United Nations not an official election observer
APIA - The United Nations did not act as an official election observer but the Resident Coordinator kept a keen eye out for potential issues outside polling booths.
Dr Simona Marinescu, who runs the UN offices for Samoa, The Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau, said she would be visiting polling booths and spending the afternoon at the Tuanaimato election headquarters.
She said the international organisation does not have a mandate from Samoa, the UN General Assembly or Security Council to be an official election observer in the way it operates in “broken countries” and conflict zones, and that she expects polling day to be a peaceful, successful event. It is very rare for the General Assembly or Security Council to issue a mandate for the UN to observe an election.
“However while we do not have a mandate to do observations in the full meaning of the term we do usual monitoring on human rights grounds to see whether the elections respect human rights and freedoms of all individuals so there are no violations of human rights. This is not observation in the full term.”
Dr Marinescu said she has spoken with the Government and with Electoral Commissioner Faimalomatumua Mathew Lemisio about how the UN will be operating on Friday, and has mapped out a day for herself visiting polling booths, but not going inside them.
She is also responsible for reporting on the election to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in order for him to make his official statement congratulating the winners.
“But I’ll be everywhere,” she said, laughing. “We monitor the process, we look into human rights aspects, so there will be a lot of reporting.
“I don’t want to create any confusion, the UN cannot be inside the polling booth, and we do not have such a mandate. We want to see that people have access, there are no events at the polling stations that people do not complain.
“I can’t be inside but if I am outside and people complain and say things were not happening the right way we will be able to hear that.”
Dr Marinescu said that even if the Government had requested for observers, they would have had to be engaged locally from non-partisan entities or expatriates because of the flight restrictions barring the normal parties from coming in.
In 2016 the election was officially observed by a team from the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat.