IFES Complaints and Appeals Training Seminars
IFES, in co-operation with the Central Election Commission (CEC) and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (CoE), took the lead in organizing two, two-day training seminars on the topic of Electoral Complaints and Appeals at the Park Inn Hotel in Baku. The sessions took place on August 21 Ð 22 and August 25 Ð 26, respectively. The trainings were aimed at members of all 125 Constituency Election Commissions (ConECs). IFES also arranged for local independent lawyers and election code experts to attend the sessions and interact with commission members.
For the trainings, IFES provided trainers and facilitators and prepared agendas and training materials, which included case studies, sample forms and decision templates. IFES translated voluminous amounts of training materials, including the relevant CEC instructions used by international participants, experts and observers.
The CEC Secretary and international experts covered topics such as the newly revised complaints and appeals instructions, complaint methods and strategies, and the development of a sample grounded decision, a document the participants might have to draft themselves when handling real life complaints and appeals. Apart from formal presentations, the trainings engaged participants in a lively workshop. Commission members were separated into groups and given case studies to analyze. Following the discussions, each group presented their final decisions on the case studies to all participants.
This was a major event that addressed a serious shortcoming in election administration. It was aimed at the people who will be making recommendations to the constituency commissions on election complaints and appeals. The case study workshop, a relatively unconventional training method for official Azerbaijan, allowed for an open and interactive environment in which the participants applied newly acquired information. Representatives from the CEC, Council of Europe, Venice Commission, and OSCE were present at the event.
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