Bathandwa Mbola
8 May 2007
South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is training election administrators from other African countries in Pretoria, in a bid to improve their skills and knowledge of elections.
There are 22 election administrators from Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zanzibar taking part in the ten-day "Train the Trainer" course, which ends on 18 May.
The course is being conducted in partnership with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).
International IDEA is an intergovernmental organisation supported by 24-member states from six continents, supporting sustainable democracy worldwide by working with new and long-established democracies to develop and strengthen democratic institutions.
"Train the Trainer" is based on a capacity-building curriculum known as Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections (BRIDGE) that was specially designed to improve the skills, knowledge and confidence of election administrators.
"The IEC was committed to enhancing the professional management of elections and the BRIDGE course forms part of the curriculum of the IEC's Centre for Elections Learning.
"The co-hosting of the course also gives the IEC the opportunity to strengthen ties with other election management bodies and to share electoral expertise," said IEC Chairperson, Brigalia Bam.
"Elections are the largest and most extensive logistical exercise conducted during peacetime involving almost the entire adult population of a state or nation,” said IDEA regional director Abdalla Hamdok.
Despite the complexity of the task, Hamdok said there was no formal university level degree or diploma available for the study of election administration.
"This is why IDEA has developed the BRIDGE training curriculum specifically to meet the needs of election administrators.
"There can only be true sustainability in election processes when election management bodies invest in their greatest resource, their personnel," he explained.
Comprehensive training
International IDEA, the United Nations and the Australian Electoral Commission developed BRIDGE in 2001, and it has been widely most comprehensive training curriculum.
It been run in 23 countries across the globe, including eight in Africa with more that 2 000 participants.
The course is aimed at ensuring sustainability in professional development training in the field of elections by transferring the necessary training skills to the national electoral commissions.
It covers topics such as electoral systems, public outreach, registration of voters, and electoral observers.
The course is funded by a grant from the Australian Government through its aid organ AusAID and is part of a two-year programme to support the professional development of election administrators in East and Southern Africa.
Through the course they can utilise the BRIDGE for their own national training programmes.
Source: BuaNews
