Foreign observers gear up for poll runoff<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Two foreign agencies officially registered to monitor the
\npresidential election runoff have arrived here to observe the
\npoll from the opening until vote counting.<\/p>\n
The Atlanta-based Carter Center said in a statement made
\navailable to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that it would deploy a
\nteam of 57 personnel for the mission.<\/p>\n
The team, led by Ambassador Douglas Peterson, will witness the
\npoll opening, balloting and vote counting at numerous polling
\nstations in 21 of the country's 32 provinces.<\/p>\n
Peterson served as the first post-war U.S. ambassador to
\nVietnam after serving three terms as representative of Florida's
\n2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House.<\/p>\n
David Carroll, interim director of the Center's Democracy
\nProgram, said that the deployment of the monitoring team shows
\nthe significance of the country's election runoff on Sept. 20,
\n2004.<\/p>\n
\"The presence of international observers is an important
\ndemonstration of the interest of the international community in
\nsupporting Indonesia's democratization.\" he said.<\/p>\n
Carroll said that the final round of the presidential poll
\nwould be the last in a series of important elections in Indonesia
\nthis year, providing Indonesia citizens with their first
\nopportunity to directly elect their president.<\/p>\n
The Center deployed 60 observers for the first round of the
\npresidential election on July 5, led by former U.S. president
\nJimmy Carter and former Thai prime minister Chuan Leekpai.<\/p>\n
The Carter Center has had 14 long-term observers based
\nthroughout Indonesia since May 2004 to monitor and assess the
\nelectoral process and political environment.<\/p>\n
The center was founded in 1982 by Carter and Rosalynn in
\npartnership with Emory University to advance the causes of peace
\nand public health worldwide.<\/p>\n
Another independent foreign poll monitoring team, the European
\nUnion Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM), said on Wednesday
\nthat 125 observers had arrived in Jakarta from Europe to begin
\ntheir observation mission in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"The observers will be deployed in all the country's provinces
\nwhere they will meet our long-term observers who have done their
\nwork since September last year,\" EU-EOM chief observer Glyn Ford
\nsaid in a separate statement.<\/p>\n
He said the observers would monitor the whole electoral
\nprocess from the opening of polling stations through to the vote
\ncounting.<\/p>\n
The EU-EOM mission consists of 65 long-time observers, 125
\nshort-term members and 18 officials assigned by embassies of EU-
\nmember countries in Jakarta, as well as a team of experts.<\/p>\n
The EU had also deployed many observers to monitor the first
\nround of the presidential election and the legislative elections
\nin all the country's 32 provinces, which Ford described as \"one
\nof the most complex elections in the world\".<\/p>\n
The EU-EOM is the biggest foreign election monitoring team in
\nIndonesia.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/foreign-observers-gear-up-for-poll-runoff-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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