Elections can either further democracy, development, human rights and security, or undermine them.

For this reason, promoting and protecting the integrity of elections is important. Election observation is recognized as an effective instrument to achieve these goals, especially in terms of following up demands and recommendations for democratic reform in the post electoral period. Regional organizations are uniquely placed to perform efficient, and cost effective election observation.

As ASEAN continue to consider the feasibility of the conduct of election observation in the region, an ASEAN workshop that introduced the basics of election observation, its various forms, methodological issues, as well as the experiences of other regional organizations that are peers of ASEAN, was organized in June 2015.

This report captures the presentations and discussions about the scope and rationale of election observation, the various methodologies and their challenges, the experiences of regional organizations in the field of election observation as well as conclusions on the discussion about the relationship between electoral management bodies and election observers.