The Administration and Cost of Elections Project

Press Release:

ACE

The Administration and Cost of Elections Project

Press Conference to be held Thursday,
October 22,1998 at 11.15 a.m.
United Nations Secretariat, Room 226

United Nations -The administration. logistics and cost of an election are staggering. Consider the following statistics from some recent elections:

• 52,233,957 Mexicans were in possession of voter identification cards for the July 1997 presidential elections;

• US$ 59,000,000 were contributed by the international community for Mozambique's first national elections in October 1994;

• 1,600,000 security forces watched over India's elections in February 1998;

• 93,000 polling sites were set up in Russia for the December 1995 State Duma elections;

• 159 non-governmental organizations provided more than 3,000 domestic election observers for the September 1998 elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina;

• 39,000 pollworkers in Yemen staffed the April 1997 multiparty parliament" elections;

• 527,018,577 Pakistan rupees (US$ 6.4 million) were spent to print ballots for the country's February 1997 general elections,

In the ten years between 1988 and 1998, 51 countries held first-time multiparty elections. Countries organized these elections under tremendous time, financial and especially, political pressure. This approach is neither cost-effective nor sustainable. As countries approach their second, third and fourth elections, they must focus on efficiency, consistency and sustainability of the election organization process.

Recognizing the need to provide tools, lessons and examples in the field of election organization and administration, three leading international organizations have collaborated on a project to promote efficient and cost-effective elections. The unique project entitled, "the Administration and Cost of Elections" (ACE), was produced by the United Nations (UN), International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES).

The ACE Website (www.aceproject.org) and CD-ROM provides a rage of appropriate options in the organization of elections, from the first stage of designing an appropriate electoral system to the final stages of vote counting. It includes operational details, sample materials and country case studies. ACE is being launched at the United Nations on October 22, 1998.

ACE ( Version Ø ) is a beta release. Over the coming year, feedback will be solicited to improve this unique information collection, and make the publication globally inclusive. A hardcopy handbook version of the ACE text is also being developed.

For more information, please contact:

Torie Keller, IFES
+1-202-828 85 07
torie@ifes.org

Cilla Ungert Jolis, International IDEA
+46-8-698 37 00
c.ungerth@idea.int

Maria Helena Alves, UN-DESA
+1-212-963 88 36
alvesh@un.org