggest obstacles to your success?:

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The biggest thing, is the fear of fatigue setting in within the voters, and journalists. Although, we provide very
Transparency for
detailed information, packaged in a very nice way, the question that can always be raised is, does it affect systematic
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change? Do the voters really take an informed decision, by virtue of CMEV's work in monitoring and reporting?

How do you plan on overcoming those obstacles?:

By better and more intensive use of technology, and propagation to raise further awareness and promote informed
decisions so that the monitoring and reporting that is done affects a better electoral process.

What problem is your project aiming to overcome?:

The idea is to monitor every small and major election - from local to parliamentary to presidential elections - for
reports violence, and to publish cross-checked, verified reports on events like violence, threats, murder, poll-rigging
and other such malpractices and irregularities. We publicly ‘name and shame’ the individuals or parties involved, to
enable the voters to make an informed choice, when they go out to cast their ballot.

What are the roots of that problem?:

The roots of the problem stem from the generic tendency toward pre-election and election-day violence in, Sri Lanka,
compunded by the lack of proper electoral reforms and laws that make transparency and accountability mandatory.

Are you providing unofficial channels of information that should be provided by the government?:
We publish and distribute information on the candidates that engage in electoral violence, including details of the
vehicles that have been used for the same, the nature of media coverage they get – whether it’s biased towards one
particular party, etc. We plot these on the map of Sri Lanka, and produce podcasts in Sinhalese, Tamil and English in
the run-up to and during the elections. We also produce reports, press-releases, maps and web-documentation, on
the nature of the elections.

Why is the government not providing the information?:

The government doesn’t provide any information whatsoever, regarding election violence, as the government of the
day, being a political party, has some of the worst violators or instigators of violence. They have vested interests in
having an ignorant electorate.

Is there a freedom of information law in the country where this project is based?:
No
Is there a right to information law in the country where this project is based?:
No
How does the information published on your website turn into offline change?:
Although, all the reports have been available in textual version since 1997, the introduction of the violence-maps,
done with the help of Google Maps, have witnessed a dramatic increase in interest, amongst people and the media.
During the most recent presidential elections itself, the maps received 21,000 views on election day. That's a
qualitative difference that lets people visualize what’s happening, and prompts the domestic and international media
to raise questions as to why so much violence is happening in a certain area.

Our podcasts, since their introduction, have seen similar interest, as they are often quoted in news and media
reports. They also double as an audio archive for subsequent research, on a particular election by political science
researchers, for example. So, CMEV's information and reports are useful in the run-up to the elections, during the
elections and also after the elections for research or post-study purposes.

What is an example of how information on your website has led to a concrete change?:
It was in the late 90s, in one of the worst elections in Sri Lanka which was marred with a lot of violence that the
government, through our monitoring, declared the results void, and announced a fresh re-election. Our reports
cannot be brushed aside, as they are very detailed and duly cross-verified before the press-release. So, there is
action on the ground taken if our monitoring proves the use of violence during elections.

How many people work on your project?:

30
How many hours a week do you personally spend on the project?:
24 hours, in the run-up to, and during the elections!

How many hours does the whole team spend on the project?:
Same.

What are the most time consuming tasks?:

Plotting the map with incidents of violence that go up to hundreds in numbers, in the run-up to the elections - and
on election day - is a back-breaking job. Sometimes, there are remote villages in Sri Lanka, which are not even found
on Google Maps. So locating and plotting them is even more difficult. Even if it takes 5 minutes to map one such
case, hundreds of cases of information are pouring in, which makes it a never-ending, labour-intensive process.

How do you extract value from large amounts of data? How do you build engagement around it?:
You can see a clear pattern, from the monitoring and mapping we have done over the last couple of years, where it’s
visible, as to, which candidates or political parties, have a higher tendency to break election regulations, or law,

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engaging in election-time violence. You can extract these patterns, in the course of time, so that helps in further
monitoring and subsequent study and research.

How do you verify the identities of participants on your website?:

Since, the website cannot segregate data, by say, affiliations or gender, it’s difficult for us to know, about the kind of
people that access the site. But, the domestic traffic goes up immensely, especially on the day of the election, and
then shows a reduction, after that. A lot of the visitors to the site, are people from abroad, who look it up, mainly,
for research and data.

How do you attract new participants?:

Media plays a very important role, as all our press conferences give out our web-address, Facebook, Twitter and blog
links, which also makes it easy, to index it through Google. We are very visible through all the channels we use,
including things like our Facebook fan page.

What has been the most effective method of spreading awareness about your project?:
Mainly through the web, and the use of new media technology. Besides the 10,000+ press-releases that are sent out,
which read by approximately 20,000 people both domestically and internationally, what has really generated interest
and added viewership is the use of newer media technologies like maps, podcasts, blogs, and social networking sites,
like Facebook and Twitter. We are of course, still in the learning process of finding newer ways to achieve more
awareness.

What are your biggest referrers? Where does most of your traffic come from?:
Google and kottu.org.

Has legal action been taken against your website?:

No.

