Human Rights and Democracy - Official Documents

The first local-run parliamentary elections since the 1960s were held in Afghanistan
on 18 September. Through the UN Development Programme we provided financial
and technical assistance to the Afghan Independent Election Commission and the
Electoral Complaints Commission both before and throughout the electoral process.
We also support election observation missions which can deter fraud and violence
and also provide informed recommendations on improving the electoral process. We
provide financial and technical assistance to every EU election observation mission.
In 2010 the EU sent observation missions to elections in Sudan, Burundi, Ethiopia,
Guinea, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire. In Tanzania, the findings of the EU observation
mission helped increase confidence in the electoral process and were acknowledged
by the Tanzanian government as providing valuable guidance on how to improve
their future electoral processes. In 2010 we also provided British observers to the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) election observation
missions to Ukraine, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Georgia,
Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
The Commonwealth plays a key role in promoting respect for democracy and
political values through its election observation work. In 2010, Commonwealth
observer groups observed elections in Sri Lanka, St Kitts and Nevis, Rwanda,
Solomon Islands and Tanzania. Their final reports on each of these provided
recommendations on how the electoral processes can be further improved. In
addition, an assessment team visited Bougainville (Papua New Guinea), and a
Commonwealth Secretariat staff team observed the referendum on their new
constitution in Kenya. We continued to provide financial and in-country support for
Commonwealth observer missions. More broadly, in 2010 the Commonwealth
created a network of national election management bodies to promote good
practices and facilitate opportunities for peer support, technical assistance and
capacity building for election management bodies across the Commonwealth.
Representatives of national election management bodies from across the
Commonwealth met for the first time in April in Accra, Ghana. We will help to
develop the network.
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