- Journalists working in the radio synergy room on Election Day
80% of Guineans voted in Sunday’s elections. By and large the election, that hopes to end military rule, was considered a fair one. However there were some irregularities that may affect credibility, such as delays in the distribution of voting materials and additional delays in ballot counting post-election. Already some candidates are alleging fraud. It is the days to come, when results are announced, that may prove the tensest. Country Director, Quentin Kanyatsi, noted that most major political parties are ethnically based. This could be potentially dangerous when the results are announced by the electoral commission.
SFCG Guinea has already begun addressing possible fallouts through its radio programs, encouraging listeners to accept the election results peacefully.
Enjoy some great pictures from Election Day!
Women queueing to vote on Election Day
Men queueing to vote on Election Day
SFCG staff in the Synergry hub radio staion on Election Day
Polling station staffers counting ballots
SFCG producers interviewing the president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission observing elections in Guinea
Viviane Konan has returned to her native Côte d’Ivoire to participate in SFCG’s international internship program. A recent graduate of the University of the District of Columbia, she interned with the Africa Program in DC this past spring. Wanting to see the programs she supported in action, she took advantage of the international internship program and recently arrived in Abidjan, the largest city, where Search’s country office is located. She’ll be working to measure the impact of projects like “Supporting a conversation with Youth on Leadership” which aims to strengthen youth capacity to mitigate conflict and promote tolerance. Viviane arrived home just in time for the start of rainy season…
Heavy rains in Abidjan
By Viviane Konan
The rain season just started and will not end until August. A mere week after my arrival in Abidjan, I witnessed some of the season’s most torrential rain. I heard the few drops during the night and the pounding worsened around four in the morning, enough to wake me. It continued to assail the city all day long.
The rain destroyed houses, buildings, and bridges in Abidjan slums and neighborhoods. Ensuing landslides and flooding have rendered many homeless. The media and police have reported a dozen dead and several wounded. In a country with no relief and disaster department, people affected by the rains were forced to flee and are unsure when they’ll be able to return.
Some residents, however, have found it nearly impossible to leave their homes. My neighborhood was among the areas severely hit by the flood. Therefore, I was unable to find any public transportation to go to Search’s office. After calling our logistic manager (who was already there) I managed to get into the office. We at Search have been incredibly lucky. I was surprised to see that all of my co-workers made it in, despite the awful conditions. Perhaps a testament to the work?
My Jakarta: SFCG Indonesia’s Agus Nahrowi Talks Terrorism
SFCG Indonesia's Senior Program Officer Agus Nahrowi
By Zack Peterson
From the Jakarta Globe
My Jakarta: Agus Nahrowi, Prison Radicalization Reduction and Counterterrorism Official
Agus Nahrowi wakes up, gets dressed and goes to work just like everybody else. Except his workplace is within the country’s jail system, and when he sits down to write a report, odds are it is on one of the most dangerous terrorists in Indonesia.
Here, Agus, the senior program officer at an international NGO that works to transform the way the world deals with conflict, talks about the recent arrest of terrorist suspect Abdullah Sonata, pesantrens and the fear of terrorism in Jakarta.
Can you sum up your job for me?
I’m the senior program officer at Search for Common Ground Indonesia. I’m responsible for a program that attempts to reduce radicalization within Indonesian prisons.
Under this program, we conduct conflict management training [CMT] in eight prisons across the country where convicted terrorists are being detained.
We also implement a media campaign that focuses on promoting pluralism, non-violence, peace, empowerment and positive choices.
Do you do a lot of counterterrorism work in Jakarta?
I think my most important counterterrorism work is that which I’ve carried out in prisons. We’ve had 15 known terrorists take part in CMT.
We teach them how to deal with conflict in a more constructive way. We also train them how to manage their emotions and anger, develop empathy and improve their negotiation, mediation and peace-building skills.
I hope through this training they learn something.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Soldiers and civilians lining to vote in Conakry (from timesunion.com)
Sunday marked the first truly free and peaceful elections in Guinean history!
Like other international actors, Search for Common Ground has played a major role from the beginning of the electoral process, campaigning for peaceful elections through its radio programs. SFCG’s synergy project which linked 17 independent radio stations, resulted in the broadcast a unique radio program that was aired by all the stations on election day. Stations received support from SFCG and Radio France Internationale (RFI) in journalistic training. The program was greatly appreciated by partners and Guinean listeners.
