Author name: Sanjana

I study the causes, effects, and impact of information disorders on democracy, institutions, and social cohesion. With over 20 years of experience in peacebuilding, civic media, and digital security, from the Global South and across five continents, I have a deep understanding of how social media and politics interact and influence each other, especially in conflict-affected and contexts with a democratic deficit (which now includes countries in the Global North). My work is driven by an interest in promoting democratic governance, human rights, and media freedom, as well as a curiosity for exploring the potential and challenges of new technologies for social change. I have a PhD in Social Media and Politics from the University of Otago. I am Sri Lanka's first TED Fellow, and also had fellowships from Ashoka, and Rotary World Peace. I am also the founder, and former editor of Groundviews, Sri Lanka's first, and award-winning citizen journalism website. Additionally, I am a Special Advisor at the ICT4Peace Foundation, where I study use, and abuse of technologies in peacekeeping and peacebuilding. I completed doctoral studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, looking at the symbiotic relationship between offline unrest and online instigation of hate and harm in Sri Lanka and, in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre in 2019, facilitated by leading research based on New Zealand's first ever Data for Good grant by Twitter.

TALK BACK WITH JAYASIRI: LG elections delay and consequences

Mr. Manjula Gajanayake, National Co-ordinator, Centre for Monitoring Election Violence – TALK BACK WITH JAYASIRI: Centre for Monitoring Violence (CMEV) is facilitating a series of programs focusing on current political issues, giving special focus to the electoral reforms and the reconciliation processes of the country. The National Co-ordinator of CMEV, Mr. Manjula Gajanayake attended this program and expressed his thoughts on the current situation of the delayed Local Government Elections as well as the consequences of delaying such an important election for such a long time. He further highlighted number of weaknesses of the previous delimitation committee report on the local government elections published in gazette by the President in September last year and the unconditional importance of holding this election without any further delay. He further highlighted the importance of strengthening the newly established Election Commission with powers being vested on it to hold any election under its discretion and the importance of having a schedule of elections.

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Monitoring and Mitigating Electoral Violence Through Nonpartisan Citizen Election Observation

NDI-USA has just published Monitoring and Mitigating Electoral Violence through Nonpartisan Citizen Election Observation. This is a guide book informed by lessons learnt around election monitoring shared by international election observers who attended a workshop held in Bangkok in 2013. The Executive Director of CPA, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, was also part of this workshop. NDI-USA visited CMEV to gather details for this guide, and have highlighted CMEV’s experience in several places throughout the guide, including on page 19, 30 and 52, as well as in the main Sri Lanka case study on page 81. This is the first guide specifically focused on outlining and systematizing strategies and methods for citizen election observers to monitor and mitigate electoral violence. The guide outlines an overall approach for designing electoral violence monitoring and mitigation strategies, and then takes a practical look at four key areas in which citizen observers can contribute to mitigating electoral violence: (1) long-term election observation; (2) traditional and social media monitoring, reporting on hate speech, and contributing to media accountability; (3) crowdsourcing and visualizing electoral violence-related data; and (4) grassroots electoral violence mitigation and mediation efforts. Download the full guide here, or visit NDI-USA’s website for specific chapters.

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