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Commonwealth Secretariat press release

Commonwealth to send Expert Team for Swaziland elections

9 October 2003

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon is sending a five-person Expert Team to Swaziland for the National Elections to be held on 18 October.

The decision to send the Expert Team follows an invitation from the Government of Swaziland. The team will observe preparations for the elections, the polling, counting and results process and the overall electoral environment. The members of the mission are:

Hon David Thompson MP
(Team Leader)
Member of Parliament and former
Leader of the Opposition
Barbados

Ms Angela Odah
Co-ordinator
Transition Monitoring Group
Federal Republic of Nigeria

Hon Hilary Mkatte
Member, National Electoral Commission
United Republic of Tanzania

assisted by two Commonwealth Secretariat staff members:

Mr Christopher Child Political Affairs Division

Mr Linford Andrews
Political Affairs Division


This is the second Commonwealth Expert Team to be in Swaziland for these elections: a three-person Team was present in July 2003 to observe the voter registration.

Note to Editors

The members of the Expert Team will begin work on 10 October and will remain in Swaziland until 23 October. Their report will be submitted to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, who will in turn send it to the Government of Swaziland, the Chief Electoral Officer and Commonwealth Governments. The report will then be made public.

The members of the Team 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.

For media enquiries please contact Christopher Child, Political Affairs Division, on +268 6176807.


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