Executive committee members of African Election Authorities meet in Seychelles |19 April 2018

The Seychelles Electoral Commission (EC) is hosting a two-day annual executive committee meeting of the Association of African Election Authorities (AAEA) which is taking place at the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Hotel.

Chairpersons of ECs from the different regions of the African continent, members of the AAEA executive committee are taking part in the meeting.

The chairperson of the executive committee of the AAEA, Charlotte Osei who is also the chairperson of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, is leading the two-day working session.

Speaking to Seychelles NATION after the opening of the meeting, Ms Osei said the two-day working session would focus on coming up with a strategy to improve membership so that more countries join the association.

“We also need a strategy that enables the AU to actively support the ECs in different ways such as help with information exchange through study tours where members can learn from best practices from successful elections of other countries and conduct peer reviews.

“Experience sharing is very important and we need a strategy that enables us to do that in a more active manner but this depends on funding and members are being urged to pay their membership dues. We also need to support ECs at leadership level,” Ms Osei pointed out.   

Bernard Elizabeth, the acting chairperson of Seychelles’s Electoral Commission, said hosting the meeting is a great opportunity to discuss and share best practices and experience on the ground.

The AAEA is a regional network of election management bodies which is dedicated to making election administration bodies more professional through information exchange and regional networking.

The association was conceived at the Colloquium of African Election Authorities held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in November 1994 and since then has developed into an association with 16 full members and six associate members.