ISLAMABAD, December 27, 2007 – The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), a coalition of 40 independent, non-partisan civil society organizations formed in 2006, is appointing more than 16,000 Polling Station Observers (PSOs) to observe the election process in every district of Pakistan on Election Day, January, 8, 2008.
These observers will work in pairs and will be assigned to approximately 8,000 polling stations, observing more than 16,000 male and female polling booths around the country. In addition, approximately 4,000 FAFEN Mobile Observers (MOs) will visit about 40,000 polling stations on Election Day.
FAFEN will observe all stages of polling on Election Day including the voting process and counting. FAFEN will also observe the process of consolidation of polling station results by Returning Officers in 264 constituencies.
FAFEN Constituency Coordinators have been monitoring election-related developments in 264 National Assembly constituencies since October 2007 and sending weekly reports to the FAFEN Secretariat and Data Center in Islamabad. FAFEN has issued seven “Election Updates” in addition to its many other public statements about the electoral environment and preparations during 2007. The goal of all of FAFENs efforts is to help improve the quality of elections in Pakistan through analysis based on empirical information gathered from around the country.
All FAFEN personnel abide by the FAFEN Code of Ethics, which can be found at www.fafen.org, as well as the FAFEN Observer Code of Conduct, attached here. The FAFEN Code requires, among other things, that FAFEN observers “monitor the election environment and election day without any partisan bias.”
The FAFEN Code follows best practices for domestic election monitoring around the world, as well as relevant tenets of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation endorsed by more than 20 international organizations since 2005.
FAFEN’s work has been acknowledged by the Election Commission of Pakistan. In addition, FAFEN’s election-related information has been acknowledged and extensively used by national and international media.
