Launched on August 19th, 2009, the Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) is a non-partisan, non-profit broad civil society coalition that brings together over 600 like-minded civil society organizations and over eight thousand individuals to advocate for comprehensive electoral democracy in Uganda. The overriding agenda of this coalition is to advocate and promote integrity, transparency and active citizen participation in Uganda’s electoral process. CCEDU brings together various interest configurations including, the Elderly, the Workers’ Union, the Farmers, the Faith Based networks, the Media, the Development workers, Youths, Persons with Disabilities, the Private Sector, the Women, Human Rights activists and Persons Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

OVERALL PROGRAM OBJECTIVE

"To promote active citizens’ participation and leadership accountability, enhance transparency and integrity of Uganda’s electoral democratic processes."

Between the period 2010 and 2011 CCEDU’s action plan constituted of: Electoral Reform advocacy, civic education, establishing a Legal Defense Fund for victims of electoral violence and strengthening a platform for enhancing liaison and information sharing for Election Observers.  Beyond the 2011 elections, CCEDU plans to focus on advocacy for legislative and structural electoral reforms, mobilize citizens and empower them to demand for political accountability and implement an entrenched program of civic education that will adequately meet the needs of the urban, peri urban and rural settings.

METHODOLOGY

In the post 2011 period, CCEDU will employ a three-tiered program delivery approach comprising of:

                     I.    Research and consultative engagement for electoral reform;

                    II.    Convene citizens’ platforms in form of Face the Citizens as well as Glad/Fresh 18+ campaign to mobilize and motivate citizens to demand for political accountability from their leaders; and

                  III.    Implement an ‘Honor Beyond the Vote’ multi-media messaging campaign to enhance citizens’ civic and political consciousness.

A BRIEF ON SPECIFIC PROGRAM INTERVENTION

1.    Electoral reform Advocacy:

CCEDU will utilize resources from its member organizations to generate a concept framework highlighting challenges resulting from the current electoral law deficiencies. The Coalition intends to collate electoral reform recommendations made by various stakeholders including observer groups for the 2011 general elections.  These shared recommendations shall be the basis for an electoral reform proposals manual that shall be utilized for advocacy purposes.  Different from previous advocacy efforts, CCEDU will engage in lobbying meetings with Parliamentary committees, party caucuses, executive arm of government; the judiciary and the Electoral Commission to share the findings of the research and also have the other stakeholders’ input on into the findings.  A report of the comprehensive electoral reform proposals will then be generated, disseminated and used as a major tool for advocacy for electoral reform.

Considering the current legal framework where electoral reforms can only be sanctioned by the Executive which holds the exclusive mandate to introduce such public Bills with financial implications before parliament and considering the implications of the same, CCEDU intends to initiate and/or support efforts to interest individual Members of Parliament in raising the proposed electoral reforms in form of a private members bill.

2.    Mobilization and Motivation of the Citizenry to demand Political Accountability:

CCEDU will design and organize local political debates that will provide a forum through which the citizens will be able to engage with their leaders and demand accountability and feedback on the promises made to the electorate during the campaigns. CCEDU intends to build on its previous achievements by further continuing to convene the Face the Citizens local platforms where elected political leaders regularly account for their actions or even inactions to their constituency members.  This is after a realization that many elected leaders especially the MPs abandon their constituencies once they are elected. In between elections, political representatives remain out of touch with their representatives and this has consequently paid off with representatives being insufficiently informed about the needs of their electorate and similarly the electorate being detached from their very own leaders who are supposed to be voicing out their pertinent issues.  This sort of engagement is envisaged to steer leaders away from the orthodox approach of ‘guessing’ the needs of their locals to understanding what they want.   Whereas these debates will indirectly contribute to higher civic engagement and political participation, it is also anticipated that the forums will empower the leaders to fill their representational role of raising public interest issues in parliament.

It is also anticipated that regular engagement and information sharing at these forums will also contribute to the strengthening of relevant linkages between the citizens and their leaders at all levels of governance and the local CSOs with those at the regional and national level.

·         Glad/Fresh 18+ Campaign

This will be an annually motivated campaign intended to initiate youths aged 18 and above into adulthood.  The campaign will seek to build networks of youth and an electorate in general that appreciates its national duties, obligation and remains enthusiastic on involvement in political processes.

3.    Comprehensive Civic Education Program:

CCEDU intends to implement a grand civic education program that will benefit the urban, peri- urban and rural population. The Coalition will deliver on this through a multi-media messaging campaign “Honour Beyond the Vote”. The ultimate goal of the “Honour Beyond the Vote” Campaign will be to raise levels of civic consciousness amongst the citizens, strengthen citizens’ capacity to effectively demand for their rights as well as leadership accountability. It is anticipated that the campaign will transmute as the country draws closer to the next cycle of elections in 2016.  Besides the use of conventional radio messages and advertisements, the program will employ the use of drama series to propagate the message of enlightenment, mobilization and motivation to the citizens in a bid to awaken and/or reawaken the understanding of and zeal to actively engage in political processes as well as seek accountability from their leaders.

·         Radio, TV, Outdoor, Cinema Messaging

CCEDU will leverage from both the information on leaders’ commitments to citizens collected by the Movement for Political Accountability – Uganda (MOPA-U) prior to the 2011 elections, the priority citizens’ demands as captured in the Citizens’ Manifesto and the respective mandatory duties of local leaders to develop and design suitable media messages that will seek to infuse accountability on the political class in between elections.

·          ICT Interactivity for CCEDU member CSOs

CCEDU will develop, maintain and manage web - based interaction/ engagement among member CSOs on prevailing issues of national concern with the aim of stimulating debate among the CSOs while providing feedback on the issues hence feeding the advocacy function of the action and CCEDU. Member CSOs across the country will be afforded a platform to share experiences and good practices thereby building capacity of the members and enhancing information sharing among the Coalition CSO networks.