The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has organised a workshop for the Central Municipal Council (CMC) elections monitoring team.
The team, which comprises a number of members and employees of the committee, will carry out the required tasks in the electoral committees in accordance with national and international standards.
HE the Deputy Chairman of the NHRC, Dr Mohamed bin Saif al-Kuwari, the head of the Visits and Monitoring Committee, presented a paper on the importance of monitoring elections to ensure integrity and transparency.
He emphasised the right of the male or female citizens registered to participate in free and fair elections, as one of the basic human rights that should be enjoyed without discrimination.
Dr al-Kuwari stressed the need for the monitoring team to enjoy independence, impartiality and objectivity, and to have the necessary lingual skills and experience to manage election affairs.
He also touched on setting a plan for election monitoring, including developing a strategic plan for recruitment, monitoring and publishing; defining mission objectives; and defining expected results from monitoring, in addition to international standards for election monitoring, which include global guidelines to promote real elections.
He explained that the goal of election monitoring is achieving a number of basic elements, which are ensuring an independent, impartial and objective evaluation of the electoral process; encouraging acceptance of election results; participating in building confidence in the electoral process; ensuring elections safety and monitoring the protection of all human rights during the election period.
During the workshop, Dr al-Kuwari gave an explanation of the geographical targeting to provide the monitoring team with basic information and help them locate the places where large numbers of voters are located, stressing the importance of developing monitoring forms to enable the election monitoring team to systematically collect data about the election process and analyse the election procedures.
