EU Mission discusses election observers’ issues with Zardari

ISLAMABAD: Former President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday said he had described the 2013 elections as RO elections but the party accepted its results for the sake of continuity of democratic process.

A six-member EU Exploratory Mission called on former President Asif Ali Zardari in Zardari House Islamabad on Thursday evening and discussed issues relating to election observers to witness the forthcoming general elections in the country.

The EU Exploratory Mission from Brussels is on a visit to Pakistan to meet various stakeholders ahead of the general elections.

Welcoming the delegation, former President Asif Ali Zardari said that electoral laws had recently been amended with consensus to ensure free and fair elections and what was needed now was to ensure that elections were held strictly in accordance with the amended electoral laws. “The election observers missions therefore have an important role to play and the PPP welcomed them,” he said.

Zardari said that amended electoral laws recognized the important role played by election monitors and hoped that the EU Election Observers Mission and other monitoring missions will also come to observe the elections and give their reports. He said that PPP benefited from the report of the last EU Election Observers Mission in finalising its recommendations for amendments in electoral laws. Zardari said it was important that the observers’ mission comprised of a larger contingent including women and also visited polling stations in far-flung areas on the Election Day. Other issues relating to the holding of free and free elections also came under discussion.

Besides the Islamabad based EU Ambassador Francois Cautain, the mission members included Nicolay Paus, Ms Ann Vanhout, Ms Hannah Roberts, Clom Vincent, Pierre Michel and Ms Elisa Tesselli.

Former President Asif Ali Zardari was assisted by Nayyer Bokhari, Syed Naveed Qamar, Senator Sherry Rehman and Senator Farhatullah Babar.