Decisions of the Annual Conference 14-16 June 2000 Warsaw, Poland
1. The General Assembly has accepted the amendments to the Charter.
2. The Conference acknowledges that the representatives of the South Eastern European countries confirmed their willingness to establish a regional association as a group of ACEEEO. The coordinator between the preparatory team and ACEEEO is Istvan Zsuffa.
3. The General Assembly has chosen the new members of the Executive Board. The mandate of the new Board is valid until the 2003 Annual Conference, where a new Board will be elected.
4. In 2002 the potential hosts of the Annual Conference are Tbilisi, Yerevan, Moscow and Sofia.
5. The new members of the ACEEEO are Macedonia and Turkey.
6. The General Assembly requests that the Secretariat work out proposals for the member countries concerning IT standards for elections. The ACEEEO members request that the Secretariat give an evaluation on information development in member countries. The General Assembly has accepted the informatic proposal submitted by Mr. Czaplicki. (attached)
7. The Secretariat asks member countries to correct and continuously develop the database created by the Essex project.
8. In 2001 the Annual Conference will be held in Croatia. The main topic will be the connection between Elections and Financing of Election Campaigns.
9. The Secretary General's report has been adopted by the General Assembly
Dr. Zoltan
Toth
Secretary General
Amendments to the Charter of the ACEEEO Warsaw, 16 June, 2000
I. Article 3.5 (Members of the Executive Board) shall be changed to
“The Executive Board shall be composed of :
II. Article 4.2 c. shall be changed to
“ Members of the Association who wish to establish closer cooperation, either with each other or with other organisations or groups, other than those provided for in the Charter, may conclude agreements to that effect, provided that they do not violate the spirit and intent of the Charter.”
Article 4.2 e. shall be added
“ Members of the Association may form bilateral or multi-lateral agreements with each other provided that they do not violate the spirit and intent of the Charter.”
III. Article 6.1 b. shall be changed to
“ Upon dissolution the General Assembly shall further decide concerning the disposal of the assets and the payment of liabilities of the Association.
Assets shall be transferred to such a non-profit and non-governmental organisation which is dedicated to democratic processes and promoting professionalism in the conduct of elections.”
Dear Colleagues and Guests,
We had a meeting in the same company last October when the ACEEEO’s annual conference was held in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. The huge number of conference participants (more than 100 people) indicated a keen interest to this event.
I hope that this year’s conference entitled “Information Technology in Elections” will be as successful as the previous one. I think that this year we have also chosen a significant topic the discussion of which was advantageous to the election officials of our member countries and of the invited guests. I find especially interesting that we could analyse during the conference the legal background and the practical points of the application of information technology. The practical points were be highlighted in the Professional Development Workshops.
I would like to mention particularly that our South Eastern European member countries’ delegations were invited to our conference and a regional meeting was held with their attendance. During that working group meeting the future co-operation with our Association and questions concerning the conduct of elections in that area were be discussed. Let me point out that one of the main points of the General Assembly agenda is the case of Kosovo, particularly the subject of the municipal elections in October this year. ACEEEO wishes to play an active role in the international monitoring of the elections.
Let me take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation to our Polish hosts especially to the heads and to the staff members of the National Electoral Commission and to the National Electoral Office for their efforts made in the interests of the successful preparations of the conference. I would also like to thank the IFES’s staff and the ACEEEO's Secretariat for their organisational work.
Dear Friends,
ACEEEO is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation that was established nearly ten years ago with the purpose of supporting national election experts of our region and of gaining international experiences for their work. ACEEO has been established on the initiative of International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) and by committed supporters of democracy and of the changes of regime in 1989-91 years.
The election officials are working under bad circumstances. They must adhere to change equality and neutrality in an exalted atmosphere caused by politicians fighting for their mandates. ACEEEO is working to ensure experiences and knowledge for the work of the region’s officials and give a good example in moral behaviour.
ACEEEO’s traditional working method is to hold yearly conferences in the capitals of its member-countries. So far conferences have been held in Budapest, Kiev, Vilnius, Bratislava, and this year’s conference was organised in Warsaw. The main topic of the conference was the appropriate use of technology and technical equipment in elections. It is a proven fact that use of computer software and of computer networks restrains the possibility of committing frauds in elections and at the same time it gives quick results for the media and it calms politicians.
