Proposed USAID Election-Related Assistance                                                     Armenia 2005 - 2008

A. National Voters List

• Assist the GOAM to design, develop, and implement a national voter registry.
• Support Voters Lists Advisory Committees to check the voters’ list accuracy.

B. Election Administration

• Support the publication and distribution of electoral documents and other official documents necessary for all electoral commissions to be fully informed.
• Provide study tours for election commission members and others to observe preparations for elections in other countries.
• Provide commodity support, similar to the provision of transparent ballot boxes that USAID co-funded in 2003.

C. Voter Information

• Support voter education campaigns utilizing media and live debate formats.
• Support the development of newspaper supplements about elections.

D. Electoral Adjudication

• Provide election adjudication training for judges, training for lawyers and proxies on any election law violations and how to redress them.
• Provide legal rights awareness training and legal support related to electoral issues.

E. Democratic Political Culture

• Provide NGO election grants for election-related activities, such as voter education, parallel vote tabulation, debates, town hall meetings, and Rock-the-Vote events.
• Increase public interest and involvement in elections by providing opportunities for citizens to become more informed and engaged in the country’s most important political issues.

F. Polling Capacity

• Develop the capacity of polling firms to carry out issue-based and political client-based polling and support the conduct of polls.

G. Political Parties

• Promote youth and women’s involvement and activism by working with parties on outreach, developing youth wings and women’s auxiliaries, and training women candidates.

• Support capacity development of parties’ public relations staff, message development and dissemination, policy discussions within parties, and campaign strategies.
• Provide political parties with training on the uses and strategies of polling.
• Provide training for party proxies and party election monitors.

H. Election Monitoring

• Support domestic monitoring,media monitoring, pre-election assessments, and international observation missions.

I. Independent Media Coverage

• Expand training and technical assistance devoted specifically for journalists and media professionals during the election period by increasing the number of training sessions and participants.

USAID Director Robin Phillips and Ambassador John Evans speak at a press conference on U.S. democracy assistance programs.