Welcome

 

 

Dear Asian electoral stakeholders, friends, and colleagues:

 

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the website of the Asian Network for Free Elections!
 

ANFREL was founded in 1997, and has since been instrumental in advancing and witnessing the most historic turning points of Asian democratization. As of 2018, the organization has witnessed and conducted missions in 58 elections in 16 different countries. We have trained and deployed more than a thousand observers from our 25 members, making us the largest and most recognized election monitoring network in the region.

 

As the chairperson of the Network, it is my pride to carry and represent the organization’s legacy and tradition of upholding fundamental rights and electoral democracy through meaningful dialogue among stakeholders. All information contained in this website reflect our organization’s pursuit of the truth, fierce independence, and utmost professionalism, virtues which each ANFREL election monitors try to live by.

 

We deploy election monitors all over Asia and conduct election monitoring missions to promote fundamental right to suffrage and protect the sanctity of the ballot. Through this mission, we have met a lot of people in very restrictive environments, people who face threats, intimidations, and even violence in their pursuit of freedom to express, assemble, and associate. I hope that this ANFREL website will be an instrument of spreading those messages of hopes for more vibrant democratic societies.

 

We believe in the importance of meaningful dialogue as a crucial element in democratization. It is important to have the opportunity to share best practices and ideas on how to promote inclusiveness and integrity in our political processes. At the regional level, ANFREL will continue to advocate consensus building among all election stakeholders through the Asian Electoral Stakeholders Forum (AESF), an event held every two years which produces instruments on achieving democratic elections.

 

We have adopted as part of our mission the capacity strengthening of Asian civil society organizations that advocate suffrage rights in their home countries. We strongly believe that sustainable democratization can only exist if domestic organizations are involved in critical decision making on how political processes should be run.

 

We enjoin you to be a part of this mission of solidarity and collaboration! Feel free to reach ANFREL through anfrel@anfrel.org. Our Secretariat in Bangkok will be more than willing to assist you!

 

Koul Panha
Chairperson, ANFREL