On the initiative of Juliana G. Pilon (IFES) the member-countries of ACEEEO have started the training of voters, with special attention to first voters’ education. We have to achive that youngest voters supported democracy and that the voters’ activity increased in elections.
Dear Colleagues,
At the last year's conference in Bratislava our Association defined those four strategic trends which will determine our activity in the future. These trends are as follows:
Since our last conference we have taken the necessary steps to realise these strategic aims. The documents of Bratislava's conference, including our proposals of increasing the citizen engagement in the elections have been put to our web site; we have started to adjust (put in order) all the materials of our Documentation Centre.
Live up to its mission ACEEEO’s members and experts took part as international observers in the following elections controlled by OSCE/ODIHR:
European Union (1999/06/10-13 Parliamentary election), Russia (1999/12/19 Parliamentary election), Croatia (200/01/03 Parliamentary election), Russia 2000/03/26 Presidential election), Bosnia and Herzegovina (200/04/08 Municipal election). We are planning that in the future we shall publish on the internet all the reports made by international observers delegated by ACEEEO.
Despite the results achieved so far, and despite the positive processes in the world one should not forget about the fact that there are people everywhere who want to commit election frauds. Developed, democratic countries are no exception. Frauds committed during the registration of voters are known even from the short story “Dead Souls” written by Gogol, the famous Russian writer.
In the fair elections there is a garantee system that can prevent mass spreading of frauds mentioned before. If it nevertheless happens appropriate sanctions will be applied against the delinquents.
We have made sufficient efforts to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Association: the grant received from Mott foundation makes it possible to hire one full-time staff member to manage the administration and the everyday tasks of the Secretariat; financial support from the Ministry of Interior of Hungary promotes the work on a project concerning the election campaign financing.
We are not going to change our strategic aims, however we have to make more efforts to realise them as soon as possible. I would like to focus on the ACEEEO's aim of promoting uniform democratic development across Europe. When ACEEEO was established our region was on the way towards democracy. On the basis of the last ten years' experiences we consider that it is time to become an Association of European Election Officials without any regional limitation. For this purpose we ought to establish tighter and closer relationship with our Western European colleagues, and we have to encourage our members to take part in our everyday activities more efficiently.
Last year we decided to create an electronic Electoral Law Compendium, with our partners, the International Foundation for Elections System (IFES) and the University of Essex. This combined and variable project, which is larger than any of them before has two main parts: first a web-based compendium of election information should be established then a CD version of the web-site should be made.
The first results of our work can be seen on the following web site:
www.essex.ac.uk/elections but this is only a temporary address, later it will be moved.
I thank the ACEEEO member-countries for their co-operation in this field and I hope they will remain our partners in improving and maintaining this information research.
Esteemed Colleagues,
One of our outstanding goals is to contribute to the democratisation process in the Balkan region. For the sake of this goal our experts took part in the foundation of the Association of Election Officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina (AEOBIH) and supported the initial activities of the Association as advisors. It is a great pleasure for us that the new Association became an institutional member of ACEEEO and, supported by the IFES, a large delegation represented them at our conference.
Durig the past five years election officials delegated by ACEEEO have participated in all the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, partly as election supervisors and partly as experts contributing to the performance of the elections. For example in April 2000 we delegated 108 experts to the international mission supervising the local elections.
It is our conviction that the role mentioned above is not only to the advantage of the country concerned but it also enlarges the professional skills of the participants and promotes the strengthening of the connections among the countries of our region as well. For this reason we would like to continue this activity and involve the experts of all the ACEEEO member- countries in a more efficient way. We would like to create a database of ACEEEO election experts, who are ready to take part in the international missions observing or supervising elections. We have put the appeal concerning the latter and the registration form on our web site (www.aceeeo.com) and ask you to call your colleagues’ attention to this opportunity.
