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Commonwealth Experts for Pakistan Local Elections

12 August 2005

The experts have been invited in their individual capacities and the views they express regarding the elections will be their own and not those either of their respective governments or of the Commonwealth Secretariat or CLGF.

A Commonwealth Expert Team will be in Pakistan for the country's local elections, which take place on 18 and 25 August 2005. The Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) are jointly organising the Commonwealth Expert Team, whose members comprise the chairperson, Justice Mrs Anastasia Msosa, chair of the Malawi Electoral Commission; Councillor A W M Arshad, Colombo City Council, Sri Lanka; Alison Sutherland, Legal Officer, Local Government Association, UK; and Zulkefi bin Kamaruzzaman, former State Elections Officer, Malaysia.

Members of the Expert Team will observe the preparations for the elections, the polling, counting and results process, and the overall electoral environment. Prior to their deployment they will be briefed in the capital, Islamabad, by the Election Commission of Pakistan, representatives of the main political parties, civil society organisations and Commonwealth diplomats.

The experts have been invited in their individual capacities and the views they express regarding the elections will be their own and not those either of their respective governments or of the Commonwealth Secretariat or CLGF.

On the completion of its assignment, the Expert Team will report to the Commonwealth Secretary-General and the CLGF with its recommendations. Its report will then be transmitted to the Government of Pakistan, the Election Commission of Pakistan and the political parties. Copies will then be circulated to all Commonwealth governments and the Report will be made public.

Experts from the Commonwealth Secretariat and the CLGF were present for the last local election in 2000, and a Commonwealth Observer Group was present for the National and Provincial Assembly Elections in October 2002.