- Chief Election Commissioner, Shri Sunil Arora on September 3, 2019 assumed Chairmanship of Association of World Election Bodies (AWEB) for the term 2019-21 as India takes over the Chair from Romania at the 4th General Assembly of AWEB which concluded at Bengaluru.
- India was unanimously nominated to be the Vice-Chair of AWEB at the last General Assembly held at Bucharest in 2017. The AWEB Flag was handed over to the new Chairman, Sh. Sunil Arora by the Representative of Outgoing Chair, Mr. Ion Mincu Radulescu, Advisor, Permanent Election Authority Romania.
- The Flag will remain with Election Commission of India for the two year term till 2021.
- More than 110 delegates from 45 countries attended the meeting.
- On this occasion, CEC Sh Sunil Arora along with the two Election Commissioners of India Sh. Ashok Lavasa and Sh. Sushil Chandra and Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Sh Umesh Sinha also launched ECI’s quarterly magazine – ‘VOICE International’ which shares best practices from more than 25 Countries..
- The 4th General Assembly of AWEB held at Bengaluru welcomed the EMBs from Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the Executive Board. EMBs from Burkina Faso, Mauritius and Samoa have been admitted to the Oversight and Audit Committee. EMBs from Ukraine, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Political Parties Registration Commission of Sierra Leone, Indonesia and Mauritius joined the A-WEB family as Members and the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) as an Associate Member.
About Association of World Election Bodies (AWEB)
- Since its inception in October 2013, A-WEB has marched ahead empowering the democratic framework of member countries.
- With 120 EMBs from 111 countries as its Members and 21 International Organisations as Associate Members, it has truly become the largest global organisation of Election Management Bodies providing momentum to the spread of electoral democracy, the Chair noted.
- Its headquarters is located in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea.
- Shri Arora announced that an AWEB Centre would be setup at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management, New Delhi for documentation, research and training; for sharing best practices and capacity building among the members EMBs of the Association
- India, the host nation for 4th general assembly, has been one of the founding members of the A-WEB. India hosted the three day AWEB meetings in Bengaluru.
