The appointment is being read as global acknowledgement of India’s record in conducting large-scale, free and fair elections. International IDEA, established in 1995, is an inter-governmental organisation that supports democracy worldwide and currently comprises 35 member countries, with the United States and Japan participating as observers. The organisation has held observer status at the United Nations General Assembly since 2003.
India’s chairship will allow the country to share its electoral expertise, capacity-building experience and administrative practices with Election Management Bodies (EMBs) across the world.
India’s electoral scale and experience
India is often described as the world’s largest democracy. According to the annexed data, India accounts for 991,000,000 registered electors more than 99 crore voters within the International IDEA membership count. The broader forum of member and observer countries together represent over 2.22 billion registered electors, underscoring the global reach of the organisation’s work.
With extensive field experience in voter registration, electronic voting technologies, logistics for polling in remote regions, and large-scale voter education programmes, India plans to leverage this operational knowledge during its year-long chairship to strengthen democratic institutions internationally.
What India brings to the table
As Chair, India is expected to prioritise sharing best practices in electoral integrity, training for election officials, and research on inclusive participation. The Election Commission of India has been active in international cooperation on electoral assistance, and this leadership role will likely expand programmes in comparative research, technical exchanges and capacity building for EMBs in emerging democracies.
India’s emphasis on administrative transparency and innovations in voter facilitation are anticipated to inform International IDEA’s agenda across policy, research and practical training streams during 2026.
Member countries and scale
The International IDEA forum comprises democracies of various sizes, from large electorates like Indonesia and Brazil to smaller democracies and island nations. The annexure released alongside official notes lists 35 member states and two observers, with their registered electorate counts, reflecting a combined electorate of 2,225,549,481.
India’s role as Chair will place it in the spotlight to convene diverse electoral authorities and steer collaborative workstreams on electoral resilience, voter inclusion and democratic governance.
Responses and next steps
The Election Commission and government stakeholders will represent India at the Stockholm council meeting where the Chairship is formalised on December 3. As Chair, CEC Gyanesh Kumar will preside over council meetings and guide International IDEA’s priorities through 2026.
Observers and member states will watch for programme announcements and collaborative initiatives that India proposes in areas such as election observation, technology transfer, and training-of-trainers for EMB staff.