The National Election Commission announced that it will operate election training programs for election officials from the Republic of South Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo: they will come to Korea in order to learn the advanced electoral system of Korea during the period of the 19^th National Assembly elections to be held on April 11.

It is expected that the election training programs will contribute in developing the democratic politics and election management methods of participating countries. The programs will include: introducing Korea’s election management methods and systems of election, political parties and political fund; having an opportunity to make presentations and discussions on electoral systems of participating countries and the ways to hold fair elections; and providing opportunities to observe on-site election campaigns, polling stations and counting centers for the 19^th National Assembly elections from April 10 to April 11.

The Korean Civic Education Institute for Democracy will run the election training program for 10 officials from the Republic of South Africa exclusively from March 31 to April 13; and it will co-host the training program for 21 officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) from April 8 to April 24.

The NEC has been running the training programs for 252 election officials from 37 countries for 19 times since 2006: it is expanding the targeting countries from Asian nations to countries in Africa and Central and South America; and it plans to send newsletters with information on election training programs for foreigners to the participants of the programs and others in order to expand exchanges in a constant manner.

The NEC has been praised for contributing in improving the national brand as well as strengthening relationships with participating countries as introducing the advanced electoral systems and methods of Korea.