EMBs adopt Delhi declaration after two-day international conference hosted by ECI ends

New Delhi [India], January 24 (ANI): Representatives and heads of the Election Management Bodies (EMB) of countries of the world on Friday in an international conference hosted in New Delhi from January 23 to 24.

The international conference titled “Global Election Year 2024: Reiteration of Democratic Spaces and Key Takeaways for EMBs” was convened by the Election Commission of India.

The conference deliberated on various aspects of the election management and took a note of the disruptive trends and challenges of fake narratives to malign the electoral process, as per a release.

The conference took stock of the experience in the conduct of elections worldwide in the recent years, and more particularly on the substantial elections in 2024, as per a statement from the release.

Members preset in the conference took to resolve and declare several points. These included remaining committed to transparent and inclusive polls, safeguard the integrity and purity of electors list, undiluted focus on centrality of voter and taking proactive interventions of voter education.

Other points included engaging in a determined fight to keep election process free and fair, keeping a robust judicial mechanisms in place, pursuing technological integration and innovation, vigorously resisting fake narratives created to undermine electoral process and constituting a working group of all willing EMBs worldwide to deal with issues of social media, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

The Delhi Assembly elections will take place in a single phase on February 5, and the counting of votes is set for February 8. A total of 699 candidates are competing for the 70 assembly seats in Delhi.

The Congress, which was in power for 15 consecutive years in Delhi, has suffered setbacks in the last two assembly elections and has failed to win any seats. In contrast, the AAP dominated the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections by winning 67 and 62 seats, respectively, out of a total of 70 seats, while the BJP got only three and eight seats in these elections.