Election observation is an obvious venture and a serious undertaking that requires a huge logistics outlay, well trained observers and adequate organisational capacity. However, if done well, its benefits could be immense.
It is important for observers to be mindful that their primary function is to observe and not to supervise the election process. Observers, domestic or international, do not have the authority to intervene in the administration of an election. Eventually, what they are supposed to do is to consider all the factors that impinge on the credibility of the electoral process as a whole. Even so, the observer does not set out on a journey to find fault. Accordingly, election observation calls for a display of integrity and non-partisanship at all times, no doubt an onerous responsibility. But if observers do their work properly, they wield considerable moral authority towards electoral reform or election wrongdoing.
When all is said and done, the primary beneficiary of election observation is not the sponsoring agency or the government or the EMB or the political parties and candidates.
It is the people of the country. The people have the right to credible elections, and observers have a duty to upload that right. Failure to do is tantamount to betrayal of the people’s trust. So perhaps, the bottom line in election observation is whether the observer himself/herself is worthy of public trust