Brussels: The European Union (EU) has decided not to send its election observer mission to Pakistan for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Speaking to a group of Pakistani journalists visiting Brussels, EU Member of Parliament Michael Gahler said that the said decision was taken due to some internal issues and Pakistan’s non-receipt of invitation for the election observation mission.
It should be noted that Michael Gahler has served as an election observer for the European Union in 2008, 2013 and 2018. Speaking to reporters, he stressed that the fate of any party or leader should not be decided by any “third force”.
He clarified that the European Union has not yet received an invitation from Pakistan to send experts, and other issues including the previous experience of the EU observer mission also played a role in the decision.
After the 2018 elections, the EU observer mission made 30 recommendations to Pakistan to ensure transparency in future elections. In this regard, he expressed concern over the state of democracy in Pakistan and said that “out of these 30 recommendations, two to three have been implemented.”
He said that the European Union has not sent an observer mission but will send an expert for the upcoming elections in Pakistan, while the invitation for the expert has not been received from Pakistan.
Note that an expert mission, if deployed, is not the same as an EU observer mission. The mission of experts consists of only 3 to 5 people, compared to the 50-member EU observer mission deployed in the last elections.
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