The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Jammu and Kashmir, held its first International Conference on Global Best Practices in Polling Day Operations on Monday in hybrid mode, with 60 participants at Nirvachan Bhawan, Jammu and 115 joining online from across the world.
Conducted under India’s Chairmanship of International IDEA, the event forms part of thematic research led by IIIDEM and the Election Commission of India. The J&K CEO Office is preparing a comparative study of polling-day operations across 92 countries in Europe, Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.
Opening the conference, Chief Electoral Officer Sanjeev Verma said the polling day demands that secrecy, equality, accessibility and integrity be delivered simultaneously under time pressure across thousands of locations.
Joint CEO Anil Salgotra presented the study’s framework, built around seven pillars of the polling-day cycle: legal framework, polling place, voting procedure, equipment and technology, inclusiveness and accessibility, security and transparency and post-poll processes of counting, custody and audit. Data was captured using a 60-point questionnaire across the 92 countries, drawing from legislation, regulations and international observation reports, creating a dataset of over 5,000 points.
Technical sessions followed on each pillar, with Salgotra presenting the key findings before the expert addresses.
Speakers included Antonio Spinelli, Principal Adviser, International IDEA-IIIDEM Cooperation; Rakesh Minhas, DEO Jammu; Khatia Lachashvili, Chairperson of Gldani District Election Commission, Central Election Commission of Georgia and Professor (Brig) Neeraj Soni, IIM Jammu.