New Delhi: Thirteen Heads/Representatives of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) from Russian Federation, Namibia, Kyrgystan, Egypt and Bangladesh have arrived in New Delhi to witness ongoing Assembly elections in India. The delegates include Chairperson and a Commissioner of the Electoral Commission of Namibia, two Members of the Supreme Judicial Court of Egypt; Member, Central Election Commission of Russian Federation and senior representatives from Election Commissions of Bangladesh and Kyrgystan.
The delegates visited the Election Commission of India (ECI) yesterday for comprehensive briefing on different facets of Election Management in India, main features of poll preparedness in the ongoing Assembly Elections. Other agenda during the briefing session included international cooperation under South South Cooperation.
The international delegates were given demonstration of the use of technology in these elections, particularly the use of Electronic Voting Machine and the use of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), as well as extensive briefings by senior officials of the ECI on the entire process of election management for the Assembly Elections.
Further, they were briefed about Election Planning, Use of IT, Electoral Laws, Expenditure Monitoring, EVM/VVPAT, & SVEEP.
The delegates will be leaving for Dehradun today to witness the poll preparations, visit Dispatch Centres and polling on 15th February 2017.
The Election Visitors Programme (EVP) for the international delegates has been organised by the ECI in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India. ECI and UNDP have been collaborating in the field of electoral management for the last several years, an important feature of which is to jointly promote exchange of visits and sharing of experiences and skills in the field of Electoral Management with developing countries under ECI’s South-South Cooperation initiative.