Chapter 3: Complaints Adjudication Training for Election Management Bodies and Political Parties • List three actions the EMB can take to reduce the number of electoral complaints; • List three actions the political parties can take to reduce the number of electoral complaints; and • Feel more confident about their ability to fulfill their electoral complaints responsibilities. One major challenge in devising an effective training program is time. The amount of material that can be covered is often limited by the time available for training. Obviously, more can be achieved in a five-day training program than in a one-day training program. To achieve all of the objectives above, a four to five day course is probably warranted. This assumes that participants are new members of their respective bodies, or at least have not had training before on electoral complaint responsibilities. A shorter time frame is possible, especially for more experienced participants or if a smaller number of training objectives are to be achieved. The dilemma with shorter training programs is that they limit the time available for participants to work collaboratively on examples of electoral complaints. In addition, it becomes more difficult for participants to fully absorb and assimilate the entirety of information needed and to demonstrate that they have achieved the desired competencies. C. Training Methods An active training program uses a variety of methods to impart knowledge and help participants gain competency. Lengthy lecture sessions should be avoided in an active training program, as they are the least effective in terms of imparting information that will be remembered. Instead, wherever possible, participants should learn by hands-on activities. Still, some lectures will be unavoidable. Below are short explanations of different training methods found to be most useful in designing active, experiential learning models. • Mini-lecture: Lectures, not more than 15-20 minutes without a break, can be used to impart a large amount of information in a relatively short amount of time. • Case study: An account of the facts of a real-life situation that has been derived from EMB experience. Using the case study 137