The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday virtually hosted its 3rd international conference on the theme ‘Inclusive Elections and Elections Integrity’.
ECI, as the lead, has taken a collaborative approach and invited Greece, Mauritius and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) to be co-leads for the Cohort.
The conference was organised by the ECI to share its knowledge, technical expertise and experiences with other democracies of the world.
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A total of 59 participants from 31 countries/Election Management Bodies (EMBs), including Angola, Armenia, Australia, Canada, Chile Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Dominica, Georgia, Guyana, Kenya, Rep. of Korea, Mauritius, Moldova, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, St. Lucia, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland and Zambia participated in the conference.
The ‘Summit for Democracy’ is an annual initiative by the US President to “renew the spirit and shared purpose” of the nations of the “Free World.”
Post the leaders’ plenary session last year, a “Year of Action” was proposed with events and dialogues on themes related to democracy. The Summit also developed two platforms– ‘Focal Groups’ and ‘Democracy Cohorts’ to facilitate participation in the Year of Action.
The 2nd Summit for Democracy is scheduled for 29- 30 March 2023.
“Each conference will culminate in an agreed-upon position paper. The last conference would also be utilised to close the work of the cohort, including developing an agreed-upon outcome document. The three-position papers will be converted into an agreed-upon outcome document that could be adopted during the next ‘Summit for Democracy’. The outcome document shall also carry a work plan to meet identified training and capacity building needs,” ECI said in a statement.
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The first international conference of the Cohort was organised in New Delhi in November last year, on the topic ‘Role, Framework and Capacity of Election Management Bodies’ which saw the participation of nearly 50 representatives from the EMBs of 11 countries. The 2nd conference on the theme ‘Use of Technology and Elections Integrity’ was hosted by ECI in New Delhi in January 2023, wherein over 40 representatives from 16 countries participated.