New Officials for the Nepal Electoral Commission!

The Election Commission of Nepal with funding support from IFES organized three days workshop for seventeen (two women) new officers joined the Commission recently. The workshop was one of the activities of BRIDGE Nepal timeline 2013 and aimed to inform and enhance knowledge of the officers on electoral administration and management that can lead to their better performance in electoral administration and management.

The workshop was held in Dhulikel, a town 15 miles from county’s capital from 9-11 April 2013. The three-day workshop covered basic topics relating to electoral administration and management such as why have election, criteria of free and fair election, principle of electoral management, electoral cycle, electoral tree, electoral legal framework, electoral system and so on.

The workshop adopted mixture of highly interactive and participatory activities such as question answer, group discussion, role play, debate, quiz, case studies and plenary discussion. The participants are now fully familiarized to BRIDGE course and acknowledged and appreciated the methodologies as very effective way to teaching for adult learning. They expressed their interest to involve in next BRIDGE module.

Some comments from the participants include:

• What worked were the lively discussions with mixture of activities such as role play, quiz, debate, group work.
• Interactive and practical way of training worked well in enhancing knowledge on electoral management.
• Participants handouts and other materials which were prepared in advance were very useful reading materials.
• Gained knowledge on electoral process which is of completely of new areas.
• Able to communicate with electoral stakeholders about the basics of electoral process and electoral management.
• Informed about Nepal’s electoral legal frameworks and role of stakeholders in election

Mr. Shanti Ram Bimali was the lead BRIDGE facilitator, supported by BRIDGE facilitators Ms. Radhika Regmi, Mr. Komal Prasad Dhamala and two semi accredited facilitators Mr. Suraj Sigdel and Mr. Kundan Das Shrestha.