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The 10th meeting of FEMBoSA was organized by the Election Commission of India on 24 January 2020 in 
New Delhi. The meeting was attended by the Chairwomen/Chairmans/Chief Election Commissioners, Election Commissioners and other dignitaries from seven member Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of FEMBoSA. The summary of the 10th FEMBoSA meeting held on 24 January 2020 is as follows-
Mr. Umesh Sinha, Secretary General, ECI welcomed the esteemed members at the meeting. Mr. Sinha apprised all members of the ECI’s commitment of mutual cooperation with the member organizations in the sharing of Electoral Best Practices and organization of Capacity Building programs.
In his address, Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner of Bangladesh and Chairperson of FEMBoSA, Mr. K.M. Nurul Huda stated that in keeping with the objectives of the Forum, members have been sharing experiences and skills and taking steps to enhance cooperation with other EMBs. Hon Mr. Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury, Election Commissioner of Bangladesh presented the Stewardship Reporton the activities of FEMBoSA members during the 2019. Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner of Bangladesh then handed over the Chairmanship of FEMBoSA to the Election Commission of India for the year 2020 and presented the Logo of FEMBoSA to Mr. Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner of India.
Mr. Sunil Arora, after accepting the responsibility as Chairperson of the Forum, thanked the delegates for the trust and confidence reposed in the Election Commission of India. Mr. Arora said that ECI look forward to further strengthen its interaction with FEMBoSA member EMBs in promoting the activities of the Forum as per its objectives, and empowering the fellow EMBs through sharing the skills and capacity building efforts in cooperation with the members. Mr. Arora said that regular and periodic elections are an essential feature of a democratic polity. Free, fair, transparent, credible and ethical elections are critical to the legitimacy of a democratic government. Over the last more than six decades, ECI has developed new skills and is constantly striving to widen the inclusive framework, thus strengthening the voting process. Innovation along with engagement of technology in all parts of polling process has now become a distinct feature of elections in India. Besides use of EVM VVPAT machines, extensive use of Technology has been harnessed in various facets of Indian Electoral process, which includes updating the electoral rolls, use of video/still cameras and Webcasting; Video conferencing; and use of GPS for tracking vehicles etc. Mr. Arora added that for Capacity Building, Election Commission of India has established the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in June 2011 and members are invited to participate in the training programmes offered by IIIDEM.
On this sidelines of the meeting, Mr. Sunil Arora along with the two Election Commissioners of India Mr. Ashok Lavasa and Mr. Sushil Chandra and Secretary General Mr. Umesh Sinha also launched the 10th Issue of ECI’s magazine – ‘VOICE International’ which carries articles on the theme of “Innovative Methods of Voter Registration”.
The members of the Forum discussed and unanimously adopted the “New Delhi Resolution”. The Members resolved to : Implement the Work Plan for 2020 as approved by the member EMBs; Cooperate in capacity building of the member countries; Host election visitor programmes in the respective countries as feasible; Provide technical assistance to the members as requested and as feasible; Actively share best practices and knowledge in ICT tools and modules being used by the member EMBs and to develop standards for sustainable use of ICT in elections; Take steps to curb use of money power and muscle power; Enhance and ease participation of Persons with Disabilities and Senior Citizens in the election process; Maintain the permanent content management based web portal of FEMBoSA to share information among the EMBs through the www.fembosa.org web portal; Design and implement regional research projects.
It was also decided that the theme of the next FEMBoSA Meeting to be held in Bhutan will be ‘Use of Technology in Elections’.
On the sidelines of the FEMBoSA meeting, Election Commission of India also renewed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation in the field of election management with the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan. The MOU was signed by H.E. Mrs. Hawa Alam Nooristani, Chairwoman, IEC Afghanistan and by Mr. Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner on behalf of Election Commission of India.
An MoU for cooperation in the field of election management was also signed with the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) of Tunisia. The MOU was signed by H.E. Mr. Nabil Baffoun, President, ISIE of Tunisia and by Mr. Sunil Arora.