Five-day workshop for electoral bodies

Twenty election professionals representing nine electoral management bodies (EMBs) from the Commonwealth Caribbean and Americas region are gathering in Bridgetown for a five-day Commonwealth Election Professionals (CEP) Initiative training event.

It will begin on Monday, February 17, at the Hilton Barbados Resort and co-hosted by the Commonwealth and the Barbados Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

The CEP Initiative brings together professionals from Commonwealth EMBs in regional workshops to discuss key electoral issues, share best practice and knowledge, and to facilitate peer-to-peer networking.

Participants from Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and host country Barbados will engage in interactive discussions, centered on the theme: Principles for Increasing the Efficiency, Credibility and Inclusiveness of Electoral Administration.

There will be daily expert presentations during the week by local and other Commonwealth officials. Some of the discussions will be: The Electoral and Legal Framework by Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Cave Hill Campus, UWI, Cynthia Barrow-Giles; and Electoral Reform – Principles for Enhancing the Credibility, Transparency and Inclusiveness of Electoral Processes, by the Head of the Electoral Support Section, Commonwealth Secretariat, Martin Kasirye.

There will also be a presentation on the Introduction to Gender and Social Inclusion.

The workshop is the latest in a series of regional training sessions held by the CEP Initiative, a project funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, since 2017.