MEP RETURNS TO NORTH EAST AFTER SUCCESSFUL MISSION
October 22, 2007 12:00 AM
Fiona Hall, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North East, returns to the region this week after successfully overseeing the recent elections in Togo. Liberal Democrat MEP Ms Hall was chosen out of 785 MEPs across Europe to be the political head of the observation mission in the African nation.
One family has been in power in Togo for over forty years, and elections there have been consistently marred by violence and fraud. The elections in 2003 and 2005 were considered to be rigged and were followed by widespread unrest. The European Union was looking for peaceful and transparent elections before deciding whether to reinstate aid to the country.
Commenting on her achievement, Lib Dem MEP Fiona Hall said:
"It was a great honour to be chosen to lead the election observation team but also a huge professional and personal challenge.
"I am delighted to say that, by the accounts of all members of my team of observers, these elections have been transparent and peaceful, and give the new Togolese government a real and unequivocal mandate from the people.
"I hope that the European Union will now decide to restore normal development relations with Togo, enabling this nation to build with the help of financial support from the EU and the wider international community."
Having previous experience as an MEP observer of elections in Ethiopia, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Fiona Hall was chosen to lead the core team of seven experts, plus 18 long term observers covering the entire campaign and 62 short term observers who monitored polling day, the count and the compilation of results.
Polling day was Sunday 14th October.
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