Asian Electoral Experts

Mohammad Yousuf Rasheed, the executive director of FEFA, congratulated the Youth-Day to the participants of the program and appreciated their activities and achievements. Mr. Rasheed said, “Unfortunately, the government hasn’t handled the problems of youth. However, the heads of National Unity Government had promised in their campaign programs to handle the problems of youth.” Mr. Rasheed added, “The government has also ignored the role of youth in management structure of the government and only allocated a deputy at the framework of Ministry of Information and Culture to youth.” Mr. Rasheed urged the youth to pursue their activities and attempt more for achieving their rights. He also said that the doors of FEFA is always open before the youth, especially the Youth Political Rights Advocacy Group and FEFA will support the programs, activities and recommendations of this group. Likewise, FEFA is ready to provide the necessary facilities for the group.

Email: yrasheed@fefa.org.af

Adilur Rahman Khan is an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, a former Deputy Attorney general for Bangladesh (Oct 2001 – May 2007) and a founders, and at present, the secretary of Odhikar. Adilur hold Masters in law degrees from Dhaka University and Vrije Universities, Brussel in Belgium. Adilur Rahman Khan is a prominent human rights activist, He has been actively engaged in defending the human rights of the Bangladeshi people and is active in the Asian region with regard to the promotion of a democratic culture through participation in election monitoring in Asia. He is extremely vocal with regard to denouncing the practice of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment by law enforcement agencies. Adilur Rahman Khan was abducted by plain-clothes detective Brach of police and alter detained in jail on August 10, 2014, after he released fact-finding report on allegations of extrajudicial killings during an operation carried out on May 5-6, 2013 by security forces in Dhaka. Adil released from detention in October 11, 2013 after he spent 62 days in detention by the effort of collective intensive campaign by various organization worldwide.

E-mail : adilkhan.rahman@gmail.com

Mrs. Munira Khan is the first woman to be appointed as a member of the first ever formed National Human Rights Commission in Bangladesh. Prior to her joining NHRC, she served as the President of Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (FEMA) (2004-2008). By virtue of her enviable experience in national Election monitoring, she was invited to observe election in Indonesia under the leadership of President Jimmy Carter, observed election in Zimbabwe as a member of Commonwealth observer group. As a member of advanced group for election observation in Cambodia, she met Prince Norodom Sihanuk, the legendary ruler of Cambodia. She also observed elections in Philipines and India. Munira Khan attended a number of Elections and democracy related seminars at home and abroad, and had the unique opportunity of meeting the national leaders of those countries. In 2012, she was again elected as President of FEMA. As a member of NHRC, she attended UN convention on human Rights in Geneva under the leadership of foreign minister of Bangladesh, Dr. Dipu Moni and participate in seminar on “Human Rights Awareness and National Capacity Building” in New Delhi in April 2009. Since 1974, Munira Khan has been actively associated with many social welfare organizations. She was president of Women’s Voluntary Association (WVA), President of Assistance for Blind Children (ABC), she was president of Bangladesh Federation of University Women (BFUW), represented the organization in Australia, Canada, England, Geneva, Srilanka. She is the vice president of Dhaka University Alumni Association. She is Rotarian and served as RI Dist 3280 as Assistant Governor and Deputy Governor. She is a first district Chairman of Inner Wheel Dist 328 Bangladesh. She attended Rotary conferences in USA, UK, Thailand, Nepal, Spain, Singapore. Munira Khan has been writing in national Dailies and Magazines. She was regular contributor in ‘opinion’ column in the Daily Star, participated in many talk shows in BBC, Televisions of Bangladesh on Democracy, Election etc.

