Election Observer Mission to the National Assembly Election in Mauritius, 3 July 2005
Press Release 27 June 2005
EISA is pleased to announce the official launch of its Election Observer Mission to the 2005 National Assembly Election in Mauritius scheduled for Sunday, 3rd July 2005. The Mission led by Mr Denis Kadima, the EISA Executive Director, is in the country at the invitation of the Electoral Commissioner's Office to observe the 2005 National Assembly Election.
The EISA Mission consists of 17 members, including representatives from electoral commissions and civil society organisations (CSOs) from SADC countries (namely Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe), as well as an electoral expert from Denmark.
The overall objective of the Mission is in line with EISA's vision of promoting credible elections and democratic governance in Africa. Specific objectives for this particular Mission include the following:
- To assess whether the conditions exist for the conduct of elections that express freely the will of the people of Mauritius;
- To assess and determine whether the election is conducted in accordance with the electoral legislative framework of Mauritius;
- To determine whether the final results of the electoral process as a whole reflect the wishes of the people of Mauritius;
- To assess whether the election meets the benchmarks set out in the Principles for Election Management, Monitoring and Observation in the SADC Region (PEMMO), developed under the auspices of EISA and the Electoral Commissions Forum (ECF) of SADC countries.
As a reminder, PEMMO is the result of 3 years of work by ECF and EISA, in consultation with CSOs who work in the field of elections. Subsequently, the election principles which serve as benchmarks in the conduct and assessment of elections in the SADC region were adopted on 6 November 2003 in Johannesburg, South Africa. PEMMO has been applied for the assessment of most elections held since April 2004 to date in the SADC region.
On Tuesday, 28 June 2005, EISA will deploy teams throughout the Mauritian mainland and the island of Rodrigues, where they will meet electoral stakeholders, including electoral officials, representatives of political parties, CSOs, and the diplomatic community, before election day. The EISA Mission will remain in the country until Tuesday 5th July 2005 in order to observe the voting and counting processes, as well as post-polling activities, including the announcement of results.
On Tuesday, 5th July 2005, all EISA Teams will reconvene in Port Louis where an interim statement expressing the Mission's preliminary views and recommendations on the 2005 National Assembly Election in Mauritius will be issued. Principles enshrined in the PEMMO will be taken into account to direct not only the Mission's observations on the polling and results processes, but also the electoral environment as a whole.
The Mission undertakes to cooperate closely with the Mauritian electoral stakeholders and other observers, and strives to act, at every stage of the electoral process under scrutiny, with impartiality, objectivity and independence.
EISA is a regional non-profit organisation established in 1996 with headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa. The vision of the organisation is to promote credible elections and democratic governance throughout Africa. The vision is executed through the organisational mission to strengthen electoral processes, good governance, human rights and democratic values through research, capacity building, advocacy and other targeted interventions. EISA services electoral commissions, political parties, civil society organisations, governments and other institutions operating in the democracy and governance fields in Africa.
Denis Kadima, EISA Executive Director
Mission Leader