| Overview : Elections give people a voice in the democratic process. In Egypt, the electoral process is an essential step in the transition period to consolidate the path to democracy. Within this context, the UNDP is cooperating with the Government of Egypt in the area of elections with a focus on a) strengthening public outreach and voter information; b) strengthening technical and operational capacity of national electoral authorities; c) increasing access of women and rural dwellers to their citizenship rights.
The Egyptian State Information Services (SIS) is one of UNDP’s core electoral partners in the areas of voter information and media relations. Free and independent media are essential to providing voters with the information they need by having adequate information about parties, policies, candidates and the election process itself so that voters can make an informed choice. A democratic election with no media freedom would be a contradiction in terms.
Both the UNDP strengthening of the democratic process in Egypt project and the State Information Service have worked closely in the past three months on capacity building programs for the local Egyptian media on “Media and Elections” through conducting several training programs and developing a user friendly handbook. |
