Election Commission to train Commonwealth poll officials

NEW DELHI: After training poll officials of different countries, the Election Commission will now train officials of the Commonwealth on electoral management.


The Steering Committee of the Commonwealth's Electoral Management Group in its meeting held in London decided to entrust the responsibility of training all its officials in the field of electoral management to India.

The India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM), an advanced resource centre of learning, research, training and extension for participatory democracy and election management, running under the aegis of Election Commission of India, will provide such training of Commonwealth officials for a period of next three years.

The training modules along with schedule and other modalities of training would be worked out within the next month on consultation with the Commonwealth Secretariat, said Election Commissioner H S Brahma, who represented India at the Steering Committee meeting held in London over the weekend.

He said India, world's largest democracy, won amid stiff competition from South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and some other nations who were also in the race for the coveted training.

The training of officials to be done at IIDEM will be fully funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the selection of officials for training would be done as per recommendations of various member countries.

The IIDEM works for promoting democratic values and practices, enhancing voter education and awareness and developing human resource and capacities for efficient conduct of free and fair elections in India and for developing mutually beneficial partnership as well as collaborations with other countries.

The heads of all member states of the Commonwealth will meet at Colombo in Sri Lanka in November at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting ( CHOGM).

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 countries that support each other and work together towards shared goals in democracy and development.