First training on election administration in post-conflict Liberia

BRIDGE participants drawing electoral boundaries
Photo: Sara Staino, International IDEA

International IDEA, IFES, and The National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia brought the BRIDGE training (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) to the Commission’s staff from 11-22 June 2007. BRIDGE is a training curriculum on election administration designed to improve the skills, knowledge and confidence of election administrators. It is widely recognized as the most comprehensive training curriculum of its kind in the world. The training marks the first time that BRIDGE has been conducted in post-conflict Liberia.

The NEC had full international cooperation, including a large UN Mission, international advisors, and logistics support, while conducting the 2005 general elections. For subsequent elections, however, the NEC will need to be largely self-sufficient drawing on its own capacity to meet the high standards set in 2005. The BRIDGE course aims at building the capacity of the NEC to prepare them for local elections, by-elections, and national elections in 2011; events they will conduct with minimal international support. Beyond electoral events, the NEC is currently leading a national boundary delimitation process, and plans to update their voter’s list in anticipation of local elections in 2008.

Forty-seven percent of the Commission’s permanent staff benefited from the series of trainings in electoral management, electoral systems, boundary delimitation, and voter registration.