Context: The Election Commission of India completes one year of Chairmanship of the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB).
Analysis
- A-WEB was established in October 2013 in Songdo, South Korea. The permanent secretariat of A-WEB is located in Seoul.
- A-WEB’s vision is to foster efficiency and effectiveness in conducting free, fair, transparent and participative elections worldwide.
- Currently, the A-WEB has 115 members and 20 regional associations/ organisations as associate members.
- The members include 37 from Africa, 31 from America, 24 from Asia, 17 from Europe, and six from Oceania.
- ECI hosted the 4th General Assembly of A-WEB in Sep 2019 at Bengaluru and took over as Chair of A-WEB from Romania for 2019-21.
- An India A-WEB Centre has been established in New Delhi, for world-class documentation, research and training for sharing the best practices and capacity building of officials of A-WEB members.
- India is the largest democracy in the world while the U.S. is the oldest.
