The Cohort on Elections Integrity was established to provide training and capacity building programmes to Election Management Bodies (EMBs) across the world and technical consultancy as per needs of other EMBs. It was officially launched at a two-day conference on 31 October and 1 November 2022 on ‘the Role, Framework and Capacity of Election Management Bodies’. The event included sessions on the EMB capacity and the current and future challenges faced by EMBs, and recognised the need for mutual cooperation and continuous engagement amidst emerging issues caused by digital technologies.

The Cohort has announced that it intends to continue past the second Summit, and to this end Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar spoke on India's efforts to support electoral integrity, highlighting its work using the platform provided by the Cohort, at an interaction with the 2022 batch of Indian Foreign Service Officer Trainees. More information on the work of the Cohort can be found on the IFES website here.

The running of elections in a free, fair and trustworthy manner is integral to even the most basic of democratic functioning. Threats to electoral integrity can open the door to greater issues with fraud, money in politics and malign foreign influence. Moreover, existing but highly manipulated electoral systems are one of the tools used by modern day autocrats to legitimise their power. For representatives to be democratically elected, it is necessary to have an electoral system in place that can guarantee universal suffrage—an equal vote for every citizen, free from undue influence.

The expected outcome from this cohort is to lay the groundwork for numerous additional dialogues and institutionalised mechanisms to collaborate on contextual challenges and opportunities. To achieve their objective and desired outcomes, the cohort has organised three conferences to help provide training and capacity-building to EMBs globally, with the possibility of extending help to technical consultancy per the needs of other EMBs. During the second Summit, IFES released a Q&A on the activities and goals of the Cohort during the Year of Action.

Relevant documents released by the cohort can be found in the links on the righthand side of the page, and any public events are listed below. We invite you to use the contact form on this portal if you have any contributions or corrections regarding this cohort.

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Co leads

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  Greece

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  India

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  Mauritius

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  International Foundation for Electoral Systems

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Documents

• Elections Integrity Cohort Concept Note
• Proceedings Report of Conference on Role, framework and capacity of election management bodies'
• Proceedings Report of Conference on 'Use of Technology and Elections Integrity'
• IDEA Presentation Text - Adopting Technology for Inclusive Elections: A solution or a problem?
• IDEA Powerpoint - Adopting Technology for Inclusive Elections: A solution or a problem?
• Discussion Paper on Inclusive Elections and Elections Integrity