Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday handed over the Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) role to the Election Commission of Bhutan for 2021-22.
Sushil Chandra, Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC), as the outgoing Chair of FEMBoSA, virtually handed over the Chairmanship of FEMBoSA to Dasho Sonam Topgay, Chief Election Commissioner of Bhutan at today's meeting, read Election Commission press statement.
On behalf of the Election Commission of Bhutan, Major General Vetsop Namgyel, Ambassador of Bhutan to India accepted FEMBoSA Logo from Chandra for the Election Commission of Bhutan assuming the role of new Chair of FEMBoSA 2021-22.
Accepting the responsibility of Chairperson of the Forum, Dasho Sonam Topgay, CEC of Bhutan thanked the delegates for the trust and confidence reposed in the Election Commission of Bhutan.
He assured FEMBoSA members that Bhutan shall work with utmost devotion to carrying forward FEMBoSA's objectives to promote contact among the Election Management Bodies of the SAARC countries; share experiences with a view to learning from each other and cooperate with one another in enhancing capabilities of the Election Management Bodies towards conducting free and fair elections, read the statement.
Chief Election Commissioner of India and current Chairman, FEMBoSA Sushil Chandra accompanied by Election Commissioners Rajeev Kumar and AC Pandey, inaugurated the 11th Annual meeting of the Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) for the year 2021.
The meeting in virtual mode was hosted by the Election Commission of Bhutan. Along with India, delegations from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka participated in the day-long meeting.
In his address, Sushil Chandra stated that FEMBoSA represents a very large part of the democratic world and is an active regional cooperation association of Election Management Bodies. Its logo with golden pearls stands for the eternal values of transparency, impartiality, democracy and cooperation, read the official release.
Chandra shared India's experience of conducting Assembly elections in Bihar in November 2020 and Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Puducherry in March/April 2021 during the tough, testing times of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chandra noted that technological advancements and their impact on election management are of critical importance for all of us. Technology has been extensively used to make elections more participative, accessible and transparent.
The theme of today's meeting was 'Use of Technology in Elections'. Sushil Chandra mentioned that keeping pace with the rapid strides of Technology, ECI has digitized many processes. Technology-driven processes became all the more important in view of the COVID-19 situation by helping minimize person-to-person contact.
Moreover, a Thimphu Resolution was unanimously adopted by the FEMBoSA members to extend the tenure of the chairmanship to two years during the current pandemic situation.
Umesh Sinha, Secretary-General, ECI presented a Stewardship Report on the activities of FEMBoSA members during the period of ECI's Chairmanship for the period January 2020 - July 2021, as per the Work Plan 2020 approved at the 10th FEMBoSA meeting held in New Delhi on 24 January 2020.
( With inputs from ANI )
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