ECI-led global group of election bodies proposes need for benchmarks for tech companies

The summit, which is the second one in the series, is scheduled to take place on March 29-30, with heads of states and governments expected to attend virtually. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the first summit in December 2021. The ECI, along with Greece, Mauritius and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, were selected to co-lead the cohort on election integrity in the run-up to the second summit.

Leading up to the summit, the ECI has hosted two conferences which will be followed by a virtual one in the second week of March, as per the poll body. At the second conference, held this week, representatives from Angola, Armenia, Argentina, Australia, Chile, Croatia, Fiji, Georgia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Mauritius, Nepal, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines and Suriname, as well as officials from the foreign missions of Costa Rica, Philippines, Serbia, Cape Verde, Palau, Jamaica, Ghana and Paraguay discussed in New Delhi the use of technology in elections and its challenges.

“Despite all the challenges that technology is posing there cannot be an option to the EMBs/EAs to not adopt them. Therefore, the focus should be on ‘appropriate technology’ and not a blind pursuit of high technology,” the ECI’s summation report said.

The EMBs at the conference proposed that among the recommendations the cohort would make to the summit would be the need for protecting the autonomy of EMBs and election authorities.

Another possible recommendation would be to counter disinformation. “Challenge of disinformation and the urgent need to have a response to this challenge, even though fraught with criticism with free speech argument, needs to be red-flagged without hesitation to the Summit, both as a challenge to the positive discourse on democracy and, as a field level challenge to every election cycle,” the ECI report said.