Dar es Salaam --- At a signing ceremony with the Government of Tanzania on 15th June 2009, the United Nations announced that the organization will provide substantial technical assistance to support next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections in Tanzania. The support is a complementary initiative to the on-going national efforts to plan and implement these elections. The UN Resident Coordinator, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, introduced the Elections Support Project 2010, signed jointly with the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC). The project will start now to assist the two Commissions and will continue until after the elections, expected in October 2010.

The project will help the Commissions plan for and manage some technical needs of the elections process including voter registration, voter education, coordinating election observers, and communications.

The UN Resident Coordinator explained the purpose of the project. “The main goal is to further strengthen national capacities for the implementation of free, fair and credible elections with a focus on increasing the capacity of the NEC and ZEC as well as further engaging national stakeholders such as political parties the media and other civil society actors..”

A number of project partners are expected to help with education, communication and election observing tasks.  The project will include international technical advisors and national experts who will provide technical assistance to NEC and ZEC in the areas such as voter registration, voter education, outreach to women, training and  communications.  Small grants to community groups may be used to help with voter education.
The project will be managed directly by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP.  Funding for the project is provided by the UNDP and other donor partners. To date they are: United Kingdom, Sweden, the European Commission, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland.
The project builds on earlier UNDP support to NEC and ZEC (the Deepening Democracy Project) and on the experience of the 2005 UNDP Election Support Project.
Since 1989, UNDP has undertaken more than 100 election support projects around the world, working with partners—both national and international—to promote four key results:

• Legal and institutional frameworks that enable free, fair, transparent and sustainable elections at all levels.
• Improved voter and civic education
• Well coordinated electoral assistance and
• Increased sustainable participation of women in elections as voters and candidates.

For further information contact:
Alain Noudehou, Country Director                                       Tel. 219-9214
Louise Chamberlain, Deputy Country Director UNDP             Tel. 219-9212
Mia Bulow-Olsen, UN Communications                                 Tel. 219-9316