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Wednesday, 22 July 2015 00:31 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
EU Election Observation Mission Chief Observer Cristian Dan Preda - Pic by Lasantha Kumara
The European Union Election Observer Mission kicked off its election monitoring activities with an opening statement yesterday, emphasising that it was not in the country to preach democracy to Sri Lanka.
“We are not here to teach elections to your people,” the Head of the Observer Mission and Chief Observer, Cristian Preda told reporters in Colombo yesterday.
“We are here with our expertise to observe and scrutinise the process,” Preda said.
“We have no intention of interfering in the process. Our mandate is to be neutral. We do not want to interfere in your political life,” the Chief Observer asserted.
The EU observer mission will be deployed to observe a Sri Lankan election for the first time in 10 years, the Chief Observer noted,
“It was 10 years ago that you had the last EU observation mission in Sri Lanka. Since then we were not invited. This is the first invitation we have received after one decade,” Preda noted.
The Chief Observer said that the EU Observer Mission was hoping for the elections on 17 August to be free and fair.
Preda noted that the EU observer teams had the best methodology to observe elections in the world. “We are recognised as the best election observers in the world,” Preda asserted.
The EU will deploy 19 long-term observers between 19 July and 20 August and a short-term observer group that will arrive in the island around 10 August, Preda said.
The long-term observers are drawn from 17 EU countries and Switzerland and Norway which are not members of the regional bloc. Short-term observers will include about 15 diplomats from EU embassies based in Colombo, Preda explained.
The Mission will also comprise a Core Team of eight election analysts, with specialties in media, human rights, elections and data, Preda said. These analysts had no political affiliations, Preda asserted, even though the EU observer missions were traditionally led by an elected member of the EU Parliament, such as himself.
The mission will deploy to all nine provinces of the island, for consultations with election officials, candidates, political parties, civil society and the media.
“We will oversee all aspects of the electoral process,” the Chief Observer said.
Preda noted that the observers would closely study the media landscape ahead of the poll, which he said was an important part of the election process.
The invitation extended to EU observers to monitor the parliamentary election on 17 August signals a remaking of ties with liberal democratic countries and regional blocs in the West that had suffered during the tenure of the previous Government. (DB)
