African Union Commission Ready to Send African Election Observer Mission to Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Ghana

The Chairperson of the African Union Commission has, on the 1st of November 2012, approved the deployment of the African Union Election Observers Mission (AUEOM) to observe elections taking place in Sierra Leone, on 17 November 2012; Burkina Faso, on 2 December 2012 and Ghana, on 7 December 2012. The Commission, through its Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit of the Department of Political Affairs, has concluded plans as mandated by the Commission for the deployment of the AU-EOM to the afore-mentioned countries as follows: Sierra Leone: 11th November – 24th November 2012 Burkina Faso: 24th November – 7th December Ghana: 30th November – 12th December The AU-EOM draws its mandate from various African Union instruments and most importantly the: - AU Guidelines on African Union Election 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 (ACDEG), 2007 The AU-EOM mission to the various countries comprises selected and fully trained observers from the African Union Observers database including, former Heads of States, Ambassadors, members of election management bodies and other selected and trained observers from civil society organisations in Africa. The composition of each mission draws from the different region of Africa and comprises forty (40) observers to each of the respective countries. The mission will remain in constant interaction with the Commission and present a final report on the elections to the Chairperson. For more information please contact: Guy Cyrille TAPOKO Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit Department of Political Affairs African Union Commission Tel: +251 11 552 6373 Ext. 2618, Direct line:+251 11 518 2618 Email: TAPOKOG@africa-union.org