Thursday, April 10, 2014

The Academy of Political Studies (APS) was part of the roundtable on the best practices and platforms for the training of electoral commissioners, organized on 31 March 2014 by the Central Election Commission (CEC) with the support of the OSCE Presence and the Council of Europe’s office in Albania. The experience of the “First time voters awareness programme”, implemented by the APS in the two last elections in Albania, was discussed as a good example to be also used on the electoral commissioners training.
The participants – including political parties’ representatives, election experts, civil society and police – agreed to further explore the ways to establish an electoral training centre in Albania to increase the professionalism of the election administration, and eliminate related problems.
Recent OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission reports have also pointed out the need for increased professionalism of the electoral administration, including through improved training of election commissioners.
If established, the training centre will also serve other groups interested in the electoral process, such as observers, first time voters, media and local government.