E-mail : munirakhan0@gmail.com 

As a human rights defender with focus on rights based approach, I have been working with Odhikar (www.odhikar.org), a leading human rights organisation in Bangladesh for approximately 12 years. I am engaged in analysis, documentation, research, advocacy and networking on human rights violations issues in Bangladesh, with special emphasis on extrajudiciHuman Rights, Elections Monitoring, Researchal killings, torture, enforced disappearance and violence against women.. Writing articles, reports, research and analysis are some of my major tasks and interests. Due to my commitment and interest on electoral systems, I have observed elections in Bangladesh (2008) and in different countries as an International Election Observer in Myanmar (2015), Philippines (2010 and 2008) and Nepal (2008) as part of the international election observer group, Asian Network for Free Elections http://anfrel.org/. I have been involved in Universal Periodic Review procedures of Bangladesh (2009 and 2013) of the UN Human Rights Council. I obtained a Masters Degree in Marketing (1994) from Dhaka University and a second Masters Degree in Development Studies (2012) from North South University in Bangladesh.

E-mail : Taskin133@gmail.com

ASM Nasiruddin Elan is the elder son of ASM Kamal uddin and Nilufa Begum. He was born on 01 June 1966 at Munshiganj district. Elan is a graduate. He joined democratic movement against the autocratic ruler General Ershad in eighties. He was the editor of weekly Munshiganj Sangbad before joining Odhikar in 2000. Elan became the Director of Odhikar in February 2009. As an Acting Director of Odhikar Elan led the team of Odhikar staffs against the repressive emergency regime in Bangladesh, which was imposed on 11 January 2007. Due to Odhikar’s uncompromising position towards democracy and human rights, he was picked up by the Naval Intelligence Agency and has been abused. He was also detained in jail for publishing report of extra-judicial killing in 2013. He is an International Visitor of the U.S. Department of State and visited U.S.A. in June 2008. He observed Sri Lankan Presidential Elections in 2005 and 2015 and also observed Nepal Parliamentary Elections in 2008 and Sri Lankan Parliamentary Elections in 2015 as part of the ANFREL international election observation team. He has traveled other countries in Asia and Europe to promote human rights. Elan is married and has one daughter.

Email: odhikar.hrdn2@gmail.com

Badiul Alam Majumdar was born in Comilla, Bangladesh in 1946. He received his early education at Laksam High School and Nawab Faizunnessa College. He obtained a Master’s degree from the University of Dhaka in 1968 and another Master’s degree in Business Economics from Claremont Graduate School in 1971. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from Case Western Reserve University in 1976.

He was a Lecturer at Dhaka University during 1969-70. He later taught at Seattle University, Central Washington University and Washington State University during the period of 1976-91 and rose to the rank of full Professor. He worked for NASA and also for the Saudi Royal Family. He returned to Bangladesh in 1971 to help restore Parliamentary democracy in the country.
In 1993, Badiul Alam Majumdar was named the Chief Technical Advisor of the “Policy Implementation and Analysis Group,” a USAID funded project on industrial deregulation. Later he became the Country Director of The Hunger Project-Bangladesh. In 2003, he was made a Vice President of the organization. He serves on the Advisory Board of Transparency International-Bangladesh. He has also been a member of the Board of HYSAWA, a company jointly formed by the Governments of Bangladesh and Demark.

Badiul Alam Majumdar served on the Board of Advisors of the Bangladesh Academy of Rural Development (BARD). In 2007, he was made a member of the Dr. Shawkat Ali Committee, which re-wrote all local government laws of Bangladesh. In 2015, he was also appointed an Amicus Curie by a bench of the Bangladesh High Court which litigated the legality of Tenth Parliamentary elections.
In his professional career, he has published about a dozen books and many scholarly articles in international journals. He also presented papers before many professional societies, including the American Economic Association and the Canadian Economic Association.

Badiul Alam Majumdar is a civil society activist. He is the Founder Secretary of SHUJAN: Citizens for Good Governance. He is also the Global Vice President and Country Director of The Hunger Project-Bangladesh. Recently, he played the lead role in getting a recent judgment from Bangladesh High Court on RTI, which would potentially open the floodgate of information to citizens.
Badiul Alam Majumdar is a popular columnist and widely quoted political commentator. His writings on many critical issues are published regularly in major Bangla and English dailies of Bangladesh.

