UNDP interested in training election agents: EC secretary

The United Nations Development Programme wants to extend support in training the polling agents of all candidates, not political parties, ahead of the next general election, said Election Commission Secretary Akhtar Ahmed today.

"No training for parties. If we can work together [train] with the agents of the parties who will be at the polling stations, we will get better results. They [UN electoral need assessment team] have received such demand from the field," he said.

The EC secretary said this replying to a question from reporters after his meeting with a UNDP delegation led by UNDP resident representative Stefan Liller at the EC Secretariat in the capital's Agargaon area.

Akhtar said the UNDP team sat with the EC after 10 days to inform the electoral need assessment report.

"They came back today after 10 days and gave us feedback. They talked to various political parties and civil society. They saw the situation firsthand. Based on this, they decided to provide us with some assistance," he said.

The EC senior secretary said the UNDP will support the commission over some logistics such as cameras, computers, hardware; and training to develop skills of the officials and also stakeholders.

The UNDP wants to provide assistance over training of agents of all candidates, he added.

Following meetings with the election commissioners and EC officials on January 14, the UNDP started assessing the needs to provide assistance to the EC to hold the next parliamentary elections.

The need assessment was completed within 10 days following talks with the commission and other stakeholders, including civil society, academicians and political parties.

Earlier, the Election Commission sent the United Nations a letter requesting assistance before the UN could provide technical assistances to the commission.