Training begins for Afghan Election Officials in Pakistan
Friday, 10 September 2004
Islamabad
The training of senior election officials for the Afghan presidential elections in
Pakistan, began this week in Islamabad. The 15 National and 7 International Trainers
are undergoing three days of intensive election and procedural training before heading
out to the field. They will then begin the process of training the more than 10,000 staff
needed to run the polling stations for the election on 9 October.
Alexander Davey, Head of Training with the Afghanistan Out of Country Registration
and Voting (OCRV) program, said he was impressed by the ability and the
enthusiasm of the Afghan trainers recruited. “What makes them so special is their
level of commitment,” Davey said. “They really want the election to take place and
for it to be a success. Some of them were born outside of Afghanistan, and others
have been away for many years, and yet they are committed to rebuilding their
homeland and they see the elections as a very important step. They are realistic about
the immense problems their country faces, but certain that this is the only way
forward.”
The use of local community teachers is an integral part of the massive public
education campaign now underway in Pakistan. In addition to the use of radio spots,
pamphlets and posters, the recruitment of community leaders to train the registration
and polling station officials is another way IOM OCRV is reaching out to the Afghan
population to inform them about voting in the election.
All the Regional and Field Office level trainers have years of experience working
with refugees and the majority are Afghans, such as Hasina Safi. Hasina, who left
Afghanistan in 1980 as a five-year-old child, and has no memory of her homeland.
She has been teaching English in Peshawar, Pakistan, since the age of 15 and will
now be passing on her 10-years of teaching experience to others for the election. “I
was originally hired by OCRV as an administrative assistant, but when they
discovered my experience, they asked me if I wanted to be a trainer. I said ‘Yes’
immediately because I was brought up with teaching.”
She isn’t worried about challenges of teaching the strict minutia of election processes
to others. “Teaching is teaching. You just teach the technical issues in small steps.
With teaching, all you need is the right information,” said Hasina.
More than a million Afghans, living in Pakistan and Iran, are expected to vote on
October 9, after three days of registration starting from October 1. For the vast
majority of them it will be the first time they have voted in a democratic election.
In Pakistan, approximately 1900 registration stations will be established in around 300
locations to cater for 600,000 to 800,000 eligible voters. The stations will be set up in
the refugee camps of the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan, as well in the
urban concentrations of Afghans in Peshawar and Quetta.
The task of conducting the elections in Pakistan and Iran has been entrusted to the
International Organization for Migration (IOM), which will implement the process on
behalf of the Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) and the United
Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). IOM has previously organised
large scale out of country operations for the elections in East Timor, Bosnia-andHerzegovina, and Kosovo.
For more information contact Greg Bearup (92) 0300 500 6774, Darren Boisvert (92)
0300 500 9305, or Chris Lom (92) 0300 501 0360