Ramallah - Ma'an - The Palestinian Youth Forum for Freedom and Democracy, in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, opened the first training sessions of the Election Simulation Project: The Road to Local Councils and Municipalities, with the participation of a group of Palestinian youth from various governorates. This two-day programme represents the first of three phases, where a select group of Palestinian youth participated in interactive sessions on a number of topics related to political and societal life and their importance in the Palestinian context. Dr. Iyad Shtayyeh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Forum, pointed out that the program addresses the basic concepts of nomination and election, starting from updating the voter registry, all the way to announcing the results, by training participants on everything related to the electoral process for local councils, through three intensive training meetings, and the last meeting is a virtual voting and election process with the participation of a virtual audience of 150 young Palestinian students. Dr. Shtayyeh thanked the partners in the Central Elections Commission who supervise the training through trainers specialized in election management. The first training aimed to deepen knowledge of key concepts such as good governance, human rights and accountability, while promoting active citizenship among Palestinian youth, in addition to the concepts and components of democracy, its practice, human rights, dialogue and negotiation, multi-partyism, and separation of powers, in addition to talking about political awareness and empowerment of youth. The first training was hosted by Mr. Issam Al-Haj Hussein, Executive Director of the Coalition for Integrity and Accountability - AMAN, who gave a distinguished lecture to the participants on accountability, transparency and combating corruption. He said that the coalition seeks to create and lead a cross-sectoral community movement against corruption, and to contribute to the prod uction, transfer and localization of knowledge about corruption and combating it at the national, regional and international levels. He pointed out that the AMAN coalition is keen to carry out its oversight role on the national integrity system, by focusing on community participation, activating the role of civil society institutions and the media in oversight and accountability, and creating a fortified environment. Hajj Hussein thanked the Youth Forum for this distinguished initiative in creating awareness and political empowerment for youth, especially in light of the current Palestinian situation. The participants interacted with the activities of the first training meeting, stressing their pioneering role and that youth are the main element in the construction process, and self-realization is the essence of democracy in society, stressing the importance of enhancing the spirit of initiative among youth in society and the importance of enhancing the principles of freedoms and the rights and duties they include, most notably the right of youth to effective political participation, and enhancing the concepts of public freedoms in a manner consistent with the rule of law. Source: Maan News Agency