Highlighting the international community’s interest in credible, peaceful and democratic elections on February 17, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) will conduct a pre-election assessment mission to Lesotho from January 22 - 25. The delegation is comprised of experts, including senior politicians from Africa, Europe and North America, with extensive international experience in democratic development and the conduct of democratic elections.

The delegation includes: the Honorable Audrey McLaughlin, former leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party and former Member of Canada’s Parliament; the Honorable Samuel Kivuitu, Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya and former Member of Kenya’s Parliament; the Honorable Alexander Longolius, former Speaker of the Berlin Parliament (German State House of Representatives); Shari Bryan, NDI Regional Director for Southern and East Africa; and Tom Cormier, NDI Resident Representative in Southern Africa.

The delegation will assess the status of electoral preparations, the conduct of the campaign by electoral participants, and the general electoral environment through a series of meetings with a cross-section of Basotho government officials, parliamentary candidates, political party leaders, election authorities, and representatives of civil society, the media, the private sector and the international community.

The assessment team will use the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections as a framework for evaluating the pre-election period.

The NDI pre-election assessment delegation will release a report highlighting its findings at 12:00pm on Thursday, January 25 during a press conference at the Lancer’s Inn, cnr Pioneer Road and Kingsway.

Since its first international election observer delegation in 1986, NDI has conducted more than 60 comprehensive international election assessments, organized more than 50 delegations that concentrated on pre-election or post-election conditions, and provided enhanced staff analysis of electoral developments for scores of elections where NDI international delegations were not needed.

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
In Maseru: Oladeji Olaore
+266 585 99868, oolaore@ndi.org
In Johannesburg: Dileepan Siva
+27 76 789 1274, dsiva@ndi.org

Source: NDI Press Release