EISA Regional Observer Mission to the Zanzibar 2005 Presidential, Parliamentary & Local Government
Arrival statement
Dar es Salaam, 25 October 2005
EISA is pleased to announce the official launch of its Election Observer Mission to the 2005 General Elections in Tanzania scheduled to take place on Sunday, 30 October 2005. The mission is led by Mr Leshele Thoahlane, the Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission of Lesotho and Mr Denis Kadima, EISA's Executive Director is the Deputy Mission Leader. It is present in the country at the invitation extended by the National Electoral Commission of Tanzania (NEC). This mission will cover seven regions in the mainland, namely Arusha, Bukoba, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Mtwara, Mwanza and Tanga. A separate delegation has been deployed to Zanzibar.
The mission consists of 24 members, including representatives from electoral commissions and civil society organisations (CSOs) from SADC countries, namely Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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 Tanzania;
- To assess and determine whether the elections are conducted in accordance with the electoral legislative framework of Tanzania;
- To determine whether the final results of the electoral process as a whole reflect the will of the people of Tanzania;
- To assess whether the elections meet 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 Wednesday, 26 October 2005, EISA will deploy teams throughout the mainland, where they will meet electoral stakeholders, including electoral officials, representatives of political parties, CSOs, and the diplomatic community, ahead of the election day. The EISA mission will remain in the country until Tuesday, 1 November 2005 in order to observe the voting and counting processes, as well as post-polling activities, including the announcement of results.
On Tuesday, 1 November 2005, all EISA teams will reconvene in Dar es Salaam where an interim statement expressing the mission's preliminary views and recommendations on the 2005 Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections in Tanzania will be issued. Principles enshrined in the PEMMO will be the basis of the Mission's assessment of the electoral process, and the electoral environment as a whole.
The mission undertakes to cooperate closely with the Tanzanian 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 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with field offices in Angola, Burundi, the DRC and Mozambique. 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.
Leshele Thoahlane
Mission Leader