Preparations for 2009 elections in full swing

The Central Election Commission (CEC) intends to organize a number of short-term training seminars to discuss the latest amendments to the Electoral Code, CEC vice president Renata Lapti has told Info Prim Neo. The cited source said that the seminars will be given by members of the Continuous Training Center that will be specially created for the purpose. Such seminars are needed because most of the local staff involved in the previous electoral campaigns did not have the necessary training and met difficulties in fulfilling their duties. According to Renata Lapti, the secretaries of the district electoral councils and the representatives of the staffs of the parliamentary groups will be trained at the first stage. The Continuous Training Center will be set up with the help of international organizations and the Association for Participative Democracy (ADEPT), from resources offered by the Government of Hungary. There will be organized workshops to discuss such topics as: management of elections, examination of requests for recount, financing of electoral campaigns and the legality of these finances. Renata Lapti added that the Commission will pay special attention to the training of the judges that deal with electoral disputes as well as to the cooperation with the civil society and the observers. CEC asked the local public authorities to accurately draw up the electoral registers at the place of residence of the voters, as required by the Electoral Code, so as to prevent shortcoming during the 2009 parliamentary elections.