The election was “not free and fair”.
Séverine De Laveleye, a Belgian parliamentarian, said this as she presented the interim report of the International Observer Mission (IOM) on the May 9 elections.
De Laveleye, who is an IOM commissioner, said the election was “marred by a higher level of failure of the electronic voting system than ever before,” saying that these were likewise observed:
• Rampant vote-buying
• Disturbing levels of state and military-orchestrated red-tagging
• Incidents of deadly violence
The IOM said the election “did not meet the standard of free and fair [election] because of these prevailing conditions that robbed the voters of access to reliable information, access to the voting places without intimidation...