TheCable

Dlamini Zuma, the chairperson, African Union Commission (AUC), has appointed Joaquim Alberto-Chissano, former Mozambique president, to lead a 50-member election observers to Nigeria for next month’s general election.

Zuma gave the approval in Addis Ababa on Thursday, ahead of Nigeria’s general election expected to hold between February 14 and February 28.

Chissano is to be assisted by Aisha Abdullahi, AU commissioner for political affairs. The commission had earlier deployed a team of 15 long-term electoral experts to the country under the African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM).

Zuma said the long-term experts would remain in the country until March 11 to observe all the critical stages of the electoral process.

She said the 15-man long term observers are expected to be joined by Chissano’s short-term observers team, who were selected from different AU member states.

The short-term team is expected to arrive in Nigeria on February 7 to follow the electoral process and also meet with government and electoral officials, candidates, political parties, civil society representatives and the media.

According to Zuma, the AUEOM’s assessment of the electoral process would be independent with the purpose to offer impartial assessment of the election in compliance with the country’s international and regional commitments to democratic elections.

AUEOM is mandated to observe and report on the electoral process in the country in accordance with relevant AU instruments on democracy and elections.

The AU instruments include the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Election and Governance, the 2002 OAU/AU declaration on the principles governing democratic elections in Africa and the 2002 AU guidelines for election observation and monitoring missions.

They also include international standards like the 2005 declaration of principles for international election observation to which the AU is a signatory.