Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora has been appointed as the Chairmanship of the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) for the term 2019-21.

Arora, who succeeds Lon Mincu Radulescu, the incumbent chairman from Romania, has been given the charge for the two years.

Outgoing chairman Radulescu handed over the association’s flag to Arora in the presence of Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandran and participating delegates, at the three-day fourth general assembly of the association.

“India was unanimously nominated to the top post of the AWEB at its last general assembly in Romania’s Bucharest in 2017,” said the statement.

Arora said democracy was the art and science of mobilising the physical, economic and spiritual resources of the people in the service of all.

Speaking on his new responsibility, Arora said, “The preamble of the AWEB charter spells out its vision to foster co-operation between the electoral management bodies (EMBs) for a credible electoral process, promote free and fair elections, develop democratic culture and ensure gender equality and inclusion of people with disabilities.”

Noting that two-thirds of the global population lives under democratic rule, the CEC said he would strive to strengthen the interaction and partnership with the AWEB secretariat, promote association activities and empower the EMBs through its capacity building programmes.

“With 115 EMBs from 109 countries as its members, and 20 international organisations as Associate Members, the A-WEB has truly become a global organisation to strengthen electoral management in a non-invasive manner”, Arora added.

Since its inception in October 2013, A-WEB has been empowering the democratic framework of member countries.