EU to deploy big observer team

The European Union will deploy its largest election observer mission in Pakistan for the forthcoming October polls, the head of the mission said yesterday.

John Cushnahan told a news conference here that a total of 164 observers would work in Pakistan to watch various stages of the electoral process and the October 10 ballot.

Accompanied by his nine-member core team, Cushnahan held a lengthy meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Irshad Hasan Khan on the preparations under way for the elections.

He said 40 long-term and 110 short-term observers would join the mission in Pakistan soon. "Pakistan is in a strategic geopolictical location because of major political developments happening both within its own borders and in the countries with which it shares a common border.

This fact was underlined by the decision of the European Union to field its largest election observation team to date," Cushnahan said.

"The completion of the roadmap to democracy is essential not only for the long-term stability of Pakistan, but also for the wider stability of the region," he stressed.

The observers will carry out their task without interfering in internal politics, he said. "Our task is solely to observe the electoral process."

Cushnahan avoided comment on disqualification of former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto under electoral rules framed by the military government of President General Pervez Musharraf. "I have to be careful not to get drawn into internal politics."

The mission had just arrived and it would be inappropriate for it to give any statement on the subject at this stage, he said.

Cushnahan said he would present an interim report after the vote and give a final report to the EU headquarters afterwards. He hoped that the elections would be held in a free, fair and transparent manner. "I wish that for the people of Pakistan, I wish that for the stability of the country."

Cushnahan, who was chief EU observer for the 2000-2001 elections in Sri Lanka, said the core team now in Pakistan had alone participated in more than 100 observation missions.

He said the team had an extensive programme of meetings with political leaders, non-government organisations and human rights bodies. It would also meet officials at the anti-corruption National Accountability Bureau and the National Reconstruction Bureau.