25. This is the background which leads the issue of politicising of the State to be cemented in the existence or non existence of cells which is the clearly diminished vision of the issue. In addition, this issue is a theme for hot debate out of the State institutions because internally, it seems that the civil servants interact without knowing to which party each one belong. 26. Therefore, the challenge in this aspect is not limited to the removal/existence of party cells rather it is necessary to build a professional, incorruptible and transparent public service which among other aspects there is a strong need for continuous training of the public servants on the issue of public good. Objective 2: To promote Constitutional Democracy, including periodic political Competition and Opportunity for Choice, the Rule of Law, and the Supremacy of the Constitution The APR Panel recommended the introduction of a national civic education programme for the promotion and respect for the Rule of Law, (i); updating of old laws (ii); elimination of discriminatory administrative practices in order to allow all parties to operate on equal bases (iii); compile and review of voters roll (iv) and a proper processing of electoral results (v). 27. In relation to the recommendation by the APR Panel on the need to introduce a wide covering programme of civic education on the promotion of the rule of Law, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) informed that since the end of 2011 it has been implementing a permanent civic education programme through the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) involving 5 million persons at national level. According to CNE, the programme covers about 55% of the 9 million projected voters. 28. However, notwithstanding these efforts, those whom were consulted in the context of drafting the APRM progress report repeatedly indicated that they do not know such a national civic education programme and that they only come across with these actions during the electoral periods or prior to the elections and these are not wide covering programmes. They argued that for such a programme, it is important to use more mass media and native languages. They indicated that the civil society organizations must also participate in the activities of civic education. It can be understood that there is a challenge for those responsible for electoral administration and there is a need to make double effort to publicise the exercise of civic education for electoral processes and extending its coverage and diversifying the format for its publication to the population. 29. As for the recommendation of the APR Panel concerning compilation and review of electoral roll, the CNE ensured that it recorded some progress in this aspect. The body stated that there is available a biometric data base with approximately 10 million voters and thus guarantee electronic digital printing for all voters. This process prevents duplication and omissions. 30. However, there have been some complains by some opposition party’s members on the registration process in the sense that during the voting day they do not find their names in the registration roll what prevents them from voting. It should be noted that in order to 22

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