PRESS RELEASE - KAIPTC Trains Election Observers

(Accra, Ghana – January 30, 2012) The 10th Election Observation course has opened at the KAIPTC, Accra. The 10-day programme will train 29 personnel and equip them with relevant skills necessary for monitoring and reporting on the credibility of elections mainly in the sub-region and other parts of Africa.
The participants, which include 20 males and 9 females, will be taken through the mandate for organizing elections, principles of standard election observations, techniques and rights of election observation, rule of law and elections, the role of electoral management bodies, the mandate of organizing elections and first aid. This year, a number of countries in West Africa including Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, and Togo will go to the polls to elect various levels of their national leaders. The election observation course is therefore critical as the consolidation of the peace in these countries will depend significantly on how well and credible the elections are conducted.
 

Since 2004 the KAIPTC has trained a total of 196 election observers who have been deployed by ECOWAS for observer missions in West Africa. The impact of the course has been significant over the years as 23% of the election observers deployed for the presidential elections in Nigeria in 2011 were trained at the KAIPTC. Election Observers trained at the KAIPTC have been used previously to monitor elections in Ghana (2008), Sierra Leone (2007) and Togo (2005).
 

The course is organized by the KAIPTC with support from the Federal Republic of Germany through its implementing agencies, German Agency for International Affairs (GIZ) and German Centre for International Peace Operations (ZIF).
 

In the picture are the participants of the 10th Election Observation course,
course facilitators, officials from GIZ, the German Ambassador (middle, in suit)
and the Commandant of the KAIPTC (middle, in uniform)