ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) on Sunday disclosed that the former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has headed to Maputo, Mozambique's capital as the Head of the AU Election Observation Mission (AUEOM).
The former Nigerian President is leading a 44-member AU election observers' mission to Mozambique. It is composed of ambassadors from the Permanent Representatives' Committee of the AU, parliamentarians from the Pan-African Parliament, election administrators, civil society, media and electoral experts, the 55-member pan African bloc said in a statement on Sunday.
"The deployment of an AUEOM to Mozambique demonstrates the AU's commitment to supporting credible, transparent, inclusive and peaceful electoral processes in its member states by providing an objective assessment of the process and the political environment surrounding it," the statement read.
The deployment of 40 short-term observers and 4 electoral experts, which will observe the integrity of Mozambique's presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections was approved by the AU Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, upon an invitation from the government of Mozambique, it was noted.
Jonathan is also expected to interact with key stakeholders in Mozambique, including the Chairperson of the National Elections Commission of Mozambique, political party leaders, civil society, head of international observation missions, as well as the diplomatic corps in the country ahead of the elections.
The AU observation mission will release a statement on its preliminary findings on the conduct of the elections some two days after the election.
The AUEOM is in line with the AU's mandate of promoting democracy and democratic elections in Africa.
According to the AU, the objectives of its election observation missions in the South African country is mainly aimed to provide an accurate and impartial assessment and reporting of the quality of elections in the country, including "the degree to which the conduct of the elections meets regional, continental and international standards for democratic elections."
