Question : Association of Asian Election Authorities

(a) whether any meeting of Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) was held in the country recently;
(b) if so, the details thereof along with the issues discussed in the said meeting and the decisions taken thereon;
(c) whether any special training programme for Asian election officials has been proposed by the Election Commission of India;
(d) if so, the details thereof and the salient features/objectives of the said programme; and
(e) the names of the member countries of the AAEA along with the countries which are likely to participate in the said training programme?

ANSWER
MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE
(SHRI D.V. SADANANDA GOWDA)
(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN RESPECT OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED
QUESTION NO. 1987 FOR 10th DECEMBER, 2015
(a) to (b): The Election Commission has informed that they have recently hosted the
2015 Executive Board meeting of the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA)
in New Delhi on 15-16 September, 2015. The Executive Board decided to invite Election
Authorities from other Asian countries to seek membership of the Association. The
Executive Board also agreed on an uploaded Work Plan for 2015-2016, which would
include exchange of experiences through election visits, conferences and seminars on
election-related themes and capacity building of Election Authorities in the region.
(c): The Election Commission has further informed that Training Division of the
Election Commission has not proposed any training programme for officials of Asian
Election Authorities. However, India International Institute of Democracy and Election
Management (IIIDEM)/Training Division has conducted 17 training programmes since
2011 till date in which officials of Election Management Bodies of countries including
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Commonwealth network,
and Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Partner countries have
participated.
(d): The objectives of the programmes is to build the capacity of the officers of Election
Management Bodies in the field of election management and the subjects (topics)
discussed are – “Democracy, Free and Fair elections and International Standards Crowd
sourcing and Electoral Risk Management Tool (ERMT), Electronic Voting Machines &
Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial, Political Finance Monitoring, Gender, Disability,
Technology, Voter Registration, Voter Education, Campaign Expenditure Monitoring,
Election Dispute Resolution including use of Technology, Conduct of Elections and
Result Transmission”.
(e): The Election Commission has informed that the names of the participating country
for training programme are finalized when a proposal is prepared. A list of member
countries of Association of Asian Election Authorities is enclosed as Annexure-1.
ANNEXURE-1
Salient features/objectives of Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA)
India is a founding member of AAEA which was established in 1998 and, with admission of three new members in 2014, now has 20 member-countries. Besides India, other members are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kyrgyz Republic, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Election Commission of India elected Chair of Association of AAEA in 2014 General Assembly Meeting of AAEA for the next two years.