Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation

Conference of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials

A regular conference of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials, timed with the 15th anniversary of this professional organization, was held in Yurmala (Latvia) from August 31 to September 2, 2006. The main subject of the conference was "National Referendums: Legislative and Organizational Aspects." A report "New Strategy of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Official" was made at the conference by A.A. Veshnyakov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation (the text of the report is published below).

The General Assembly of the ACEEEO, which took place within the framework of the conference, adopted a resolution on the transformation into the Association of Election Officials of the Countries of Europe. At the present time, the Association unites 21 countries.

The Association has a consultative status with the Council of Europe and an associative status with the United Nations and operates in cooperation with the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (Sweden), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (USA) and several other international organizations.

The supreme body of the Association is the General Assembly, its working bodies are the Executive Board, consisting of representatives of the election commissions of seven member countries, and the Secretariat.

The purpose and the task of the Association is to promote democratic processes in the European region, strengthening of the bodies of power through holding of free and democratic elections, further development of the electoral systems, creation of election commissions operating on a professional basis, organization of international observation, dissemination and exchange of information in the electoral sphere.

The next conference of the Association is scheduled to be held in Strasbourg (France) in the autumn of 2007.

International Department

Speech
of Chairman of the CEC of Russia A.A. Veshnyakov
at the annual conference of the ACEEEO
(Yurmala, August 31, 2006)

New Strategy of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials

Dear conference participants, colleagues,

First of all, allow me to congratulate you all on the significant date in the life of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials - the 15th anniversary of this organization.

Within a historically short time the Association, which was created as a forum for the exchange of information between election officials and experts in the field of electoral law, has become an authoritative international structure having a consultative status with the Council of Europe and an associative status with the United Nations. By bringing together the professional election officials it is at the forefront of the on-going democratic transformations, based, among other things, on free and fair elections. Suffice it to recall the agendas of our annual conferences which discussed important electoral problems, such as the role of mass media in the electoral process; judicial practice of adjudication of electoral disputes; transparency of election campaign funding; participation of the youth in elections; international election standards. It is also important that the recommendations produced by the conferences translate into initiatives aiming to improve the national election legislation, the preparation and holding of elections.

A special mention must be made of the contribution made by the Association to the development of international election standards: I refer to the draft European Convention on Election Standards, Electoral Rights and Freedoms, initiated by the Association.

It is pertinent to recall that in 2002, based on the analysis of the national experience, practical realization of universal principles and norms of free democratic elections, international observation of elections, we set about preparing a draft of the European Convention on Election Standards in order to promote the development of the European integration, the system of guarantees of electoral rights and freedoms of electoral process participants.

Fourteen member states of the Association out of eighteen member states comprised in the Association at that time took part in the discussion of the draft Convention: Albania, Armenia, Byelorussia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Poland, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, Croatia, along with the representatives of the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the Venice Commission. The team of authors and editors analyzed and processed about one hundred corrections, remarks, recommendations and proposals. These statistics exemplify collectivism and professional cooperation in the activity of our Association.

As to the "biography" of the draft Convention, here are some of its landmarks.

In April 2002, the draft Convention was discussed and approved by the Executive Board of the Association which recommended that the draft Convention be submitted to the next Conference for its consideration. In September 2002, the draft Convention was unanimously approved by the Conference of the Association held in Moscow. In November of the same year, the draft was officially submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

On January 30, 2003, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted Resolution 1320 (2003) based on the discussion of the "Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters." This Resolution noted, among other things, that in the past every international organization followed its own criteria on the observation and evaluation of elections and that there were no formal documents setting out the underlying principles of the European electoral system. The Parliamentary Assembly also stated that the Council of Europe, owing to its specific role as the "guardian" of democracy in Europe, should play a pioneering role in codifying election rules, and recommended that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe take steps to draft a European document on election standards which would rely, inter alia, on the draft Convention prepared by the ACEEEO.

In March 2004, the draft was approved by the Venice Commission, which noted in its report that the adoption of the Convention may become an important step in harmonizing the electoral legislation in the whole of Europe in accordance with the principles of the "European electoral heritage."

And, lastly, quite recently, in Recommendation 1756 (2006), adopted at its latest session on June 28, 2006, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe admitted, quote, "Special attention should be paid to reconciliation of electoral standards and practices of member states. In connection with this the Committee of Ministers should be more active in working out a draft European convention on election standards, electoral rights and freedoms." (unquote).

