Commonwealth Expert Team Report on Maldives Parliamentary Elections
17 February 2005
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| Members of the Commonwealth Expert Team in Maldives. |
Secretary-General Don McKinnon welcomed the Expert Team's report, saying: "We hope this report and its recommendations will help Maldives as it moves forward to build on the President's announcement of a programme of democratic reform.
"We will now be following this up with the second visit by our Commonwealth electoral adviser and a visit by a Commonwealth legal adviser. Taken together, I am sure that the recommendations of this Expert Team and those made by the two Commonwealth advisers should provide Maldives with a firm basis for continued progress.
"I attach great importance to the democratic dialogue between the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Government and people of Maldives, and I will be pursuing the recommendations with the President as it continues."
The presence of the Commonwealth Expert Team for the parliamentary elections followed an invitation from the Maldives Government. The Team, which was present in Maldives from 18 to 27 January 2005, observed the preparations for the elections, the polling, counting and the results process, as well as the overall electoral environment. The members of the Expert Team were Cassam Uteem, Chairperson and former President of Mauritius; Andy Becker, Electoral Commissioner of Australia; Mahi Choudhury, Member of Parliament, Bangladesh; Dr Hywel Francis, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom; and Pratibha Rao, Director (Co-ordination), Lok Satta (Foundation for Democratic Reforms), India.
CNIS - the Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 222 16 February 2005
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