18 March 2014 - Guinea-Bissau international partners today met at UNIOGBIS to discuss ongoing electoral process in the country, with UNDP and ECOWAS informing that there was no gap in funding next 13 April general elections.

The meeting was chaired by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Guinea-Bissau, José Ramos-Horta, who disclosed that the Office for the Technical Support to the Electoral Process (GTAPE, Portuguese acronym) today submitted the voters' list to the National Electoral Commission (CNE, Portuguese acronym) with 775.508 people registered, making 95,6 per cent of those estimated.

SRSG Ramos-Horta once again thanked all international partners for their support so far to the electoral process.

The Deputy Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) explained that its support to CNE is three-pronged: Technical assistance, Civic education and Logistic.

According to Gabriel Dava, the bulk of voting material ordered and chartered by UNDP is available at CNE. In his projections, the remaining material and all voting kits will be displayed in all polling stations on 12 April.

On electoral process funding, Gabriel Dava said that there was no gap, which the Representative of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), Ansoumana Cisse, confirmed: "We are complementing everything to have successful elections in Guinea-Bissau", he said.

On 26 February, Security Council issued a Press Statement on the Situation in Guinea-Bissau after the briefing by SRSG and the Chair of the Guinea-Bissau Configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission, Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota.

"The members of the Security Council encourage all national stakeholders to maintain the momentum begun with the registration process and to work toward timely elections and to renew their commitment to ensuring a conducive environment in the final weeks before the elections. The members of the Security Council commend Guinea-Bissau's international partners for their pledges of financial and technical support to the electoral process and urge them to work in close coordination with the National Electoral Commission to ensure the speedy disbursement of their stated commitments in order to facilitate a smooth electoral process, stressing the need for a redoubled effort at enhanced coordination of electoral assistance under the leadership of SRSG Ramos-Horta, in line with Security Council resolution 2103 (2013) and in close collaboration with the United Nations country team", says the document.