New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) is set to release an “atlas” of electoral systems in democracies across the world.
The announcement was made during the three-day India International Conference on Democracy and Election Management (IICDEM) 2026 organised by the ECI from 21 to 23 January at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. The theme for the conference was ‘Democracy for an inclusive, peaceful, resilient and sustainable world’.
The draft of the atlas had been kept ready before the conference and was shared by the members during the plenary sessions for corrections and additions.
ECI sources told ThePrint that this atlas is a broad overview of the election systems of these democracies.
“It will be released in volumes, so it’s a continuous work, in that sense. Beginning with the countries which participated in IICDEM 2026, the compilation would progressively cover all democracies in the world,” an ECI official said.
The atlas will be like a “ready-reckoner” on basic election systems, including facts on the number of electors in a specific democracy, the gender-wise breakup of electors, and details on the kind of electoral systems that it has.
Along with this atlas, the ECI formally launched the ECINET, its one-stop digital platform for all election-related information and services. At the launch of the platform, Kumar offered the Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of the world to collaborate with India on the development of similar digital platforms for their countries, in accordance with their own laws, and in their respective languages.
“Considering the request of electoral management bodies, India is willing to share its experience of the digital platform ECINET, for co-development of a similar platform for any other EMB in accordance with their laws and in their language,” he said at the closing session.
He also said that “considering the interest shown by EMBs”, India is willing to share its experience in the field of elections with other countries, and that India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) is willing to offer its training facilities to all EMBs.
Zero appeals in Bihar SIR
At the inaugural session of the conference, Kumar emphasised that pure electoral rolls are essential to strengthen democracy.
“In India, Bihar went for its elections recently. The first step was purification of electoral rolls, including eligible electors. That stage got completed. And under the electoral laws, there is a provision for the elector of any assembly segment to file appeals so that no wrong name gets included and no right name gets excluded,” he said.
Kumar then pointed out that out of 75 million electors, the number of appeals filed were zero.
“Another feat was achieved in these Bihar elections. We had polling on two dates— 6 November and 11 November. Nearly a lakh polling stations…How many repolls were required? Zero,” he asserted.
The three-day conference saw participation from delegates from 42 EMBs, Ambassadors/High Commissioners of 27 countries, experts from over 70 national institutions, and 36 Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) from across India.
At the closing session, the EMBs passed a resolution, being referred to as the ‘Delhi Declaration 2026’, to discuss various aspects including purity of electoral rolls, conduct of elections, use of technology and training and capacity building.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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