Norway to donate $2m for electoral process
02/27/07 -- Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD: Norway
will donate $2 million to support Pakistan’s electoral process in the upcoming
general elections.
The donation will be channelled through the basket fund modality under the
United Nations
Development Programme’s (UNDP) support for Pakistan’s national elections. The
primary
UNDP support areas cover voter registrations, polling staff and party agents’
training, voter
education, facilitating meetings between the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)
and
political parties and improving the results and electoral complaints process.
Norway has
been supporting Pakistan’s development since 1969 with the main areas of
cooperation
being education, governance, culture and human rights and gender equality.
Speaking on the occasion, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Kanwar
Dilshad said, “We appreciate the donors’ cooperation and donation for achieving
free,
transparent and credible elections.” Norwegian Ambassador Janis Bjorn Kanavin
said,
“Norway’s contribution to Pakistan is strategic in terms of its focus. It is
appreciative of the
energetic civil society especially towards politics.
This contribution is a step towards informed citizenry and will strengthen the
ECP to
coordinate with all the stakeholders to achieve the maximum participation of
people in a
free and fair electoral process.” UNDP’s Resident Representative Jan
Vandemoortele
said, “We welcome the coordinated donor support for strengthening the electoral
process
in Pakistan.
This collaboration between Norway’s government and the UNDP will strengthen our
long
term partnership and enable us to achieve common objectives.”
