The National Election Commission hosted the ‘International Conference on Development of Democracy and Electoral Practices’, with the participation of chairpersons, commissioners, and election experts of election management bodies(EMB) in other countries (Seoul, April 28).

The NEC organised this International Conference to share information and opinions on various subjects related to electoral practices and election management, thereby to contribute to development of democracy and elections.

The Conference began with the opening remarks from chairperson Kim Nung-hwan of the NEC, and divided into three sessions.

At the first session, Korea and Bangladesh and Taiwan made presentations with the subject of ‘Realizing Free and Fair Elections’. Mexico, Nepal, and the IIDEA gave presentations focused on ‘Electoral justice’ and ‘Regulation on election campaign expenses’ at the second session. The Philippines, Russia, and the IFES made presentations with the subjects of ‘E-voting system’ and ‘The electoral leadership’ at the third session.

Before the International Conference, the chairperson of the Central Election Commission of Russia visited the NEC to have discussion with the NEC’s chairperson on how to strengthen the bilateral cooperation to advance the electoral systems and management on April 25. Particularly, the chairpersons discussed the initiatives to establish the Association of Election Officials of the Countries of Asia-Pacific Cooperation and to sign an MOU between the two commissions.

On the following day, all participants visited the NEC and were introduced to Korean electoral system, and the latest technical developments including touch-screen voting machine, automatic ballot sorting and counting machine and ballot printer.

On April 27, they visited polling and counting stations of the April 27 by-elections to observe Korea’s voting and counting management systems.