Preparing For Election In Yemen: Final Activity Report on the Poll Worker Training Project

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The objectives of the IFES election assistance project in Yemen were specified in the Program Description section of PIO/T No. 279-083-3-80202. This Program Description was based on an IFES project proposal submitted to the Near East Bureau of A.I.D. and USAID- Yemen in February 1993. The objectives as set forth in the PIO/T can be paraphrased as follows:

(1) Send four advisors to Yemen to work with the Supreme Election Committee's (SEC) Technical Committee in the final stages of its preparations for its training program, specifically to:

a)      Assist in the design of the training program and in the development of training materials;

b)      Assist the members of the Technical Committee in training the supervisory committees, the main committees and the branch committees.

c)      Following the election, conduct debriefing sessions to discuss regional experiences, lessons learned, and recommendations for the future.

(2) Identify vendors for 24,000 ballot box seals, solicit bids for their procurement, purchase the items and arrange for their shipment and delivery to Sana'a by April 15, 1993.

IFES specified in the training advisors' contracts two additional activities which it requested the four consultants to carry out. These can be viewed as the third and fourth project objectives:

(3) Advise the SEC in areas of election organization and logistics, particularly as related to the task of training pollworkers, specifically by:

a)      Reviewing the Electoral Law and other relevant documents regarding the voting process;

b)      Preparing examples of polling place designs and ballot transportation schemes based on the Electoral Law;

c)      Comment as appropriate on ambiguities in the Electoral Law that could inhibit the speed of voter processing or vote counting.

(4) Observe the process of voting on election day, with a particular focus on:

a)      The role and duties of poll workers;

b)      Ballot collection and security;

c)      Vote counting;

d)     The role and activities of other observers at polling sites.

The body of the following report provides a description and analysis of the activities of the IFES election assistance project in Yemen as related to project objectives 1, 3, and 4. Activities relating to objective 2, the provision of ballot box seals, are described in Appendix H of this report.

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