Topic: Promoting Peaceful Post-Election Transitions
Country: Germany
Delegate Name: Emily Ruff-Wilkinson
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Germany position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
For countries in transition to democratically elected governments, elections often lead to turmoil. This turmoil can turn violent if something is not done. With the global community leading an admirable push for greater representative government and democracy in developing nations, we have seen these sorts of conflicts occur all over the world in recent months, from struggling young countries such as Armenia and Zimbabwe to nations not far from Germany, such as Ukraine.
The UN must aid countries undergoing elections to ensure that these are fair. The vast majority of post-election conflicts can be prevented if there is no dispute over the results. Those that occur even if there was proven to be a fair election are generally the result of deeper-seeded problems and the UN should choose to address these on a case-by-case basis.
Germany therefore supports the creation of an official UN Committee on Election Fairness. This body would support the efforts currently taken by the OECD election monitors and teams sent by regional organizations like the OAS and AU, but could operate in world regions where there is not currently sufficient resources to fully support election monitoring. The function of this committee would be to aid countries who are trying to promote truly democratic elections. The committee would be responsible only for helping to advise nations on elections standards and procedures, and to ensure that polling is fair and that votes are accurately counted.
It is necessary that this committee function with absolute transparency. It should not appear as if developed nations are placing puppet governments in their less-developed counterparts. As democratic nations, our only obligation is to ensure that these elections are a true representation of the will of the voters. If elections are fairly executed, hopefully this will replace post-election violence of the developed and developing world.
