Election Commission of India and the United Nations Development Programme UNDP today signed an MOU for cooperation in election management, particularly for supporting elections and democratic process in other countries. The MOU was signed by Shri Akshay Rout, Director General from the Commission and Ms. Lise Grande, UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator from UNDP’s side in the presence of Chief Election Commissioner of India, Shri V S Sampath, Election Commissioners, Shri H S Brahma and Dr Nasim Zaidi and UN Under Secretary General and UNDP Associate Administrator, Ms. Rebeca Grynspan. Senior officials of ECI and UNDP were present on the occasion.

          Chief Election Commissioner Shri Sampath observed that transparency and strict enforcement have been the strength of ECI which have lent total credibility to Indian elections. He underlined the Commission’s commitment to work along South-South cooperation and extend support to electoral process wherever there is a need.

Ms Grynspan, who led the 8 member UNDP delegation, lauded the impressive independence of the Indian Election Commission, which, she said is a source of stability. She thanked the Commission for making its resources available to all democratic nations through the outreach of UNDP.  Election Commissioners Mr Brahma and Mr Zaidi and UNDP Resident Representative, Ms Grande and Country Director Ms Caitlin Wiesen also spoke on the occasion.

            ECI and UNDP have been working jointly in recent months to harness ECI’s competence in election management to the benefit of several countries. The collaboration is specially built around Commission’s one year old India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management, IIIDEM which offers courses for international election practitioners.  Election Commission has signed MOUs with fourteen countries for sharing electoral practices and extending electoral assistance.

Election Commission of India

11^th October , 2012 New Delhi

RM