Leadership and Election Management training session in the frame of the capacity building programme organised by the Association of World Election Bodies

 

Today, 22 March 2016, the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) started its Leadership and Election Management training session in the frame of the capacity building programme organised by the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB, http://www.aweb.org/eng/main.do). The training is held at A-WEB’s premices in Incheon, the Republic of Korea from 21 to 28 March 2016, with participants from election mangement bodies from Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Sao Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Malawi, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.


The session started with a presentation on ECES and the LEAD program by Ambassador Andebrhan Giorgis, board member and ECES’ responsible for the Horn of Africa, and Eva Palmans, ECES’ Head of Programme, and continued with a module on Challenges on Election Phases conducted by Stephane Mondon, senior election expert, and Eva Palmans. Discussions and group work was organised on the challenges and potential fragile phases of the electoral cycle by sharing experiences and lessons learned from the participating countries.

 

The second part of the day started with a presentation of Ambassador Andebrhan on the Root causes and triggers of the electoral conflict in Zanzibar, based on his experience within ECES’ Project in Support of a Peaceful and Inclusive Electoral Process in Zanzibar (PROPEL) and ended with a session on Leadership and Election Reforms. This session introduced the key concepts of Leadership being direction, alignment and engagement and stressed the importance of individual and institutional leadership in addressing challenges in the electoral cycle and dealing with electoral reforms. Interesting experiences were shared among the participants and common lessons learned about how reinforced leadership skills for electoral stakeholders is necessary to contribute to a more transparent, inclusive and peaceful electoral process.