EU monitors to observe media behaviour

Manjula Fernando

Some members of the EU election observers team

The EU Election observers said they were not here to teach democracy or electioneering but were here on the invitation of Sri Lankan authorities to perform a job.

"We will present our conclusions in a systematic way, it is up to the Lankan authorities and the EU institutions to take action," Chritistian Dan Preda, Chief Observer and member of European Parliament from Romania, told reporters last week.

He said, the EU election observers will monitor the campaign, preparation and the behaviour of media as well as the post-election phase before their final report based on scientific data is presented to the Elections Commissioner.

A core team of seven experts will perform a complete analysis of data covering the political, human rights and media sectors. "It (the report) will not be a super perception of what people have in mind," Preda stressed.

The EU final observation report is expected to be released two months after the election, but an interim report will be released two days after polling.

The first EU team comprising 18 long-term observers arrived in the country last week. The 28-member short-term observers will be here on August 10. Fourteen more observers are to be recruited from the diplomatic community based in Colombo.

The seven EU parliamentarians represent Austria, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Ireland and Italy. The long-term observers departed Colombo on Thursday, to their respective duty areas in all nine provinces across the country.

Deputy Chief of observation mission, Konrad Olszewski, a parliamentarian from Holland and EU Colombo Office Press and Public Outreach officer Maria Gamez were present at the media briefing.

In addition to the EU observers, teams from the Commonwealth and Federation of Election Monitoring Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) will also be here to observe the August 17 polls.