Press release

EASF deploys observers to Comoros

March 19, 2019
StateHouse

The Eastern African 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 advanced team is already on the ground. The mission will comprise of 28 observers from EASF member states and they will cover all three Islands Anjouan, Moheli, and Grande Comore. Former Minister from Seychelles, Mr. Jeremie Bonnelame has been appointed as the Head of Mission and 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, Hon Emmanuel Ntahomvukiye at the EASF secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya. According to the Director of the EASF, Dr. Abdillahi Imar Bouh, 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 of 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.