EU team prepares to monitor voting next week

After seesawing on whether or not they would monitor next week’s presidential elections, the European Union’s electoral observers announced on Friday that they would indeed partake in international monitoring efforts.

The European Union’s Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) is preparing 150 observers to monitor the presidential elections, slated to commence May 26 and 27.

The mission is deploying “short-term observers” tasked with monitoring the two voting days, according to a press release issued on Friday by the EU EOM, while another team is tasked with producing a detailed report and findings regarding the whole electoral process, which may be issued several weeks later.

The 150 observers are being dispatched across the country’s 27 governorates in preparation for the opening of the polls on Monday. These observers are tasked with compiling reports, findings and tallies from the respective governorates in which they are deployed, and submitting them to the EU EOM central office in Cairo.

The observers hail from all 28 members states of the European Union, including some from Norway and Canada, according to the EU EOM.

The European Parliament’s Portuguese representative, Mario David, will preside over the mission.

Deputy Chief Observer Nikolai Vulchanov, from Bulgaria, said Friday that the observers “will not interfere in the electoral process,” and “election observers are bound by a code of conduct that ensures their neutrality and impartiality.”

The EU EOM is scheduled to issue a statement of preliminary findings two days after voting ends, while a more comprehensive final report would be issued at a later stage. This final report is to include recommendations on possible improvements for subsequent elections.

While the EU EOM press release did not specify when this final report is due, the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported that it would be issued two months after the poll.

The EU observers would be dressed in blue vests, the color of the European Union flag, and their transportation vehicles would bear blue stickers for identification, Vulchanov said, as reported in MENA. 

The EU EOM’s mission was invited to monitor the elections at the behest of Egyptian state officials, and particularly the Presidential Elections Committee.

However, last Saturday the EU EOM announced that it would not be able to carry out its work as Egyptian officials had prevented their telecommunications equipment and medical kits from entering the country.

The Egyptian authorities backed down later in the week and allowed the equipment to pass through customs.  

The EU has issued a list of its top observers who are leading this election observation mission to Egypt.