The African Union Commission (AUC) announces the arrival of an electoral observation mission for the first round Presidential election of 20th March 2016 in the Republic of Congo. Following the official invitation of the Congolese Government, the African Union Commission Chairperson, H.E Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, deployed an African Union Election Observation Mission to monitor and report on the electoral process.

H.E Dileita Mohamed Dileita, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Djibouti, leads the African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM). The Mission comprises 30 observers including Permanent representatives to the African Union in Addis Ababa, members of the Pan-African Parliament, representatives of Elections Management Bodies and members of the civil society in Africa.

Observers are from 18 countries, reflecting the geographic diversity of the continent, namely Burundi, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Rwanda, SaoTomé y Principe, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.

The Mission’s mandate is to observe this Presidential election in line with relevant African Union instruments, especially the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance adopted in 2007 and which entered into force in 2012, the AU/OAU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa, the 2002 African Union Guidelines for Election Observation and Monitoring Missions, the African Peer Review Mechanism, as well as the legal framework in force for 2016 Presidential polls in the Republic of Congo.

The mission will be present in all constituencies of the Republic of Congo to ensure a fair, independent, objective and impartial observation of the electoral process and will mainly focus on the lawfulness, transparency and equity of the process. As part of its activities, the Mission will work closely with relevant stakeholders involved in the electoral process, including representatives of Government, security officials, the National Independent Electoral Commission, leaders of Political parties, media, representatives of civil society organizations and international community in Congo.

The AUEOM will work in collaboration with other observation missions deployed in the Republic of Congo.

The Mission will release a preliminary statement to present its first conclusions on the polling and formulate some recommendations to the stakeholders involved in the electoral process in Congo. This will be a press conference that will take place on the 22nd of March 2016 at 2.00 pm at Mikhael’s Hôtel, Brazzaville, Congo.

The AUEOM arrived in Congo on the 15th March 2016 and will stay there until 24 March 2016. Its secretariat is based at Mikhael’s Hôtel, Brazzaville, Congo.

The African Union Election Observation Mission expresses its gratitude to the authorities of the Republic of Congo for the invitation and for the arrangements made to facilitate its work. 

Brazzaville, 16 March 2016

On behalf of the Mission,

H.E Mr. Dileita Mohamed Dileita

Head of Mission