Newsroom - Council of Europe

Strasbourg, 09.09.2011 – A five-member, cross-party delegation of observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is to make a “pre-electoral” visit to Tunisia on 15-16 September, to assess the electoral framework and campaign ahead of the 23 October elections for a Constituent National Assembly. The delegation, headed by Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), is due to meet the acting President and Prime Minister of Tunisia (to be confirmed) as well as the Foreign Affairs Minister, leaders of the main political parties and members of the Supreme Commission for the Completion of the Revolution’s Objectives and the National Commission looking into recent events. It will also meet election officials, representatives of civil society and the media, and members of the EU electoral assistance team in Tunis. A full 20-member delegation from the Assembly will deploy around the country to observe polling on the day of the vote, before arriving at a final overall assessment. The Parliamentary Assembly, which brings together 318 parliamentarians from the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, pledged following a debate in June to do “all it can” to support democracy in Tunisia. The Assembly has observed more than 140 elections around Europe since 1989. The Council of Europe was founded in 1949 to uphold democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and is separate from the European Union. The head of the delegation will give a press conference at 2 p.m. on Friday 16 September in the Monceau Room of the “Les Berges du Lac” Concorde Hotel, Lake Turkana Street, Tunis. Members of the delegation: Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), head of delegation Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD) Christopher Chope (United Kingdom, EDG) Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE) Jean-Paul Lecoq (France, UEL) Contact: Chemavon Chahbazian, Interparliamentary Co-operation and Election Observation Unit, mobile: +33 (0)6 50 39 29 40.

Resolution 1819 (2011) on the situation in Tunisia http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/NewsManager/EMB_NewsManagerView.asp?ID=6915&L=2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode