Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on Friday took over as the new Chair of the Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) for the year 2020 at the annual meeting of poll management bodies of the SAARC countries.
Pakistan was not invited to the event due to strain in bilateral ties following India's decision on Jammu and Kashmir, according to officials.
Taking over the Chair from Bangladesh, Arora said that in a democracy, power is won and legitimised only by regular elections, based on the universal, equal, direct and freely expressed suffrage.
Strong participatory and inclusive democracies are better able to ensure good governance and empowerment of all the citizens, he said.
The Election Commission also signed an agreement with the Independent National Electoral Commission of Afghanistan for cooperation in the field of election management on the sidelines of the international conference on 'Strengthening Institutional Capacity' on Friday.
The poll panel also signed an MoU with Independent Authority for Election in Tunisia for cooperation in election management, a spokesperson said.
A New Delhi Resolution was unanimously adopted by the seven FEMBoSA members present at the meeting.
The work plan for 2020 on 'Use of Technology in Elections' calls for members to undertake projects and initiatives on various aspects of use of technology in elections and present a report on their experiences and challenges faced in this regard at the next FEMBoSA meeting.
FEMBoSA was established at the third Conference of Heads of Election Management Bodies of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries in 2012.
The last annual meeting of FEMBoSA was held in Dhaka in September 2018. Besides the Election Commission of India, the other seven members are election management bodies from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
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