Distinguished Co-chairs,  

Thank you for convening the second meeting of this Ad-hoc Working Group.       We associate ourselves with the statement delivered by Algeria on behalf of the Non-Aligned Group.    

Identifying gaps and implementing improvements in the Working Methods of the General Assembly are an important part of our efforts towards its revitalization.   

We appreciate the engagement displayed by various delegations during the last meeting of this Working Group that focused on the role and authority of the GA.  Several delegations, including ours, had spoken about how the General Assembly has steadily lost touch with its core responsibilities and is increasingly involved only with processes and how the role and authority of the GA has been progressively undermined by the expansive role and activism of the Security Council, much beyond what is envisaged in the UN Charter.  

Distinguished Co-chairs,  

The quality of Working Methods is integral to the efficiency and effectiveness of any organization.  These need to evolve with time and reflect the necessities of changing circumstances and realities. My delegation would like to point out some specific areas where we feel it may be relatively easier for us to agree on identifying existing deficiencies and on how to move forward. The General Assembly has been conceived as a form of Global Parliament. In this context, the process of elections that are conducted by the General Assembly may be a useful place to begin the revitalization process.   

Every democracy represented here works with an elaborate electoral code of conduct to regulate the way campaigning is carried out to ensure an equality of opportunity for the electorate and the candidates, and to conduct free and fair elections. As the most representative global body, the General Assembly must lead the way by following the best electoral practices and setting up highest standards befitting its stature.  

Distinguished Co-chairs,  

Any outside visitor to the General Assembly on the day of any of its elections may be surprised to find the place covered with campaign material and gifts of all sorts that are being distributed inside the balloting space. On occasions these are ostensibly justified as essential to remind us of the names of candidates and countries in the electoral fray.  

We must restore the sanctity of the balloting space by agreeing not to have election material being distributed in the GA hall on the day of election.  This is the normal practice in every space where ballots are cast.

There could be other institutional ways to serve as reminders of those contesting the elections.  

The current practice requiring voters to write the names of individuals or country candidates on paper ballots often leads to unintended confusion and discrepancies through mis-spelling and the like.  We understand that there have been several instances where candidate countries have been confused among similar sounding names.  Sometimes the names of countries may have been used in place of candidates.  

This process inevitably leads to difficulties of legal interpretation of the validity of votes, possibly influencing the outcome, besides the paper ballots taking an inordinately long time to count the results.    

If paper ballots are to be used, a simpler and more effective way could be for the names of the candidates being printed on the ballots, with space for any last minute additional candidatures. This could reduce the margin of errors considerably.  

We are aware that some may argue that there are no last dates specified for announcing candidatures.  However, we could agree to specifying a deadline - for instance the day previous to the election - for having the names printed on the ballots.  This is not intended to prevent any last-minute candidatures, for whom space could be designated on the ballot paper.  Voters could also retain the option of writing in any names on their own, which do not figure on the ballot paper.  

Also, names and details of candidate individuals or countries could be displayed prominently on electronic screens to assist the voters, if they need further reminders beyond names on the ballot papers.    

Distinguished Co-chairs, Our specific submissions for consideration are as follows: 

 i.    No distribution of election material or any gifts in the balloting room.

 ii.   Printing names of all candidates on ballot papers, provided they have sent written        communications till a specified date and provision of space for writing in other names.

 iii.  Display of candidate lists on electronic screens to serve as reminders.  

These suggestions, we feel, are 'doable' low hanging fruit that is ripe for harvest as starters.  

Distinguished Co-chairs,  

In today's age, where technology is being deployed to improve the efficiency and transparency of systems across fields in all our countries, it may be worthwhile for the United Nations to also explore whether technology can be used to improve the current electoral practices to substantially reduce errors of interpretation and speed up the entire process in a transparent manner.  

Many of you would recall an instance from an election held last year, where the total number of ballots cast came out to be more than the number of eligible voters !  This subsequently led to a repoll among one particular regional group and the whole process took a very long time, holding up the results.  This extraordinary situation would have been hard to imagine if electronic voting was being carried out.  

It may be useful to task the Secretariat to conduct a time bound analysis of the current electoral practices, identify gaps and problems, explore other solutions including technologically advanced electronic voting systems and recommend specific suggestions for improvements.  

Distinguished Co-chairs,

Making these changes in the electoral processes would signal our collective will to move forward with specific reform of Working Methods that could energize various other processes of the GA.

We welcome the other specific constructive suggestions that various delegations have made in the context of improving the Working Methods.

Distinguished Co-chairs,

The success of the United Nations rests on the effectiveness of the General Assembly to carry out its role as its chief deliberative and policy-making body as envisaged in the UN Charter. We must all work together to ensure that the preeminent role of the General Assembly is fully restored in the best interest of the UN System. Our delegation will continue to engage actively in this process.  

Thank you.