It’s voters who decide the independency of EC- Mohan

International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES)'s deputy regional director for Europe & Asia, Vasu Mohan, has said that it is ultimately for every voter to decide how independent the Elections Commission (EC) is and that there is no scorecard to determine this.

IFES’s Deputy Director said this at a brief news conference held at the end of the workshop held in Malé with the concerning parties to make a strategic action plan for the Election Commission of Maldives for the next five years.

Mohan said that the new Elections Commission which established on 2008 is taking the steps to become as transparent, as independent, and as efficient as they can. He underlined that this is learning process.

 Mohan noted that there is no country in the world which has perfect and immediate solutions to democratic problems.

“There is no blueprint. Rather than looking at what is lacking. I would rather focus on the strengths. And one of the strength is, specially their strategic planning process which for the next 5 years the commission is embarking on." IFES said.

Replying to a journalist regarding the independence and transparency of the Elections Commission, Mohan said that "So I would say that they are building on their successes and they have learnt lessons implementing very good elections and they are building on that."

Meanwhile, Vasu Mohan has over 12 years of experience in democracy, governance and human rights programming in Asia with a specific focus on political, social and legal empowerment of the disenfranchised – youth, women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. He has been with IFES since 2001 and supervised programs and field offices in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor Leste.