Brussels, 28/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Union will send 150 observers to monitor the various stages of the elections for a Constituent Assembly in Tunisia on 23 October, Michael Gahler (EPP, Germany), who will lead the observation team, announced in Tunis on Wednesday. The team will comprise experts and representatives from NGOs specialising in electoral observation.
Gahler said that the team would be “independent of the institutions of the European Union and of EU member states”. His team will be deployed in the 27 electoral constituencies in Tunisia. “We have no concerns about the security of the electoral process in Tunisia and we have great reason to be optimistic”, Gahler said. He went on to add that there would be “no comparison with other countries to which we have travelled”, citing the example of the elections in Pakistan in 2008. He is quoted by the Tunisian press, to which he gave an interview, that the number of observers is double the number usually deployed by the EU. Fifteen MEPs will travel to the country in the run-up to the elections. “Ours will be the largest foreign observation team in Tunisia to follow a nation on the path to democracy”, he stated. (FB/transl.rt)