Overseas Work
AEA Involvement
Since shortly after the inception of the Association, the United Kingdom Government and its agencies have recognised the expertise of members by inviting it to send members abroad to give pre-election assessments and advice and training to newly emerging democracies and by acting as observers either directly for the United Kingdom Government or as members of international observer missions.
The Association has also provided help and assistance through other organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the Commonwealth, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).
In the picture on the left, a local man in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia proudly casts his vote in July 2006, observed by Dame Audrey Glover, Head of Mission for ODIHR. On the right, a major rally for the "Macedonia Together" coalition in the main stadium in Skopje.
Mission Opportunities
The Association has gone through something of a change in the last few years so far as observing elections overseas is concerned. When Jean retired from ERIS a couple of years ago, we lost the opportunity she gave to our members of having a large number of places on missions.
Since then, we have still placed members on missions but in smaller numbers. Work is being done to see what steps can be made to improve that situation including the possibility of the Association being appointed an NGO by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to run missions in our own right. Watch this space for an update on progress in that direction.
Since being appointed International Officer in January 2004, I have seen many opportunities for our members. 2004 saw missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and 3 to Ukraine. In addition, we appointed members to assist in Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands and St. Kitts and even provided one member with an observation mission to the USA. That was a tough one but I still got a volunteer!
There was only one opportunity for a mission in 2005 to Moldova although we also provided 8 members to observe the Iraq out of country voting last December in Birmingham, London and Manchester. We also provided training for a party from Albania and also trained them in the techniques of centralised counting in Albania in June 2005.
2006 has started promisingly with short and long term observers being sought for Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Mexico. The biggest drawback for these was that the mission language was French or Spanish which put many members to the test. Another mission to Ukraine in March saw 5 members waving the AEA flag.
Anyone interested in volunteering for a future mission should drop me a line with a completed AEA CV (see below for the policy, notes and the CV form) and I will let you know of all opportunities when they arise. My contact details are here.
David Godfrey, International Officer, AEA
The picture on the left was taken in Serbia & Montenegro on a vote for independence for Montenegro in May 2006: the AEA's International Officer, David Godfrey, is shown political neutrality by the polling station Chairman and staff in Andrijevica. On the right, the elderly are particularly keen to wait for the opening of polling in Gori, Georgia, in March 2004.