4.5 Electoral Management Bodies and Public administration
The role of Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) is to organize an election. Depending upon the system, this can include revision of the voter lists, registration of new voters and voter identification, dissemination of voting materials, training of poll workers, voter and civic education, announcement of the results, and so on. The management of the electoral process influences the extent to which a country’s voters accord legitimacy to their government. The case studies of Mexico, Ghana, and Indonesia show the significance of electoral management bodies in enhancing the legitimacy of election as an event and that of the electoral process. EMBs com in a variety of models, including a temporary or a permanent body; a partisan, partially partisan, or non-partisan body; a centralized body; a specialized judicial body or government ministry; or even a mixture of several of these types and thus not easily categorized. One thing fairly common in all EMBs is the requirement to act as both an administrative and a supervisory body. One or both of these functions can be compromised depending upon the model used. For example, excessively large EMBs can be unwieldy and slow to make and implement decisions. EMBs dominated by political parties can be wind up stalemated in partisan battles. And EMBs not fully independent of the government can find their actions subject to charges of manipulation and fraud. A growing consensus is emerging that EMBs need to be three things in order to fulfill their mandate in today’s democracies: independent, nonpartisan, and professional.