The 7th meeting of the Forum of Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) on Tuesday began in the Maldives.
Members of electoral commissions from 8 SAARC countries are attending the FEMBoSA meeting, which began in Bandos Island Resort, Maldives.
This is the first time the Maldives is hosting a meeting of FENBOSA. The Maldives will chair the meeting which would focus on the use of new technologies with the aim of improving the electoral process.
FEMBoSA is a regional establishment for cooperation among the SAARC EMBs. The idea of instituting such Forum was conceived in the first meeting held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2010. One of the aims of holding the FEMBoSA meetings is to further develop and strengthen relations between electoral commissions of member states in the region.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Ahmed Sulaiman, President of the Maldives Elections Commission, said each member country will submit papers based on integrating technology in electoral process, aiming to further upgrade and improve the process for the convenience of the authorities and electorates. He said that discussion during the two-day meeting will also focus on introducing mechanisms to enable voters to submit election registration forms through electronic means. He noted that despite criticism by some it is important for the Maldives Elections Commission to keep up with advanced technology used in elections across the world. He said it is not at all acceptable for the Elections Commission to lag behind the fast advancing technology.
Aishath Bisam, Maldives' Prosecutor General, was the chief guest at the opening ceremony. At the event, she inaugurated a specialized web portal especially developed for the FEMBOSA meeting. All documents and papers submitted for discussion at the meeting will be shared among the participants via this web portal.
All resolutions approved during the 2-day meeting have to be implemented by all member states of the FEMBOSA.
The Elections Commission says members of electoral commissions visiting the Maldives for the meeting will visit Mulah, Veyvah and Naalaafushi Islands of Meemu Atoll to see the culture and traditions of the country.
The second meeting of FEMBOSA was held in Pakistan in 2011 consolidated the plans of formalizing the Forum. The formal launch of the FEMBoSA was resolved in the third meeting in New Delhi in 2012 in which a charter of FEMBoSA was signed. The fourth meeting was hosted by the Election Commission of Bhutan in October, 2013 on the theme ‘Sharing Experiences and Resources for Better Electoral Practices in South Asia.’ With the resolution of the fourth meeting, the Election Commission Nepal organised the fifth meeting in November 2014 in Kathmandu with the theme “Regulating Campaign Finance: Ensuring Free & Fair Elections".