EU will not send full observation team for upcoming elections

The European Union (EU) has told the government of Pakistan that it will not be possible to send a full election observation mission to Pakistan as it did last time in the 2018 elections, The News has reported on Monday.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had invited an EU observation mission for upcoming election on February 8 next year. The EU observation mission has already monitored polls five times in the country.

In 2018, a team of 10 observers and 60 analysts from the EU visited Pakistan. On Election Day, it deployed a total of 122 observers.

After that, the mission shared its final report in October 2018 and provided 30 recommendations to make the election process better in the future. The eight recommendations were identified as priorities among  30.

“Only a small mission of experts will visit Pakistan during the elections in 2024, while no recommendations or political assessments of the voting will be presented to the Pakistan government. The EU will not be sending a full-blown election observation mission. Those need several months in advance to plan and budget for,” EU Ambassador to Pakistan Ms Riina Kionka told The News.

The ECP has encouraged the Foreign Office to take necessary steps to invite international observers to observe the transparency of the upcoming general elections.

The ECP also said that it believes in an open-door policy and embraces the presence of an observation team during the forthcoming general elections.