October 12, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 29, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: The United States will sponsor election observation programmes in support of Pakistan’s general elections, US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson announced here on Thursday.

“The assistance from the United States is part of the international community’s desire to assist Pakistan in holding free, fair and transparent elections in the country,” Ambassador Paterson said.

The United States government has signed agreements with the International Republican Institute (IRI) and The Asia Foundation to conduct activities before, during and after the election. The IRI will deploy 12 long-term and 40 short-term international observers in all the four provinces to conduct a pre-election assessment followed by an election-day observation.

The United States is also contributing to The Asia Foundation’s multi-donor efforts to place independent domestic observers at polling stations nationwide. A coalition of 30 Pakistani civil society organizations will conduct nationwide monitoring of the pre-election environment, election-day procedures and post-election announcement of results and resolution of election disputes. The United States government’s election support includes training of political party officials, voter education, training of polling staff and purchase of transparent ballot boxes.

Meanwhile, former US Senate majority leader Tom Daschle will lead a pre-election assessment mission in Pakistan on behalf of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) from October 17 to 21 to observe conditions ahead of parliamentary elections.

The purpose of the pre-election assessment mission – the second such mission conducted by the NDI this year is to examine key elements of the electoral process as they relate to the planned general elections and the previous NDI recommendations, a press release issued by the NDI here said.

The assessment mission will also consider and draft specific recommendations to improve the fairness and transparency of the process.

The four-member delegation conducting the mission will hold nationwide meetings with political parties, electoral officials, government officials and civil society representatives.

The delegation will include former prime minister of Canada Joe Clark, former president of the New Zealand National Party Susanne Wood and NDI’s Asia Regional Director Peter Manikas.