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The Carter Center announced today it will not deploy a delegation of witnesses to observe the constitutional referendum process, scheduled to start Dec. 15, 2012. The late release of regulations for accreditation of witnesses precludes the Center from conducting a comprehensive assessment of all aspects of the referendum process, consistent with its methodology for professional observation of elections. A Carter Center technical expert team may release further statements on the process at a later date.
The Carter Center hopes to witness the upcoming Peoples' Assembly elections if the circumstances are conducive to meaningful observation and urges the Egyptian electoral authorities to take steps to ensure early accreditation of domestic and international election witnessing organizations.
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The Carter Center deployed accredited witnesses throughout Egypt for the 2011/2012 parliamentary and presidential elections, including nearly 40 witnesses throughout the whole of the parliamentary elections and approximately 100 witnesses for each round of the presidential elections. The Carter Center has observed over 90 elections in 37 countries. It conducts missions in accordance with the applicable laws, regulations and international commitments of the host country and with the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and Code of Conduct for International Observers that were adopted at the United Nations in 2005 and have been endorsed by more than 40 election observation groups.
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