Sebastien Gasquet's Blog - Post #7

Election Monitoring

This week was my birthday, which the WANEP staff very kindly celebrated with a large office pizza and a lot of well wishes. One thing I will definitely take away from here is the very welcoming atmosphere of the office, it can really make a world of difference between just working and collecting enough hours to fulfill your internship requirement and actually enjoying the work you do. This is especially true here, as members of WANEP have not only taught me some tools of the trade but also showed me around town and the countryside. I also went that day to see "White House Down" in an Accra movie theater, which was really similar to US multiplexes, including the obnoxious food prices! The day afterwards I went out with my immediate supervisor, Edwige Mensah and her family, as well as Regional Program Coordinator Queeneth Tawo and her children. We went to this very inconspicuous beach resort which served a great kebab. I also had some guinea fowl, which I thought was pretty tough game meat, a lot tougher than chicken or anything similar. But it was great to have some fun outside of the office.

In work-related news, this was the first time that we at the Peace Monitoring Center monitored up-close the events related to an ongoing election, rather than reporting on unexpected events that had suddenly occurred. In this case we followed the unfolding legislative elections in Togo, seen as a critical step towards real democracy after 40-plus years of iron-fisted rule by the Gnassingbe family (first by Gnassingbe Eyadema, then after his death his son). Our main task was looking for and reporting the location and scale of potential conflict indicators and their capacity to disrupt the process. As of now, results are still slow to come in, although estimates are indicating a majority for the ruling party. However, the opposition may accept the results as there were relatively few disruptions reported across the country. The next few days will really tell whether this election was yet another "doped" result or one accepted by all parties. And of course, this week-end will see the first round of Mali's presidential election. After a coup d'etat, an invasion of Al-Qaeda affiliated militias and the arrival of a UN peacekeeping force, it will be interesting to say the least to watch how this one will unfold.