New Delhi: The Election Commission of India will be hosting a virtual meeting of the ‘Asian Regional Forum’ on the theme “Making our Elections Inclusive, Accessible and Participative” at Nirvachan Sadan, New Delhi on August 11, 2022. The meet will be presided by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner (EC) Anup Chandra Pandey.
The meeting will see participation from Election Management Bodies of Mexico, Mauritius, Philippines, Nepal, Uzbekistan, Maldives and Representatives from International IDEA (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) and International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).
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This Asian Regional Forum (ARF) meeting will have two sessions. The first session is on ‘Inclusive Elections: Enhancing Participation of Youth, Gender and Citizens in Remote Areas’, which will be co-chaired by the Chief Election Commissioner from Mauritius and Nepal. This session will have representation from the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Philippines and representatives from International IDEA and A-WEB.
The second session on ‘Accessible Elections: Enhancing Participation of Persons with Disabilities & Senior Citizens’ will be chaired by the Commissioner, COMELEC, Philippines and CEC of Uzbekistan and will have representation from the Election Commission of Nepal & Maldives and IFES (Asia Pacific).
It is worthy to note here that as part of this ‘Global Summit for Democracy’, five Regional Forums namely Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and countries of the Arab States have been created. India is hosting the Asian Regional Forum meeting of the Election Management Bodies (EMBs) not only to institutionalise and mobilise the EMBs as a precursor to the “Global Summit for Democracy'' but also to reflect upon the changing geopolitics, emerging technologies and their use in election management in view of the challenges presented by COVID-19 pandemic. So far, three Regional Forum meets for Europe, America and Africa have been held in the months of June and July 2022.
As part of the global collaboration to take electoral reforms and enhance people's participation in the country's political system, the Election Commission in March hosted the virtual International Election Visitors Programme (IEVP) 2022 for EMBs from nearly 32 Countries and four international organisations.
