by Manel Hamdi
Following Ben Ali’s ouster in January 2011, Tunisia faced crucial times characterized by increasing social instability. A few months later, the election of a Constituent Assembly responsible for drafting a new constitution took place.
The polls initially announced for July 24 were later postponed to October 23. This date became historic. Indeed, Tunisia was the first Arab Spring country to hold elections. Furthermore, this remarkable event brought the attention of many international organizations, which decided to observe the electoral developments in Tunisia. This process, known also as elections monitoring, has an important role in increasing transparency and supporting a credible genuine process.
Elections monitoring is a valuable tool for improving the quality of elections. Moreover, monitoring can help promote and protect the civil and political rights of participants in elections. It can deter manipulation and fraud, or expose such problems if they do occur. In other words, election monitoring missions can make valuable contributions to enhancing public confidence in elections, especially in post-conflict countries in which levels of trust in the electoral process may be low.
In this context, the AIC held a three days training in the governorate of Beja where they explained key points about elections and how we monitor elections with the support of MEPI. The training sessions involved also some activities related to the subject matter.The training sessions on social media are part of the TOT cycle launched on May 2014, as a final chapter of ‘Tune in Tunisia program.’ T-I-T is a program that aims at increasing civic involvement, increasing citizen understanding of human rights/civic responsibilities and fostering a culture of social entrepreneurship. The training was led by Basma Sallemi, a certified trainer from BRIDGE UNDP, in coordination with Olfa Labidi, who is one of the leaders of the second version of Tune in Tunisia project (2.0) that was launched by AIC in 2012.
The training was very successful to the point that Fares Trii, also a coordinator and one of the leaders of the second version of Tune in Tunisia project (2.0) from the governorate of Bizerte enthusiastically, asked the AIC to hold a similar training session in his home town. Following Fares’ request, the AIC held an extra three days training in the governorate of Bizerte on elections monitoring led by Basma Sallemi and coordinated by Fares Trii.
Other subjects such as conflict resolution, employability and soft skills will be discussed in further trainings.
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Picture description: Fares Trii (the coordinator from Bizerte) and Basma Sallemi (the Election Monitoring trainer)
Picture description: a group picture from Election monitoring TOT in Beja, with Basma Saller ( the trainer) and Olfa Labidi (the coordinator in Beja) in the middle of the first raw.
