IRI Trains Political Party Poll Watchers

March 12, 2004

In Indonesia this week IRI entered the final week of one of the most ambitious party poll watcher training programs in Institute’s history. When the training concludes in mid-March, IRI will have directly trained over 6,000 representatives from Indonesia’s 24 registered political parties on voting and counting procedures ahead of the country’s April 5 parliamentary elections.

Each training seminar includes a polling day simulation and presentation of a video that depicts possible Election Day problems for discussion. In addition, each of the party representatives will receive a training kit that includes a party agent manual, CD-Rom with soft copies of the manual, the election law and training materials. The manual has a simple design so that parties can re-print or copy it for their members with minimal use of party resources.

Following IRI’s seminars, the party representatives trained in the program are expected to train upwards of 300,000 of their colleagues prior to the elections. For those who are unable to receive training from the Institute or their party, IRI will distribute 900,000 manuals in hard copy and will encourage parties to re-print the manual for wider distribution among party agents. The training programs and distribution of manuals is designed to reach enough party agents to cover the country's 565,000 polling stations.

One Election Day, IRI staff will conduct an observation and assessment to gauge the effectiveness of the party agent training program.

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