The Election Commission of India (ECI) is hosting the 2^nd International Conference on the theme ‘Use of Technology and Elections Integrity’ at New Delhi on 23-24 January, 2023. ECI is leading the Cohort on Elections Integrity which was established as a follow up to the ‘Summit for Democracy’ held virtually in December, 2021. The first international conference of the Cohort was organized on 31 Oct – 01 Nov, 2022 at New Delhi on the topic ‘Role, Framework and Capacity of Election Management Bodies’ where nearly 50 representatives from the Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of 11 countries participated.

The two-day international conference will be inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner of India Shri Rajiv Kumar. The concluding session will be chaired by Election Commissioner of India, Shri Anup Chandra Pandey. Shri Arun Goel, Election Commissioner of India will chair the first technical session. ECI, as the lead for the Cohort on ‘Election Integrity’, took a collaborative approach and invited Greece, Mauritius and IFES to be co-leads for the Cohort. ECI has invited International Foundation for Electoral Systems and International IDEA, apart from EMBs and Government counterparts dealing with the conduct of elections worldwide.

Around 43 Participants from 17 Countries/EMBs including Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Chile, Croatia, Dominica, Fiji, Georgia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Mauritius, Nepal, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines and Suriname and 06 participants from international organisations namely, IFES, International IDEA are expected to join. The representatives from a number of foreign missions located at New Delhi are also expected to attend the conference.

Background:

‘Summit for Democracy’, was an initiative of US President and hosted in December 2021. The Prime Minister of India spoke at the Leaders Plenary Session on December 9, 2021. Following this Summit, 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 2^nd Summit for Democracy is scheduled to be held on 29- 30 March 2023 and co-hosted by governments of Costa Rica, Rep. of Korea, Netherlands, Zambia and the US.  

As part of the ‘Summit for Democracy’ Year of Action, India through the ECI, is leading the ‘Democracy Cohort on Election Integrity’ to share its knowledge, technical expertise and experiences with other democracies of the world. ECI, as its lead, has proposed to also provide training and capacity building programmes to Election Management Bodies (EMBs) across the world and provide technical consultancy as per needs of other EMBs.

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RP