With only four days left to Election Day, international election observers from the African Union (AU), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have arrived in the country for the highly contested Thursday polls.
In a statement issued on Friday, the African Union noted that the team from 27 countries, who are in the country at the invitation of the Government and the Electoral Commission will be led by former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.
The AU noted that Goodluck Jonathan will be assisted by Amb. Shemsudin Ahmed Roble, a member of the COMESA Committee of Elders and Commander Abebe Muluneh Beyene from IGAD to lead the AU-COMESA-IGAD EOM team.
“The Mission comprises 84 short-term observers (STOS) drawn from ambassadors accredited to the AU, officials of election management bodies, members of civil society organisations, election experts, human rights specialists, gender and media experts, and representatives of youth organizations” the statement read.
The observers will be deployed across all regions of Uganda where they will observe the Election Day procedures including the opening of polls, voting, closing and the counting processes at the polling stations.
The African Union asserted that the mission will base their assessment on Uganda’s election laws and the OAU/AU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections, the standards and obligations stipulated in the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG), and the International Declaration of Principles (DOP) for International Election Observation, among others.
Furthermore, the observers are set to meet with the Electoral Commission of Uganda, political parties, the media, civil society organisations and representatives of the international community based in Uganda and other election observation missions.
The Observers noted that preliminary report will be delivered on 17 January, with a final report in one month from the date of the announcement of final election results and will be published.
The observers are drawn from Algeria, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Eswatini, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
