Mohammad Fahim Rostahi, a fourth-year student of political science and law at Kabul University, was impatient with the slow pace at which the government was developing its Code of Conduct. A parliamentary intern through a program run by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), he had been assigned to take minutes at the special committee appointed to draft the Code. Frustrated with the committee’s lengthy deliberations and lack of results, Fahim decided to draft his own Code.

In a broad effort to increase communication between Macedonia’s elected officials and citizens, NDI has worked to open nine constituency offices for legislators and to train new office assistants. In September 2007, 36 constituent office assistants went through a three-day training in Mavrovo to prepare for the opening of new offices.