Election Observers
January 4, 2008
The European Commission announced it will send an enlarged observer mission to monitor Pakistan's general election, scheduled for Feb. 18. Europe already has a limited number of election observers in the country, but decided to increase the number after the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
EU representatives held press conferences in Brussels and Islamabad on Friday, Jan. 4, to announce the decision.
"The task of this full-fledged election observation mission will be now to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the entire election process," commission spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann said.
This will include monitoring the campaign, the election commission, the judiciary and the general environment, Hohmann said.
Election tensions remain
Michael Gahler, a German member of the European parliament already in Islamabad, will lead the mission. His team will include 11 experts based in Islamabad and 48 additional "long-term observers" which will be sent to different parts of the country, assuming security does not become an issue.
Gahler said the security situation remained somewhat volatile and that he could not exclude violence in the build-up to the rescheduled election, "but at the moment it is my impression the level of violence has calmed down," he told journalists in Islamabad.
Additional short-term observers will arrive in Pakistan a few days before the polling starts.
The government hasn't placed restrictions on where observers can go, although the EU previously decided not to go into Pakistan's lawless tribal areas or to the north-west Swat Valley where the army is battling pro-Taliban and pro-al-Qaeda militants.
A changed political landscape
The elections are meant to return Pakistan to civilian rule after eight years of President Pervez Musharraf's military regime.
The elections had originally been scheduled to take place on Jan. 8, but were postponed after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The former prime minister went into self-imposed exile in 1998 after being removed from office on corruption charges. She returned to Pakistan in October only to barely survive an assassination attempt as she drove to a rally in Karachi. The attack killed more than 100 people.
Bhutto's assassination at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, near the capital, on Dec. 27, 2007 sparked unrest that caused dozens of deaths and forced postponement of the elections.
Decision to postpone vote unpopular
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the country's other main opposition party, denounced the delay but grudgingly accepted it.
Gahler said he would not comment on the controversial decision to postpone the vote.
"We accept the agenda in Pakistan and we act accordingly," he said.
Gahler made a number of suggestions for ensuring a fair election. According to the European parliamentarian, vote results should be published swiftly, an independent audit should be possible, and a quick and transparent complaint system should be put in place.