About the African Elections Project

African Elections Project was established by Penplusbytes (www.penplusbytes.org) in 2008 with the vision of enhancing the ability of journalists, citizen journalists and the news media to provide more timely and relevant elections information and knowledge while undertaking monitoring of specific and important aspects of governance in Africa.

Broad based Objectives

• To consolidate the gains of democracy through active promotion of free flow of election information and knowledge as a vehicle to promote free and fair elections
• To strengthen the media and related civil societies in their role as enablers of good governance
• To develop the capacity of journalists in the area of elections coverage in order to improve on the quantity and quality of the coverage of elections issues;
• To enhance the process of information and knowledge sharing of good practices and lessons among all stakeholders involved in election monitoring process;
• To contribute to the reduction of the tendencies of violence by encouraging the media to tell both sides of the elections story;
• To develop early warning systems to alert stakeholders who may be falling into the trap of inflaming passions which can lead to violence.
• To develop media elections result centre which will service the media with key content about the elections during the result stage;
• To develop capacity for election observations;
• To provide a central pool of relevant ICT tools for stakeholders involved in the electoral process; and
• To create a space for dialogue between political parties and the electorates.

Building Blocks

• Training for senior editors, journalists and reporters
• SMS application in coverage and monitoring
• Election Guide for the Media
• Information and Knowledge Online Portal
• Knowledge products for the media
• Media Monitoring incorporating early warning systems

Africa wide Coverage

With its extensive experience covering/monitoring elections in Ghana, Mauritania, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Togo, Guinea, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, and Liberia, the African Elections Project is no doubt a ground breaking project providing an important contributory

role in deepening democracy and supporting the creation of open societies through capacity building for the media and other key stakeholders, while at the same time providing a unique online elections information and knowledge platform that will eventually provide transparent access to the electoral processes across the African continent.

To participate in this project and for more information contact: africanelectionsproject@gmail.com