The European Union has expressed interest in observing the Afghan Presidential and Provincial Council elections, but has said that it will first need to send an "exploratory mission".
In a newsletter, EU officials announced the probe to investigate the scope of a potential European Union Election Observation Mission. The exploratory representatives will meet with the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and other Afghan officials.
"The Exploratory Mission will be led by the Head of the Democracy and Electoral Observation Division of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and will comprise officials from the EEAS Election Desk, the EEAS Afghanistan Desk and from the European Commission Election Observation. They will be accompanied by three external experts with election/legal, logistics and security expertise," read the EU statement.
"The European Union officials will conduct meetings with Afghan government officials, the Independent Election Commission and other stakeholders on matters related to election observation. The mission will also include visits outside of Kabul to assess the electoral situation in the field."
Meanwhile, the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) has announced that it will coordinate some 10,000 observers to take part in the elections.
"If we can cover 75 percent of the voting centers, then we will be successful," FEFA spokesman Muhammad Fahim Naeemi said.
The Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA) has also announced that it will supply close to 5,000 observers for the elections, 1,600 of which will be females.
"Unfortunately, it is difficult to assign females as observers, but with the help of our partner institutions, we were able to get 1,600 women," said Muhammad Naeem Ayubi, Director of TEFA.
With less than 100 days to Presidential and Provincial council elections, roughly 100 organizations and political parties and 1,000 individuals have received letters authorizing them to take part in election observation. These numbers are expected to grow.
Given past experiences, like that of 2009, the integrity of the April elections is a top priority for election officials and other stakeholders. It is the hope that a robust observer presence will ensure both a deterence to malfeasance or at least a method of documenting it.