This is so much the more important because parliamentary elections are expected in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the autumn, to be precise on 11 November and, in conformity with our traditions, we would like to be represented there. According to the plans of the UN and OSCE local elections are likely to be held in Kosovo this autumn as well, in the second half of October. The contribution to this process seems to be an even more difficult task for us. Two of our colleagues, as experts to the OSCE mission, have been working for the preparation of these elections since last January. We want the ACEEEO to take a prominent part in the observation of the Kosovo elections, namely we would not only delegate observers but be an active participant in the preparation and performance of the entire observation process as well. We continue negotiations on this issue with the officials of the Council of Europe and other organizations and we can hopefully inform you soon about the results. For the strengthening of our connections we have invited the delegation of the newly formed Central Election Commission of Kosovo to this conference.
In December 1999, during the annual conference of the AEOBIH and on the initiative of OSCE, election experts of the Balkan countries expressed their willingness to form a regional organisation. They also agreed in forming this organisation as a regional sub-group of the ACEEEO. In our opinion this initiative is worth supporting; this is one of the reasons why we proposed an amendment to our Charter to make it possible for our members to form groups for specific tasks. Considering the particular circumstances of the Balkan region, we have included a special meeting to the agenda of our Conference to discuss these issues and invited the representatives of the Macedonian and the Turkish Electoral Commissions. It would be a pleasure for us if these electoral commissions became members of the ACEEEO soon.
Dear Friends,
The Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials was founded in 1991 by 6 countries. During the past 10 years it held 7 conferences where almost all the election experts of our region were represented in the capacity of membes or of observers. In 1998, during the conference in Vilnius the modified Charter of the Association was adopted and it was signed by the representatives of 12 countries as institutional members and by IFES as a member-supporter. In 1999 representatives of another 4 countries became institutional members thus at present election experts of 16 countries are members of our Association. Representatives of other countries (Macedonia and Turkey) have also given us notice of their intention to apply for the membership. Their applications will be decided by the General Assembly. Our strategic aim is ,as it was mentioned during the conference, to transform our Association into an all-European organisation.
Finally let me say some words about the future of our Association and the conditions of its functioning. As I have already mentioned, from September this year there will be a quality change in the life of ACEEEO because we shall hire for the first time a full time staff member. From the year 2001 on there will be two full time collaborators who will deal with the Association’s matters in its own office. The Secretariat of ACEEEO will naturally continue supporting their activity.
The organisational and structural changes mentioned above are due to the Mott Foundation that adopted our request for grant made in February this year. In accordance with our request we asked for a significant sum of money for the purposes of a comprehensive project named ‘Training and Outreach’ that should be realised till the end of the year 2001. I think I should thank once again, in your name as well the Mott Foundation for the grant with the use of which we try to create an European Association based on democratic principles that will work really efficiently.
The annual Conference of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO), entitled "Information Technology in Elections", will be held in Warsaw, Poland. About one hundred representatives from 16 member countries of the Association and observers from 5 countries will take part at this years' conference.
ACEEEO is a non-governmental and non profit organisation which was established nearly ten years ago with the purposes of supporting national election experts of our region and gaining international experiences for their work.
In all countries of the world there are such people who want to commit a fraud in elections. Developed, democratic countries are no exception. However in the fair elections there is a guarantee system that can prevent mass spreading of frauds. If it nevertheless happens appropriate sanctions will be applied against the delinquents.
ACEEEO has been established on the initiative of International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) and by committed supporters of democracy and of the changes of regime in 1989-91 years.
Since the moment of ACEEEO's establishing free parlamentary elections have been held in our region, however representatives of the Association's member countries always can learn from each other. Frauds committed during the registration of voters are known even from the short story "Dead Souls" written by Gogol, and at the end of 19th century Mór Jókai the great Hungarian writer wrote a novel about the government's frauds. Nowadays we can also hear about famous election frauds, for example when OSCE has refused the acknowledgement of some election results.
The election officials are working under bad circumstances. They must adhere to chance equality and neutrality in an exhalted atmosphere caused by politicians fighting for their mandates.
ACEEEO is working to ensure experiences and knowledge for the work of the region's officials and to give a good example in moral behavior.
