Polls Ordely, Calm, Peaceful, Says EU Observer Team.

An election observer team has in its preliminary assessment described the general election held countrywide as ‘orderly, calm and peaceful.’
Ms Judith Sargentini, the Chief Observer at the European Union Election Observation Mission in Tanzania 2015, told the ‘Daily News’ in Dar es Salaam that by 2pm today, they had visited 400 polling stations on the Mainland and Zanzibar where they observed people patiently lining up and waiting for their turn to vote.

"From what we have observed, it is clear that the voting process is running smoothly and they are doing it in a tranquil environment; it is a very positive thing to see," she said before the polling stations closed.

Ms Sargentini said that as observers, it is always their hope that elections are credible and transparent. With regard to discrepancies, she said she could not immediately comment on that, but was quick to add that it is duty to see if the process went in accordance with the laws of the country and conformed to international commitments to democratic elections.

"At this point in time, it is too soon to give recommendations, but we will say more on during our press conference on Tuesday. More comprehensive recommendations will be issued at the end of the year when I return to Tanzania," she explained.

Since 2000, the EU has deployed more than 120 missions involving the participation of over 11,000 observers. Various types of observers participate in the European Union's Election Observer Missions (EOMs).

Election observation missions (EOMs) do not interfere in electoral processes. They only have the mandate to collect and verify information concerning the election process, analyse the observations and then, after the elections, to publish their findings.

As a rule, EU-EOMs always operate in a country on the basis of an invitation of the host government. Observers clearly distinguish between complaints, rumours, accusations and verified facts.

Only facts that are witnessed or verified by the observers will be used as the basis of the mission's report. Furthermore, although the mission cooperates with other observer organisations, only information collected by its own international observers will be used for the mission's statement and final report.

Meanwhile, the Coalition of Election Monitoring and Observation in Tanzania (CEMOT) affirmed that s polls were held smoothly as there was no serious challenge that held back the exercise.

According to the report by CEMOT Co-Chairman, Dr Benson Bana, only 10 per cent of their countrywide observers reported late arrival of voting materials. “These figures came just from reports of 6,579 observers out of 9,000 collected up to 12:00 noon on the polling day,” Dr Bana said.

On the verification of voter information to the Permanent Voter Register (PVR), about 5,375 (82 per cent) of the observers said no one missed and the 1,204 (18 per cent) responded that some voters name were missing in the voters list.

The CEMOT midday report also established that 99 per cent of ballot boxes at all polling stations visited were proved empty and sealed at the start of the voting process. Also, they remained sealed throughout the day without being opened until the end of the polling exercise.

Moreover, the 95 per cent of observers reported that the settings at their polling stations allowed confidentiality when voting, while political parties were also represented by their agents.

“The good thing is at all polling stations there were uniformed police and other security personnel. This is due to 6,259 (95 per cent) of respondents from our countywide observers,” said Mr Bana.

The report also explained that over 6,444 observed stations out of 9,000 were opened on time as required by NEC, 249 opened around 07:30 – 08:00 am and others 115 were opened after 08:01 am.

“We shall later on address the public about the reason behind the delays in opening these stations after getting reports from authorities,” he said. CEMOT is made up by the Tanzania Civil Society Consortium on Election Observation (TACCEO) and the Tanzania Election Monitoring Committee (TEMCO), with the focus to enhance citizen engagement in the observation and monitoring of the 2015 Tanzania election processes to determine the extent to which they are credible, free and fair.

Culled from Daily News