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Former Malta president to lead...
2005-10-21 07:54:47
By Guardian Reporter
Former President of Malta and chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation, Prof Guido de Marco, will lead a team of Commonwealth poll observers to the country during the general election set for October 30.
Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon made the announcement in a statement issued by the Communication and Public Affairs Division of the Commonwealth secretariat in the United Kingdom yesterday.
Members of the team of observers are Rengaraju Balakrishnan who is the Deputy Election Commissioner of India, Roger Creedon, who is former chief executive of the Electoral Commission of the United Kingdom, Audrey McLaughlin, a former federal MP and leader of the New Democratic Party in Canada, Justice Majida Razvi, a former judge of the Sindh High Court in Pakistan and Onome Osifo Whiskey, serving managing editor of Tell publications in Nigeria.
The members of the Commonwealth poll monitors are Simone de Comarmond, a former minister in Seychelles, Dolores Balderamos Garcia MP and former minister in Belize, Dr Khabele Matlosa, a senior advisor at the Research Electoral Institute of Southern Africa in South Africa, Christina Ayola Mary Thorpe, current chair of the National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone and Daryl Wight, a Federal Electoral Officer in Victoria, Australia.
The statement said the group will be backed up by an eight-member team from the Commonwealth secretariat led by Prof Ade Adefuye, who heads the African section of political affairs division.
’An advance team consisting of one observer and two members of staff has been in Tanzania since October 6 and will report to the main group on arrival,’the statement added.
The statement said the secretary-general’s decision to send a team of observers was at the request from the Tanzanian government.
An assessment mission from the Commonwealth secretariat visited the country last month and established that the team had the support of the government.
’The observers have been invited in their individual capacities and the views they express regarding the elections will be their own and not those of either their respective governments or the Commonwealth secretariat,’ the statement added.
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