The MOU was signed by EC Director General Akshay Rout and UNDP Resident Representative Lise Grande in the presence of Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath and Election Commissioners H S Brahma and Nasim Zaidi. UN Under Secretary General and UNDP Associate Administrator Rebeca Grynspan and other senior officials of ECI and UNDP were also present.
CEC Sampath said transparency and strict enforcement have been the strength of ECI which have lent total credibility to Indian elections. He underlined the Commission's commitment to work along South-South cooperation and extend support to electoral process wherever needed.
Grynspan, who led the 8-member UNDP delegation, lauded the impressive independence of the Indian Election Commission, which, she said, is a source of stability. She thanked the Commission for making its resources available to democratic nations through the outreach of UNDP.
ECI and UNDP have been working jointly in recent months to harness ECI's competence in election management to the benefit of several countries.
The collaboration is specially built around Commission's year old India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) which offers courses for international election practitioners.
EC has signed MOUs with fourteen countries for sharing electoral practices and extending electoral assistance.