Dr. Robert Pastor, director of AU's Center for Democracy and Election Management, will lead a group of international lawyers and judges to polling places in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. on Election Day to observe the elections, according to an AU press release.
The group has participants from 11 countries, and all are part of the Washington College of Law Humphrey Fellowship Program. They will have only limited access to polling sites designated by election authorities. Pastor said he is not pleased with the restrictions and said the U.S. government would be annoyed if this were done to them abroad.
"The U.S. insists on unrestricted access for its observers abroad, but denies it at home," he said in the press release. "This is appalling."
Some of the fellows who will study the election include Hesham Mourad, an Egyptian judge; Shabnam Nawaz, a Pakistani lawyer working for women's and children's rights; and Rebecca Sako-John, executive director of the League of Democratic Women in Nigeria; all according to the WCL Humphrey Fellowship Web site.