E-Mail: badiulm@gmail.com and badiul.majumdar@thp.org

Koul Panha is the Executive Director, COMFREL (Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia). He is serving as Vice Chairman of ANFREL since 2008. He joined the task force on Cambodian elections in 1993 and COMFREL in 1997 with experience in Cambodia post-conflict project design, promotion of human right democracy, and elections. Coming from Human Rights Organization namely Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), where he served as a program manager of human right education, publication 1991-1996. 1993-1994. Koul Panha was a lecturer on chemical industry at High Technology Institute in Phnom Penh. He was also a team leader of a UNTAC voter registration station in a district of Phnom Penh. He was the editor in chief of Neak Chea bulletin and is an edition advisor for numerous articles of Neak Klom Meul and annual reports on elections, democracy, reform, and reports on decentralization in Cambodia. He joined the International Election Observation Missions of ANFREL to many countries such as Indonesia, Afghanistan, East Timor, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal, Hong Kong, Philippine, Taiwan and Bangladesh. Koul Panha was graduated from human rights course from Australia in 1993, and was involved in the human rights movement at early 1990s. He has a M.A. in Politic of Alternative Development from the Institute of Social Study in the Hague, Holland and an Engineer Degree in Chemical Industry from the High Technology Institute in Phnom Penh. Koul Panha received the 2011 Ramon Magsaysay Award which recognizes his tireless, independent work in building the kind of citizen action in elections and governance in Cambodia.

E-mail: kpanha@comfrel.org

Yong Kim Eng is the President of PDP-Center, a non-government organization that advocates for human rights, democracy, and youth issues. From 1994 to 2005, he was President of the Khmer Youth Association (KYA) which was the youth organization established during the UNTAC period. KYA continues to advance its cause at present. Yong Kim Eng has graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Khmer Literature from Royal University of Phnom Penh in 1995, with a Diploma in General Administration from Royal School of Administration (ERA) in 1998 and with a Master Degree in Management from International Institute of Cambodia (IIC) in 2005. He wrote about Electoral Dispute Resolution in Cambodian Elections in 2014 as his thesis for his Bachelor’s Degree on Law at the Asia Europe University in Cambodia. Yong Kim Eng is a member of the Steering Committee for Cambodian Human Rights Action Committe from 1999 until present. He has attended Human Rights Advance Program in 2002 at Mahidol University, Thailand and UN Human Rights in Cambodia.He has also monitored almost all electoral exercises in Cambodia.

Email : president@pdpcenter.org and kimeng.yong@yahoo.com

Sanjay Kumar is Professor and currently the Director at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. His research focuses on Electoral issues and Youth in India. He recently published books include an edited volume “Indian Youth and Electoral Politics: An Emerging Engagement”,” Changing Electoral Politics in Delhi: From Caste to Class” and (with Praveen Rai) “Measuring Voting Behaviour in India”. His previous work Indian Youth was published as a book (with Peter R de Souza and Sandeep Shastri) “Indian Youth in a Transforming World: Attitudes and Perceptions.” His other publications include: (With Christophe Jaffrelot) Rise of the Plebeians? The Changing Face of Indian Legislative Assemblies and. He has contributed chapters for several edited volumes, written various research reports, published articles in both international and national research journals, writes regularly for popular newspapers and is a popular face on Indian TV as an expert on Elections.

