Over 20 members of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) have concluded a three-day election preparedness training in Lakes State.
The workshop that concluded at the Palm-tree Rumbek last Friday, was supported by the German agency, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Foundation for Social Democracy. It was part of the program targeting the civil society organizations, under the project of raising civil voice.
One of the participants, Angelina Awau, told Radio Tamazuj on Friday that she appreciated the facilitators for working with the civil society to prepare for South Sudan’s upcoming election. She said all the participants came out of the three-day training well aware of why they had attended.
Awau said they held group discussions and identified the main challenges, for which they suggested the way forward.
Parliamentary Affairs minister John Thon Kuat said the upcoming election was a big challenge that needs people who are well trained to manage.
“You have been trained to go and train others, you have been trained to give the message of the rights of the civil population of this State to be aware of their democratic obligations,” he said.
Rumbek Catholic Church representative Abraham Chol Akec assured the training organizers that the knowledge acquired would go beyond the hall.
“I urge you to go and exercise the skills and knowledge we have acquired here. I want to also tell the facilitators that the training we have done for these three days is not enough. You need to extend it to involve the political parties ahead of the December 2024 election,” he said
Lakes State CEPO coordinator Daniel Laat Kon re-affirmed Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s commitment to supporting the entrenchment of inclusive governance.
“The training was targeting 21 participants drawn from different civil society organizations and we discussed about the electoral systems and procedures. We have also discussed the role of the civil society organizations, the political parties and the media during election,” he said.
“Our aim is to makes sure that civil society organizations are trained on how to monitor the pre-election period, to question whether it is inclusive or riddled with violations.”