Antonio Spinelli is a Senior Advisor, Electoral Processes for International IDEA’s Asia and the Pacific Regional Programme.

From 2021 to 2022, seconded by to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), Spinelli performed to the role of Strategic Operational Advisor, for the COVID Variants Response Unit, under the Strategic Election Priorities Branch. He was responsible for shaping both strategic and operational thinking, bringing real-world experience from a variety of international electoral environments, particularly focussing on mechanisms to facilitate the enfranchisement of vulnerable cohorts and support voter turnout in elections managed amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Previously to joining the Asia and the Pacific Regional Programme in Canberra, from 2017 to 2019, Spinelli managed International IDEA’s Office and programmes in Nepal and South Asia, supporting the Institute’s electoral processes, local governance, citizen engagement and political representation and participation initiatives in this Region.

Spinelli’s previous work entails extensive field experience. Since 1992, he has primarily engaged in the management of large-scale electoral assistance projects, mostly in transitional political and democratic settings, conflict and post-conflict environments and peacekeeping operations, for numerous organizations, among others, the United Nations, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the European Commission.

From 2003 to 2007, working as a Senior Programme Officer for the Electoral Processes Programme at International IDEA’s headquarters, Spinelli was part of a dynamic team that conceptualized innovative and ground-breaking electoral policies, among which the “Electoral Cycle” and “Effective Electoral Assistance” projects, promoting and supporting sustainable electoral assistance and pushing effective electoral management forward worldwide.

Additionally, Spinelli conceptualized and led the transformation of the ACE Project from a static online repository of electoral knowledge to the multidimensional and interactive global electoral knowledge management network that ACE is today.

In 2011, Spinelli authored the IFES Publication “Strategic Planning for Effective Electoral Management” and later, in 2016, the resulting “Strategic Planning for Electoral Management” Module of the BRIDGE Curriculum, which have led him to assist numerous electoral management bodies worldwide in their strategic and operational planning efforts.

Publications on International IDEA website:

• Technical Paper 2: Managing Elections under the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Republic of Korea’s Crucial Test
• Policy Brief: Managing Elections during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Considerations for Decision-makers
• Commentary: One year into Covid-19: Paving the way to change in electoral policy and practice. Will it endure?

Published articles on Linkedin:

• Regaining the Value of the “Invisible” Votes.
• Facilitating the Participation of Absentee Voters in Election.
• Including Mentally and Intellectually Disabled Voters in Electoral Processes.