With participation of twenty nine Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from all districts of the West Bank and Jerusalem, the Central Elections Commission (CEC) has launched today the project ’strengthening the Palestinian electoral participation’ which is funded by the Government of Italy through the office of the Italian Cooperation.
A five- day intensive training workshop has commenced today at the Best Eastern hotel in Ramallah with participation of 70 cadres from 29 local CSOs which have been selected from among dozens of institutions that have applied to participate in the project. In the first phase of the project, the focus will be on building the capacities of the CSOs cadres and enhancing their electoral knowledge. In their turn, the trained cadres will transfer the knowledge and skills acquired to various segments of the Palestinian population in the West Bank districts through six -month training sessions they are acquired to deliver in the second phase.
This project comes as part of the CEC’s mission to enhance the elections awareness and democratic participation in the Palestinian society. Through this project, the CEC seeks to build an elections cadre that is knowledgeable of the applicable elections laws and electoral procedures necessary for the conduct of a free and fair elections. The CEC further seeks to actively engage local CSOs, being a key elections stakeholder, in elections related issues. The CEC also aims to increase the level of electoral awareness among voters which will, in turn, bolster their participation in future elections.
In the past years, the CEC has implemented a number of awareness projects targeting teachers and students in schools and summer camps, and will continue to carry out similar projects in the future.