Yangon: The European Union has deployed observers for the first time to study Myanmar’s 8 November election. On Sunday (11 October), the first group of 30 monitors left from Yangon.

Myanmar is currently in the midst of campaign season ahead of a historic election next month, and the country has allowed international observers to monitor the process, hoping to achieve what the Government calls a ‘free and fair’ election.

One group of foreign observers is the European Union team, who will be in Myanmar for more than a month.  By polling day, a total of 150 observers from 28 EU member states, such as Norway and Switzerland, will have fanned out across the country.

The observers have mapped out their destinations across the country, and will witness a number of key aspects of the electoral process, including voting, counting and the reactions to the results.

‘The observers will be following the work of the election commissions to see if they’re prepared for the election, the training of the election polling officials, then they’ll be following the election campaign, to meet with political parties to see how their campaign is going,’ said European Union Election Observation Mission deputy chief observer Mark Stevens. ‘They’ll be following the messages of the campaign, they’ll be following if the political parties have freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, elements such as this.’

‘We’re building a picture of the entire election, in the pre-election phase, we’ll then be following the voting and the counting and after the election, we’re following the results and the process and the reaction to the election,’ he added.

However, the monitors will not interfere with the process.

‘International observers are impartial in the process,’ said Mr Stevens. ‘The election is for the people of Myanmar.’

In the event that the observers notice something that is not right, Mr Stevens also said that the observers will not raise a red flag.

‘We don’t have a red flag,’ he said. ‘Our job is to observe the process, and we report on it. We have regular meetings with the election authorities and we can raise issues and questions with them at any time of course but at the end of the day, we’re just observing the process.’

Before embarking on their mission, the team members have received an in-depth briefing on the political environment, as well as electoral system in Myanmar.

After the election, the team will release a preliminary statement with their findings, and following that, they will also release a final report with technical recommendations to help Myanmar through future elections.