Guidelines for Understanding, Adjudicating, and Resolving Disputes in Elections Recommendation Checklist As this chapter has discussed, objectives, topics, and training methodologies for effective training programs for both EMBs and political parties should be carefully considered. Development practitioners can play an important role in designing these programs and advising EMBs. The following set of recommendations can assist practitioners in this role. √ Basic characteristics of training: competency-based agendas; utilization of effective adult learning models; use of creativity to overcome resource limitations; and the use of real cases in training for additional relevancy to participants. √ SMART training objectives: Objectives of training should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. √ Session styles: For maximum effectiveness, session styles should include a combination of mini-lectures; case studies; role playing; and group discussions. √ Evaluations: Effective training programs should include posttraining evaluations. These can take the form of pre- and post-test comparison, questionnaires, and follow-up studies and interviews. √ Topics for training programs for EMBs: A basic training program for EMBs can cover election commission structure; roles and responsibilities of the EMB; key articles of the Constitution, electoral code, and regulations pertaining to election complaints; concepts of free and fair elections; ethics in election administration; electoral offenses; handling election complaints; sanctions and penalties for electoral offenses; role of election monitors and observers; working with the media, detailed review of complaint procedures; media complaints process; complaint case studies; and questions and answers. 156