ECN, ANFREL Ink MoU to Co-Host 6th Asian Electoral Stakeholder Forum

The Election Commission, Nepal (ECN) and the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to co-host the sixth Asian Electoral Stakeholder Forum (AESF 6).

The MoU, signed by ECN Joint Secretary Mr. Shaligram Sharma Paudel and ANFREL Executive Director Mrs. Chandanie Watawala, paves the way to the holding of the largest gathering of Asian electoral stakeholders in Kathmandu in 2023.

The signing of the MoU was witnessed by Chief Election Commissioner Hon. Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, National Election Observation Committee (NEOC) Chairperson Prof. Kapil Shrestha and General Election Observation Committee (GEOC) Executive Director Mr. Krishna Man Pradhan at the ECN office.

“AESF 6 will be a platform for key election stakeholders in Asia to gather and have constructive discussion on the state of elections and democracy in the region. The cooperation between ANFREL and ECN in hosting this forum demonstrates our commitment to engage with civil society to work toward promoting electoral democracy in Nepal and the overall Asian region,” said Hon. Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya.

“This collaborative arrangement is a significant initiative to advance democracy in Asia through knowledge exchange and dialogue among election management bodies and civil society. We look forward to working with the ECN to facilitate fruitful discussions on current election-related issues in the region,” said Chandanie Watawala.

The AESF is a continuing engagement between election management bodies, civil society organisations and other election stakeholders from across Asia and beyond. To date, there have been five iterations of the AESF, held in Bangkok, Thailand (2012), Dili, Timor-Leste (2015), Bali, Indonesia (2016), Colombo, Sri Lanka (2018) and online (2021).

 

 

 

Previous AESF Documents
AESF-2012AESF-2012 AESF-2015 AESF-2016 AESF-2018