Further EU Support for Presidential Elections in Afghanistan

As part of its comprehensive programme of support for Afghanistan's first ever Presidential elections, the European Commission has today announced the deployment of a European Union Democracy and Election Support Mission (EU DESM) to Kabul. The Mission will assess key aspects of the October 9th Presidential Elections and, upon completion of the process, will make recommendations for the future regarding the electoral and wider democratisation processes. Additionally the Mission will support the work of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and domestic observer groups over the election period. In all 25 elections and field experts will be deployed in centres across Afghanistan for periods of up to three months. The Mission will work in close co-ordination with the EU Special Representative for Afghanistan and the European Commission Delegation in Kabul.

Deployment of an EU Democracy and Election Support Mission comes in addition to the €24 million already committed by the European Commission in support of the running of the elections. When bilateral contributions from EU member states are also included, the EU is the largest single donor to the Afghan elections. According to recent UN figures, the EU accounts for one half of all international support for voter registration and for over 40% of all funds for the organisation of the elections themselves.

As with all its support for reconstruction and stabilisation of Afghanistan, this initiative is being closely co-ordinated with the Afghan authorities, EU member states and the UN.

Background

On 9 October, the Afghan people will vote for the first time in elections to select the country's President. The election is a crucial step in implementing the Bonn accords adopted in December 2001 with a view to bringing peace and stability to a country ravaged by nearly a quarter-century of violent conflict.

On 11 August, the Afghan/UN Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) announced that 18 eligible candidates had successfully registered as Presidential candidates. If no single candidate secures a majority on 9 October, a second round will be scheduled to select between the two candidates who received the highest number of votes in the first round.

As of mid-August, more than 9 million of the estimated 9.5 to 9.8-million-strong electorate had registered, over 41% of them women.

More information on EU-Afghanistan relations at

http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/afghanistan/intro/index.htm

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• EUHR Solana welcomes Presidential elections in Afghanistan  (11/10/2004)
• Council Conclusions on measures to support elections in Afghanistan (16/6/2004)
• The European Union and Afghanistan (30/3/2004)
• EU Presidency declaration on the approval of a constitution for Afghanistan (6/1/2004)