Ms Titi Pitso

Commissioner Titi Pitso brings extensive elections management experience across the African continent and beyond.

Ms Pitso has worked in electoral democracy since 1994, when she was seconded to South Africa's Interim Electoral Commission by the African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD). Previously, she served as a conflict resolution expert at ACCORD, training civil society and political party members in KwaZulu-Natal and mediating political disputes. In 1998, she joined the permanent IEC as Manager: Electoral Matters, overseeing electoral processes in KwaZulu-Natal from voter registration to results submission and chairing provincial Political Parties Liaison Committee meetings.

She has consulted on elections management and democratic governance across over 25 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and South East Asia for organisations including the Southern African Development Community (SADC), National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the Carter Centre, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), the African Union Commission (AUC), the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

Career Highlights:

• Member of the ACCORD mediation team that facilitated the historic 1994 meeting between President Mandela and Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi
• Helped establish the Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit at the AUC
• Contributed to developing election observation protocols for the AUC, IGAD, and Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC (ECF-SADC)
• Trained election observers for multiple continental bodies including SADC, Pan African Parliament (PAP), IGAD, and the AUC
• Served as UNDP Technical Adviser in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia, Lesotho, and Ethiopia
• Conceptualised the conference that established the Association of African Election Authorities (AAEA)
• Accredited Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections (BRIDGE) Workshop Facilitator

Ms Pitso has published in the African Journal for Elections and holds a Master of Library and Information Science from Catholic University of America, Washington DC.