Since 1991 Latvia is represented in the Association of European Election Officials (ACEEEO). The Central Election Commission is an institutional member of the ACEEEO.
The ACEEEO was founded in 1991 and was called the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials until 2006.
The ACEEEO is a nongovernmental organization with the primary goal to provide an objective forum, independent from any national government, for information exchange concerning elections and political processes among election officials, experts and scientists in order to foster free, democratic and fair elections in member states and region of action of the Association.
At present, the ACEEEO institutional members are electoral management bodies of 24 countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The Association of Afghan Election Officials, 'ELS' Independent Research Center of Azerbaijan and the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) have observer status in the ACEEEO. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is a member supporter.
The Executive Board of the ACEEEO is made up of seven representatives of Institutional Members from seven different member states, as well as representatives of those two member-countries which are ready to organise a conference and a meeting of the General Assembly in the current year. Since 2000 the Central Election Commission of Latvia is also represented in the Executive Board. Another members of the Executive Board are representatives of Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Moldova and Romania.
The President of the ACEEEO is elected in the Executive Board meeting held during an annual conference of the ACEEEO. The Board members elect a President from amongst themselves by an open vote. The President’s mandate lasts for one year, and he/she is usually the representative of that country’s election management body that organizes the following annual conference of ACEEEO. At present the ACEEEO President is Tamar Zhvania, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission of Georgia. Arnis Cimdars, the then Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Latvia, was the President of the ACEEEO between 2005 and 2007.
More information about the Association is available on the ACEEEO website www.aceeeo.org.