By Staff Reporter

A group of 60 European Union Short Term Observers (STOs) will arrive in Ethiopia today to join the 90 Long Term Observers (LTOs) already deployed to all regions of the country, it was learnt.

The STOs will stay in Addis Ababa for two days and will be briefed on various aspects of the electoral process.

A press release sent by the EU said that the STOs, just like their long term observer colleagues, will have contacts with local electoral officials, candidates, party representatives, civil society organizations and voters when deployed to their areas of responsibility. They will observe the last days of campaigning, and follow up on claims, complaints and the election preparations.

Both the STOs and LTOs will observe all phases of the election, from the opening of polling stations to voting, closing and counting during election day.

All 75 two-member observer teams will observe the tabulation of results at constituency and federal level, as well as the announcement of results.

All together around 170 European Union observers from 29 countries – including the Core Team members and other accredited officers of the mission - will follow procedures on election day and the days after. The observers’ findings will be part of the overall evaluation and assessment of the process by the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM).

Source: Reporter