Cohort on Election Integrity

‘Summit for Democracy’

• It was an initiative of USA and was hosted in 2021.
• The Prime Minister of India spoke at the Leaders Plenary Session in 2021.
• A “Year of Action” was proposed with events and dialogues on themes related to Democracy.
• The Summit also developed two platforms – ‘Focal Groups’ and ‘Democracy Cohorts’ to facilitate participation in the Year of Action.
• The 2nd Summit for Democracy is scheduled to be held IN 2023 and co-hosted by governments of Costa Rica, Rep. of Korea, Netherlands, Zambia and the US. 
• As part of the ‘Summit for Democracy’ Year of Action, India through the ECI, is leading the ‘Democracy Cohort on Election Integrity’ to share its knowledge, technical expertise and experiences with other democracies of the world.
• ECI, as its lead, has proposed to also provide training and capacity building programmes to Election Management Bodies (EMBs) across the world and provide technical consultancy as per needs of other EMBs.

Cohort on Elections Integrity:

• It was established as a follow up to the ‘Summit for Democracy’ held virtually in 2021.
• India through ECI, is leading the Cohort on Elections Integrity

• The first international conference of the Cohort was organized in 2022 on the topic ‘Role, Framework and Capacity of Election Management Bodies’ where nearly 50 representatives from the Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of 11 countries participated.
• The Election Commission of India (ECI) is hosting the 2nd International Conference on the theme ‘Use of Technology and Elections Integrity’
• The two-day international conference will be inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner of India
• Invited Greece, Mauritius and IFES to be co-leads for the Cohort. ECI has invited Isnternational Foundation for Electoral Systems and International IDEA, apart from EMBs and Government counterparts dealing with the conduct of elections worldwide.
• Around 43 Participants from 17 Countries/EMBs including Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Chile, Croatia, Dominica, Fiji, Georgia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Mauritius, Nepal, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines and Suriname and 06 participants from international organisations namely, IFES, International IDEA are expected to join.

Source PIB

Previous Year Question

Q1) Consider the following statements: (2017)

1. The Election Commission of India is a five-member body.
2. Union Ministry of Home Affairs decides the election schedule for the conduct of both general elections and bye-elections.
3. Election Commission resolves the disputes relating to splits/mergers of recognised political parties.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 only
3. 2 and 3 only
4. 3 only