The South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) comprising, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka was established on 8th December 1985 at a meeting of the Heads of State or Government of the above countries in Dhaka. Afghanistan was admitted as a full Member of the Association at the Thirteenth SAARC Summit held in Dhaka in April 2005.
SAARC Charter ensures promoting peace, stability, amity and progress in the region through strict adherence to the principles of the UNITED NATIONS CHARTER and NON-ALIGNMENT, particularly respect for the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, national independence, non-use of force and non-interference in the internal affairs of other States and peaceful settlement of all disputes.
It is conscious that in an increasingly interdependent world, the objectives of peace, freedom, social justice and economic prosperity are best achieved in the SOUTH ASIAN region by fostering mutual understanding, good neighbourly relations and meaningful co-operation among the Member States which are bound by ties of history and culture;
All the SAARC Member States now have democratic governments. In all the countries, periodic elections are held not only for the National Parliaments, but also for various representative bodies, including different rungs of local governments. To ensure that the elections are free and fair, all the states have Election Commissions independent of both the Executive as well as the Legislative branch of the government.
Although the tasks before each of the Commissions differ in enormity, the process is similar. All the Commissions face some problems in organizing elections and ensuring their fairness. Some of the problems may be similar. Therefore the Commissions may benefit by sharing experiences and co-operating with each other, this can be facilitated if there is a common forum of the Commissions to meet from time to time.
This Conference is a continuation of similar Conference held last year in Dhaka sponsored by UNDP Bangladesh Office. This second SAARC conference of Election Management Bodies is being hosted by Election Commission of Pakistan, with technical and financial support from the UNDP Pakistan Country Office. This is, of course, a distinctive platform, which provides an opportunity to the Chief Election Managers of the countries of this region to get together to exchange views and benefit from each others' electoral experiences. By sitting together, it is hoped to have ideas which can further guide all the EMBs in making their electoral systems more and more credible and transparent.
In this regard, the year 2011 seems to be of great significance as it afforded a number of opportunities to many of the EMBs heads to get together with relatively short intervals, for example, the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of Election Commission of India held in January this year in India and this important conference in Pakistan.
The main objectives of this conference are to:
Promote contact and liaison among the EMBs of the SAARC Member States Share experiences with a view to learning from each other and, Cooperate with each other in developing the capabilities of the EMBs for performing their tasks for ensuring free, fair and credible elections.
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