Observing mission will not comment on elections

Accra, Nov. 11, GNA - The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) will not make any comment on the outcome of the December 7 elections, Chief Observer on the mission, Mr. Nickolay Mladenov said on Tuesday.

Addressing journalists in Accra, Mr. Mladenov said the team's role was only to ensure that people make their choice in a free, fair and democratic manner and not to make pronouncements on the outcome.

The mission, he said, was not in the country to control or participate in the December elections and asked stakeholders not to misconstrue its role.

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.

The mission had already dispatched 24 long-term electoral observers to the 10 regions.

Mr. Mladenov said members of the mission will adhere to strict code of neutrality in the performance of their roles. The mission 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.

It will 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 Electoral Commission.

Mr. Mladenov said the mission will meet with various political parties, media organisations and civic society to get a complete picture of how the process was evolving towards elections in December. He said in the case of a run-off, the mission had the capacity to deploy the observers.

He said the mission members were persons with rich elections observation experience in Africa and other parts of the world and were therefore unlikely to make unfortunate mistakes. Mr. Mladenov called on authorities to cooperate with the mission to achieve the desired purpose.