The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is training its staff to impart them with necessary skills and knowledge to effectively deal with electoral matters in the country.
The 2-week long “Building Resources in Democracy, Governance, and Elections (BRIDGE)” training is being conducted in Mangochi.
In an interview after officially opening the training, MEC commissioner, Steven Duwa said the course is critical as it will provide the participants the much needed knowledge to solve some of the electoral matters that were choking operations of MEC,” he explained.
“We anticipate that all the challenges that have been rocking us will now be history because the training has crucial components such as democracy, governance, elections, among others, which are essential in developing your capabilities,” he said.
To this effect, Duwa, who is also the commission’s Chairperson for Media, Civic and Voter Education encouraged the participants to take the training seriously, saying their presence did not happen on a silver platter but through a vigorous process to select them.
“Count yourself lucky because you have been chosen to be here. You are expected to become trainer of trainers as you will be facilitating BRIDGE course across the country to ensure the smooth running of MEC operations,” he advised
The lead facilitator, Rindai Chipfunde Vava, who was speaking on behalf of the development partners said she was optimistic that the course will be an eye opener to the participants as they will be able to handle electoral challenges without difficulties.
The training, which run from 19-30 October, has been funded by various development partners (European Union (EU) Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) UK, Irish Aid and USAID) through the basket fund managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
