EISA Technical Assessment Team to the Swaziland 2008 House of Assembly Election

11 September 2008

EISA is deploying a Technical Assessment Team to the Swaziland 2008 House of Assembly Election scheduled for 19 September 2008. The team will be composed of three members and is expected to arrive in Mbabane on 13 September in order to hold a series of meetings with election stakeholders ahead of election day. Stakeholders include the Elections and Boundaries Commission, political parties, CSOs and academics. The team will remain in the country until 23 September in order to observe the voting and counting processes as well as post polling activities. The team will cover selected rural and urban areas around Swaziland.

The general objectives of the team conform to EISA's mission of promoting credible elections and democratic governance in Africa. In particular, the mission seeks to determine if:

• the conditions exist for the conduct of elections that would allow the people of Swaziland to freely express their will and their choice;
• the elections will be conducted in accordance with the legal and constitutional framework for elections that is established in the Kingdom of Swaziland;
• the electoral process will be conducted in accordance with the EISA/ECF Principles for Election Management, Monitoring and Observation in the SADC Region (PEMMO).

EISA will also provide secretarial and other support to the election observer mission of the Pan African Parliament.

EISA is a regional non governmental organisation established in 1996 and based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Its mission is to strive for excellence in the promotion of credible elections, participatory democracy, human rights culture and the strengthening of governance institutions for the consolidation of democracy in Africa. It services governments, electoral commissions, political parties, civil society organisations and other institutions operating in the democracy and governance fields in the SADC region.