E-Paper
EC, state poll bodies adopt national declaration to boost electoral coordination
The Election Commission of India held its first National Round Table Conference in 27 years, adopting the National Declaration 2026 to enhance election management.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday concluded its National Round Table Conference with State Election Commissioners (SECs) in New Delhi. This marked the first such engagement in 27 years and culminated in the adoption of the National Declaration 2026 aimed at deepening institutional coordination in election management.
The conference, organised at Bharat Mandapam, was chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in the presence of Election Commissioners (EC )Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and EC Dr. Vivek Joshi. In his inaugural address, Kumar highlighted the importance of strengthening cooperation between the ECI and SECs within their respective constitutional domains. He emphasised harmonised approaches in electoral roll preparation, structured sharing of best practices and greater use of technology to further enhance the integrity, transparency and efficiency of electoral processes.
The deliberations provided a platform for exchanging views and reinforced the spirit of cooperative federalism in electoral governance. Participants resolved that preparing pure electoral rolls remains the bedrock of democracy and agreed to work towards synergising laws relating to Panchayat and Municipal elections with those governing Parliament and State Legislatures. The Commission also proposed continued sharing of technological resources, including EVMs and ECINET, and expressed its intent to make such conferences an annual feature to sustain dialogue and coordination
Duuring this interaction EC Dr. S.S. Sandhu underlined that “trust is the foundation of every electoral process,” urging greater collaboration and mutual learning among constitutional bodies. EC Dr. Vivek Joshi stressed the importance of digital integration and encouraged leveraging the ECINET platform to build institutional bridges and ensure smoother coordination across levels.
