Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB)

• Chief Election Commissioner Shri Rajiv Kumar led a three-member Election Commission of India (ECI) delegation to Cartagena, Colombia to attend the 11^th meeting of the Executive Board of the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB).

ABOUT A-WEB

• The Association of World Election Bodies is the largest association of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) worldwide with 119 EMBs as Members & 20 Regional Associations/Organisations as Associate Members.
• A-WEB was founded in October, 2013 in Seoul, South Korea on the shared vision among its members of achieving sustainable democracy around the world through the strengthening of the processes of election management in member countries.
• ECI has been very closely associated with the process of formation of A-WEB since 2011-12 and has been its Executive Board Member, since its inception in October 2013 for two consecutive terms (2013-15 and 2015-17).
• ECI took over as Vice-Chairperson of A-WEB for 2017-19 term; as Chair for 2019-22 term and is presently a member of its Executive Board for 2022-24 in its capacity as immediate former Chair of A-WEB.
• In November 2022 ECI handed over the A-WEB Chairmanship from ECI to Election Commission of South Africa, after leading the EMBs successfully during the covid pandemic (2019-2022).
• A-WEB organises capacity building programmes for its member EMBs and undertakes Election Visitor and Observation Programmes in various countries to study election management practices and share knowledge with other member EMBs.
• In India A-WEB Centre has been established at New Delhi for documentation and research for sharing the best practices and training and capacity building of officials of A-WEB members.