In 2013, RASED monitored the 2013 municipal elections. Working with a network of civil society and youth volunteers. RASED undertook this project with the goal of supporting the integrity, accountability, and transparency of the elections in Irbid. At the same time, the project worked to build the capacity of youth to participate in the democratic system by monitoring elections, encouraging their long term engagement in the political system. In this project, RASED built upon its experience monitoring the 2007, 2010, and 2013 parliamentary elections. RASED carefully selected, trained, mentored, and equipped 2,000 youth to monitor the election process from the outset. Monitoring took place over all the stages of the electoral campaign, including:
- Monitoring the production and publication of voter lists
- Verifying voter lists
- Monitoring the candidate registration process
- Monitoring candidate conduct during campaigns
- Monitor election day activities
- Monitoring the sorting and counting of the votes
Through this project, Al Hayat worked to build up a more robust role for civil society organizations in the electoral process at the local level, where participation of all civil society actors and citizens is crucial to ensuring free and fair elections. The results of Al Hayat’s monitoring were disseminatedwidely to media and civil society institutions. The project was funded by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) with a total grant of $150,000 US.
