Moldova: German co-operates with NGOs for free and fair elections

Source: 
Partnership for Development Center: http://bit.ly/iMfjIX
ENPI Info Centre/EC: http://bit.ly/iB5jIO

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections and European Exchange gGmbH (Germany) launched last week the project “Domestic Election Monitoring and Voter Education in Moldova – Strengthening of Capacities and International Networking”. 

The project is financed by the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Moldova from the thematic programme Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development. The project also benefits from the financial support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation to Moldova.

The project will be implemented until October 12th, 2012 by the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Moldova) through its members National Assistance and Information Centre for NGOs in Moldova CONTACT, Promo-LEX Association, Partnership for Development Center (focal point of Social Watch in this country), and European Exchange gGmbH (Germany).

The coalition and its partners presented the project’s goal and objectives, and detailed the activities, in presence of Mr. Dirk Lorenz, Political Officer of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Moldova. 

In his speech, Mr Lorenz stressed that the project covers a diverse range of areas, as civic education, capacity building of NGOs, training for newly elected local officials and election monitoring. 

Mr. Iurie Ciocan, Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) welcomed the cooperation between the Coalition and electoral authorities and pointed out the willingness of his office to support the successful implementation of this project.

These activities will strengthen the voter’s participation in democratic electoral processes in Moldova during the local elections in 2011 and beyond, through the development of a professional network of NGOs dedicated to election monitoring and voter education and to initiate the post-election dialogue between authorities and NGOs on electoral reforms.