EU starts election observation task

KATHMANDU . The European Union (EU) on Wednesday formally started the task of election observation, acceding to the request of Nepal government and the Election Commission (EC) for the observation of the upcoming Constituent Assembly election.

 The EU Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) is led by European Parliament member Eva Joly, the EU said in a statement issued today. The eight-member team of international election analysts had come on October 4 and 34 more will come by October 17. Some 40 more will arrive by the election date and the latest team will have European parliament members.

A total of 100 observers will arrive from the EU in total. The team has participation from 26 countries of EU, Norway and Switzerland. In the 2008 CA election , 148 domestic and 30 international observers monitored the polls. Of them, only 23 national and five international institutions had submitted their reports to the EC. Besides EU, Carter Center, the United Nations and the Asian Network for Free Election (ANFREL), among others, are the major international election observers who will be associated with the second CA polls scheduled for November 19.