Votebien.com (Votewell.com)
Votebien.com (or Votewell.com) is a partnership between media and social organisations to follow the Colombian electoral processes independently, and to provide timely and truthful information to citizens, contributing to a more informed voting behaviour. Votebien.com has monitored the electoral processes for Congress and Presidency during 2002; the local Mayors, Governors, Regional Assemblies, and City Councils' elections in 2003 and 2007, and the Congress and Presidential elections in 2006. Votebien.com aims to cover the elections from a citizen-oriented point of view. Through its website, virtual forums, face to face meetings, online chats and debates, Votebien.com facilitates a direct dialogue between candidates, experts, decision makers, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), social movements and citizens. To familiarise the candidates with the everyday situation of citizens, it also aims to widen the debate further and beyond the campaign plans by including discussion about issues of national interest.
The project’s web site includes an updated "electoral ABC" with the most frequently asked questions posed by citizens about the elections' operational aspects and the electoral rules. Furthermore, citizens can send their own articles and coverage of the election process. For example, in the 2006 process, 200 “Cybercitizens” (cyberciudadanos) sent their chronicles, articles and "news reports" about the electoral process in different regions of the country.
The site has also developed an interactive test, that allows the voter to choose the candidate which most fits the voter´s own ideology. Furthermore, through additional interviews it seeks to identify the main factors that lead people to abstain from voting. Finally, Votebien.com sends reporters to cover the elections in those regions well known for electoral fraud or where illegal armed groups have been active (for example in the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia, where there has been a strong tradition of right wing paramilitary groups confronting leftist social movements and guerrillas, and where there have been recent (since 2007) demobilisation processes led by central government agencies). Finally, less than 24 hours after the completion of the ballot, the web site publishes interactive maps with the elections results, including an analysis of the results in each region, the mapping of where the diverse political parties have voters, as well as the potential threats to democracy, such as the paramilitaries coercive presence in the electoral process in certain areas.
- Coverage of the elections from the citizen's perspective: the Votebien.com project facilitates the direct interaction between citizens and candidates, experts and authorities through an array of mechanisms (virtual forums, chats, debates and face to face meetings), and supports the political parties and candidates in understanding of the citizens' most compelling issues and concerns.
- Knowledge and dissemination of each candidate's profile and his/hers campaign proposals: Votebien's main objective is to debate each candidate’s proposals and campaign plan to address the country´s main issues. Additional to the CV of each candidate, the voters can find updated and accurate information about their political trajectory, their personal background, with whom these politicians interact, who sponsors the candidates, how they take their decisions, who may be influencing them, amongst other facts.
- Disclosure of threats to the transparency of the voting process in different regions of the country: Votebien.com contributes to making public all the external factors that affect the free will of the voter, such as armed coertion, electoral fraud, the buying and selling of votes promoted by legal (political parties for example) and/or illegal actors (guerrillas, paramilitaries, common delinquency groups).
- Information about the financing of campaigns: Votebien.com aims to alert about situations that could indicate that political/electoral movements are being affected or "bought" by legal or illegal economic powers.
- Disseminating information about the electoral system and its operational aspects: The Votabien.com portal maintains an updated section "Electoral ABC" with frequently asked questions about the rules and functioning of the system.
In 2002, during the elections for Congress and Presidency, the project had the funding support of the Peace Program of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and their cooperation Partners in Colombia. The following year (2003) during the elections for City Mayors offices, Governors, Local Councils and Regional Assemblies' elections, the project was funded again by USAID. In 2006, Votebien focused on monitoring the Congress and Presidential elections. A special emphasis was made on the campaigns' income and expenses, as well as making public the donors names before the election. A special report was published with the collaboration of Semana (a weekly magazine), Terra Networks, Fescol (Friedrich Ebert's Foundation in Colombia) and Conexión Colombia, with core funding from USAID.
Transparencia por Colombia, Revista Semana, Terra, Caracol Radio, Colprensa, FESCOL, Congreso Visible, GTZ y UNDP (Colombia), with the funding support from USAID, and the British and the Netherland's Embassies.
Transparencia por Colombia´s website.
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