The opening ceremony of this year’s General Assembly of the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) was hosted this morning in Taipei, as Taiwan serves as host country for the third time.
The assembly, to be held from today until Saturday, is to center on “protecting the principles of democracy and defending against misinformation,” Central Election Commission Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said in his opening remarks.
With the advancement of science and technology, misinformation has posed an increasing threat to democracy, Lee said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
False information has impacted elections worldwide and is an issue that must be tackled by all democratic nations, he said.
Therefore, the assembly hopes to facilitate the exchange of experiences in combating false information, he added.
Taiwan was a founding member of the AAEA in the Philippines in 1998, Lee said.
The assembly was created with the aim of exchanging information between election officials in Asia, and its main goal is to support democratic politics, as well as advance election transparency and fairness, he added.
This week’s assembly welcomes delegates from the six member states of India, the Philippines, South Korea, Mongolia, the Maldives and Indonesia, while representatives from Nepal and Bangladesh are to join the assembly online, Lee said.
Tomorrow, the assembly is to host two international seminars.
Taiwan in its latest election period suffered a severe attack of misinformation, a reality recognized worldwide, Lee said.
Therefore, Taiwan has a wealth of experience in combating misinformation and has achieved significant results, which it hopes to share in this week’s assembly, he added.
Taiwan also wishes to learn from the experiences of other member states and collaborate to ensure clean and fair elections in the future, he said.
Democracy is the will of the people, and the best system to execute the will of the people is freedom and fairness in elections, Lee said.
Taiwan has demonstrated the peaceful transition of power between ruling parties many times, and this year succeeded in its fifth unimpeded inauguration of the president and vice president as decided by the voters, a historical milestone, he said.
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