During Autumn Agora Cagliari, the Election Observation Project was established as an official project of AEGEE-Europe. After having organised five missions in Scotland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and two in Ukraine, the project is already preparing new missions for 2015. We spoke with the Project Manager Thomas Leszke (AEGEE-Köln), Content Manager and Publication Responsible Marije Arentze (AEGEE-Leiden) and Fundraising Responsible Anna Gumbau (AEGEE-Barcelona) to discover something more about the past year missions and their future plans.

After the first meeting during Autumn Agora Zaragoza, the Election Observation Project grew constantly and right now it has fifteen active contributors “who are literally from all corners of Europe – and even one AEGEE member from Tunisia!” as Thomas states. The adventure of the Election Observations started with the first mission in Ukraine in May, followed by Scotland in September, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine again in October and Moldova in November.

Marije was Mission Coordinator for Bosnia and Herzegovina and she was in charge of nineteen other observers who visited 45 polling stations overall. “The EOM to Bosnia and Herzegovina was an amazing experience”, Marije says. “It was my first time observing elections and I was in charge, which was an extra challenge. Everyone was very serious in his role as observer, which was great to see. The day after the mission, we gathered a lot of really sharp and critical observations, which was very rewarding to me.”

For Anna being Mission Coordinator was also very important: “Moldova was an extremely exciting destination to observe, due to its dilemma of whether strengthening their ties with the European Union or staying close to Russia.” The twenty-two observers came from nine different countries and they took the chance to understand better, and in a unique way, the political situation in the country by talking with some journalists in the Central Election Commission after the counting session. With the final report on the way, Anna gave us a sneak peak of the observation: “In general, we didn’t observe any majors flaws at the election day, but there were still several things to be improved, since a big majority of voters were not very aware of the voting procedures, the voting was sometimes not really secret, and there were even (very few) cases of group voting.”

For Moldova, the Project decided for an alternative way of funding: they launched a crowdfunding campaign managing to collect more than 900 euro in a bit more than ten days from AEGEE members and externals. This decision was made considering the fact that tickets to Moldova can be very expensive and observers needed some kind of compensations for their expenses. “Considering the fact that it was the first time that we tried it”, says Anna, “and that we organised it on a very short notice and we even had technical problems with the crowdfunding platform, I am not that disappointed with the result”. The Network responded well to the initiative, even starting one of their own like Jorge Sánchez Hernandez who launched the “sofa and blanket challenge” on behalf of AEGEE-Alicante and AEGEE-Dresden.

After this intense year the long-waited signature of the contract took place during the closing plenary of Autumn Agora Cagliari. “Although the plenary session was a bit messy and we did not have the opportunity to present the reports from our missions to Ukraine and Bosnia”, Thomas recalls, “it was a great feeling to sign our official cooperation with AEGEE-Europe and to get the support of so many AEGEE members!” A great support that was followed by another recognition.

In The Golden Times annual review, the EOP was elected as the best project of 2014 (even though the project was established officially only in late 2014). Asking about why they think so many people named the project Thomas says: “I believe that our project appeals to a wish that many AEGEE members have: to make a direct, obvious, tangible and personal contribution to our European values. We do a lot of discussing in AEGEE (which is good and necessary) but few projects have offered such concrete and challenging activities in the recent past.”  Marije adds that “what we do is very attractive: you get to travel, explore another country and meet other cultures. I cannot think of an AEGEEan who does not like that”.

What is next for the Election Observation Project? “At the moment, we are planning ten EOMs in total to countries such as Estonia, United Kingdom, Turkey, Poland, and our favourite country, Ukraine”, Thomas says. “Additionally, we might also go to the regional elections in Catalunya that were announced not too long ago. You can see the full list of 2015 EOMs on our website.” Not to forget the internal observation missions during Agorae. The EOP managed to run two OM during Spring Agora Patra and Autumn Agora Cagliari and an OM during Spring Agora Oviedo might be expected.

You can find  theElection Observation Project on Facebook or by visiting their website.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

Local of the Month of December is AEGEE-Chișinău, the only Moldovan local we have in our Network. Despite being a rather small local, they have had a month full of events and recognition, organising a LTC, helping the Election Observation Project with their mission in Moldova for the parliamentary elections and hitting the 13th place overall in the Summer University ranking. We spoke with Aliona Ciorba, the secretary of the board, to understand this antenna better.

The AEGEEan: Please introduce your local to our readers

Aliona: AEGEE-Chișinău was founded in 1996 and after a little pause its activity was restarted in 1999. This was the year when the first Summer University in Moldova was organised and in 2014 we celebrated the 15th anniversary of Summer University in Chișinău. Currently, in our antenna there are 28 cute members and 6 cute board members namely Andrei Dodita (President), Lucia Gori (Vice-President), Aliona Ciorba (Secretary), Diana Gorita (Treasurer), Ana Gancearuc (HR Responsible) and Maria Chiper (PR Responsible).

How does it feel to be elected Local of the Month?

