The National Election Commission attended the 2014 General Assembly of Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) on October 29, 2014 in New Delhi, India. The General Assembly meeting chaired by NEC Commissioner Cho Byoung Hyun (also the president of Seoul High Court) was attended by 14 election management bodies and such international organizations as A-WEB and International IDEA.

As the Elections Commission of the Maldives, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation and the Central Election Commission of Uzbekistan have become new members of the AAEA at this General Assembly meeting, the number of the member EMBs now reaches 20. The AAEA Charter has been revised to reduce the General Assembly meeting cycle from every 3 years to every 2 years, providing an opportunity to increase exchange and cooperation among the member EMBs. In addition, the ECI of India has been elected as the new Chair, the Commission on Elections of the Philippines the Vice Chair, and the NEC of Korea, Mongolia and Bhutan the Executive Board members.

The AAEA is the organization established in 1998 for the purpose of achieving transparent elections and promoting exchange of information on election management across the Asian continent.

The Republic of Korea joined the AAEA in 2008, was elected as the Chair in 2011, and took the lead in establishing the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) last year.

Commissioner Cho was quoted as saying, “Korea will contribute to the sustainable and stable development of democracy in Asian countries through training programmes for electoral officials of the AAEA member EMBs and encourage them to actively join the A-WEB led by Korea”.