Guineans showed their strong desire for fair electoral process through massive participation. The strong participation from women and youth, in particular, stood out as an achievement. In some polling stations women and men were grouped into separate lines. Others organized voters to give priority to seniors–although some claimed that women should have priority so they could return home quickly in time to cook for men! Despite comments like these, many women refused to stand in separate lines, arguing that the gender of the voter makes no difference to the vote.
Many of Search for Common Ground’s efforts in Guinea, especially through our radio programs, have encouraged the empowerment of women and youth. With the voter turnout from these groups we believe our efforts have paid off.
The election was not without hiccups. Some people had trouble finding their polling stations. Some lacked their electoral cards while others came with multiples for relatives unable to travel to the stations. There was also a communication problem from the electoral commission that delayed voting at many polling stations. Despite these small setbacks, the election was peaceful and satisfied Guineans and international observers (some 4000 of them!) alike.
The synergy radio station, FM GUINEE 2010 planned to provide elections results on the same day but anxious voters and observers will have to wait for the election commission, which is expected to announce the results on Wednesday.
Congratulations to Guinea on their first free elections!
Côte d’Ivoire, the only SFCG country to make it to the World Cup, sadly did not make it out of the Group round. Much of the squad and country’s hope rested on the injured Didier Drogba. Yet it is not only on the pitch that Ivorians place their hope on Drogba. In fact his exploits off the field have meant even more. Selay Marius Kouassi writes about Drogba’s historic appeal to end civil war and violence in his country:
“Every national football team has its heroes and its legends. And there are many. But for Ivory Coast, there is only one: Didier Drogba. He is, without doubt, the most amazing icon of Ivorian football today. His memorable appeal to politicians and to leaders of warring sides to lay down their arms will remain a turning point in the political life of the country.
“After defeating Sudan 3-1 and leading Ivory Coast to the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, Didier Drogba, surrounded by his team mates in the dressing room, fell to his knees, asked all of his teammates to kneel down with him, looked straight into the camera, and begged both warring sides to lay down their arms. ‘Citizens of Ivory Coast’ he declared, ‘from the north, south, centre and west, we beg you on our knees to forgive each other! A great country like Ivory Coast cannot sink into chaos forever. Lay down your weapons and organise elections.’ This appeal was broadcast for months by RTI, the state-run TV station.”
Read the rest of this wonderful story about the power of football here.
Voters waiting peacefully for their turn to cast ballots at one polling station in Bujumbura, the capital.
Five years ago, Search for Common Ground launched Media Synergy in Burundi. Media Synergy is an initiative aimed at building a national media coalition to ensure accurate and professional coverage of elections, reduce misinformation, and contribute to the participatory and credible nature of the election process and its outcomes. Burundian media professionals most recently put Media Synergy to use during the communal elections, held on May 24, 2010. Sixteen media outlets, including SFCG’s Studio Ijambo, participated in the media synergy for this round of elections.
The May 24th election was won by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s CNDD-FDD party with 64% of the vote. Although national and international observers said the election had been peaceful and fair, opposition parties accused the CNDD-FDD of fraud and announced they would boycott the presidential election set to be held today, June 28. This has left Nkurunziza, a former rebel, as the sole candidate.
Although oppostition leaders say they will not disrupt the polls with violence there is serious worry that this is exactly what will happen. Despite the best effort of initiatives like Media Synergy many fear the outcome of this election. At the same time, a peaceful and transparent day could set an example for other countries in the region.
Media, and radio in particular, have been shown to play a powerful role in influencing political outcomes. In this excellent article from Foreign Policy Magazine, Jina Moore speaks to the delicate nature of Burundi’s election, the role of radio in the country and SFCG’s efforts to ensure that the role radio plays is a positive one:
“In a laudable (and rare) effort at impartiality, 15 radio stations pooled their journalists and airtime to provide unbiased nationwide coverage of the election in four languages, an effort dubbed Synergy. It was an attempt to avoid the problems of the 2005 election, when the media were more fragmented and vulnerable to political donors with deep pockets than they are five years later.”
Read the rest of the article here.
Another great article from TIME on the high-stakes elections.
