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Q, Financial Times: Have you taken note of allegations against president Musharraf that he has been taking sides with the former ruling parties and how do you see Musharraf meeting the commitments he made with the EU parliament members?
CO Gahler: We have taken note and we are aware of the political preferences of president Musharraf and we also heard him say before and after the elections that he will accept the results as they stand. And when he appeared in front of Foreign Affairs Committee of the European parliament, he also outlined his agenda. My current function does not allow me to take the floor on this issue any further but perhaps the head of the delegation of the European Parliament Mr Roberts Evans can respond to your question.
Robert Evans: Well, as I said in my remarks, President Musharraf has made clear his intention that if the opposition parties won he would do what he could to work with opposition parties. This is going to be the mark for Pakistan, whether you can continue the march on the road to democracy that he can work with parties who are against his policies. We will be very closely watching this in the European Parliament, as we follow in a systematic manner what happens in Pakistan.
Q, ATV: Some opposition parties alleged that there was some selected rigging, do you agree to it and secondly, some opposition parties also said that this was a referendum against president Musharraf and he should step down?
CO Michael Gahler: Well, I said in my introductory remarks already that this is not the opportunity to discuss the internal politics of Pakistan. Certainly not from my side, so whether the current opposition and future governing parties embark on discussion for the president to step down or stay in his position this is not for me to comment upon.
With regard to your first question, we have established that there was no level playing field for all parties and so far the ruling party has been profiting from the support of public authorities. This is what we have established.
Q, Corriere della Sera: I have 2 questions. You were here in 2002 elections and in this election, how do you rate these election as compared to the previous elections? Would you say they are the best and most clean elections as compared to the past ones? Second question is, we were expecting to hear about complains of rigging from the government side but there are reports that some rigging was done by PPP in rural Sindh?
CO Michael Gahler: With regard to the first question, we have not compared [these elections] to any previous elections. But as you have referred to 2002 elections we have identified that in general there is no deterioration or no worsening of circumstances and in some areas there has been some improvements. There is still a need for further improvements which will be reflected in the final report, where we will add some concrete recommendations for the way ahead. There is no reason to be complacent and to lean back. There is a good opportunity for those who have partially rightly complained that now there is a new opportunity to remove the faults and improve the system.
As for as the second question, well, I am not going into details but yes, indeed, it was not only the local Nazims who sometimes helped the local candidates and parliamentarians but the stronger candidates also used the local machinery to work in their favour.
Q, Daily Jang: Question to the Chief Observer, answer required is yes or no. President Musharraf has promised to the Pakistani nation as well as at the international level that he will commence free and fair elections in Pakistan. My question is whether this promise has been met and whether the elections were free and fair and the supplementary question is; the horse trading market has just opened in Pakistan after the polling, should government stop this?
CO Michael Gahler: You have the right to ask with conditions and I have the right to answer the way I would like. I would not reduce my answer to simple yes or no, as any credible international observation mission would not do. We recognize that the elections consist of many multi fold aspects and it is necessary to investigate all the components. It has both positive and problematic things in it. We have already said that a level playing field was not given to all the candidates and we have described the situation already. Now with regard to stock exchange for the horse trading between the parties that is what we have experienced in all our countries. After an election when parties assess how strong they are and what options they have got, that is something very natural. I will definitely not go into this any further and I will not speculate how long this horse trading will take place.
Q, []: Pakistan constitution gives a sovereign right to the parliament to make amendments after getting a 2/3 majority but the president still claims that he has the right to make the amendments and he may get some constitutional indemnity from the new parliament this way to save his seat?
CO Michael Gahler: Thats definitely a question of constitutional set up and how to change the constitutional set up. You rightly said that this is for the parliament, whether they change the constitution or not after having 2/3 majority. That is part of this political internal debate, which I am not going into so I beg your pardon that I am not suggesting any proceeding from political parties toward the president or the other way around.
Q, New York Times: Please tell us, did any European embassy see this report or add their comments to it before this report was made public, did they have any influence or editing in it, any sort interference that jeopardized the conclusion of this report?
CO Michael Gahler: They did not have any influence and they did not see it very clearly said and especially not the one you might be hinting at.
Q, BBC World Service: You must have heard, Pakistan Peoples Party and Muslim League Nawaz both alleged yesterday that there was huge rigging in Karachi city and all areas by MQM, would you comment on it?