What metrics do you use to judge your own success?:

Through the number of page views, views for the maps leading up to and on election day, the number of listeners to
our podcasts, or those, who see our Flickr page and photos of election violence and malpractices. Also, the number
of times CMEV reports or content is republished in mainstream print media, or that key CMEV personnel are
interviewed or featured on mainstream television and radio. The number of attendees from domestic and international
media to our press conferences leading up to and on election day, feedback received via email and the website,
undocumented feedback, anecdotal in nature, via voice calls to key CMEV personnel, blogs and responses on the
Internet to our content.

What skills and expertise would be of assistance to your project?:

As violence monitoring can be a dangerous thing on the ground, they need to understand the repercussions of their
job well, beforehand. They need to be neutral while reporting, and stand up to violence, observe and report.
Although, they don’t need to be conversant in English, they need to know, how to use technology like phones for
easier and faster reporting.

How do you plan on financially sustaining your project? :

CMEV’s funding comes, mostly, only during the elections. During the times between elections, it is difficult to sustain.
Although, there is a lot of work to be done in those times like analyzing, archiving and data processing, there is a
lack of funding for which we hope to pursue a more sustainable funding plan.

What other organizations are you working with?:

Primarily, the Informed Human Rights Documentation Centre.

Have you thought about developing your own tools?:

We do plan to expand and innovate new tools, similar to the ones, used by different platforms in other countries,
like, Ushahidi and Frontline SMS, which address issues that pertain to local problems and contextual situations in Sri
Lanka.

Has there been any communication between your project and government officials?:
Absolutely. We are in constant exchange of letters to the election commissioner, which becomes a part of our official
record of communication. We are also constantly in touch with the political parties themselves, although, they
sometimes, accuse us of being biased/prejudiced. However, some of the discussions with them, have borne fruit.
They have responded if they have been informed about certain incidents of their people’s involvement in violence.

Are there any legal obstacles to your work? Any laws that should be changed?:
Electoral reforms, which have been in constant question, have not really taken place in Sri Lanka. Legislations that
make political funding transparent and accounted for and right to information laws have been on the table for
discussion for a long time now, but none of them have been passed, so far. A change in these laws will go a long
way, in helping improve the election process.

Have there been any attempts to replicate your work elsewhere?:

Not to our knowledge, although, we are very keen to help anyone willing to take it up with our expertise and
experience.

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What other projects in your region should we know about?:

An award-winning Citizen Journal initiative started in 1997, called Groundviews, and also, an equivalent called
Vikalpa. There is also, Perambara, which gathers provincial news.

If someone gave you $30,000 how would you use the money?:
It has been amply proven in our case, and around the world that new, alternative technologies have been of immense
importance in this kind of work. The money would help, further develop such tools, platforms and technologies.

What are your plans for 2010 and 2011?:

There are no elections this year in Sri Lanka after April. During that time, we want to develop new tools for better
monitoring. We also want to use the opportunity to become a centre and a source for historical, archival and
research-oriented information, as far as elections are concerned, which helps improve our understanding of the
electoral process and to suggest legislative reforms.

Further Questions
What are the roots of so much violence during elections in Sri Lanka?
Winning gives the individuals or the parties unrivaled power, which becomes a powerful motivating factor for them to
go all out and practice violence to ensure victory. So historically, although the frequency and the regularity with which
elections have been held in Sri Lanka gives it democratic credibility, violence has been an integral part, whether
between rivals or even between two candidates within the same party, if they are contesting from the same
geographical proximity or dislike each other. Some elections, though, have been better than the others, and in some
we have had to request the government for re-polling because of excessive violence.

Why do you think, there was need for a project like this?
There is a basic fundamental need in democracy, for the voter to be informed when deciding who they are going to
elect to the public office. If the candidates are of the nature who indulge in violence – killing each other and other
electoral malpractices with scant regard to the rule of law - then the voter has to question his suitability to office. We
report, during the run-up and during the elections, as frequently and accurately as possible so that the voter, armed
with this information in the public domain, can make an informed decision on his ballot.

How is information gathered on the incidences of election violence?

We have trained mobile election monitors on the ground, who go around and visit different constituencies, electoral
regions, polling units/centres, etc., and report on various incidents of violations and violence to our headquarters in
Colombo, where information is first verified, and then released to the local and international media.

Has the project increased civic engagement, as a participatory process, toward better electorate
decision-making?
As a monitoring organization, it’s our job, to present information to the voters, who take their decisions in casting
their ballot, based on our reports. It’s difficult to know, whether that translates into civic engagement. We can only
judge by the interest shown in our reports, maps, podcasts, etc.

Through an analysis of our archived information, and the corresponding exit-polls, one can find out, if the voting
pattern was influenced by our monitoring process and information given out.

How has the use of modern tools or technology, contributed to CMEV’s work?
It allows for a more responsive, creative and free way of gathering, processing and putting out information in the
public domain. Technology helps us get information more quickly and easily through videos, on-the-street interviews
in sudden situations, and then to quickly process and distribute them through maps, podcasts, and blogs without
having to wait for the print media to produce and publish.

New media also allow for more interesting and visually well-packaged information in the form of videos and maps,
podcasts and blogs, and not just the conventional text method. So the level of interest in such incidents remains
engaged. Also, for many people the web, blogosphere, and mobile phones are now their primary sources of gathering
such information.

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