IOM training staff for Afghan election

An intensive training programme is under way to train over 1,000 election staff recruited to administer the out of country 9 October Afghan presidential poll in Pakistan, according to an official of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). "We've completed step one - and almost step two as well - of our (IOM) training programme. In the first phase, seven international staff members of IOM were trained along with 15 Afghan nationals," Darren Boisvert, Public Media Officer for IOM's Afghanistan Out of Country Registration and Voting (OCRV) programme told IRIN from the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday. "This group of senior international staff and Afghans will then train another 64 people who will be responsible for training the over 10,000 election workers needed to register voters and supervise polling on 9 October," Boisvert said, adding, "At present, the IOM is conducting the training sessions in four main centres of Quetta, Peshawar, Islamabad and Abbotabad." More than a million Afghans living in Pakistan and Iran are expected to vote on 9 October, after three days of registration starting from 1 October. The IOM has been designated by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Afghan government's Joint Election Management Body (JEMB) to organise the participation of refugees residing in Pakistan and Iran in Afghanistan's first ever presidential elections. In Pakistan, the IOM will establish approximately 1,900 registration stations in around 300 locations to cater for 600,000 to 800,000 eligible voters. The centres will be set up in the refugee camps of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan, as well in the urban concentrations of Afghans in Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad. The IOM OCRV media officer said that the awareness campaign to inform Afghans of their right of vote is already under way in the camps. "We are working in concert with several local NGOs, who identify likely candidates and who are working as community mobilisers, trainers and those kind of things," Boisvert said. Meanwhile, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Afghan Refugees (UNHCR) has announced the temporary suspension of assistance for voluntary repatriation movements to Afghanistan during the 1-10 October period. The step has been taken to prevent any disruption of efforts to register voters for Afghanistan's presidential election, according to an agency press statement. However, the statement said that the UNHCR would continue to register Afghans during this period who seek to repatriate from Pakistan. The agency will assist their departure with the resumption of the whole programme on 11 October, the statement said.