EASF Deploys Observers to the Union of Comoros

The Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) will deploy an election observer mission in the Union of Comoros ahead of the presidential and governors’ elections due on the 24th of March 2019.  An EASF advance team is already on the ground.

The mission will comprise of 28 observers from EASF member states and they will cover all three Islands i.e. Anjouan, Moheli and Grande Comore. A former Minister from Seychelles, Mr Jeremie Bonnelame has been appointed as the Head of Mission and a former Minister from Burundi, Lt. General Germai Niyoyankana as the special advisor of the EASF mission.  

The election mission was officially launched by the Chairperson of Council of Ministers of Defense and Security for Eastern Africa, Minister Emmanuel Ntahomvukiye at the EASF secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya on 15th March 2019.  According to the Director of EASF, Dr. Abdillahi Omar Bohu, the EASF mission has the mandate for independent, impartial and objective observation of elections. Its assessment will be based on relevant provisions of the AU African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance of 2012, the OAU/ AU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa, other relevant international instruments on election observation as well as national legal framework governing presidential and governors’ elections of the Autonomous Islands of the Union of Comoros.

The assessment will be based on the regularity, transparency, equity and fair conduct of the electoral process.

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