Fair and transparent elections are the key to the successful democratic development of the state. Every few years, citizens of Ukraine vote for their future, choosing the trajectory of the country’s development through politicians whom they trust to represent their interests.
However, to achieve the election goals, candidates and political parties can use violations and manipulations: bribing voters, financing their campaign with “shadow” funds, using administrative resources, distributing fakes, and so on. All these actions affect the decisions of voters and the outcome of the election.
Therefore, to guarantee the elections to be transparent and the results show the conscious choice, citizens must have some information about candidates and parties throughout the election process. That is why it is important that journalists, bloggers, community activists, and other stakeholders be able to find and investigate election violations and communicate the results of investigations to the public.
The purpose of the course “How to investigate election violations” is to give information how to pursue high-quality investigations of violations of election law. The use of the acquired knowledge and skills will help to make elections in Ukraine more transparent and fairer, and the choice of citizens – conscious and responsible.
This course is for journalists, bloggers, public activists and all interested listeners who will monitor compliance with election laws in national and local elections.
After completing the course, participants will be able to independently find violations of election law, determine the subject of investigation, formulate a hypothesis and plan further work, deal with open sources, create briefs and prepare materials for publication in the media and social networks.
This course was developed by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in Ukraine with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ministry of International Affairs of Canada and the British Aid (UK aid) from the British government. Any views expressed in this course belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the governments of the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom.
The course is in Ukrainian. It is free of charge and open for everyone!