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Election process, not results

Deputy chief of EU observers tells The Daily Star about team's focus

Arun Devnath
In election observation, it is the process that matters. The outcome in terms of who wins or loses the election seems immaterial to observers.
"We are not here to manage or supervise the process. We are here to observe it, note it and report on it," says Graham Elson, deputy chief of the European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission, now in Bangladesh.
The Daily Star caught up with Elson, a
man with the experience of observing elections in around 20 :ountries worldwide, in an exclusive interview to understand what it means to be an election observer.
"As I often say, for us what matters is the process. The outcome to us, in terms of who wins or loses, in a sense is immate-iaJ,"hesays.
Election observation is a long, thorough process guided by a code of conduct. "We have a code of conduct, which is internationally recognised as a good code of conduct."
About 150 observers are working under the EU team on Election Day across the country, helped by Bangladeshi interpreters. The EU budget for the 2008 election observation in Bangladesh is 3.2 million euros.
Elson explains how the mission operates in different layers. At the heart of the operation is the core team of ten, usually deployed between six and eight weeks before Election Day. The core team consists of political or country, legal and media experts.
A week or ten days after the core team was deployed, the mission put in place 44 longterm observers, who work in teams of two, guided by the briefings from the core team.
"Their role is to observe five and six weeks of election preparations outside the capital," Elson says.
About six or seven days before Election Day, another group, called short-term observers, joined in to observe the final preparations for the elections. They fanned out across the country to observe polling centres on Election Day.
1\vo days after the elections, the mission will release preliminary findings and conclusions.
The chief and the deputy chief of the EU election observation will come back to Bangladesh -- two months after the elections -- to release their final report in Dhaka. The final report iso goes online on ( the mission'swebsite.
The final report has an important section called "recommendations" which will break down into "essential" and "desirable” recommendations.
"The purpose of the recommendations ... is putting forward proposals drat we believe, if implemented, would help further improve and strengthen the political and democratic process in Bangladesh," Elson says.
"Whether or not the recommendations will be adopted is entirely dependent on the political will."
"Our report... is an assessment or a record of an election that has taken place. This is for others to decide how to use the assessment."
The assessment of the elections is based on seven key criteria that have been adopted by the European Union in assessing the quality of elections. l\vo criteria stand out: The degree of impartiality shown by the election administration and the degree of freedom of political parties and candidates to assemble and express their views.
The polls observers followed the preparatory work of the Election Commission toward today's election.
"We obviously followed in detail and with great interest the party candidate registration and nomination processes.”
The polls observers also followed, quite closely, all of the campaign activity that went on - - to assess whether or not all candidates and parties are free to campaign without intimidation or fear or hindrance
The media are also under the scanner.
"We've obviously been analysing coverage of the election by the media here in Bangladesh. We look at not just the nature of coverage in terms and time or space devoted to the election. We also look at whether the media are covering the elections in a fair and balanced way," Elson says- . .'
"We al^Q,lqo|c at the tone of the coverage. Is it positive or negative? Is it positive for some, but negative for others?"
Elson declines to make any "judgemental comment” on the media before the elections, but says: "Bangladesh has a very lively media environment."
“If we make any sort of judgemental comment before Election Day, some people might accuse us of interfering in the process. That's the last
thing we wish to do. We are exactly what we are. We are not here to interfere in the process.”
Elson flashes back to the stormy days in 2007, when the EU observers had suspended its mission amid incidents of violence and intimidation.
"This mission is in effect the return of the suspended mission," Elson says.
"For me, personally, I've been heartened by the fact that there have been only very few isolated incidents of violence and intimidation so far (this time)."
Asked to comment on bias in observing the polls, Elson asserts: "We operate in a way that seeks to ensure our integrity and impartiality."
"At the end of the day, we can never prevent people who — for whatever reasons --might want to imply in some way that we are partial one way or the other. All we can do is demonstrate how we go about our business. But in fact we are impartial," Elson says.
"It's worth stressing that the European Union election observation missions are totally independent of the European Commission."
Elson says the observers are appointed and funded by the European Commission in Brussels, but not directed by it.
"We are not in any way instructed or directed by the commission in Brussels as to how we should write our reports and what we should or should not assess," he says.
"We are independent of the European Union member states governments and we are independent of European Union member states' dipld-matic missions in Bangladesh."
Elson entered politics at local government level in the UK when he was elected to his local council in 1976, and eventually became an elected Leader of an English County Council. In 1989, he was appointed general secretary of the UK Liberal Democrat party. Elson left UK politics to pursue a career in election observation and democratisation.