29/10/2021
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe held the 18th European Conference of Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) online, operating from the headquarters of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. This year the conference was devoted to the “Lessons learned from the impact of the COVID-19 health crisis on electoral processes”.
Representatives of electoral management bodies of Venice Commission member States, i.e. Europe and the Americas among other parts of the world, academics and election experts participated in the event, which was exceptionally open to public.
The following questions were addressed by the Conference:
• regulatory and practical solutions found by the electoral administrations to ensure the security of electoral processes during an emergency period;
• the role played by the electoral administrations in ensuring a good voter turnout, especially of women and vulnerable groups;
• the role played by the electoral administrations in ensuring the transparency of the electoral processes during emergency periods and based on the allocated resources.
The conference was co-organised by the Venice Commission and the National Electoral Committee of Estonia, within the framework of the Hungarian Chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.