ISLAMABAD, Sept 21: The second and last group of long-term observers arrived in Pakistan on Saturday as part of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM).

According to a press release, the arrival of the 21-member group brings to 43 the total number of EUEOM long-term observers (LTOs) in Pakistan from 14 European Union member states. The total number of mission members, including the nine-member core team, now stands at 52.

Together with the mission‘s core team, all the LTOs will remain in the country until after the elections scheduled for October 10. The first group of 22 long-term observers arrived a fortnight ago and deployed at nine locations in all the provinces.

The new observers will undergo a three-day detailed orientation and training programme in the capital before being deployed at different locations.

With their deployment, the EUEOM will have long-term observers covering 13 locations — Jhelum, Gujranwala, Mingora, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Islamabad.

The role of the observers is to gather information through contacting politicians, non-governmental organizations and officials in their areas. The LTOs report back to a core-team of Islamabad-based experts, who have been working in the country since August 4.

The mission will observe the entire electoral process, including preparations for the elections, the parties’ campaigns, polling day activities, counting procedures and the aggregation of results.

Soon after the polling, the mission will send a preliminary report of its findings to European Union headquarters, followed by a final report.

“The first batch of long-term observers, deployed two weeks ago, has already made a significant impact on the mission‘s operations. The observers selected have considerable experience of missions in Latin America, Africa, the Balkans and Asia, and I am confident that they will fulfil their mandate according to internationally established criteria”, the mission’s chief observer, John Cushnahan, said.