Former President Jonathan leads AU Elections Observation Mission team to Zambia

Former President Goodluck Jonathan will be leading the African
Union Elections Observation Mission (AUEOM) to the Zambia ahead of the
country’s general election scheduled to take place on October 11, 2016.

According
to a press statement released on African Union’s website on Monday,
August 1st, the team headed by former Nigerian President would lead
members of the Short Term observers from 1st to 15 August 2016. Read the full statement below:

“The Chairperson of the African Union
Commission has approved the deployment of African Union Elections
Observation Mission (AUEOM) to the General Elections scheduled to place
in the Republic of Zambia on 11 October 2016.

 

The deployment of the AUEOM will take place in two phases. The first
phase comprises the deployment of long term election experts and took
place from 14 July to 22 August 2016 and it is made up of 10 observers.
For the first time, the African Union long term experts include
election/ legal political/media/campaign analysts. The objective is
ensure that the AUEOM approaches its work with added professionalism and
factual analysis of the legal, political, electoral, media and campaign
aspects of the electoral process in Zambia.

 

At the second phase of the Mission, the long term experts will to be
joined by Short Term observers from the 1st to 15 August 2016. The Short
Term Mission will be headed by H.E. Goodluck Jonathan, former President
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

 

The African Union Elections Observation Mission draws its mandate
from various African Union instruments, most importantly: (a) the
African Union Guidelines for Elections Observation and Monitoring
Missions?(2002); (b) the OUA/AU Declaration on Principles Governing
Democratic Elections in Africa (2002); African Charter on Human and
Peoples Rights (1981) and (c) African Charter on Democracy, Elections
and Governance (2007), among others.

 

The objectives of the Mission is (a) to provide an accurate and
impartial reporting or assessment of the quality of the 25th October
General Elections in the United Republic of Tanzania, including the
degree to which the conduct of the elections meets regional, continental
and international standards for democratic elections; (b) to offer
recommendations for improvement of future elections based on the
findings; and, and (c) to demonstrate AU’s interest to support
Tanzania’s elections and democratisation process to ensure that the
conduct of genuine elections contributes to the consolidation of
democratic governance, peace and stability in Tanzania in particular and
the East African sub-region in general.