BRIDGE Strategic, Operational and Financial Planning Workshop, Guinea Bissau

In light of the legislative elections and the possible local elections in 2012, the electoral management bodies of Guinea Bissau – the National Elections Commission (CNE) and the Office of Technical Support to the Electoral Process of the Ministry of Territorial Administration (GTAPE, the governmental entity responsible for voter registration in Guinea-Bissau) – held a BRIDGE workshop on Strategic, Operational and Financial Planning.  This workshop was conducted with the support of the Project in Support of the Electoral Cycles of the Portuguese Speaking African Countries and Timor Leste (Pro PALOP-TL). 

In the light of the topics outlined in the title of the workshop, presentations from Alberto Nanja, Chief of Human Resources of the STAE of Mozambique and Murilo Noleto, Adviser to the President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Brazil were provided to the participants in accordance with the exchanges of experiences and knowledge from lusophone countries facilitated by the Pro PALOP-TL. 

Among the 20 participants were staff members of the CNE, GTAPE, the Regional Electoral Commissions, and the parliament (ANP).  The participation was very enthusiastic and there was at times thought-provoking discussion on various issued related to strategic and operational planning.

Due to the financial and social context which Guinea Bissau is currently facing, a specific focus on the advantages and disadvantages of conducting joint elections was made. From this analysis, an Official Declaration was adopted and signed by the participants, representatives of the institutions forming the electoral management bodies of Guinea Bissau, which does not recommend to the political authorities the integrated organization of the legislatives and municipals elections operations. The main reasons related to this recommendation are based on the complexity of the information to be given to the electorate as per the two kind of elections as well as the technical, administrative and judicial complexity for organizing joint electoral events for the electoral management bodies of Guinea Bissau.   

During the workshop, Nimam Baldé of GTAPE, Antonio Adulai Queta and Alfa Nhaga of the CNE and Eliane Torres from Pro PALOP-TL were fully accredited.  The accrediting facilitator for the course was Deryck Fritz, along with workshop facilitator Fabio Bargiacchi, Chief Technical Adviser of the Pro PALOP-TL.

The Pro PALOP-TL is geographically concentrated on strengthening electoral processes and institutions in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and Timor Leste.  It is fully funded by the European Union with 6.1 million EUROS, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme with the Project Management Unit based in Guinea Bissau.

For more info on the BRIDGE strategy of the Pro PALOP-TL see @ http://www.bridge-project.org/news/africa/916-bridge-and-the-portuguese-speaking-countries-in-africa-and-timor-leste. For more info on the Pro PALOP-TL, see @ www.propaplop.org