Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Delegates from 17 countries, including representatives from their foreign missions in Delhi, will witness polling in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu on Thursday as part of the Election Commission’s International Election Visitors’ Programme (IEVP) 2026.This is the second leg of the programme; the first phase had seen 43 delegates from 23 countries experiencing the polling process first-hand in Assam, Kerala and Puducherry on April 8 and 9.Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar inaugurated the second edition of IEVP at the Indian International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) on Tuesday. As many as 34 delegates from 17 countries, including representatives from their foreign missions here, and a representative of International IDEA are participating in this phase.The delegated will visit Tamil Nadu and West Bengal from April 22 to April 23, 2026. They will visit the dispatch and distribution centres and other facilities, including district control rooms and media monitoring centres. On April 23 morning, the delegates will witness the polling as it happens.The delegates were on Tuesday given a demonstration of the EVM at IIIDEM. They took part in the mock poll using the machines, getting a hands-on experience of the voting process. The international visitors evinced keen interest in the technological interventions and administrative safeguards for the election process in India. An interactive session had experts clarifying the doubts/queries of delegates.IEVP is a flagship program of the ECI for international cooperation and engagement with the election management bodies (EMBs) of other countries and international organizations.The programme provides a comprehensive overview of India’s electoral framework, institutional mechanisms, and operational architecture, besides familiarising foreign EMB delegates with best practices and innovations in election management.
