ACEEEO Newsletter - June 2021

1. News and upcoming events

30th Anniversary Conference and General Assembly of the ACEEEO

28-30 September 2021

In our previous letter we already announced that the Permanent Electoral Authority of Romania and the ACEEEO Secretariat works on the preparation of the upcoming 30th Annual Conference and General Assembly of the ACEEEO.

The conference is planned to be a traditional physical gathering in Romania between 28-30 September 2021, but we also prepare online means for those unable to travel by that time.

Topics of the Conference:

Youth Participation

• practical aspects: the role of key stakeholders (e.g. EMBs, international organizations and election officials) highlighting best practices in terms of voter education and communications;
• theoretical questions: the role and justifiability of the constitutional framework (e.g. the age limit) and the general trends related to youth participation.

Campaign and Party Finance

• how money is spent during electoral campaigns;
• how campaign- and party finance are regulated;
• transparency as a key aspect of campaign- and party finance.

Launch of Conference Page: For the easy overview of the news and details related to the conference we launched a separate conference page where you already are able to read some relevant documents, including the ‘Concept Pater’ and the ‘Draft Agenda’. e intend to periodically update the ‘Draft Agenda’ and open the labels of ‘Registration’, ‘Accommodation’ and ‘Venue’ by 1 July.

Call for articles in ‘Elections in Europe’: We are happy to announce that the 16th volume of our journal, Elections in Europe will be published in hard printed and digital version this year. The two topics of the issue are in line with the topics of the Annual Conference: ‘Youth Participation’ and ‘Campaign and Party Finance’. We call for papers in these topics with the length of 2000-2500 words. Please submit your articles to the aceeeo@aceeeo.org until 31 July, together with the photo of the author and 3-5 images for illustration.

For further information please do not forget to read our upcoming newsletters and frequently visit the Facebook page of the ACEEEO.

 

Youth, Elections, European identity - the future of the common European democracy

1 July 2021, 14:00 - 17:00 CEST

The Association of European Election Officials (ACEEEO) and the Permanent Electoral Authority of Romania co-organize an event to contribute to the discussion on this topic The symposium explores the relationship between the shared European identity among the youth and European elections, most notably, EP elections. Do young people have European identity and how is it related to other identities? How elections do and might contribute to European identity? What role do and might EP elections play in this respect?

We believe that by mapping the attitudes of today’s young people we can get a picture of tommorow’s Europe. Nevertheless, decision makers might not just stand idle, but they can actively influence these processes; cleverly tailored institutions and policies might strengthen the European identity and democracy. For this reason, an interdisciplinary dialogue is needed, in which the current reality and the possibilities are examined by various experts. Moreover, as we think that there is no point in thinking about the future of the youth without the youth, young people should be included in the discourse.

For further information please visit the ACEEEO website or the webpage of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

 

2. Recent events in the ACEEEO

Second Online Symposium on Youth Participation

22 April 2021, coorganized with ArabEMBs

The ACEEEO in cooperation with the ArabEMBs on 22 April 2021 organized the Second Online Symposium on Youth Participation, in which with the valuable contributions of international experts we continued to discussed the theoretical and practical approaches to the topic.

The Symposium was opened by Zsolt Szolnoki (Secretary General, ACEEEO) and Hisham Kuhail (Executive Board Chairman, ArabEMBs). Mr. Szolnoki highlighted the importance of the cooperation between the European and the Arab regions especially in the topic of youth participation both sides have lessons learnt to share. Mr. Kuhail also emphasized the need of a meaningful cooperation between the two institutions and envisaged further strengthening of professional ties between the Associations.

The Symposium then proceeded with the first block that tackled the question from both theoretical and practical viewpoint. The first presenter, Jean-Paul Gagnon (Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society) raised a rather provocative question on why and how the voting age should be lowered. He underlined that it is necessary to change our opinion about youth and possibly involve them into the development of policies. The second presenter was Yuliya Shypilova (Chief Technical Advisor, UNDP Kyrgyzstan), who presented about the Kyrgyz Best Practices on Youth Participation in Elections. Ms. Shypilova undelined that it is important for the youth to take an active part in the electoral processes and, therefore it is necessary to increase their knowledge of voting procedures, and thus contribute to their informed, free and responsible choice.

The second block, moderated by Mais Al-Atiat (Acting Secretary General, ArabEMBs), focused on Youth Participation in the Arab Region. This session included four presentations that summarized the experiences of countries, Mauritania, Tunisia, Libya, and Palestine. His Excellency Mohamed Vall Bilal (President of the Arab Organization for Electoral Administrations and Chairman of the Independent National Elections Commission of Mauritania) started with highlighting the reality of the situation and the fact of youth participation in the Arab region. His Excellency emphasized that Arab EMBs initiated the establishment of the Arab Network for Youth in the elections, to work closely with civil society institutions and political parties to enhance the political and electoral participation of young people various stages of the electoral process. He was followed by Mahmoud Al-Kadiki (Communication and Outreach Coordinator) and Abdulaziz Al-Sharif (Media Unit Officer from the High National Elections Commission of Libya), who were shedding light on the most important reasons for youth abstention from the elections, and talked about the most important programs of the Commission for electoral awareness. In the Tunisian experience, Mona Hatira (Field Coordinator from the Independent High Electoral Commission of Tunisia) clarified the role of the Independent High Electoral Commission in supporting youth participation in elections, starting with the participation of young people within the commission’s strategic plan for the period 2016-2019 within the seventh strategic objective. The ‘Youth Project’ was designated for the benefit of students and youth within the age group 18-25 years. Farid Taamallah (Director of Information and Public Relations at the Central Elections Committee of Palestine) gave a presentation about Youth Participation in the Palestinian Elections. He explained that the Committee prepared a strategy to target youth in the various stages of the electoral process, in line with the requirements of the times and formed youth teams specialized in Social communication platforms with the aim to design attractive content capable of reaching of young people. He also presented several specialized projects that the Committee is implementing with the aim of raising awareness and encouraging participation in the electoral process in cooperation with civil society institutions, from which direct benefits have reached about 200,000 young men and women.

The Symposium was concluded by His Excellency Mohamed Vall Bilal (President of the Arab Organization for Electoral Administrations and Chairman of the Independent National Elections Commission of Mauritania) and János Mécs (Project Manager, ACEEEO), who thanked all the participants and the audience.

For some of the presentations, please visit the dedicated page.

Statement of support for the independent and impartial election administration in Mexico

8 June 2021

ACEEEO together with Democracy International, International IDEA, Permanent Electoral Authority of Romania, and Transparencia Electoral en América latina joined together to congratulate and support the decades-long work of the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) in organizing elections that are impartial, transparent and conducted in accordance with internationally recognized standards.

Furthermore, in May the ACEEEO renewed its General Cooperation Agreement with INE Mexico in order to continue to develop joint projects, consultation, cooperation and technical support between the two instututions.

3. Elections in the region