Written answers

Tuesday, 20 November 2018

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Election Monitoring Missions

Photo of Tommy BroughanTommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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151. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when he will announce the results of the election monitoring panel competition that closed on 20 August 2018; if the results will be announced before the end of 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48228/18]

Photo of Ciarán CannonCiarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I refer the Deputy to responses to the following related parliamentary questions, namely Question 43 of 11 October 2018, Question 36 of 9 October 2018, and Question 70 of 7 September 2018.

International election monitoring missions play an important role in the promotion of democracy and human rights. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade maintains a roster of observers for election monitoring missions. We aim to ensure that, when requested, Ireland is represented at an appropriate level on international observation missions for elections and constitutional referendums. Irish observers participate primarily in missions organised by the European Union or the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The call for applications to establish a new election observation roster was issued on 2 July 2018. A total of 395 applications were received by the deadline of 17:30 on 20 August 2018.

Applications from individuals who applied to join the International Election Observation Roster have been appraised according to the criteria and competencies contained in the application form. An external company was contracted to ensure quality assurance across the panels marking applications. The Quality Assurance process is ongoing. Subject to the satisfactory conclusion of the QA process, the Department will release results to all applicants no later than 30 November 2018.

An update on the call for Election Observers was published on the Department’s website on Friday, 16 November 2018.

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