E-mail : sanjay@csds.in

Mochammad. Afifuddin was born on February 1, 1980 in Sidoarjo, East Java. He has been involved in the electoral sector since 1999 by joining People’s Voter Education Network (Jaringan Pendidikan Pemilih untuk Rakyat/JPPR) and became an election observer. After finishing his study in UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, he continued his education in the Master Program of Political Communication at the University of Indonesia (UI) in Jakarta.
Afif became Program Officer in Human Resources Development Center (PPSDM UIN) Jakarta from 2004 to 2009 for electoral program. He became the Research Manager of JPPR (2009-2011) and one of Sterring Group of JPPR (for the period of 2011 – 2013 and 2015 – 2017). He was the National Coordinator of JPPR for the period of 2013-2015. From 2011 to 2015, he was the Project Manager of JPPR for AGENDA program. He is now a Program Advisor to AGENDA.
He is also a contributor for books of “Membangun Demokrasi dari Bawah” (PPSDM UIN-TAF: 2007), Bersama Masyarakat Memantau Pemilu 2009 (JPPR-Tifa Foundation: 2009), Pengalaman Pemantauan di 10 Daerah (JPPR-TAF:2010), Monitoring Accessibility in Elections for Voters with Disabilities in Indonesia; Experiences in Five Local Elections City of Yogyakarta, West Sulawesi, Banten, Bangka Belitung and DKI Jakarta (JPPR-AGENDA: 2013), Menguak Dana Kampanye Dalam Pemilu Legislatif (JPPR-MSI: 2014), Paduan Pendidikan Pemilih “Petunjuk Praktis Pelaksanaan Sosialisasi dan Informasi Pemilih” (JPPR-IFES: 2015), Bersama Masyarakat Memantau Pemilu 2014 “Penggunaan Teknologi Informasi dan Media Sosial Dalam Pemantauan Pemilu’ (JPPR-TAF: 2015), Monitoring Accessibility of the 2014 Presidential Elections in Indonesia (JPPR-AGENDA: 2015) and Media Guidelines for Reporting on Accessible Elections Indonesia Country Edition (JPPR-AGENDA: 2015).

He has international experiences observing the electoral events in several countries such Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Nepal, and Afganisthan.

E-Mail : afif_sda@yahoo.com

Prof. Ramlan Surbakti, PhD. was born in North Sumatra June 20, 1951.

Graduated from Gadjah Mada University in Government Science 1977, Master Degree in Political Science from Ohio University in 1982, and PhD in Political Science from Northern Illinois University in 1991. Joining Department of Political Science, School of Social and Political Sciences, Airlangga University, since 1978 up to now. Teaching and studying on Election and Democracy, Electoral Governance, and Presidential Study,. Involved in organizing election in Indonesia after the 1945 Constitution amended as Deputy Chairman and then acting Chairman of Indonesian Election Commission (KPU) from 2001-2007. Since 2008 work as Senior Advisor on Election in Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia, an NGO established in 2000.

Member of American Political Science Association, Member of Indonesian Political Science Association, and Member of Society for Government Science in Indonesia. Member of Steering Committee for Election Research in Indonesia (ERI). Since May 2015 became member of Indonesian Academy of Sciences.

E-Mail : ramlan_surbakti@outlook.co.id

Oyuntuya Sumiya born in Unmugobi Province in Southern Mongolia in 1976, Oyuna moved to the capital, Ulaanbaatar in 1994 in order to study Law at the University of Mongolia. After graduation, Oyuna worked at the X Centre for Legal Training and Advocacy and in 2000, she became the Lawyer for the Women for Social Progress Movement (WSP)/Voter Education Centre (VEC). While in this role, Oyuna completed several training courses on governance, human rights, and public policy, and worked as a project leader on numerous election-monitoring and voter education programs. Oyuna is now the Executive Director of the Voter Education Centre, and lives in Ulaanbaatar with her husband and two children. As part of the oversight projects run by Women for Social Progress, Oyuna led a team that monitored the Presidential Election Vote-Counting Process in Ulaanbaatar in 2009. Other projects that Oyuna has managed have included Monitoring Campaign Financing (2004 and 2008) and Monitoring Political Party Financing (2007). In 2006, Oyuna participated in the National Thai Parliamentary Election as an international observer as part of ANFREL’s (The Asian Network of Free Elections) direct election observation mission.

E-mail : oyunasu5@gmail.com

Mr. Kapil Shrestha a well-known academic, educationist and an intrepid human rights and civil society activist from Nepal.He has been in the forefront of the struggle for democracy, human rights and academic freedom for over 3 decades. He is a Professor of Political Science and Human Rights in the Tribhuvan University (Nepal), Kathmandu School Of Law (Nepal) as well as a Visiting Professor in the University of Sydney (Australia). He is also the Co-chair of the National Election Observation Committee, Nepal (NEOC), the pioneering election observation group in Nepal, for almost 18 years. Kapil Shrestra has served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal (2000–2005). He has also served as the President of Human Rights Organization of Nepal and Nepal University Teachers’ Association. He has written politically on the themes related to election observation, electoral systems, peace building, human rights, political theory and many others in the Nepali as well as international journals and magazines.

