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Poll watchdog to evaluate foreign-funded election monitoring project in ARMM |
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by Malu Cadelina-Manar/MindaNews
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Saturday, 15 August 2009 11:17 |
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KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / August 14) – Election volunteers from five provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will meet next week in Davao City to evaluate a foreign-funded voters’ education and election monitoring project in the region, which is set to end this September.
Salic Ibrahim, chairperson of the Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms (Citizens CARE), a poll watchdog accredited by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), said the participants to the three-day meet would include members of the Citizens CARE Board of Trustees (BoT), Provincial Management Committees from ARMM’s five provinces, provincial coordinators and Secretariat personnel.
The meeting is scheduled August 17-19 at the Regency Inn in Davao City and will focus on assessing and evaluating the project, “Strengthening Electoral Process through Voters’ Education and Election Monitoring in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao” (SEPVEEM–ARMM).
The project, now on its second phase, is about to end on September 30 this year and is implemented by the Citizens CARE in 1,500 barangays in 80 towns in the region through technical and funding support from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Aside from preparing a terminal report of the project to be submitted to the funding agency, Citizens CARE volunteers will plan the timeline for the third phase of the SEPVEEM-ARMM during the three-day meet.
The participants will get updates on the automated 2010 synchronized national and local elections.
The Coalition has invited a resource speaker from the Smartmatic-TIM through the COMELEC to provide orientation and demonstration on the May 10, 2010 Election Automation
and the mechanisms and procedures of the Procedures on Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS).
Atty. Louie Guia, director of the Democratic and Electoral Reform Desk of the Libertas, will provide input on the Right to Vote with emphasis on the processes and procedures involved in the filing of petition for inclusion and exclusion.
Participants will also try to come up with strategies for the Pulong Tayo and Ugnayan Tayo, both community-based and grassroots-initiated voters’ education forum initiated by the coalition.
“We want to agree on issues that Citizens CARE needed to have a stand as the leading domestic electoral reform advocate in the ARMM,” said Ibrahim. (Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews) |
