EISA Technical Team to the 2011 Presidential & Parliamentary Elections in Uganda

Arrival Statement

The Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) is pleased to announce the arrival of its technical team in Kampala for the Presidential and Parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on Friday, 18 February 2011.

Coordinated by Dieudonné Tshiyoyo, Manager of EISA’s Elections and Political Processes Programme, the team is composed of seven members drawn essentially from EISA core staff at the Head Office in Johannesburg and field offices. Members of the team are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The overall objective of the technical team is in line EISA’s vision of promoting credible elections and democratic governance in Africa. The specific purpose of the Team is to undertake a detailed documentation of the electoral process to ascertain if the process was organised and conducted in compliance with internationally accepted standards for credible elections. These standards include the African Union Declaration on Principles Governing Democratic Elections, the Principles for Election Management, Monitoring and Observation in the SADC Region (PEMMO), developed under the auspices of EISA and the Electoral Commissions’ Forum of SADC (ECF SADC) and the East African Community Protocol on Good Governance.

Members of the team started arriving in Kampala on Friday, 11 February 2011. The team will be on ground in Kampala and its suburbs until 22 February 2011. During this period, members of the team are expected to meet with key electoral stakeholders, including the Electoral Commission of Uganda, candidates running in the various elections, representatives of political parties, the media, members of the academic community, civil society organisations and the diplomatic community.

The team will also observe the concluding stages of the campaigns; the polling and counting processes and other post-polling activities in Kampala and surroundings.

Before its departure from Kampala, the team is expected to present a preliminary analysis of its observations, findings and conclusions in a preliminary statement. EISA will compile and publish a final comprehensive report of the observations, findings and recommendations of the Technical team. The report will present an objective assessment of the electoral process aimed at contributing, eventually, to the improvement of future elections and democratic governance in Uganda. The assessment to be presented in the report will be based on universally accepted principles and norms to which Uganda is subscribed as a sovereign state.

EISA’s technical assessment team is committed to working closely with all the relevant Ugandan stakeholders and other election observer groups. It will act in an impartial, objective and transparent manner at all stages of the electoral process.

For further information about the Mission, please contact the secretariat of the team based at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala. The focal point is Sydney Letsholo: mobile +256789228531 or email sydney@eisa.org.za .