Afghan poll officials join training course

As Afghanistan prepares for post- NATO withdrawal scenario in the end of 2014, election officials from the war-torn nation today joined a training course here.
A batch of poll officials from Afghanistan commenced training at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM), the training and resource centre of the Election Commission of India (ECI). Afghanistan has sought India's help in training its election officials.
The two-week special course titled "Capacity Development for Election Management" has been designed for senior officials of Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan.
The course has been organised with support from Ministry of External Affairs here. This is the latest in the series of ECI's initiatives to share experience, skills and expertise with its counterparts in the South Asian Region.

ECI is currently the Chair of the Forum of Election Management Bodies of South Asia.
Addressing Afghan delegates on the first day of the programme, Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath said ECI considers them as master trainers who could, in turn, train other trainers at the district/assembly level ahead of elections in their country next year.

He said that the Commission would like to see that even the last field-level election official in Afghanistan derives benefit from the knowledge gained by the participants during this training programme.
Earlier, Election Commissioner H S Brahma welcomed the delegates and emphasised the importance of free and fair elections for sustaining democracy. He also recommended extensive use of voter education and the use of technology for better management of elections.

The course is being attended by 17 participants, including senior officials of the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan, and Provincial Election Officers. The course has been designed keeping in view the specific requirements of that country and includes field level exposure to ECI's poll machinery.
IIIDEM is scheduled to organise another programme, titled "Election Management: Emerging Challenges", the second international course in the series of capacity development programmes for mid-career election officials from partner countries under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme from April 10, this year.
It had recently organised a similar course for mid-level officials of SAARC countries.