ACEEEO's traditional working method is to hold yearly conferences in the capitals of its member countries. So far conferences have been held in Budapest, Kiev, Vilnius, Bratislava, and this year's conference will be organised in Warsaw, Poland. The main topic of the conference will be appropriate use of technology and technical equipment in elections. It is a proven fact that use of PC and softwares restrain the possibility of committing frauds in elections and at the same time it gives quick results for the media and it calms politicians.
On the initiative of Juliana G. Pilon (IFES) the member countries of ACEEEO have started the training of voters, with special attention to first voters' education. We have to achive that the youngest voters supported democracy and that the voters' activity increased in elections.
ACEEEO regurarly takes part in international monitoring of different elections. Representatives of the Association have already taken part in elections of ten countries and the largest number of observers have participated in the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have received significant support from OSCE/ODIHR in this mission. Thanks to the above mentioned work in the Balkan region ACEEEO together with OSCE/ODIHR have contributed to the process where the results are achived by strength of votes and not by weapons. The main aim of ACEEEO is to continue this mission in the future, too.
The Association's aim is to convince the heads of states of importance of its activity. Following Mr. Kwasniewski and Mr. Göncz, Mr. Clinton and Mr. Putin have acknowledged the results obtained by our Association. All relevant documents can be seen in the election history exhibition to be held in Hotel Marriott.
Mr. Alexander Veshnyakov (Russian Federation)
Mr. Mykola Demianenko (Ukraine)
The annual Conference of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO), entitled "Information Technology in Elections", will be held in Warsaw, Poland. About one hundred representatives from 16 member countries of the Association and observers from 5 countries will take part at this years' conference.
ACEEEO is a non-governmental and non profit organisation which was established nearly ten years ago with the purposes of supporting national election experts of our region and gaining international experiences for their work.
In all countries of the world there are such people who want to commit a fraud in elections. Developed, democratic countries are no exception. However in the fair elections there is a guarantee system that can prevent mass spreading of frauds. If it nevertheless happens appropriate sanctions will be applied against the delinquents.
ACEEEO has been established on the initiative of International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) and by committed supporters of democracy and of the changes of regime in 1989-91 years.
Since the moment of ACEEEO's establishing free parlamentary elections have been held in our region, however representatives of the Association's member countries always can learn from each other. Frauds committed during the registration of voters are known even from the short story "Dead Souls" written by Gogol, and at the end of 19th century Mór Jókai the great Hungarian writer wrote a novel about the government's frauds. Nowadays we can also hear about famous election frauds, for example when OSCE has refused the acknowledgement of some election results.
The election officials are working under bad circumstances. They must adhere to chance equality and neutrality in an exhalted atmosphere caused by politicians fighting for their mandates.
ACEEEO is working to ensure experiences and knowledge for the work of the region's officials and to give a good example in moral behavior.
ACEEEO's traditional working method is to hold yearly conferences in the capitals of its member countries. So far conferences have been held in Budapest, Kiev, Vilnius, Bratislava, and this year's conference will be organised in Warsaw, Poland. The main topic of the conference will be appropriate use of technology and technical equipment in elections. It is a proven fact that use of PC and softwares restrain the possibility of committing frauds in elections and at the same time it gives quick results for the media and it calms politicians.
On the initiative of Juliana G. Pilon (IFES) the member countries of ACEEEO have started the training of voters, with special attention to first voters' education. We have to achive that the youngest voters supported democracy and that the voters' activity increased in elections.
ACEEEO regurarly takes part in international monitoring of different elections. Representatives of the Association have already taken part in elections of ten countries and the largest number of observers have participated in the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have received significant support from OSCE/ODIHR in this mission. Thanks to the above mentioned work in the Balkan region ACEEEO together with OSCE/ODIHR have contributed to the process where the results are achived by strength of votes and not by weapons. The main aim of ACEEEO is to continue this mission in the future, too.
The Association's aim is to convince the heads of states of importance of its activity. Following Mr. Kwasniewski and Mr. Göncz, Mr. Clinton and Mr. Putin have acknowledged the results obtained by our Association. All relevant documents can be seen in the election history exhibition to be held in Hotel Marriott.