E-mail : kapil.shrestha6@gmail.com

Secretary General of NEOC and International trainer and observer under Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), he has joined several exploratory and observation missions in post-conflict societies like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines and many others. In the recent years, he has administered a historic bio-metric voter registration observation program and is currently responsible for directing a long-term project on electoral education and election observation in Nepal.

President of INHURED International (Special Consultative Status, ECOSOC, UN), Dr. Siwakoti is Chair of Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), a coalition of over 220 organizations and individuals dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the rights of refugees across Asia-Pacific. He is one of the founding members of Peoples’ SAARC—a civil society initiative for making SAARC more people-friendly. He has authored, edited and produced several books, research reports, films and documentaries on electoral freedom, transitional justice, human rights, peace, refugees and internal displacement.

He has represented at various UN forums relating to human rights including the General Assembly, Human Rights Council sessions and UNHCR-NGO Annual Consultations. Honored by the Swiss Bureau of Statistics under “who is who-2000” on “Refugee Protection in South Asia”, he has also been conferred several awards including Person of the Year-2008; Global Nonviolence Advocate-2010 along with National Peace Award-2010. International Adviser for The Hague Appeal for Peace, Dr. Siwakoti is honored as a guest-lecturer on UN treaty body shadow reporting, transitional justice, forced migration, and freedom of elections at various universities in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. A torture survivor, Dr. Siwakoti is also a former prisoner of principle convicted for exercising freedom of expression during repressive royal regime in the eighties. His personal biography and scruples have been radiated in a special documentary titled “Courage and Conviction” as a recognition of his valor and conviction towards safeguarding civil liberty, peace, democratic freedom within and beyond border.

E-mail : gopal.nepal@gmail.com

A retired corporate executive and a former Professor of Philosophy and Political Science at St. Louis University in the Philippines, Mr. Magbual is a member of the National Council of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL); a member of its seven-man Executive Committee and Chairman of its Membership Growth and Development Committee. He has served as a resource speaker, trainer and consultant on election monitoring, electoral systems and administration in more than a dozen countries since 1987. He has written numerous articles on election monitoring and attends plenty various elections observation mission in different continent.

E-mail  : dammygm@yahoo.com.ph

Mr. Ramon Casiple is currently the Executive Director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER). He is also the Chairperson of the Consortium on Electoral Reforms (CER), the national coalition of 48 civil society electoral reform stakeholders, and the Co-Convenor of the Consortium on Political Party Reforms (CPPR). He also chairs the Group Advisory Council of the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (GAC-CIDG). He currently sits in the United Nations Civil Society Advisory Council (UNCSAC), member of the Board of the Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights-Asia (ESCR-Asia), the Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN), the International Visitor Leadership Program-Philippines (IVLP-Phils). He is a member of the Philippine Political Science Association (PPSA).

Mr. Casiple served as a member of technical working groups and as resource person in committee hearings on political and electoral reform bills in Congress. Currently, he heads two TWGs of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms. He has also written numerous articles on various topics in the field of human rights, peace, development, governance, and electoral and constitutional reform. He has also acted as a political analyst before international and Philippine mass media.

E-mail : execdir.iper@gmail.com

I have written and published on those fields of expertise which I mentioned in collaboration with the International IDEA mostly and with academics. The works that I did in collaboration with International IDEA revolved mostly on democracy assessment which includes an examination of electoral system, electoral reforms, and political parties. Other dimensions of democracy building and assessment such as rule of law, access to justice, minimizing corruption, and local democracy in the Muslim region of southern Philippines, as well as the emerging tool of democratic assessment on accountability in service delivery.

I have publicly spoken in various media particularly in television and radio about electoral democracy, campaign finance, and electoral reforms that highlight citizen participation and involvement in the electoral processes.