Such response on the part of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe inspires optimism in respect of the further realization of our initiative.

It must be pointed out that the formulation of electoral standards in a European international-law document in the format of a binding convention will impose additional obligations on the states with regard to furthering of the democratic nature of the electoral process and integrative collaboration in the electoral field, raising of the electoral culture of election participants, promotion of cooperation between election management bodies. Moreover, additional conditions will be created for the stability of the democratic basis of the electoral legislation, formation of the atmosphere of mutual trust and mutual assistance, prevention of the use of "double standards" in international observation of elections.

Now I will briefly dwell on another important area of our activity - observation of elections.

The Association has accumulated certain experience in international monitoring of elections. In this connection I would like to mention, first of all, the full-scale long-term mission conducted by the ACEEEO in the observation of the presidential elections in Byelorussia in July - September 2001. This mission included 64 representatives from 10 member states of the Association and from the United States.

This experience is unique in that for the first time international observation was carried on by a professional organization, openly and publicly, with reliance exclusively on the election laws and the norms of international law. The observation results were discussed collectively and the final report of the mission was submitted to the Association for its approval. I think the Association set a good example of methodologically correct organization of an international monitoring mission. If in the OSCE observation missions are organized by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and in the CIS by the Executive Committee of the CIS, then why shouldn't the ACEEEO experience be used for election observation initiated by the Council of Europe?

Last but not least, the past year saw expansion and consolidation of business-like cooperation between the Association and the international organizations and institutions. Relations of constructive partnership were established with the Electoral Assistance Division of the United Nations, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.

I have mentioned only a few pages from the history of the Association but, I think, this is already enough to demonstrate the maturity and professionalism of our organization, which is capable of dealing with new tasks, adequately responding to the challenges of our time.

Dear colleagues,

This session is devoted to working out the new strategy of the Association for the coming years. Considering the pace at which the world community is developing in the conditions of globalization we must thoroughly consider each area of the Association's activity and determine how topical it is going to be in the short term.

I believe that these areas must include the following.

Firstly, it is necessary to ensure adoption of a European codified act on international election standards, i.e., concrete obligations of the states with regard to holding of honest, democratic and free elections, creation of a reliable and, most importantly, real system of the guarantees for the realization of human rights and freedoms, based on such standards.

Secondly, proceeding from the fact that democratic elections are possible only in an adequately democratic political climate, with the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process, impartiality and high professionalism of election management bodies, equal access of candidates to the mass media and, naturally, objective information coverage of elections, with effective judicial and other guarantees for the protection of electoral rights and freedoms of election participants, we must, as far as possible, promote the creation of the proper political atmosphere in our countries. It is important that in the conditions of the fight against real threats from international terrorism our countries should not depart from the universally accepted basic principles of democracy.

Thirdly, furthering of the humanitarian aspect of elections, i.e., promotion of electoral activity, creation of conditions and possibilities for participation in elections, including nomination as candidates, of men and women, representatives of national minorities and ethnic groups, handicapped persons.

Fourthly, it is necessary to promote the rational use of up-to-date technologies and technical facilities to ensure the reliability and transparency of the electoral process and establishment of election results.

Fifthly, improvement of the methodology of international observation and evaluation of elections.

To deal with these and many other tasks and in accordance with the motto "To a Europe without divisive lines" all-round support must be rendered to the idea of transformation of the Association into a pan-European organization - let us call it Association of Election Officials of Europe. For this purpose it is necessary to adopt the amendments to the Charter of the Association proposed by the Executive Board. Of course, this will be possible only if it unites as many European countries as possible and, for this purpose, we must convince our colleagues that the activity of the Association is useful and auspicious for all European states.

I believe that we must promote the dialogue with the Council of Europe, improve the cooperation, and coordinate our actions, with the Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee of Ministers, the Venice Commission, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe in order to draw more fully on the expertise and competence of these bodies in the electoral sphere. I think that in the absence of a permanent European body in charge of election monitoring, these functions could be performed by our future pan-European Association.

International observers' missions must, on the one hand, control the quality of electoral procedures, "thoroughness" of the electoral legislation and compliance of the state with relevant international obligations, and, on the other hand, act as politically neutral aides, consultants on the questions connected with the preparation and holding of democratic and free elections.

I hope our conference and the forthcoming discussion will prompt us to make common and constructive steps for the development of our Association.

Thank you.