Poll Management Bodies Can Work Together Against Fake Narratives: Election Chief

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has said that election management bodies, through forums like A-Web, can work together on pressing challenges, including countering fake narratives which are trying to derail election integrity worldwide.

Participating in the 11th meeting of the Executive Board of the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) in Colombia, he also pitched for establishing A-WEB Global Awards for election management bodies which make significant contributions and take important initiatives in the democratic processes.

The Association of World Election Bodies is the largest association of election management bodies worldwide.

An international conference on the theme "A global view on the challenges of regional elections 2023" is also being organised by National Civil Registry, Colombia on Wednesday.

During the discussions, Kumar said A-WEB as a global association plays a critical role in fostering cooperation among election management bodies and thereby enabling learning from each other's experiences and best practices.

"He stressed that election management bodies through forums like A-WEB could work together on pressing challenges like countering fake narratives which are trying to derail the election integrity worldwide," the poll panel said in a statement.

During the deliberations at the executive board meeting, the participants discussed various agenda items, including the programmes and activities to be undertaken by A-WEB during 2023-24, the annual progress report of A-WEB and its regional offices including A-WEB India Centre, budget and membership-related matters among others.

Among the other agenda items in the meeting, Kumar raised EC's proposals of setting up an A-WEB portal which would serve as a repository of electoral best practices and initiatives taken by member election management bodies in various aspects of electoral management and establishing A-WEB Global Awards for election management bodies who make a significant contribution and take important initiatives in the democratic processes. Both the proposals were approved by the executive board, the EC said.

On the sidelines of the 11th A-WEB Executive Board meeting, a bilateral meeting was also held with the National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea on EC's electronic postal ballot system.

India and South Korea signed an MoU in 2012 for establishing a mutually cooperative relationship in the field of election administration.

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