CO Michael Gahler: Well as I said, we referred to a non existing level playing field in favour of the former ruling parties and that includes the party that you just mentioned. I think its now up to those who will assess it after the elections and they can fortify their complaints. More over, this whole consolidation process and getting results together is not over and our long term observers are still in Karachi. So I assume that they will be in contact with relevant returning officers in the districts I think in our final report there will be some additional insight, but at the moment we dont have any details from Karachi.
Q, APP: What is your comment on reports that some former judges including former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudry were not facilitated or allowed to cast their votes, do you have any special observation on this issue?
CO Michael Gahler: In our report we have referred that there were restrictions to basic human rights and to cast vote again is a human right. It is an issue of concern that all those who were under house arrest, were not able to cast their votes as they are citizens and its their right. And we have taken notice of it.
Q, Online News Agency: In recent elections no party has won significant amount of seats to form a government. What do you think, is there any sort of level playing field for the president for next 4-5 years as no party will gain any sort of strong driving force regardless of the government? So may be the European Union will be once again visiting Pakistan for the next elections?
CO Michael Gahler: Regardless of what internal set up will now be chosen and how various institutions will interact, I think it looks clear we will come next time as well, because there are still some outstanding issues. But as for several political parties in the parliament, we are from the European continent and we have traditionally coalition governments, so for us its not a matter of concern. Political coalitions from our European experience will bring a new flavour of compromise in Pakistan, but we are not supposed to comment on the internal look and feel of Pakistani future politics.
Q, []: You have said a level playing field was not provided, can you specifically comment on what happened on the polling day, there are reports even on that day there was no level playing field.
CO Michael Gahler: As I said, polling day went relatively well, we have noticed, of course, some organizational deficits but in principle the people were there to administer the votes; the material was there. But there was an observation from many of my colleagues that the womens stations were understaffed. The womens stations were overcrowded and had very long queues. Election authorities should definitely take into account that many women are illiterate and it takes longer for an illiterate person to go through this whole process. It took them hours to stand in the queue and we commend these courageous women that despite these problems they have used their democratic right of voting. We want authorities, especially the local authorities, to arrange maybe two to four polling booths for women.
In the counting process at polling station level I have not noticed any problems, some of the colleagues have observed some minor problems, but in principle I will call it okay.
At constituency level there was some resistance from the authorities to us closely observing the results tabulation and counting process. We are aware that all the results from polling stations come in, the form number is fifteen and than there is a consolidation, results are shifted to form 16, this form should have been made public to make the elections more transparent. We have urged the ECP to do the same.
Q, []: How would you put your findings in the final report, do you think the elections were completely free and fair , partially free and fair or not free and fair
CO Michael Gahler: As I said earlier, first of all I would not pre-empt and it is definitely too early to say what the final report will look like. Secondly I also said earlier that this simplification - free and fair, fully, partly or totally is not useful. Election process has too many facets and aspects than to reduce it to nice fancy words. They do not cover the process because the process is definitely too complex to reduce it to two adjectives.
Q, TV1: Did you do something on the projection of manifesto for election and fulfilment of all the promises because it is a must for restoring the faith of the people in democracy?
CO Michael Gahler: This issue covers voters education and also covers the trust of people in democracy as a whole not only on the Election Day. As far as the voters education is concerned, it is a continuous task not only for ECP but also a permanent task for civil society and for the political parties. Political parties with their candidates in elections have the prime responsibility to develop such mechanisms and awareness among the members and the voters in order to give people the ides that democracy is a better alternative as compared to all other realistic options. The second part of the question is related to political agenda and we will focus on it after the final report when we are back in European Parliament.
Q, Business Plus TV: A question regarding the voter registration process of election commission , most of the people were unable to cast their votes, I myself was not able to vote as they failed to register my vote, what are your observations on that ?
CO Michael Gahler: You are aware of the situation, the list was made of people who have NICs and by the middle of 2007 there were 54 million voters. It was considered too few as so many people were disenfranchised of their right; there were too many missing people. So a list from 2002 was used and another 25 million people were added. It is problematic as it caused double inaccuracies and triple mentioning of people. This issue was also in the recommendations of the EU EOM 2002 election final report which has, unfortunately, not been followed in the proper way. So you faced this problem again. We will definitely add this recommendation again in our final report that registration is done properly. Huge efforts are required to improve this specially for the rural people and women. | 
