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Note to the Media: Indian Ocean Newsletter

21 July 2015
Background
The Democratic Empowerment Project is a three year project launched on the
12th of March 2013 and is directly executed by UNDP with UN Women and
UNESCO through a donor basket fund. It follows two previous electoral support
projects in Tanzania: the Electoral Assistance Project of 2005 and the Election
Support Project of 2010. The USD 25m project has four main components, namely,
a) supporting legal and institutional reforms; b) support improvement of Electoral
Management bodys capacities(NEC and ZEC); c) promote inclusive participation
in political and electoral processes, and d) support national peace infrastructures.
More specifically, the project has been supporting both NEC and ZEC to improve
their institutional capacity both in the context of the conduct of the voter
registration process (but not the provision of the BVR kits which is the
governments responsibility) and the preparations for the 2015 general elections.
DEPs support has included technical and advisory services, staff training, voter
education and stakeholder engagement. Such stakeholders include the Office of
the Registrar of Political Parties, political parties, media, civil society and groups
representing women, youth and people with disabilities. So far DEP has supported
and implemented most of these activities either directly or via cooperation
agreements with the electoral management bodies who execute specific activities
directly in line with their mandate.
Issue
On 10 July 2015, Indian Ocean Newsletter published an article entitled State is
facing electoral commissions negligence and indicated that the UN Resident
Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Tanzania, Mr. Alvaro Rodriguez,
is unhappy with electoral preparations and that teams within UNDP threaten to
withhold assistance to the elections. Some of these issues are supposed to have
been outlined in a letter of 3 July.
On 15 July 2015, Jamii Forum shared a Kiswahili version of the comments.
UN Facts
The Resident Coordinator of the UN has never met or discussed with Indian Ocean
Newsletter nor are the assertions and conclusions made in their report or those
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shared in Jamii Forums based on fact. The UN will continue to work closely with
Tanzanias authorities and its people. The relationship between the UN and the
electoral management bodies and with international community donors which
fund the project represents an important partnership among different
stakeholders committed to peaceful and inclusive elections. At the apex of this
partnership is a Project Steering Committee composed of these actors as well as
others and has the responsibility to guide and provide strategic guidance to the
implementation of the DEP project. All major decisions of the project are made in
this Project Steering Committee and the associated Project Technical Committees
for mainland and Zanzibar.
The UN calls on the national and international media to accurately and fairly
report on both the preparations for the elections and the elections themselves.
Issued by: The Office of the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident
Representative Mr. Alvaro Rodriguez
For more information, please contact Hoyce Temu - UN Communications
Specialist at hoyce.temu@one.un.org or Aine Mushi, UN Coordination
Specialist at aine.mushi@one.un.org

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