Maputo, 7 Oct (AIM) – The European Union’s Election Observation Mission to Mozambique for Wednesday’s presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections has so far deployed 155 observers and 76 of them are already on the field.
According to Laura Ballarín, head of the observation mission, speaking to reporters on Saturday, in Maputo, “as of today, we have 155. Some of them are diplomats, who will arrive in the next few days, but the whole electoral mission may be deployed on Monday.”
“The 76 short-term observers underwent a two-day training course with our electoral experts and will be deployed in teams of two throughout the country, thus reinforcing our presence”, she added.
In total, the European Union Observation Mission counts on over 170 observers.
“We’re not going to make assessments of what we’ve observed because we’re collecting information from the field. But we know that the climate [election campaign] has been more peaceful than last year’s municipal elections”, she said.
According to Ballarín, this is going to be one of the biggest European Union observation missions in history.
She stressed that the Observation Mission “does not legitimize the elections or validate the results, but obeys the international principles of impartiality, non-interference and independence.”
“The observations on the ground will be vital for us to make an informed and factual assessment of Election Day. I want to remind you that we make rigorous, exhaustive observations based on technical criteria in accordance with international principles,’ concluded the head of mission.
Ballarin recalled that the mission’s core team ’will remain in the country until the end of the process”.
According to the country’s National Elections Commission (CNE), over 17 million voters are registered to vote, including 333,839 registered in the diaspora.
(AIM)
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