AESF 5 Memorandum:
The Way Forward for Elections Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic
Introduction
Democracy has suffered unprecedented attacks in recent years, with a backsliding of fundamental freedoms observed in many countries worldwide and the additional burden created by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic often compounding pre-existing challenges. In order to strengthen efforts to defend electoral democracy, the Fifth Asian Electoral Stakeholder Forum (AESF 5) invited a diversity of election stakeholders to gather virtually and consider recommendations or best practices that deserve to be implemented more widely.
Building upon the collaboration established during previous iterations of this forum, three thematic working groups were created, with topics related to fostering more inclusive and participatory elections, challenges to electoral integrity and possible solutions, and best practices for election management during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of two hundred participants representing election management bodies, civil society organizations and international or regional NGOs met online in September and October 2021 to discuss the current challenges to free and fair elections. We are grateful for their dedication, and aim to accurately reflect through this memorandum their contributions and aspirations.
This memorandum presents a number of recommendations or best practices that working group participants have highlighted during the proceedings. It is not meant to be exhaustive but instead addresses some of the current challenges faced by election stakeholders and beyond and possible solutions to mitigate them. Together with the documents produced at AESF 1 through 4 (namely the Bangkok Declaration on Free and Fair Elections, the Dili Indicators of Democratic Elections, the Bali Commitment to Electoral Transparency and the “Colombo Pledge”), the AESF 5 Memorandum will constitute the largest body of text related to election standards in Asia. Although non-binding in nature, these can guide election stakeholders, such as election management bodies, civil society organisations and observer groups, to strive to improve electoral processes in their respective countries in pursuit of genuine democracy.