Addis Ababa, 3 November 2017: The Chairperson of the African Union Commission H.E Moussa Faki Mahamat has approved the deployment of an African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) to the parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea on 12 November 2017. The African Union Short Term Election Observation Mission will be led by H.E. Professor Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda and comprises Thirty (30) election observers drawn from Members of the Permanent Representative Committee of the African Union, Pan African Parliament, Election Management Bodies, Civil Society Organizations and academia.

The African Union Elections Observation Mission draws its mandate from various African Union instruments, most importantly: the African Union Guidelines for Elections Observation and Monitoring Missions (2002); the OUA/AU Declaration on Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa (2002); African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (1981) and African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007), among others.

The objectives of the Mission are: to provide an accurate and impartial reporting or assessment of the quality of the 12th November 2017 parliamentary elections in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, including the degree to which the conduct of the elections meets regional, continental and international standards for democratic elections; to offer recommendations for improvement of future elections based on the findings; and, to demonstrate AU’s interest to support Equatorial Guinea’s elections and democratization process to ensure that the conduct of genuine elections contributes to the consolidation of democratic governance, peace and stability in Equatorial Guinea in particular and the Central Africa sub-region in general.
For more information please contact: Ms. Karine Kakasi Siaba (kakasik@africa-union.org).