WEAON Launches Elections Training

The West Africa Election Observer Network (WEAON) has launched a one-week training seminar at a local hotel in Monrovia for Civil Society Groups for sustaining the electoral and political reforms in the aftermath of the 2011 Liberian elections.

The training is also intended to strengthen the capacity of network members in various fields of election observation as well as establish a system of information, education and communication to promote the network, its actions and values.

The head of WEAON, Mashood Erubami said the workshop will impact the lives of Civil Society Groups on elections monitoring, stressing the network does not wants a reoccurrence of the experience in Senegal after the first round of elections.

Erubami said the training will also focus on establishing a protocol and a code of ethics and good conduct for election observation in West Africa.

He said since the formation of WAEON, “We have taken stock of the strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities of its members and found out that the members’ plans are far above the available resources hence, we have made the choice to design its activities around the immediate needs of its members and their environments.”

After the inaugural meeting of the WAEON in Nigeria early in February 2011, it immediately hit the ground running to implement its adopted one year strategic action plan which started with the pre assessment  of the electoral process in Liberia, cote d’voire, Mali and Nigeria.