Colombo, Dec 1 As many as 40 Sri Lankan election officials underwent a capacity building training at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in New Delhi recently, the Indian High Commission in Colombo stated on Monday.
The training programme was organised at IIIDEM from November 24-28 at the request of the Sri Lankan government. The customised programme for Sri Lankan election officials included technical sessions on subjects like international electoral standards and principles, voter awareness and empowerment of voters and electoral best practices and contemporary themes such as application of Artificial Intelligence in electoral management and safeguarding elections from AI misuse, social media monitoring and responding to misinformation in elections, emerging issues and challenges in political finance and others.
In a statement, the High Commission stated, "The programme was organised under the enhanced capacity building framework announced by Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi during his State Visit to Sri Lanka in April 2025, whereby 700 customized slots annually for Sri Lankan professionals were added over and above all existing schemes such as ITEC."
"With around 300 Sri Lanka civil service officers being training annually under a MoU between the National Centre for Good Governance of India and the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration, the enhanced capacity-building endeavour of India thus now benefits 1000 Sri Lankans annually," it added.
According to the statement, IIIDEM is an eminent institution established in 2011 to train, prepare and equip election officials and other stakeholders for conducting free, credible, fair and error-free polls. The institution is an integral wing under the direct supervision and control of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
India is Sri Lanka’s closest neighbour and the ties between two countries are more than 2,500 years old. With both nations sharing a strong civilisational and historical connect, Sri Lanka has a central place in India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) vision.
The shared cultural and social heritage of India and Sri Lanka and the extensive people-to-people interaction of the people of two nations provide the foundation to build a multi-faceted partnership.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor