Abstract:
The Election Terminology Project was initiated by the Terminology Coordination
Section during the 2010/11 financial year. The original list comprised of 400 term
entries which were compiled by individual terminologists who were part of the
National Terminology Service (NTS) in the early 90’s. The terms were excerpted
from a combination of election booklets, manuals and research projects compiled
by individual contributors and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).
The term list was expanded to 700 entries by the NLS terminologists during the
2010/11 financial year. The NLS terminologists supplied equivalents in their target
languages in consultation with subject field specialists and through the use of other
available sources of information.
The project is aimed at facilitating communication and educating the general public
about election terminology. The public should become informed about electionrelated
issues in order to empower them to exercise their democratic right to vote.
Working meetings and consultative workshops were held during the 2012/13 and
2013/14 financial years to finalise the provision of target term equivalents in the
other 10 official languages.
