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2005 poll results website prepared
2005-07-24 07:33:47
By Nsuduki Limbe, PST, Dodoma
Elections 2005 Joint Donor Basket has assisted the National Electoral Commission to develop a website on which results will be ultimately published.
Margie Cook, Manager of the Programme Management Unit of the United Nations Development Programme said here last Wednesday that hardware and software has been procured to enable NEC to adequately maintain and update the website with continued support of national advisors. ’A media results centre is also foreshadowed,’ she added.
Talking to 20 journalists and broadcasters from Tabora, Singida and Dodoma regions during a day symposium on civic education and the media, she said PMU has provided advice and support on voter education for registration and on communications planning throughout the country.
Cook further revealed that the US $9m basket is supported by eleven donors, including Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Ireland. Others are The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and is managed by PMU under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme.
’The basket focuses only on the Mainland as a separate donor basket fund supports the Zanzibar Electoral Commission under the Muafaka agreement,’ she noted.
She said the project has two major goals to support the effective preparation and conduct of free and fair electoral process in October as well as to improve citizens’ understanding of their rights, duties and capacity to engage politically.
An NGO Stakeholder Forum was established early in the programme through which contact was made with a broad range of NGOs interested in participating in civic education programme.
The Forum reviewed lessons learned from 2000 elections, debated needs, priorities and possible activities for 2005, and deliberated on methodologies to better reach the non-urban communities, she observed, underscoring the fact that fundamental to civic education programme is the principle of local ownership.
So far, PMU has trained core trainers who have taught civic education curriculum to almost 800 locally engaged community-based educators from funded NGOs, among them being Anti Female Genital Mutilation (AFNET).
Commenting on the role of locally engaged community based educators, Andrew Mchomvu, one of the facilitators, said community response to civic education is too high to be ignored. ’It can be improved by bridging the gap between the public and the media,’ he noted.
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