IEC gets R11m for DRC polls
2006-05-18 18:04
Pretoria - The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) received an R11m donation from Ireland and Denmark to assist it in its work on the Democratic Republic of Congo's upcoming elections.
The bulk of the donated funds would be used to run seminars to train presiding officers of polling stations, political parties and for IT infrastructure, said IEC chair Brigalia Bam.
The IEC would also help the central African nation with logistics, staff recruitment and conflict resolution in its first democratic elections in 40 years.
The elections are to take place on July 30.
"We're also doing probably one of the most challenging jobs in printing the ballot papers," Bam said.
Deputy chief electoral officer Norman du Plessis said the ballots were to be printed in South Africa from Friday evening, and would be delivered to the DRC by June 23.
This, said Du Plessis, would allow five weeks to get the ballots to all the polling stations in the country.
- SAPA