EU mission to issue preliminary statement on Pakistan elections on July 27

ISLAMABAD: The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Pakistan said it would continue to observe the electoral process of general election 2018 in an independent and impartial manner and would issue its preliminary statement on the electoral process on July 27.

“The mission received accreditation on July 13 for its long-term observers, allowing for their deployment in the coming days,” a statement issued by EU EOM here said.

According to details, the EU EOM had been operational in Islamabad since June 24. It was deployed after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) welcomed the presence of an observation mission for Pakistan elections 2018.

“EU observation methodology focuses on comprehensive long-term observation, meaning LTOs are usually deployed 4-5 weeks before election- day in order to cover all stages of an election process,” it said.

“In line with EU EOM methodology, the mission was ready to deploy from Europe in early June. However, due to a series of bureaucratic delays, the core team arrived only on 24 June, and the mission’s 60 long-term observers (LTOs) in early July,” it added.

“The short period of time between now and election day has implications on the EU EOM’s ability to thoroughly assess some key aspects of the process, including the campaign environment in different parts of the country, as well as the work of the election administration at local level,” the statement concludes.