• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

EU Launches Observer Mission For Afghan Vote

26 July 2005 -- The European Union today launched a 100-member election support mission to monitor Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary and provincial council polls.

Former European Commissioner Emma Bonino, who will lead the mission, said staff will be deployed as widely across the country as security will allow to observe the 18 September elections.

Speaking in the Afghan capital Kabul, Bonino said Brussels considers these polls as "crucial" in the establishment of a functioning institutional system based on the rule of law in Afghanistan.

The mission is four times the size of the EU delegation sent to Afghanistan for the October 2004 presidential election, in which Hamid Karzai defeated second-place finisher Mohammad Yunos Qanuni and a handful of other candidates.

(AFP/Reuters)

Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org