By Ebenezer SABUTEY
The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center, KAIPTC, is poised to commence the proposed election management course that is scheduled to run later this year in the quest to prepare for the 2012 elections in Ghana and other countries on the continent.
This was contained in a speech read by the Commandant of the centre, Air Vice Marshall Christian K. Dovlo to officially open the ECOWAS/KAIPTC Election Observation Training course at the center in Accra last week.
He said the year 2012 is of particular interest to the center with regard to the election observation course as well as the proposed pilot course in election management.
According to the Commandant, this is the year in which Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, the Gambia among others go to the polls to elect various levels of their national leaders.
Air Vice Marshall Dovlo hinted that if 2011 was the year of the “Arab Spring’, here in West Africa would dare to believe that 2012 could become the crucial year in which the sub region further consolidate the nearly two decades of democratic transition and popular elections.
Ghana and indeed several other African countries including those in the sub region have since the early to mid-nineties moved towards making democratic elections a norm, even a requirement and a preferred means of changing rulers and ensuring representation and participation in the political process and governance within their territories.
H e further said, contrast this phenomena with the once violent and destabilizing upheavals, civil unrests and wars that ravaged parts of the continent in the late 80s and 90s.
“Notable examples are the genocide of Rwanda, the horrific civil wars in Liberia and Sierra-Leone, the breakdown of statehood and order in places like Somalia, the disintegration of national unity in places like Cote d’Ivoire and the list goes on” he stated, and also added that in West Africa as well as much of Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole have come a very long way in regaining peace and security as well as stability in the region.
And that despite nagging challenges such as those of the horn of Africa and the DR Congo for example, with a measure of confidence, predict that the seeds of democracy are now getting firmly embedded in the national psyche of the people and will prove decisive in shaping the politics and governance of the region for decades to come.
“In order for us to consolidate the fledging democratic culture in the region, we need to have in place mechanisms and strategies that help to support national electoral processes and foster the conduct of credible, free and fair elections. Election observation and observer missions have been critical in this regard” said Dovlo.
He remarked that their role in ensuring that national electoral credibility as well as the free and fairness of elections cannot be overemphasized.
The challenge however according to him, has been the need to train and build the capacity of identifiable stakeholders and civil society actors who are equipped and available to be deployed as election observers.
In conclusion the Commandant announced that since its inception, the KAIPTC has played a leading role in this endeavor through the facilitation of the annual Election Observation Training Course, to date it has trained a total of 196 election observers. A significant number of who have been deployed by ECOWAS on observation missions.
The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center, KAIPTC, is poised to commence the proposed election management course that is scheduled to run later this year in the quest to prepare for the 2012 elections in Ghana and other countries on the continent.
This was contained in a speech read by the Commandant of the centre, Air Vice Marshall Christian K. Dovlo to officially open the ECOWAS/KAIPTC Election Observation Training course at the center in Accra last week.
He said the year 2012 is of particular interest to the center with regard to the election observation course as well as the proposed pilot course in election management.
According to the Commandant, this is the year in which Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, the Gambia among others go to the polls to elect various levels of their national leaders.
Air Vice Marshall Dovlo hinted that if 2011 was the year of the “Arab Spring’, here in West Africa would dare to believe that 2012 could become the crucial year in which the sub region further consolidate the nearly two decades of democratic transition and popular elections.
Ghana and indeed several other African countries including those in the sub region have since the early to mid-nineties moved towards making democratic elections a norm, even a requirement and a preferred means of changing rulers and ensuring representation and participation in the political process and governance within their territories.
H e further said, contrast this phenomena with the once violent and destabilizing upheavals, civil unrests and wars that ravaged parts of the continent in the late 80s and 90s.
“Notable examples are the genocide of Rwanda, the horrific civil wars in Liberia and Sierra-Leone, the breakdown of statehood and order in places like Somalia, the disintegration of national unity in places like Cote d’Ivoire and the list goes on” he stated, and also added that in West Africa as well as much of Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole have come a very long way in regaining peace and security as well as stability in the region.
And that despite nagging challenges such as those of the horn of Africa and the DR Congo for example, with a measure of confidence, predict that the seeds of democracy are now getting firmly embedded in the national psyche of the people and will prove decisive in shaping the politics and governance of the region for decades to come.
“In order for us to consolidate the fledging democratic culture in the region, we need to have in place mechanisms and strategies that help to support national electoral processes and foster the conduct of credible, free and fair elections. Election observation and observer missions have been critical in this regard” said Dovlo.
He remarked that their role in ensuring that national electoral credibility as well as the free and fairness of elections cannot be overemphasized.
The challenge however according to him, has been the need to train and build the capacity of identifiable stakeholders and civil society actors who are equipped and available to be deployed as election observers.
In conclusion the Commandant announced that since its inception, the KAIPTC has played a leading role in this endeavor through the facilitation of the annual Election Observation Training Course, to date it has trained a total of 196 election observers. A significant number of who have been deployed by ECOWAS on observation missions.
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