Foreign experts will provide electoral assitance to CEC officials

The members of the election commissions will be soon taught how to organize and hold the 2009 elections, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the press service of the Central Election Commission (CEC). A number of representatives of the United Nations (UN), who are on a working visit to Moldova, and representatives of the United Nations Development Program discussed several electoral assistance projects with CEC members. The project that will be launched soon envisages the creation of a Continuous Training Center for Election Officials. At the first stage, the Center will prepare the election officials for the organization and holding of the 2009 parliamentary elections. CEC said that it needs coordination and assistance from foreign experts in such areas as: informatization of the electoral process, including programs to promote the security and transparency of the information electoral system. According to CEC representatives, the election officials and other persons involved in the electoral process should benefit from continuous training. At the same time, the civic education of the population should be encouraged and developed and the CEC’s image should be promoted. The meeting participants stressed the necessity of a closer cooperation with mass media during election campaigns and between them. The meeting participants also discussed the implementation of the State Electoral Register. This will be an integrated informational system for collecting, storing, updating and analyzing the information about the Moldovans that turned 18 and are not legally limited in their rights. The new system enables to permanently and qualitatively update the electoral rolls, to automate the process of drawing up and checking electoral lists, to remove the human errors from this process, and to obtain veridical information about the turnout. Such a register will also contribute to combating “electoral tourism”.