Being elected Local of the Month makes us feel very enthusiastic and that our work is finally appreciated. We think we had a good AEGEE year and the greatest result for us is that our Check-in in Moldova Summer University was ranked the 13th from all the 80 Summer Universities. I remember before the organisation of the SU one of our members was saying that “it is not possible, we have no sea, no mountains to attract the participants and make the SU more interesting”, but here we are proving that when you have a great desire, everything is possible and we managed to establish a new record for Moldova in the Summer University project. We really hope that the new board of AEGEE-Chișinău will exceed the previous board and will have even better results!

As you said before, according to SUCT list, your Summer University Check-in in Moldova achieved a remarkable 13th position. What do you think most impressed your participants?

We think that the participants liked overall the activities and the organisation of the Check-in in Moldova Summer University, and secondly, the good connections with the organisers. The members of AEGEE-Chișinău befriended the participants and made them feel very good and enjoy even more the time spent in Moldova.

What is the secret for a small local to succeed in a Summer University?

The secret for a small local to succeed in a Summer University is first of all the belief that everything is possible and that we can do it. Secondly, a big wish to make a great Summer University. Thirdly, knowledge, experience, a good concept of SU, a team and, last but not least, positive participants. Without all this you cannot manage!

Your country recently had elections and you helped the Election Observation Project. Which kind of impact has the project had on your local? Do you think those elections had an impact on young generations?

On the 30th of November the parliamentary elections of the Republic of Moldova took place. We were pleased to support the Election Observation Project of AEGEE and help its members, because we believe the parliamentary elections had a direct impact on the future of our country. We, as citizens, wanted our elections to take place in a democratic and correct manner, hence, we welcomed the observation mission with big enthusiasm. The Election Observation Project of AEGEE did a great job and we are very happy we took part in this important mission.

You organised a Local Training Course. What were the topics? And what were the outcomes?

The LTC of AEGEE-Chișinău took place shortly after the recruitment process of new members in the association. The main purpose of the training was making an introduction and explaining AEGEE. The trainers of the LTC were experienced members that could give more extensive information about any body, activity or project of the association. Besides this, we presented the Summer University Project, as it is the longest lasting project in the association’s history, and organised several workshops and even a quiz. And last but not least, we tried to organise the LTC in such a manner that we could show and transfer to the new members the enthusiasm and love that we have for AEGEE and to inspire them. We consider to have succeeded in this and, as a result, the new members desired to discover more about the association and actively participate in the activities of the local.

What are the new projects of the locals?

2015 seems to be a busy year for AEGEE-Chișinău because we plan to do a lot of projects and activities. We plan to establish a new record for AEGEE-Chișinău by organising The hottest Summer School SU 2015, which besides being the hottest Summer University of AEGEE will also let the participants experience a new concept of upside down school with teachers of the most unusual subjects that will throw their summer downside-up.

Moreover, we will organise  4 seasons, 3 reasons, 2 countries, 1 story! Travel Summer University 2015 in collaboration with AEGEE-București , which has an amazing itinerary and will let the participants discover two colorful countries: Romania and Moldova. The program will include everything: from urban locations (two capitals: București and Chișinău, which are two totally different cities), to mountains, sea and beautiful nature.

Thridly, we plan to organise a local project which will develop the subject of Europe, European Union and the European projects and opportunities for the Moldavian youth, in order to encourage them to take an active role in the society, broaden their knowledge, and create awareness among young people. We hope these projects will have a positive impression on the participants.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

Who observes if democracy works? How does election observation work in international organisations? And should there be an election observation procedure within AEGEE? To answer these questions, AEGEE members Alin-Florin Calin (AEGEE-Wien) and Thomas Leszke (AEGEE-Köln) decided to launch the Election Observation Project during Agora Zaragoza. Almost five months later, the first project meeting took place in Köln from the 7th to 9th March. Ten motivated members of the project met to define the different goals of the projects and to discuss further steps.

The team elaborated four different aims of the project. Each of the aims presents a different level of election observation, and are: to have a pool of AEGEE observers that are capable of observing international elections, to create an observations trainings procedure during Agorae, to get AEGEEans involved in domestic elections and to establish an election observation procedure within AEGEE during elections at Agorae and local Agorae.

After a day full of hard work, the project team members joined AEGEE-Aachen and AEGEE-Lviv, who were visiting Aachen, for an European night. This European night took place in a small and cozy bar in the city and was a great way to end the demanding day. The whole team enjoyed the time spent with them and are grateful to the locals. As usual, it was really fun to meet old friends and to make new ones. The first project meeting was a great success and all members left Köln motivated and dedicated to work more for this interesting and demanding project.

Of course the project didn’t stop after the meeting, but will continue to give members of the Network a lot of new opportunities. In weekly Skype meetings, the election observation project is taking the next steps to achieve its aims. Right now, the project is researching how to participate in the European Parliamentary elections in different countries and also the possible involvement of AEGEEans in international observation.

For the Ukrainian presidential elections in May 2014 the team is working in cooperation with the Eastern Partnership Project in order to accreditate our organisation to be able to send observers. At Agora Patra, team members will be conducting election observation during the Agora elections and show the results to the Network.

If you want to be part of the Election Observation Project, do not hesitate to join the EOP mailing list or check the Facebook page.

Written by Julia Krebs from AEGEE-Osnabrück and Nikolay Kazantsev from AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg.