A team of the Indian Electoral Commission (ECI) led by the Chief Electoral Officer of India, Shri Sushil Chandra visited South Africa and Mauritius from April 9-19, 2022. During this visit, a series of meetings were held with the South African Electoral Commissionand Mauritius and cooperation with the larger NRI community in the two countries. In an interview with members of the Indian community, the CEC urged them to register as voters overseas as the available numbers were very low. He also shared with members that he was considering extending the Electronic Post Voting System (ETPBS) center to overseas voters.
The highlight of the trip was the extraordinary opportunity for a three-part meeting between the ECI, Mr Glen Mashinini, the Chairperson, the South African Electoral Commission and Mr. Jonghyun Choe, General Secretary of the Association of World Election Bodies (AWEB) held in Pretoria 12 April 2022. India is currently the Chair of AWEB, the largest coalition of 118 EMBs in the world and South Africa is the Deputy Chair.
Association of World Election Bodies (AWEB)
As AWEB completes its tenth anniversary and enters its new decade, the meeting has been put in place where it was time to reflect on AWEB’s progress as an organization. AWEB provides a unique platform for the exchange of information and knowledge among its members. During the meeting, it was agreed that the co-operative organization has the most experienced and knowledgeable EMBs who can assist and advise those EMBs that monitor the development and improvement of their programs. There was a feeling that now the focus should be on increasing membership and developing the sense of membership.
CEC Shri Sushil Chandra said
Shri Sushil Chandra said South Africa had made great strides in democracy and would host the next AWEB General Assembly in October 2022. India has a very strong and active relationship with AWEB. Both India and South Africa are the founding members of the organization. He pointed out that the arrival that brought Mahatma to Gandhi ji and the land of Nelson Mandela was his real journey.
Shri Chandra also recounted the many activities and steps taken by ECI to strengthen cooperation among AWEB members by organizing webinars, events of the International Election Tourist Program and the release of a few international publications. Thereafter, he shared India’s experience of conducting 11 constituency elections and various by-elections in the unprecedented period of the COVID-19 epidemic and the new regulations designed by ECI to conduct safe elections from the point of view of voters, voting staff and polling stations.
Highlighting the need for AWEB
While highlighting the need for AWEB to re-establish itself, CEC Shri Chandra emphasized on three areas for further strengthening of the institution. Firstly, AWEB should strive to come up with common principles for the various aspects of electoral management that will be known as AWEB international standards and will assist EMBs to work towards achieving these goals.
•Second, to expand communication between members through regional topic conferences, to celebrate important days on the AWEB calendar such as its launch date for India’s National Voters’ Day pattern and to develop AWEB’s annual activities calendar, third, to strengthen the sharing of best practices, training and capacity building.
Meeting with NRIs
During a visit to the two countries, an NRI community workshop was organized in Cape Town on 10 April; Johannesburg 12 April and Port Louis 18 April 2022. CEC Shri Sushil Chandra shared Indian experience of conducting elections with foreign members. He said India, being the largest democracy, holds elections for more than 950 million voters at more than one million polling stations.
Over the past few years, India’s elections have made steady progress in making elections more inclusive and accessible that has resulted in greater participation of women, people with disabilities and senior citizens in Indian elections. geographically it is due to strong electoral management processes that include the use of technology to improve voter participation through applications such as VIGIL, voter education via SVEEP, the use of EVM-VVPAT, all women in charge of polling stations, a single digital electoral roll, the deployment of intermediary monitors and strict cost monitoring mechanisms.
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