Accra, Nov. 10, GNA - The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Ghana on Monday dispatched 24 long-term electoral observers to the 10 regions.

Chief Observer on the mission, Mr Nickolay Mladenov, told journalists that 30 more short-term observers would be dispatched to the regions "as we get closer to the elections". The mission is in Ghana at the invitation of the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the December 7 electoral process in accordance with international and regional standards for genuine democratic elections.

Mr Mladenov said the 24 would establish offices, meet with local authorities, the media and with EC officials in the regions and also analyse the environment within which they have to work. He said the mission would also gather information from the ground, do a preliminary report, based on which a thorough evaluation of the process would be done before a final report would be presented to the EC.

"We have learnt lessons from our observer missions to other parts of Africa and the world and we can assure you that we will take all the facts into consideration before making any statements," he said. Mr Mladenov assured Ghanaians that the 24 long-term and 30 short-term observers were persons with rich elections observation experience in Africa and other parts of the world and were therefore unlikely to make unfortunate mistakes.

He noted that, having had experiences with monitoring difficult cases such as those in Kenya, Zimbabwe and in other countries, the EU had made its observation methodology even stricter to ensure that no stone was left unturned in gathering information for the final statement.

"We look forward to do a good job in Ghana so that we can replicate the Ghana example in other parts of the world." Mr Mladenov noted that Ghana was a leader in Africa in terms of democracy, good governance and rule of law, saying that the mission was poised to add to that credential.