Michael Gahler, the head of the Election Observation Mission (EOM) of the European Union (EU) Parliament has said while talking to a group of journalists that the EU will not send its election observer mission to Pakistan for the upcoming elections.
When asked which elections were better, Gahler said 2013 was better than 2008 and 2018.
Gahler said he had established 30 recommendations after observing the last few elections.
“Military doesn’t want to take over because they’d be blamed but they still want to control their areas of interest to ensure they’re not touched,” he commented, adding that media and press was more vivid in 2008 and 2013 but it was to the contrary in 2018.
He wished that for the next elections, every candidate can stand/contest elections without any influence of a third force. “People deserve proper elections.”
European External Action Service (EEAS) does annual work plans to decide which countries to send EOMs to. Criteria to take into account: previous quality of elections, political significance, follow-up on past EOMs and its recommendations, logistics (costs, security etc).
Pakistan elections of 2018 has been one of the largest, most complex and expensive EOMs of the EU.
For 2023, HRVP decided to send only an expert mission (EMM) to Pakistan.
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