Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has suggested that non-African election observer missions should be banned from monitoring polls in the continent.
Mr. Obasanjo made the assertion while giving a keynote address at the 7th Annual symposium of the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) on Wednesday in Johannesburg, where he said Western observers were often biased and that their position sometimes seemed to undermine the sovereignty of African countries.
“We must reflect on the role of non-African observation mission or the so called international observers. It is an appellation that continues to trouble me.
“How much more international can an election observers mission to Ghana be, when you have a mission made up of nationals from ten African countries,’’ Obasanjo asked.
He said at the onset of election observation in Africa, non-African missions were critical of the idea.
“These missions provided a platform for sharing internationally accepted electoral best practices. However, the role of these non-African missions have not been without controversy especially in polarised elections.
“There have been times when they have been accused of taking sides or deploying missions only in countries in which they have a stake,’’ Obasanjo said.
He said the value of having non-African observers had been questioned.
“In some instances, the conduct of these non-African observers have less than wholesome to the extent that they have in
some instances been accused of undermining the sovereignty of the countries.
“Much as I do not want to throw the baby with the birth water, I believe that election observation in Africa has matured to a point and still continues to mature to an extent that it should be strictly and wholly an African affair,’’ Obasanjo said.
Obasanjo’s idea seems to be line with thoughts recently expressed by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe over the upcoming referendum on the new constitution of Zimbabawe.coming up on March 16.
Since the dawn of multi-party democracy in Africa, many Western countries have taken interest to observe African elections to ensure they meet international standards.