I do continuing work and consultancy on social development administration and governance, as well as citizen participation in governance both for international organizations and civil society groups. Among the works that I did in this aspect was an evaluation of Human Rights program by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in the Asian Region. I also did evaluation of country development programmes in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, India, China, and Philippines in cooperation with various international development organizations such as the Christian Aid, EZE Germany, Novib, ICCO, and in Vietnam with the UNESCAP. I continue to serve as consultant of the International IDEA in its program in Papua New Guinea on Electoral Commission and Registration of Political Parties.

Recently, I did the paper on the Philippines as part of a five-country study on “Gender Equality and Involvement of Women in Political Parties”, under the auspices of International IDEA, UN Women, and the UNDP. (A book on this work will come out soon.)

E-mail  : co.edna@gmail.com

Rohana is a promininet figure at CSOs circle in Sri lanka, beside holding position as Executive of PAFFREL, he also trusted as Secretary General of ANFREL. He is also vice-chairman of the largest CSOs in the country—Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya. He is also executive committee as well as official committee in Sarvodaya, and board member of Santhi Sena Sansadaya. Rohana obtained his B.A from University of Sri Jayawadanapura and his master at University of Kalaniya in Sri Lanka.

E-mail : rohana.paffrel@email.com

Dr. Sujata Gamage is a public policy analyst based in Sri Lanka. She holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the Ohio State University. Her entry to the field of electoral reforms is through the application of data analytics to simulate demarcations of electoral boundaries and apportionment of representation across regions in Sri Lanka and comparing and contrasting different electoral systems as to otheir applicability in different contexts.. She alsolooks at implications of different electoral systems on the representation of women and minorities in politics.

E-mail : sujata@lirneasia.net

Dr. Chien-Fu Chen worked as international election observer in many countries, including Philippine 2010 (ANFREL), Thailand 2011 (ANFREL), Mongolian 2012 (Women in Social Progress WSP), Malaysian 2013 (Bersih), Cambodian 2013 (COMFREL), Nepal 2014(ANFREL) and Sri Lanka 2015. Dr. Chen also serves as the Video of Demand (VOD) monitory parliamentary coordinator (2012- ), the standing director of the Citizen Congress Watch (2007-2012) and the chairman of Taiwan Grassroots Alliance for Peace (2008-2013). His major interests focus on the parliamentary monitoring, election and grassroot democracy, the inequality and social movement. Dr. Chen earned his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University and served as Assistant Professor of Graduate Institute of Future Studies, Tamkang University, Taiwan. Dr. Chen is also a founder of Taiwan Asian Network for Free Election(2014-).

E-mail : chien_fu_chen@yahoo.com.tw

He is a board member of the Open Forum for Democracy Foundation (Aka ‘PollWatch’ Foundation) in Thailand and an executive committee member of ANFREL. Mr. Sakool had worked previously with the Election Commission of Thailand’s Bangkok division for four years. He is the Chair of Arom Pongpangan Foundation, an organisation working for the rights & capacity building of unionized workers.

E-mail : sakoolz@yahoo.co.uk

15 years served in the office of The Election Commission of Thailand responsible for people participation in election and election monitoring

Vice Chair, Political Development Council (the first member council)
Thailand’s constitution 2007 (B.E. 2550), Section 78 (7) stipulates that the state shall provide a political development plan and establish an autonomously political development council. Besides, Article 84(4) also stipulates that the state shall promote political strength of the people and provides the laws concerning the establishment of civil political development fund. In brief, the Act has the objectives in political development, promotion of virtue and ethics among persons holding political positions and government officials, as well as strengthening people’s political power.

Civil Society Experiences since 1977-present

Social – Political Activist in civil society movement focus on nonviolence, peace work, human rights, democracy, people participation and election monitoring since 1976 up to present. Some of the present positions as follows;-
Board member of Asian Cultural Forum on Development (ACFOD)
Sub-committee on human rights protection, National Human Rights Commission
Board committee of Cross Cultural Foundation
Chair of Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma Foundation
Board Committee of Peace and Cultural Foundation
Board Committee of Asian Network for Free Election (ANFREL)
Vice Chair of Union Civil Liberty Association

Speakers on democracy, election, people participation, good governance, human rights, and nonviolence.

E-mail : jobladdawan@yahoo.co.uk