Since 1991 Latvia is represented in the Association of European Election Officials (ACEEEO). The Central Election Commission is an institutional member of the ACEEEO.
The ACEEEO was founded in 1991 and was called the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials until 2006.
The ACEEEO is a nongovernmental organization with the primary goal to provide an objective forum, independent from any national government, for information exchange concerning elections and political processes among election officials, experts and scientists in order to foster free, democratic and fair elections in member states and region of action of the Association.
At present, the ACEEEO institutional members are electoral management bodies of 24 countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The Association of Afghan Election Officials, 'ELS' Independent Research Center of Azerbaijan and the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) have observer status in the ACEEEO. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is a member supporter.
The Executive Board of the ACEEEO is made up of seven representatives of Institutional Members from seven different member states, as well as representatives of those two member-countries which are ready to organise a conference and a meeting of the General Assembly in the current year. Since 2000 the Central Election Commission of Latvia is also represented in the Executive Board. Another members of the Executive Board are representatives of Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Moldova and Romania.
The President of the ACEEEO is elected in the Executive Board meeting held during an annual conference of the ACEEEO. The Board members elect a President from amongst themselves by an open vote. The President’s mandate lasts for one year, and he/she is usually the representative of that country’s election management body that organizes the following annual conference of ACEEEO. At present the ACEEEO President is Tamar Zhvania, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission of Georgia. Arnis Cimdars, the then Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Latvia, was the President of the ACEEEO between 2005 and 2007.
More information about the Association is available on the ACEEEO website www.aceeeo.org.
The Central Election Commission of Latvia has concluded Cooperation Agreements with the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Moldova, the Central Election Commission of Georgia, the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as Memorandums of Understanding with the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda of the Kyrgyz Republic.
The Cooperation agreements provide for development of cooperation in the following areas:
- exchange of experience between the bodies ensuring the organization of preparation and conduct of elections and referendums;
- improvement of the national legislation on elections and referendums;
- ensuring the observance and protection of constitutional electoral rights of citizens;
- legal regulation of participation of candidates and political parties in the electoral process;
- financial and logistical support to elections and referendums;
- use of modern information technologies and systems for voter registration during conduct of elections and referendums;
- ensuring the rights of election process stakeholders during election campaigning with the use of mass media;
- improvement of legal culture of stakeholders of the election process and referendums, improvement of training of organizers of elections and referendums.
The cooperation between the Parties can be conducted in the following forms:
- establishment of joint working groups for the implementation of initiatives in specific areas of cooperation;
- exchange of results of research studies and developments, legislative acts on elections and referendums;
- mutual exchange of information and study of experience of each other;
- organization of seminars, scientific practical conferences and other joint activities on the topics of mutual interest;
- sending the representatives to observe preparation and conduct of elections and referendums.
General information
- Cooperation agreement between the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Latvia and the Central Election Commission of Ukraine signed on 2 April 2002 in Kiev.
- Cooperation agreement between the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Latvia and the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Moldova signed on 2 September 2006 in Riga.
- Cooperation agreement between the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Latvia and the Central Election Commission of Georgia signed on 22 April 2008 in Tbilisi.
- Memorandum of understanding between the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Latvia and the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan signed on 16 September 2011 in Riga.
- Memorandum of understanding between the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Latvia and the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda of the Kyrgyz Republic signed on 26 August 2013 in Bishkek.
- Cooperation agreement between the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Latvia and the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan signed on 21 November 2015 in Tashkent.
From Thursday, August 31, till Saturday, September 2, 2006 an international conference of election organizers was held in Jurmala in which participated more than 170 participants – heads of national election commission and election experts from more than 30 countries of Europe and the world. The conference was organized by the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO) in cooperation with the Central Election Commission of Latvia (CEC).
According to the Chairman of the CEC of Latvia Mr Arnis Cimdars who is currently also the president of the ACEEEO, within the framework of the conference in Latvia the 15th anniversary of the association was celebrated. In honour of this event a festive plenary session was held in Blackhead’s House, in Riga, introduced by the speech delivered by the President of Latvia Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga.
The ACEEEO organizes such conferences every year, however, the topic chosen for the conference in Latvia was technical and legal aspects of national referendum. At the same time, issues of development of e-voting and e-democracy in the world, as well as the necessity of creation of a pan-European association of election officials were discussed.
Several working sessions at the conference were chaired by the Chairman of the CEC of Latvia and the President of ACEEEO Mr Arnis Cimdars, reports were given by the ACEEEO Secretary General Mr Zoltan Toth, Chairman of the CEC of Russian Federation Aleksandr Veshniakov, Chairman of the UK Electoral Commission Mr San Younger, Chairman of the IFES Mr Paul De Gregorio, Chairman of the CEC of Lithuania Mr Zenonas Vaigauskas, Chairman of the CEC of Poland Mr Kazimir Czaplicki, Project Manager of e-voting in Estonia Mr Tarvi Martens, as well as election experts from OSCE, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, IFES and other organizations.
In order to introduce the ACEEEO to the public and inform about the process of the conference in Latvia, in August 31, from 2 PM to 2:30 PM a press conference was held in the Lubeck Hall of the Blackheads House, Town Hall Square 7. After the press conference, at 3 PM representatives of the press had an opportunity to be present at the festive plenary session in honour of the 15th Anniversary of the ACEEEO and to listen to the address of the President of State Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga for the participants of the conference.