Observers lend credibility to an election
One of the indicators of a good election is the presence of national and international observers during the election process without any restrictions. It is, thus, surprising that compared to previous elections, the number of domestic and international observers in the 11th parliamentary election is very low. While in the 2008 election, there were 1.6 lakh local and 600 international observers, this time the total number of observers had initially gone down to around 26,000. And now we have come to know that among them, around 8,000 will not be able to take part in the monitoring process because the organisations they belong to have not gotten the approval from the NGO Bureau. Some members of the Election Working Group (EWG) have been denied approval to monitor the election allegedly on political consideration. These are very unfortunate developments.
At present the number of election observers stands at around 17,000 with only 146 international observers; therefore, one wonders if it is at all possible for them to monitor around 42,000 polling stations across the country. Also, putting restrictions on local observers when it comes to talking to the media goes against the very spirit of the free flow of information. We hope the EC will reconsider this decision.
The presence of a large number of observers is crucial during an election as they make significant contributions in making sure that elections are free and fair. No doubt, the absence of the necessary number of observers will only dilute the credibility of the election.
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