Last Wednesday there was a briefing for the EU observers, amongst which me with two colleagues. It seemed a small crowd of people who do this kind of thing more often, and there is even some jargon. A bit strange, we are not used to such big meetings with just Mzungu's. There is a core team, basically management. Then there are LTO's (Long Term Observers), simply put the region manager. The there are STO's (Short Term Observers). And of course some special people, us, we are LSTO's (Local STO's), we are not paid at all and just there for E-day. Just for an idea of scale, the core team is 4 people, the LTO's about 12 adn the STO's about 70.
The job of the core team is overall management and also the politics, for example what is behind the refusal of the visa for the french. The core team are EU officials with knowledge of the country, they are here far before and after the elections, they are also the ones dealing with the press. The LTO's are here for about a month, they have to see where the poling stations are, what the roads are like, what the local laws permit, how the voting system works... The LTO's are paid a normal salary, as it is a proper job. The STO's are a mix of people who can afford the time of. Retired people, students. They are selected by EU, often with the help of ministries. The Netherlands ministry has a list of people, these people are notified at short. An STO comes to Rwanda for two weeks, mostly before the elections, they get a briefing here and get geared up with a mobile phone, notebook, fact book, T shirt, polo, bag, cap, jumper, ID badge. They then are send in teams throughout the country, a team has their own car, a driver, translator and satellite phone. The driver gets a petrol card and the driver and translator get for local standards a nice fee. A STO gets the flight, hotel, a per Diem in local currency and a fee in Euros.
So the teams have a few days to get to know the area they are in and observe on election day. After that they return to Kigali for debriefing. Soon after that they fly back home.
Me, I just had to be at the briefing and will be observing the entire election day, when I say entire, I mean close to 24 hours. The poling stations open at 6, so we have to be there at 5.30. Observe the opening. Then go to about 6 poling stations, via a checklist check if there are no irregularities. We stay at last one, the stations close at 15.00 the people in the queue can still vote and the counting starts at 16.00. Then we have to follow the votes to the region office for consolidation and after that to the district office. At the district office the LTO will be there and can take it from there. Luckily we will observe in Kigali, a.o. Remera and Kimihurura, just five minutes away.
To make sure people know who we are we wear EU shirts and a badge, we also got given a letter stating our mission. We have strict orders just to observe, if there are irregularities we just report them. When I say we I mean me and a lady from DFID, the UK development aid organisation. We will use their driver, who can also translate. Hereby the photo of me in my shirt. It says in Kinyarwanda something like 'EU observer elections 2008'. Small on the front, big on the back.
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